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PHILA.

The Soliloquist.

No. 7.

fluence than all I have said or mit to God. I can believe there can say ; entreating your in- is a God, a law, a superintenddulgence for the liberty I haveing government, an universal taken. If in any way you can and righteous judgment of all render this letter subservient to creatures, a Saviour all-sufficient, the glorious cause, which I pro-who promises eternal life to evefess to love-be pleased, sir, tory believing and repenting sinmake what use of it you think ner; but I cannot exercise this fit. Yours faith and repentance. How strangely stupid! I never conceived it before! By thinking of truth I have lost all sense of its importance; by meditating on the gospel I have become blind to the goodness of God; by reflecting on him, I am more callous to the displays of his infinite maI have now spent many weeks jesty and the awful threatenings in reading the scriptures, and of a devouring law; and by the making a selection of the en-duties which I have performed, couragements and promises con- I am disqualified from ever attained in the gospel. They are tempting them again. My conmany more than I ever imagi-victions are gone, I have grieved ned. They are great and won-the spirit of God, and can see derful; they are made to all gra- no reason why he should save cious affections of the heart, me. O my heart! if an adawith the most explicit encou-mant were so hard as thou art, it ragement that God will gra- would blush for its flintiness, yet ciously regard every practical thou dost not blush; thou art virtue of life. But what is the too heavy to be moved, too dead result! Do these promises and to be re-animated. Shall I atencouragements give ease to my tempt to go forward? For this pained mind? No! They do I have no power. Shall I call but sharpen the stings of con- on creatures and means to help? science. I have not these gra- All the powers in created nature cious affections and moral vir- cannot do it, so hard and unfeeltues. The very gospel of peaceing a mass as my heart defies and reconciliation condemns me. every power, except it be those Once I thought that the gos- thunderbolts of divine vengeance pel gives ground of peace to sin- by which I may be crushed forners of every description; now ever. Shall I stop and sink in I see that it gives no encourage- perdition? This is too awful : I ment to such hardened sinners even faint under the apprehenas myself. Ah me! for such as sion. I am, even the gospel contains a sentence of condemnation. It joins with the law: He that sing shall die: He that believes not shall be damned, and I have no such faith and repentance as sub

On the hardness of the heart.

1 OH, for a glance of heav'nly day, To take the stubborn stone away;

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2 The rocks can rend, the earth can quake;

The sea can roar, the mountains shake;

Of feeling all things show some sign, But this unfeeling heart of mine. 3 Thy judgments, Lord, unmov'd I hear,

(Amazing thought!) which devils fear;

Goodness and wrath in vaincombine, To stir this stupid heart of mine.

4 To hear the sorrow thou hast felt, Dear Lord, an adamant would melt, But I can read each moving line, And nothing move this heart of mine. 5 But pow'r divine can do the deed, And much to feel that pow'r I need; Thy spirit can from dross refine, And move and melt this heart of mine.

6 Then, dearest Lord, thy spirit

give, And make my drooping heart revive; No longer then shall I repine,

No longer mourn this heart of mine. 7 But anthems dwell upon my tongue,

And this shall ever be my song, "Twas nought but sovʼreign love divine,

That mov'd this stupid, heart of miue.

Religious Intelligence.

Extract of a letter from a Minister in the County of Suffolk, England, to his friend in Con

necticut.

THERE seems to have been a considerable revival of religion in this county and in the kingdom in general. It is pleasing to the friends of revelation and a confirmation of their faith, that all the violent attacks from enemies which we have witnessed have tended rather to the furtherance of the gospel than

to its obstruction. We see that great is the truth and it will prevail, and that it suffers nothing by investigation. Oh, to feel more of its power in our own souls that we may know what it is to have the witness in ourselves that God is true. An experience of the preciousness of Christ will 'after all afford us the most convincing and comfortable evidence of the truth of revelation; though we cannot here. by convince infidels, yet we should not be affected by what they have to object while we taste and feel the word of life in its transforming power. A new edition of Mr. Harmer's works has been published, his writings are in great esteem. It is a pleasing feature of the age that there is a greater demand for religious books than ever and that old divinity which a few years ago would fetch nothing more than waste paper is now eagerly bought up at a great price.

