There is joy in the mountains, And shrink from his blustering wind, TENNESSEE. For The Casket. "BE YE THANKFUL.” BY REV. A. A. MATHES. THE Apostle to the Gentiles repeatedly enjoined thankfulness upon his readers; and ve we not numerous causes for it? What fcy and cause of thankfulness it is that have vital air to breathe-that we enjoy alt and the exercise of reason that we have the sight of our eyes, to look out on the beautiful works of nature, and to behold the pleasant faces of relatives and friends-that we possess the sense of hearing, and can listen to the Word of Truth read and expounded, and the pleasing voices of friends and relations. Also, the power of speech, that we can converse with our God and with each other. Verily, the richest gifts of heaven have been bestowed upon us. The gift of Christ, to obey ine law in our stead, to suffer and die for our the boon! This has the greatest gift of Heaven. is it not one of infinite value? not one other gift that stands with this-viz: the Bible? Redeemer might have done for us all that he has done, and be doing all that he is now doing, but of what avail to us would it be without the knowledge of it. And for this knowledge we are entirely indebted to the Bible, which contains all those lessons of wisdom and piety necessary for us in our present circumstances. Precious, priceless Book! Ought we not to be the most thankful creatures that God has mada? Has he not done more for us-that is, for our race-than he has for any other portion of his creation? He asks the question himself have done?" demption! how rich been sometimes called And of a truth But is there side by side Though the well nigh exha thankful man should be What more could I Infinite Wisdom had man! Oh, how Time would ut terly fail us to enumerate a tithe of the causes we have for thankfulness. But it may be said - At this rate, if we were to attempt to give thanks for all the mercies we enjoy, we might do nothing else than give thanks. Very well; if we have sufficient cause for continuous thanksgiving, how could we be better employed? We are quite ready with a "thank you," upon the reception of a favor from a fellow-creature; and shall we be more thankful to a mortal From the Watchman and Observer. TOWARDS the close of the discussion on the man than to the Infinite Creator for his in valuable and innumerable favors? That the THE FUNERAL PROCESSION. reader may the more clearly see the point, take an illustration. Suppose a person who has heretofore enjoyed uninterrupted health, to be prostrated upon the couch of affliction; and after a series of months or years of pain and suffering, drugged with nauseating potions, is at length raised up from the very grave's mouth to usual health, such an one feels that he has abundant cause for thankfulness. And so he has. But has not that one who has been preserved in constant good health, freed from pain, suffering and bitter drugs, much greater cause for thankfulness? The answer must be in the affirmative. Union Theological Seminary, at the late Synod in Norfolk, the Rev. Dr. Foote said :— "Mr. Moderator, Permit me to say a few words on this subject of the Union Theological Seminary. And, with your permission, I will give the thoughts that passed through my excited mind last night. An incident will perhaps present the case in a still more forcible manner. Two gentlemen, living in the same neighborhood, went on a given day to the village; not, however, in company. One of them in going thither, was thrown from his horse, and ran a very narrow risk of losing his life. He, however, recovered, and remounted, and went on to the village; where, meeting his neighbor, he observed with a great deal of interest and earnestness, I have great cause for thankfulness! Why? said his friend. What has occurred? Why, replied the other, as I came to the village this morning, my horse blundered and threw me, and came very near destroying my life! But I was Providentially preserved, and therefore have exceeding cause for thankfulness! That you have, said his friend. But I can tell you more than that! The other, incredulous and utterly astonished, asked What can you tell greater than that? Why, said he, as I came to town this morning, my horse didn't blunder at all! I was not thrown into the danger that you were I was preserved from all those fears which overwhelmed you, and from all those bruises, marks of which your person still bears. I have been kept safe from all those things, and I, therefore, have much greater cause for thankfulness than you have. His friend saw the point, felt the force, and gave it up. It is just that way. LYNNVILLE, February 16, 1852. - WHEN the dunces call us fools without proving us to be so, our best resort is to prove them to be fools without condescending to call them so. - Lacon. "It seemed to me, Moderator, that the discussion was going on, and that you said to the Synod you had an argument for the Seminary that must be decisive, and bid us follow you. And away you led us all, in solemn silence, to the graveyard in Princeton, New Jersey; and knocking at the gate, demanded of those assembled some of