Let men begin and continue every day of their journeyings in prayer. With this habit fixed, a thousand things, that otherwise might distract the soul from God, will lead it to him. With this habit fixed, the Christian will be kept from a thousand carelessnesses and temptations by the way. The mind will be in a serene and quiet frame. Opportunities of useful conversation will occur, and the heart will be in such a state, that it will be pleasant and delightful to embrace them. The impression made by such a Christian will be a hallowed one. Such a Christian will be cheerful, without being frivolous. Such a Christian will be a delightful companion, but not heedless and trifling. Such a Christian will do good, wherever he goes. We are reminded of Cow per's very familiar description, but so just and so beautiful that we cannot but repeat it, though our readers may have it as familiar as their native alphabet :

"When one that holds communion with the skies,
Has filled his urn where those pure waters rise,
And once more mingles with us meaner things,
'Tis e'en as if an angel shook his wings-
Immortal fragrance fills the circuit wide,
That tells us whence his treasures are supplied,
So when a ship, well freighted with the stores
The sun matures on India's spicy shores,
Has dropped her anchor, and her canvass furled,
In some safe haven of our western world,
'Twere vain inquiring to what port she went-
The gale informs us, laden with the scent.
Such was the portrait an apostle drew;
The bright original was one he knew."

We have mingled with such men in conversation, and observed the heavenly influence they have shed around them. We were once spending an evening in London with Rev. Dr. Philip, the celebrated missionary in South Africa. The Doctor was of a most commanding stature, an open and pleasant, but grave and decided countenance, and altogether a noble and dignified personage. The company, though composed mostly of clergymen, had strangely enough fallen into a very trifling mood in conversing, and were arguing with one another to see which would produce examples of the most ridiculous epitaphs, and indeed some most ludicrous instances were produced. The Doctor sat a good while quiet in silence, listening to these foolish recitals. At length he begged permission to relate an epitaph which he had seen inscribed upon a tombstone, which struck him as being the most exquisitely appropriate of anything he had ever met with. It was a simple name, and a record of sorrow, with the question asked, "If man die, shall he live again?" and the words added below,

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"I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE." The Doctor related this in such a manner, that the whole tenor of the conversation was changed at once, and then taking a prominent part in the talk of the evening, or rather the lead in it, he gave us some most interesting recitals of the character and habits of Wilberforce, whom he had known intimately, with some other individuals almost equally celebrated. A man has it often in his power in this

way to convert an evening, or a journey, from a mere waste of time, into a valuable improvement of it.-N. Y. Evangelist.

THE DEAD OF THE WRECK.
(From the New York Observer.)

"As soon as the boat struck, its bell commenced tolling, probably from the action of the wind upon it, and continued to toll slowly and mournfully, as long as any portion of the wreck was to be seen."

THE God of the storm was above,
And his arm was strong beneath,
And the shrieking wind and the gurgling wave
Went up with the wail of death.

Then hushed. And the dead were gone,
And the solemn stars were keeping

Their faithful watch as the wild waves rocked
The sleepers to their sleeping.

The wind wailed madly above,

And the waves went bounding below,
And above the wind and above the roar
Of the heavy surge on the island shore,
Came a solemn sound and slow.

Now faint, now loud on the tempest swell,
They heard the mournful voice of the bell.

Dead and gone! dead and gone!
Where the desolate moan

Of the wave sinks to sleep,
Where the storm wail is o'er,
Where the heart throbs no more-
In the deep.

With the foam on her brow,
With a surf-shroud of snow,
Went the maid to her grave;
With a gasp and a moan
The strong swimmer went down
In the wave.

With a prayer and a smile
That his lip weareth still,
Looking forth in the gloom,
God's good servant stood strong,
As the surge swept along-
He's at home!

Dead and gone! dead and gone!
Wait, wait ye the dawn,

For they lie on the billows,
Call them loud! call them long!
They are lulled by my song

On their pillows!

But they answer no more!
Doth the surge on the shore
Drown the sound of their cry?
Nay, their lips are grown cold;
For their life-tale is told!