ORDINATION.

ORDAINED in North Branford, March 1st, the Rev. CHARLES ATWATER, to the work of the gospel ministry. The following gentlemen performed the exercises of the day. Rev. Moses Stuart, made the introductory prayer; the Rev. Samuel Merwin, preached the Sermon from 1 Thess. ii. 19: Rev. Dr. Trumbull, made the consecrating prayer, while hands were imposed, by Messrs. Trumbull, Foot, Elliot and Smith. Rev, John Elliot, gave the charge, Rev. Timothy P. Gillet, offered the right hand of fellowship, and the Rev. David Smith, made the concluding prayer.

POETRY.

The Soul in Sorrow.

WHENCE, O my soul, these mournful sighs,
These restless fears and jealousies ?
Since thou a Saviour's grace hast known,
And made his proffer'd love thy own.

Whence these unsatisfied desires,

This painful void, these inward fires ?
While all the promises of grace
Lie open to thy free embrace.

Why thus does darkness veil the mind,
And leave all former joys behind?
And hope of future good so slow
Advance the joys her hands bestow ?

O thou, on whom all joys depend,

My cov'nant guardian, guide, and friend, Reveal the secret of my grief,

And fly with light to my relief.

Could my weak faith but pierce the cloud

Whose thick'ning folds my comforts shroud,

Or with a clear and licens'd eye,

Beneath this cloud thy love descry;

I'd bless the hand that urg'd my pace
From Pisgah's summit to its base;
That dash'd my joys o'ercast my sky,
And triumph in obscurity.

But who beneath a frowning face

Can e'er discern a pledge of grace?
Love lives in smiles, while frowns portentl
A threat'ning foe or incens'd friend.

Oh, search me then, omniscient GOD,
Reveal the sins that move thy rod;
My secret faults before me bring,

Exhaust their pow'r, withdraw their sting;

That peace again may fill this breast,

Each doubt, each sigh, each sin suppress'd, And light illume the darksome way,

Conducting to celestial day.

Then shall I nearer view that shore,
Where fears and sins obtrude no more,
And with my near approach increase

My love and confidence and bliss.

Triumph over Death.

✪ death, where is thy sting? O grave where is thy victory? But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

AVERT, proud death, thy lifted spear,
Nor vaunt, thou King of Terrors, here ;
Shorn of thy first envenom'd sting,

Vain are all terrors thou canst bring:

Smite, monster smite, nor spare thy deepest wound;
From Jesse's root our sov'reign balm is found.
When o'er the world's wide misery,
Coeval darkness sway'd with thee,
Creation shrunk beneath thy frown,

And horror mark'd thy ebon crown.

Those downcast kingdoms, whelm'd in ruins lie,
Smote by the beaming day-spring from on high.
Tho' clad in vesture of affright,

Though prowl'st beneath the pall of night,
Thy mish'd form doth guilt alarm,
Unpoise that daring, strengthless arm,
Bow thy diminish'd head-stern tyrant, flee,
For thou art swallow'd up in victory.

Sweet mercy hath her triumph shewn,
Thy darken'd host of fear o'erthrown :
Now to behold thee,-vanquish'd slave,
No power is left beyond the grave;

We greet thee kind!-O wond'rous friendship this!
Welcome, good herald to announce our bliss.

NOTE. The piece on the Field for Missionary Exertion, beginning at page 221, was extracted from the Philadelphia Religious Intelligencer

1809.

Donations to the Missionary Society of Connecticut.

May 13. Hampton Female Society,

Friend to Missions,

18. Gid. Hotchkiss, deceased, of Waterbury.

$ 591

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