Can his be joy, whose dim and doubtful sight And false those poisoned sweets, those days of haste. How would these things of present being seem How less than nothing to reality! eye, Yet such is life, the breathing of an hour, To this our zeal, our cares, our griefs, are given, E. B. IN ENCOURAGEMENT TO PATIENCE. In every hour, in every place, Though sad our state, though low our lot, If trials mark the road to heaven, Met deeper pangs than we have done; Yet in that hour of bitterer woe ? And love the hand that wounds in this, E. B. PSALM II. 1, 5. Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasure. SHALL erring realms escape for evils done, Is this thy faith? then, turn thy wondering eyes The Elect, the Chosen! But her rulers strove When earth and hell, in maddened tumult driven, Forsake, what once she loved, her sacred trust, A nation's sin prove not a nation's woe? Who see her yield to every changing breath, The Church once purchased by her martyrs' death? Or Judah weeping still her desert home. E. B. ORGANO-HISTORICA; Or the History of Cathedral and Parochial Organs. NO. XVII.-THE ORGAN AT CROYDON CHURCH. THE instrument at the above church was built by the celebrated artist, Avery, in 1794; and is in a better state of preservation than any of this builder's make now in London. (See our number for June last.) The organ we are now about to describe was a gift of one of the inhabitants, by trade a barber or hairdresser, who, at his decease, bequeathed what property he had to the parish, on condition of their erecting an organ in Croydon Church. There was some opposition to its erection at first, on account of the Vestry refusing to make a rate for the payment of an organist. The difficulty was at last got over, by their agreeing to make a voluntary subscription for the organist, annually. Mr. Bartleman, the late celebrated bass singer, was their first organist. His successors are remunerated for their attendance by voluntary subscription. The tone of this instrument is rich and powerful, and possesses two great qualities, brilliancy in the chorus, and quickness of speech,-the general characteristics of Avery's organs. The whole of the stops are good, and may be used either in solo or chorus. The diapasons throughout the organ are particularly clear and fine, and we cannot help pronouncing it as one of Avery's best finished instruments. The following are the stops it contains : The compass of the great and choir organs, is from G G to F in alt58 notes that of the swell, from F in the tenor to F in alt-37 notes. The last octave of one of the open diapasons speaks on the pedals only. The instrument underwent a repair and improvement by Mr. Elliott, in 1819, who added an octave of unison pedal pipes; the scale of which is not large enough, so that they fail to produce the effect intended. The great brilliancy in the upper, or acute part of the organ, requires a ponderous and weighty quality in the bass, or grave part of the instrument. It still wants a real double open diapason, as pedal pipes, to render the full organ what it should be-majestic. It stands in a church very favourable to sound. COLLECTANEA. A RETENTIVE MEMORY.-Bishop Jewel, who lived in the reigns of King Edward VI., Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth, had naturally a very strong memory, and he improved it by art to such a degree, that he could repeat, with the utmost exactness, whatever he wrote, after having once read it. While the bell was ringing, he committed to his memory a repetition sermon, and pronounced it without hesitation. He was a constant preacher, and, in his own sermons, his method was to write down the heads only; upon the rest he meditated till the bell ringing to church ceased. So firm was his memory, that he used to say, if he were to deliver a premeditated speech before a thousand auditors, shouting or fighting all the while, they would not put him out. In order to try him, Dr. Parkhurst proposed many barbarous words out of a calendar, and Bishop Hooper forty Welsh, Irish, and foreign terms. After having twice read them, he repeated them all by heart, backwards and forwards. In the year 1563, Dr. Nicholas Bacon, lord keeper of the great seal, read to him one day, out of Erasmus's Paraphrase, the last clauses of ten lines, confused and imperfect on purpose when he had sat silent a little while, covering his face with his hand, he repeated all those broken pieces of sentences the right way, and the contrary, without hesitation. He professed to teach others this art, and actually taught it his tutor, Dr. Parkhurst, at Zurich.* GOD SAVE THE KING.- -Much has been said of the origin of this sublime authem, and a foolish report has lately been revived of its French origin and importation. In the MS. memoirs of the Duchess of Perth, lately sold in London, Handel is accused of having procured both the air and the sentiments from the superior of St. Cyr, in France; for whose establishment, it is said, that they had been composed, and there performed on a visit from Louis XIV., accompanied by James II. and his Queen consort from England. Now the fact is, that both the words and the music of " God save the King," existed almost a century before the period alluded to; having been composed at the request of the Company of Merchant Tailors, about the year 1606-7, to commemorate the escape of James I. and his parliament from the gunpowderplot. The music may even be found in print in John Forbes's Cantus, or Songs and Fancies," 4to, published at Aberdeen in 1682, two years before Handel was born. The following additional stanza was prepared by R. B. Sheridan, when George III. was shot at by Hatfield, in the year 1800. 66 From every latent foe, O'er him thine arm extend, For Britain's sake defend, Our Father, Prince, and Friend : CONTENTMENT.-There was an Italian bishop who had struggled through great difficulties without repining, and who met with much opposition in the discharge of his episcopal function, without ever betraying the least impatience. An intimate friend of his, who highly *See Life prefixed to Isaacson's translation of Jewell's Apology, p. lxxxvi. lxxxvii. admired those virtues, which he thought it impossible to imitate, one day asked the prelate if he could communicate the secret of being always easy? "Yes," replied the old man, "I can teach you my secret, and with great facility: It consists in nothing more than in making a right use of my eyes." His friend begged him to explain himself. "Most willingly," returned the Bishop. "In whatsoever state I am, I first of all look up to heaven, and I remember that my principal business here is to get there. I then look down upon the earth, and call to mind how small a space I shall occupy in it, when I come to be interred. I then look abroad into the world, and observe what multitudes there are who are in all respects more unhappy than myself. Thus I learn where true happiness is placed, where all our cares must end, and how very little reason I have to repine or to complain." ANCIENT EPITAPH. Looke man before thee how thy death hasteth, ENGLISH VERSIONS OF THE BIBLE.-1. Coverdale's translation, first printed in 1535; 2. Matthew's, 1537; 3. Cranmer's, or the Great Bible, 1539; 4. the Genevan, 1560; 5. the Bishops', 1568; 6. the Douay-Rhenish (the Roman Catholic version), 1583-1609. SELECT SENTENCES.-To fear God's justice, is the way not to feel it. Worldly riches and honours can never fully content the mind. The way to contentment is not by raising the estate higher, but by bringing the heart lower, and having God for a portion. He who has on the breast-plate of God's fear may be shot at, but he can never be shot through. Religion would have no enemies, if itself were not an enemy to vice. All means in the world, without the love and practice of the truth, will be insufficient to our preservation in the saving profession of it. It is impossible that a Christian can keep the professions of his faith stedfast, unless he keep the exercise of his faith constant. He that has a false end in his profession will soon come to an end of his profession. It will cost something to be religious;—it will cost more not to be so, Prayer is the better half of a minister's whole work; and that which makes the other half lively and effectual. Pride is the most dangerous of all sins: Other temptations are about evil; this is conversant about good. |