There they lie!

Dead and gone! dead and gone!
But the morning shall dawn,
And the silent shall speak.
Slumber sweet! slumber decp!
Till the myriads that sleep
Shall awake!

The stars went out on high,
Morn flushed the cold grey east;

And the heavy surge with a solemn roar
Unceasingly fell on the island shore

Where the dead lay sleeping to wake no more;
And the sun went down in the west,

And ever above the mocking waves,
With a slow and solemn knell,
Came fitfully and mournfully
The sound of the tolling bell.

Biographical Sketch.

THEOPHILUS WILLIAM HOFFMAN. WHEN a pious stranger visits Germany, he does not fail to go to the church of Kornthal, and converse with the Christians who are there assembled. There he finds men of simple manners, upright in their intercourse, pure in conduct, attached cordially to the fundamental doctrines of the Bible, and good citizens as well as good servants of Christ. This stranger admires the effect of religious faith upon society and upon individuals; he is astonished and pleased to see how many charitable institutions have been founded at Kornthal; he asks who is, under God, the author of such blessings, and every one repeats to him the venerated name of William Hoffman. And now, the bereaved inhabitants conduct the stranger to his grave, and, weeping, tell all that this good man has done for them.

Theophilus William Hoffman was born at Ostelsheim, near Calw, in the kingdom of Wurtemberg, the 19th December, 1771, of a very honourable family. One of his ancestors, George Hoffman, was condemned to death, two centuries ago, at the instigation of the Jesuits. He was a pious minister of the gospel, who, being settled in Austrian Silesia, resolutely refused to obey the anti-evangelical injunctions of the Government, and kept his faith in spite of the threats of the disciples of Ignatius Loyola. He fell a martyr to the truth. His widow fled to the Protestant country of Wurtemberg with a son who became afterwards secretary of the High Consistory. He had numerous descendants, who occupied distinguished places in Church and State. Several members of the Hoffman family were mayors of Stuttgard, professors in the University, councillors of the Consistory, members of the Privy Council, and Ministers of State.

The father of him of whom we speak was

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only a country pastor; an upright man, of good reputation, professing orthodox principles-in the sense given to this term in Germany in the middle of the last century. He gave his son a good, though rigid and austere education. It was the custom then to educate young men with much sternness. Their natural inclinations were repressed. No free intercourse, no confiding attachment between the father and his children, but the authoritative tone and imperious look of the pedagogue. William Hoffman related sometimes to his friends the rigid servitude in which his youth was passed. Such an education had indeed many inconveniences, but it served also to form strong characters, and the regular habits thus acquired were useful in his whole course of life.

Young Hoffman did not devote himself to the pastoral career. The spirit of the times deterred him from theological studies, and he had too little positive faith to become a minister of the gospel. He directed his attention to civil employments, and entered as clerk in the office of the Register of Calw; an apprenticeship necessary for him to obtain in his turn a situation in the Government. Here, too, Hoffman had a severe master, who exacted the most scrupulous accuracy in the performance of his duties.

Hoffman had some books from his father's library, and attended regularly his preaching. Yet he profited but little, either because of the infidelity prevalent in Germany, or owing to his being absorbed in civil pursuits. The God of the gospel was to his heart an unknown God. The following is a striking proof. He owed money which he was unable to pay. One day, oppressed with the feeling of his poverty, he fell upon his knees, and uttered this singular prayer: "O God, if thou art indeed a living God, deign to pay my debts!" But immediately he was displeased at himself for what he had done. He reflected that if God should pay his debts as he had asked, he would be obliged to change his manner of life, and his unbelieving heart still preferred poverty to the work of conversion. Yet his prayer was not in vain. An hour after he had pronounced it, he received a letter from one of his relatives asking him if he needed anything. The young man, surprised at the inquiry, replied at first in the negative. But the bearer of the letter insisted on having a written answer. Then the young man dared not persist in his falsehood. He confessed his pecuniary embarrassment, and his debts were all paid.

