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POETRY

Poetry.

THE HOUR OF MY CONVERSION.

O that hour I well remember,

Hour the dearest known on earth;
When to me the world's Redeemer,
Proved a friend of endless worth.

Hour in which I found the Saviour,
Rich and glorious, full and free,
Ready to receive and welcome
Such a sinful wretch as me.

When I fled from sin and satan,
To his cross and bleeding side,
And in humble supplication,

There for pardoning mercy cried.

When the Saviour there embraced me,
Looked on me, and loved, and smiled;
Uttering words of grace and mercy,
To his wandering, weary child.

Cherished hour, can I forget thee!
No, while memory holds her seat,
I'll extol that dear Redeemer,
Whose love then I found so sweet.
He will give to me the victory,
If I to him faithful prove,

And at last in joy and glory,
Let me with him reign above.

T. N. C.

THE SAVIOUR'S INVITATION.

JUST as thou art, without one trace
Of love, or joy, or inward grace,

Or meetness for the heavenly place-
Oh, guilty sinner, come!

Burden'd with sin, would'st thou be blest?
Trust not the world it gives no rest;
Í bring reliet to hearts opprest-
Oh, weary sinner, come!

COME leave thy burden at the cross,
Count all thy gains but worthless dross;
My grace repays all earthly loss-

Oh, needy sinner, come !

ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS.

Come, hither bring thy boding fears,
Thy aching heart, thy bursting tears;
'Tis mercy's voice salutes thine ears—

Oh, trembling sinner, come!

"The spirit and the bride say, Come!"
Rejoicing saints re-echo, "Come!"

Who faints, who thirsts, who will may come;
Thy Saviour bids thee come!

Anecdotes and Selections.

THE BLASPHEMER'S DEATH.-There is something so terribly startling in the following facts, and so fearfully exemplifying the grievous sin and extreme peril of blaspheming the name of the Eternal God, that had we not made minute and careful inquiry, even among the very haunts of those living where the occurrence took place, we should have believed the whole to be an exaggerated rumour of some ordinary and every-day casuality, rather than the awfully true narrative of a dreadful judgment. On the morning of Sunday last, a married woman, residing in the Friar's-fields, named Sarah Morgan, was observed with her infant in her arms, near her own house, disputing with a woman named Elizabeth Volan. A quarrel of a very violent character, so far as words went, shortly afterwards ensued, and in reply to an observation made by the woman, Sarah Morgan exclaimed that she hoped that God Almighty would strike her blind, deaf, dumb, and stiff, if she did not revenge herself in a particular manner. Almost directly she staggered, and let the child fall from her arms to the ground, and would herself, apparently, have fallen, but that her neighbours immediately assisted her into the house. Dr. Stack was promptly in attendance, who, we need scarcely remark, continued to render her every assistance which medical skill and humanity could suggest. From the moment that she was thus mysteriously stricken, to the hour of her death, at half-past one o'clock on Wednesday morning, the only words she uttered, and just after she was borne in, were, "Lord have mercy on my poor soul-have mercy on my children!" and then her voice failed her, and she became dumb; her sense of hearing was destroyed; her eyes became glassy and sightless; and in about sixty hours from the moment in which she was struck down, death placed his icy hand upon her, and she became a corpse. This fearful event has produced a painful sensation even among the abandoned creatures of the locality in which it occured. Monmouth Merlin.

ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS.

THE THREE WARNINGS.

A YOUNG man of the name of B- residing in Manchester, had for many years been notorious for his profane and profligate way of life. Three several times had he been laid upon, what appeared to human judgment, his dying bed. Three times he most solemnly declared his repentance, and vowed that if it would please God to restore him to health, the remainder of his life should be spent in the service of his Maker and Redeemer. Three times did a merciful and long-suffering God hear and answer his supplications. But, alas! no sooner were his fears allayed, and present danger past, than he again returned to his sins, "as a sow that is washed to her wallowing in the mire."

Once more he was laid upon the bed of illness. The most dreadful anguish took possession of his mind. No prayers, no conversation appeared to impart one moment's hope or comfort. One day when in an agony of despair, he asked a minister, who was sitting by his bed-side, to request every member of the family to go into different rooms to pray for him. His friends immediately quitted him for this purpose, and he was left alone. While they were all engaged in prayer (and, as it afterwards appeared, at the same moment) these awful words, in the first chapter of Proverbs, were presented to the mind of each, "Because I have called and ye refused, I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof; I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh." Instantly, and, as they expressed it, almost irresistibly, they arose from their knees, and rushed to the chamber of the unhappy sufferer, when, as the door opened, the same fearful words, "I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh," were shrieked out by the dying man. In an instant all was still. The silence of death succeeded the scream of agony, and the spirit fled to its everlasting destiny.

Reader! if yet unconverted to God, take heed lest you fall after the same example of unbelief. Now is your day of grace. Trifle not with your present convictions lest you quench God's Holy Spirit. In mercy to your own soul "seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near." So shall you obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. THIS MAY BE YOUR LAST WARNING!