the precious dust lying there. "And first, you said, we must have SAMUEL DAVIES, for he was the apostle of Virginia. They claimed him as President of Nassau Hall. You said he ought to rest with the church of Foundering; that Nassau Hall had seen him ascend to heaven, and that was the full of her claim; his dust was ours. And you took him. "Next you said, you must have SAMUEL STANHOPE SMITH. They murmured. But you said, his latest exultation in life was — that he laid the foundation of Hampden Sidney College; and where should the founder lie but with the college of his creation and his joy? And you took him. "Then you said, they might have, undisputed, Burr; and at his feet, his great, his erring, and, we believe, his repenting son; and the great Edwards, if the New Englanders were content; and they might rejoice in the lovely Finley, and the venerable Witherspoon; and they might glory in Miller, and McLean, and the younger Professors; but we must have ALEXANDER - have him flesh and bones, for he was ours. We had loaned him, but never yielded him; always asserting our claim, and calling him to come home. They resisted. But you said Virginia must and would have her son: he had been President of Hampden Sidney College-had-lived and died a lover of his native State. And you took him. "Then you led on the solemn procession to Philadelphia. The din of business paused as we passed on to Pine street. There you de . manded the bones of JOHN B. SMITH; and you said, he was the great actor in that most precious revival that gave the Virginia church her leading ministers for half a century, and Kentucky her pioneers, and the church at large her leading professor of theology; that the crowded city did not require his ashes in the very bustle of traffic and speculation; that they ought to repose in the scene of his greatest glory, the retirement of Virginia. You took them for few there knew the living man or his worth. Then you took HOGE, the meek and venerable; and you sought and gathered up the remains of LACY -men of Hampden Sidney, both of them, who visited the city to die. 66 Having gathered these, we took the rail cars, and, swift as lightning, you led us to the borders of the "ancient dominion ;" and there you formed again the funeral procession. We crossed the Potomac at Shepperdstown; and the people wept as we passed, for they had heard their fathers tell of the days of Hoge's ministry there. As we passed the grave of his eloquent son, in Martinsburg, the assembled people bowed in reverence to the mighty dead. On by Bushkin; where Alexander preached the first of his attractive sermons, through gathering crowds, we came by Winchester; and around the grave of Legrand, the lovely Legrand, and the honorable dead by his side, the people stood in thick array with uncovered heads. We stopped for the night at old Opequon, the mother of churches. And brother Hoge said to the congregation, that he had got the bones of his grandfather; and that we wished to rest on those plains, and pray where he prayed and worshipped in youth, and look over these hills, where he toiled with his grammar tied to his plough handle. It was a solemn night. The past and the present met; for thoughts, we heard, songs and sighs, intermingled, break from the old grave yard. "In the morning you led us up the valley, by Cedar Creek and Linvell's Creek, and Mossy Creek, to the tripple forks of the Shenandoah; and of the vast gathering at Augusta church-old Augusta church -the fort -the house of God for a century-you asked if you might have Speece; and they all said no. With tears they bid us God speed, but they must keep their mighty dead. "All was still, solemn, full of wonder, as we passed through Staunton to Hebron; the people followed on. The crowd at Hebron said we must not have Calhoon, loved and sinned against in his life; his grave was honored, and could not lose its glory. On we went by Bethel, and Providence, and the old Academy at Fairfield, and the old Hall of Liberty; and the earth seemed to heave around us, as if the past generation would come to greet us around the graves of Brown, of Mary Moore and Scott. And as we passed Timber Ridge, and approached Lexington, Brother White said to the wondering people crowding around, that we had brought their jewel- their 'little Archy' whom they had' sent away on his master's business in his youth; and now, full of years and honors, he had come back to rest in his mother's bosom and the people wept and shouted, and bid us stay and raise a monument. But you said we must lay him elsewhere in his mother's bosom. "Then you led us on through Bedford by the Peaks; and we heard voices like Mitchell's and Turner's, shouting glory to God in the highest, and on the earth peace and good will to men ; and the multitude said, Amen. By Rockfish and the Cove, and Meechum's Run and Charlottesville, we passed through crowds whose grandfathers had heard the subduing eloquence of Davies and these his compeers; and from the corner of Louisa a voice tremuously melodious pronounced – 'Socrates died like a philosopher; Jesus Christ, like a God.' And along through Louisa and