How admirable are the ways of the Lord! A sceptic, on reading this fact, will say that here is nothing but a casual coincidence, and that if Hoffman had not uttered his prayer, the letter of his relative would nevertheless have been sent to him. But without trying to fathom mysteries hidden from the human mind, the Christian knows by the Holy Scrip

The pictists, or faithful Christians, preferred to quit their native land rather than submit to these unjust conditions. They turned their eyes to Russia, where the Emperor Alexander showed a praiseworthy tolerance. William Hoffinan, being resolved himself to emigrate, opened a correspondence with princes Galitzin aud Wolkorski to fix upon the rules of the new. communities. Already a hundred families had emigrated from Wurtemberg, and taken up their abode in the provinces of Bessarabia and Caucasus. Alexander received with much favour these emigrants, because they were laborious sober men, disposed to attend to their duties. Thousands of other families, having property amounting to several millions of florins, were ready to follow the first emigrants, when the Government of Wurtemberg, alarmed at the vast depopulation, asked Hoffman to state to them the causes which produced it, and the best means to prevent the evil.

Hoffman replied that there were three classes of emigrants-1st, The poor, who sought in foreign countries for more easy means of subsistence; 2d, Fanatical separatists, who regarded Napoleon as a god, or as Antichrist; 3d, Those, and they formed much the largest class, whose conscience was hurt by the new liturgies. Hoffman added, that these last would readily remain in their native land, if they had full liberty of worship, if their children were baptized, the communion administered, and divine service performed, according to the old Lutheran usage. He proposed, therefore, in order to retain these worthy citizens, to collect them into free communities, and to give them pastors of their own choice.

After long negotiations with the Government, leave was granted. The Christians of Wurtemberg gathered at Kornthal, and commenced those establishments which have attained, by the blessing of God, so high a degree of spiritual and temporal prosperity.

(To be continued.)

"The sun loves the garden flowers best," said a pansy of great beauty, to some sweet mignonetts "let us be glad that our home is in this bright place."

"I will ring a peal for very happiness," replied a Canterbury bell; "for how could we exist in the gloom of that forest ?"

"Let us be merry and glad that we are not wood flowers," shouted they all, with a laugh that rung. through the wood and made the wild flowers

wonder.

A bright golden-rod, that grew on the edge of the forest, with his friend the aster, heard this conversation, and felt the injustice of it. Gracefully bowing his yellow plumes, he exclaimed, "Indeed you do not know us: our life is the happiest in the world. In the deep woods, sheltered from the storm and heat by the towering trees that soar above us like guardian angels, we live in peace and beauty. The sun does not always bathe us in a flood of light as he does) the garden flowers, but he darts his beams through green boughs, and they come to us in tenfold beauty, scattered in a golden shower; and in the still night| the stars look down between the tops of the tall trees, and gaze silently and lovingly upon us."

The wood flowers heard the silvery tone of the golden-rod with glee, as he recounted their blessed sources of delight.

"We have music, too, and such as never floats through garden airs. We listen to the wind, as it sighs through the pines, and waves the bowery branches of the oak and maple; for each tree is a separate harp, that gives forth its own sweet melodies."

Then all the flowers that grew by the brook said, "Hear the music of the waters, as they plash along the rocks, and look on them as they reflect the sunlight upon us, and make us bright and beautiful.”

And the little moss called out from the shades, "O let me always grow in the greenwood, and live in its shadows and delight in its sweet voices."

Then the ferns waved joyfully, and the clematis' clung round the elder in a close embrace; and they blessed themselves that they lived amid the lights and shades of the forest.

Then spoke the "lilies of the field" to the little. blue-eyed grass, that was looking up to the sky. "How merry we are in the meadows, where grow all that is greenest and freshest! Happiness pervades and fills the universe. It is above us with the birds and the clouds, around us with every flower and green leaf and blade of grass. Let man take a lesson from our kingdom and be wise; for all are, or ought to be, happiest in the place allotted to them by their Creator."

lily.