A WONDER IN THREE WORLDS.

A Wonder in Three Worlds!-What can this mean? Are you an impenitent sinner? I hope not; but if you are you are that wonder. You are a Wonder in Heaven!-There all are so happy that they wonder how you can possibly remain in your present state; for they well know that if you die in your sins where they are you can

never come.

ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS.

You are a Wonder upon Earth!-All who love Jesus Christ enjoy such holy pleasure in doing the will of God that they wonder at you, and mourn over you, as an enemy to God and to your own soul.

You are a Wonder in Hell!-Demons and lost souls are so miserable that they wonder at you for being so great an offender against Him who could strike you dead in a moment and send you to their place of torment.

Be no longer such a wonder. Go now to the Saviour, who died for your sins, and seek forgiveness; and then the angels of God will rejoice with wonder over one more repenting sinner.

MERCY.-There is a time approaching when mercy will appear to all mankind the most valuable thing in the world. Reader! imagine to yourself the awful hour when you shall be called to quit this mortal state and launch into an unknown world! Realize the moment, still more awful, when the "trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised;" when the great white throne shall be erected, and the assembled world shall appear before the universal Judge; when the grand separation shall be made between the righteous and the wicked, between them that served God and them that served him not. Then, then will the full value of mercy be known. A world for mercy then! Ye "vessels of mercy" how will ye shout and sing, "Ŏ give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever." While others, in all the bitterness of fruitless woe, shall cry, "O that we had known the need of mercy! that we had fled to the mercy-seat! But now the door is shut! The mercies of God are clean gone for ever! He will be favourable no more!"

"An awful day is drawing near,

When Christ shall judge the quick and dead;
Ah! sinner, how wilt thou appear,

With all thy sins upon thy head?

Now mercy seek, which may be found,
For yet you stand on praying ground."

DEATH IS COMING.-He is daily and hourly hastening upon us. He is the king of terrors, and will fulfil his work on every one, rich or poor. It is a piece of wisdom then for every one of us, since we must die, to ask and know whether death has lost his sting or no. Is the precious blood of Christ sprinkled on my conscience? Have I humble faith in a dying Saviour? Are the terrors of death removed, and am I prepared to meet him by the help of the blessed Saviour? Have I such an interest in Christ as takes away the sting of death, and turns the curse into a blessing, and changes the dark scenes of death into the commencement of a new and everlasting life? This is that preparation for dying for which our time in this life was given us, and happy are those, and those only, who are taught of God to make this use of it.

ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS.

THE MOTHER'S ROCK.-In 1799 a Roman Catholic missionary led his half-civilized indians out on one of those hostile excursions which they often made to kidnap slaves for the christians. They found a Guahiba women in a solitary hut with three children, two of whom were infants. The father, with the older children, had gone out to fish, and the mother in vain tried to escape with her babes. She was seized by these men-hunters, hurried into a boat, and carried away to a missionary station at San Fernando. She was now far from her home; but she had left children there who had gone with their father. She repeatedly took her three babes and tried to escape, but was as often seized, brought back, and most unmercifully beaten with whips. At length the missionary determined to separate her from her three children, and for this purpose sent her in a boat up the Atabapo river to the missions of the Rio Negro, at a station called Javita. Seated in the bow of the boat the mother knew not where she was going, or what fate awaited her. She was bound and alone, but she judged from the direction of the sun that she was going away from her children. By a sudden effort she broke her bonds, plunged into the river, swam to the left bank of the Atabapo, and landed upon a rock. She was pursued, and at evening retaken and brought back to the rock, where she was scourged, calling for her children till her blood reddened the rock, and it has ever since been called "the mother's rock." Her hands were then tied upon her back, still bleeding from the manatee thongs of leather. She was then dragged to the mission at Javita, and thrown into a kind of stable. The night was profoundly dark, and it was in the midst of the rainy season. She was now full seventy-five miles in a straight line from her children. Between her and them lay forests never penetrated by human footsteps, swamps, morasses, and rivers never crossed by man. But her children are at San Fernando; and what can quench a mother's love? Though her arms were secured, she succeeded in biting her bonds with her teeth, and in the morning she was not to be found. At the fourth rising sun she had passed through the forests, swam the rivers, and bleeding and worn out was seen hovering round the cottage in which her babes were sleeping. She was seized once more; and, before her wounds were healed, she was again torn from her children, and sent away to the mission on the upper Oronooko river, where she drooped and shortly died, refusing all kinds of food, died of a broken heart at being torn from her children. Such is the history of "the Mother's Rock."

REMARKABLE PROVIDENCE.-During the Bartholomew massacre, a gentleman, belonging to Coligny's bed-chamber, named Merlin, in company with others of the admiral's household, sought to escape through a trap-door in the roof; but as fast as each one ventured out he was shot down by the assassins in the streets. Merlin at

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