Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

evinced any reluctance; for which service he was rewarded with a crown each day, which recompense he forfeited if he did not oblige his master to get out of bed before the clock struck six. Bishop Jewell and Burnet rose every morning at 5 o'clock. Sir Thomas Moore also did the same thing. Napoleon was an early riser; so was Frederic the Great, and Charles the Twelfth; so is her present Majesty, and so are almost all the nobility in attendance upon the court. That early rising tends to prolong life, appears to be clearly proved.

SUNNY WORDS.

AN editor, as he labors along during the year, preparing for his readers things new and old, is sometimes overcome in his weakness with the feeling that after all he may not be benefitting or pleasing those who read what he sends. Sometimes, however, the light of encouragement falls upon his path, like sunshine from between clouds on a dark day, giving him new heart and new joy in his labors. We are tempted, at the close of this volume, to give our readers, as an example, an extract from the letter of a kind young literary friend, which we venture to call "sunny words."

"I still love The Guardian, and the longer it continues, I will still linger over its pages with all the fondness, avidity and boyish enthusiasm I have of yore. To me it comes like the sweet south wind in the early spring-tide, heavy-laden with its perfume of flowers, to the fevered one tossing on the sick couch with burning, scorching pain. And I lay down 'Putnam' and 'The National' readily to take up that which I have cherished so long. There is something within its yellow covers that tends to make a young and ardent heart less selfish, more sacrificing, nobler-aye, more Godlike.

"I love The Guardian for its truth, its simplicity, its piety, and its great moral tendency; and I would that every young man in our glorious country had it in his hands instead of those city publications-written for morbid tastes—giving to life, and love, and light, an unreality in their false coloring. There is nothing so lovely as Truth, and to a young and enthusiastic soul nothing so beautiful when properly inculcated. Youth is the time when all the habits of our after lives are formed-when the heart is moulded for evil or for good; and any course that may tend to secure the latter is a glorious one, and every Christian's duty is to approve it. The Guardian, in my humble opinion, as its name implies, is such an one as the young needs in this utilitarian age of ours. I trust, my dear sir, that our 'pet periodical' may receive that support which it merits."

1.8

CLOSE OF THE VOLUME.

A kind Providence has again permitted us to come to the close of another volume. Alas! not all of our readers who perused the January number have lived to see the December. More than one letter, during the year, has brought to us the sorrowful words, "He is dead;" "she is dead." Well, if they have died in the Lord, let us weep more over ourselves than over them. They have passed the conflict-we are yet in it. They are at home, we are only on the homeward way. "The living, the living, they shall praise Thee, as I do this day.'

We have the pleasure of announcing that The Guardian will enter upon a new volume with the January number. The reader is respectfully referred to the new Prospectus, which will be found on the last page of the cover. From it, it will be seen that several important improvements are to be made. The three steel engravings we feel sure will prove very acceptable to our young friends, as well as the new department, by which the quantity of reading matter will be considerably increased.

Our readers will find that we sacredly remember our standing promise, that The Guardian shall be steadily improved, in every way, as fast as the patronage will warrant. No one can certainly complain while receiving such an amount of reading matter for the small price of the magazine.

The series of articles on the "Birds of the Bible," which we are told from many directions have been well received, come to a close with this volume. The new volume will contain a similar series on the "FLOWERS AND PLANTS OF THE BIBLE." We hope to make these interesting and instructive. The first article of the series will appear in the January number.

-May we not ask our friends, who have taken such an interest in our humble magazine thus far, to continue their interest in the future. It will cheer us greatly to receive from various neighborhoods and towns, the usual number of new subscribers, either singly or in clubs. Those of our young friends who approve of the spirit of The Guardian, we confidently hope, will aid us in its circulation. Adieu! in the hope that we shall be permitted to greet you at the opening of the New Year.

"WHEN Satire flies abroad on Falsehood's wing,
Short is her life, and impotent her sting;
But, when to Truth allied, the wound she gives
Sinks deep, and to remotest ages lives."

1321

« ForrigeFortsæt »