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SAM.

"Wide is the gate and broad the road!" mind that,
Nor few they be who enter in thereat-
But let me hear your tale.

-When evening came,

I drank till all my limbs were in a flame;
When morn arose I felt oppress'd and sad,
And thought I never more would be so bad;
But drink soon chas'd my good resolves away,
Like mountain mist before the King of day;
Till seared at last my conscience lost its force,
And then I courted sin without remorse.
Dar'd greater deeds, affected to despise
The word of God-and called it, glozing lies;
There is no God, I cried, no hell to dread!
For if there were, his bolt would strike me dead.

JOHN-No God! because his car of vengeance waits?
No heav'n! because we see no crystal gates?
No hell! because we hear no piercing cries
From those who feel the worm that never dies?
Oh! what a fool is man to cast aside
A sure, unerring, never-failing guide;
And trust his vessel on a boundless sea,
With bare conjecture to point out the way:
He disbelieves the truth, believes a lie,
And if you ask him, cannot answer why.

SAM.-I should be glad to think the same as you,
And feel assur'd that all you say is true;
My doubts are proofs of ignorance, I grant;
But can you tell me, uncle! what I want?

JOHN.-You want a contrite heart, an humble mind,
For they who truly seek shall surely find.

"Yet some still doubt?" why, Sam, those doubts begin
In fancied wisdom or a love of sin;

Either too proud to seek for heav'nly aid,
They fall into a net themselves have made;
Or fearful lest their sins should find them out,
They stake their safety on a flimsy doubt.
The word indeed has depths beyond our ken,
Depths never fathomed yet by mortal men,
But what of that? shall I be such a fool,
As mete the Eternal by a finite rule?
The eye of sense is dim, and dreads the night,
While faith unveils the scene and makes it light.
But now, good night, and mind my parting word-
If you would thrive-in patience seek the Lord.

THOS. SUTTON.

CONCLUDING ADDRESS.

The Editor feels thankful that he has been strengthened to pursue his work to the close of another year. The past year however has been one of peculiar trial and difficulty; and by his own failing health and the inroads of death around, he has been forcibly reminded, that "the night cometh, when no man can work."

It is an awful responsibility to have been administering for fourteen years to the religious guidance of so many of his fellow-creatures; and while he never can be sufficiently thankful for the constant tokens of divine favour which have attended his efforts, he would humbly and earnestly pray for the pardon of all that has been wrong and wanting in them.

And oh! may the future pages of the Friendly Visitor, whether many or few, be more and more directed and blest by the Spirit of truth. Perilous and troublous times seem indeed to have come upon us: the judgments of God are abroad, on persons; in families; from one end of the nation to the other; throughout the world. The Editor earnestly desires to rise to the occasion; and while he has the sentence of death in himself, and sees on all sides the shaking of the nations, and the failing of men's hearts for fear, he would cry louder than ever in the way of warning, to the merely nominal Christian, the slave of the world and sin; and in the way of comfort and encouragement, to the faithful. They need not fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be cast into the depths of the sea. Amidst the failure of all earthly supplies, there is a river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God. Those streams are infinitely varied in kind and degree: may the Friendly Visitor be but the humblest and the slenderest rill, and the Editor's anxious wish will be gratified.

He desires to thank his kind Correspondents for the important assistance they have rendered him; and he begs that in their future communications, they will not fail to bear in mind the peculiar necessities of the times; so that as far as possible, the word in season may be spoken from time to time.

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Benefit of Bible Societies

Calculations shewing the extensive encouragement which
could be given to manufacturers with the money spent
on Spirituous Liquors

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of a letter from a friend

Extracts from Charles' Life

20, 121

Heads of Familes (To)

44

Heathen Darkness

43

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FRIENDLY VISITOR:

PUBLISHED IN

MONTHLY NUMBERS,

DURING THE YEAR

1833.

BY THE REV. WM. CARUS WILSON, M. A.

RECTOR OF WHITTINGTON ;

AND CHAPLAIN TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE DUKE OF SUSSEX.

VOL. XV.

"Much good may be done this way to considerable numbers at once, in an acceptable manner, at a trifling expense."-ARCHBISHOP SECKER.

KIRKBY LONSDALE:

PRINTED AND SOLD BY A. FOSTER:

Of whom may be had single numbers to make sets complete.

SOLD BY L. B. SEELEY AND SONS, FLEET STREET, LONDON; AND BY ALL BOOKSELLERS.

The Profits are devoted to charitable purposes.

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