Fluvanna and Goochland, people were crying- 'What shall we do to be saved.? Our fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live forever? › "And in Hanover, among the excited community, tossed as in other days, a century gone by, the little church asked if the bones of Davies might rest there; and you said, 'No; he thast accompany his peers.' As we paused on Richmond Hill, Brother Moore said to the city, 'We have come for the longneglected bones of William Graham-the immortal Graham.' And we took them from their repose to join his compeers. In Chesterfield they said, 'What means this?' and Brother Lacy said, 'They are carrying the bones of my grandfather — the little Chesterfield boy with a crushed hand, to whom God gave the silver trumpet.' At Montrose we paused, and there were voices from the other world - Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord; they rest from their labors, and their | one like Rice, with a warm heart refined by works do follow them." grace, that could plan for a generation, and "As we entered your native county, Mod-be spent for God, and die from exhaustion; erator, you told the excited citizens that you had got the giants of the last generation. And at old Cumberland, you said we must pause for the night; and there, as we talked over the revivals after revivals for a hundred years, the spirits of the dead mingled with us, and the eternal world brooded on us; and unseen companies hailed Davies and the Smiths, and Lacy, Alexander and Hoge, God's ministers for their salvation. and some, like Alexander, fit to mould a host of ministers of the Gospel; and some, like Speece, with the kind heart and gigantic mind, that walked like Sampson with the gates of Gaza; and here and there a mighty reasoner, with a heart warmer than his reason was strong, came, like Baxter, to aid the church in her perplexities. Many came, like Legrand, sweet and powerful in persuasion; earnest, like Calhoon and Mitchell and Hill, and thrilling in eloquence, like Turner. "We, the Synod, seemed to stand on the mount of observation, and look over all this. And as the multitudes followed these servants of God unto glory, you, Moderator, said "In the morning we passed on; and as we went by Wilmington, the Mortons brought out the bones of their and our beloved Rice, and joined the procession. On by the College and the Seminary you led an immense host; and then we met Briery, Buffalo and Cub Creek, Brethren, do you regret that you stood by with Lyle and Reed, and on we slowly moved, the Seminary in her low estate?' No man amidst an immense host, gathered from the answered. You then asked 'Brethren, Potomac and the Shenandoah and the James what do you say?' And, as with one voice, and the Appomattox and the Roanoke, count-all cried — Glory to God in the highest!' " less as the sands of the sea, bowing their heads as we laid these servants of the church on the little cemetery hill. There they layDavies, and Smith the elder, and Smith the younger, and Graham and Lacy, and Hoge and Lyle, and Rice and Graham the younger, and Reed and Alexander. For The Casket. BIBLE. THE BY W. M. SAMUEL. THE imagination of man, swift as it is, has scarcely kept pace with the reality, when applied to the progress of free principles throughout our land, since the memorable day of the Declaration of Independence, made on the Fourth of July, 1776, by the then inhabitants of the North American colonies. Swift as upon eagle's wings they have run, and swifter far they are destined to run. Yes! before the end of the present century, they will overrun the country of the Turks, the Asiatics, the Chinese, the Russians and the Hottentots. These principles have taken for their wings the Holy Bible. That blessed book, without which man would be left without the means of ascertaining either the purpose of his creation or the cause of his death. He would be as a man destitute of sight from his youth, and would be a wander “Our procession had been rapid; but time pursued on more rapidly. We all seemed to pass away. Generations came and generations went, like thoughts-like the visions of the night-visions full of brightness and glory, and Gospel success. As the course rolled on, then came upon the stage some like Davies, fit to stand for the Gospel in perilous times, laying the foundations of churches, whose lips were touched with a live coal from God's altar. Some, like S. S. Smith, majestic, grand, the father of colleges. Some, like J. B. Smith, wonderful in revivals, and raising ministers of the Gospel. Some, like Lacy, strode over the earth, blowing longer on the face of the earth. and loud the silver trumpet; and some, like The Bible teaches man what he is made for, the classic Lyle, and the kind-hearted Reed, and points out to him his rights and priviand the gentlemanly Blythe, who preached on the frontiers. Then came out some meek and wise men, like Hoge, with whom it was impossible to contend. Now and then came leges. No nation of people who carefully read and study that book, will remain long under the government of despotic rulers. The nation where it is not read by the masses, |