place in which to be useful, and where he may cultivate his social nature. How much safer, purer, and more elevating are such social circles, and such companionships, than such as are formed outside of the church, and which have for their end, not usefulness, but mere pleasure, and that of the lowest and most evanescent kind. Moreover, there is nothing better calculated to keep us firm in the pious way than to be engaged in laboring for the church, and for souls. It is by watering others that we are watered. As the body which exercises is healthiest, so is it also with the soul. The active Christian grows most in grace. Does not observation convince us of this. Do not the idlers, the loiterers in Zion, mostly back-slide entirely? Are not, on the other hand, the most active also the most persevering? O, we are kept from a thousand temptations and snares by keeping ourselves in the circle of those who labor in the church, in the Sabbath-school, and in all the various enterprises of doing good. Be you not an idler in the ranks of Jesus. Against this I earnestly warn you. V. Think often of solemn things. A Christian must be sober, solemn, earnest. He must not treat as a light matter his responsibilities, his duties, his vows, his relations to man and God, and his solemn account at the last great day. You need not be morose, gloomy, cheerless. But be earnest still. Life is not a play, sin is not a trifle, death is not a sportjudgment and eternity, heaven and hell, are not a dream. Our own lost condition by nature, our own lying under the power of sin and death is a reality that ought to arouse us, and cause us to tremble and pray. We are candidates for eternitywe are hastening towards its awful realities-and shall we amuse ourselves and sport with vanities upon this dreadful brink. Eternity! stupendous theme! Compared herewith our life's a dream: A deep, where all our thoughts are drowned! The thought of what Jesus has done for us, ought to make us earnest. Redemption was not a trifle! The humiliation, the sacrifice, and the sufferings of our Immanuel, were such as to astonish heaven, earth, and hell. There, in our nature, hangs the atoning God! "The skies he formed, and now he bleeds for me! O what a groan was there! a groan not his; O, think often of that price, "all price beyond," and neglect not that soul which is the purchase of his blood. Think often of your vows. They are heard on earth. They are recorded in heaven. They will meet you in a dying hour. They will meet you before the "great white throne." Fulfil your vows, by a life of piety. Often refresh and animate your heart, with the solemn remembrance of them at the table of the Lord. may "High heaven that hears your solemn vow, Till in life's latest hour you bow, And bless in death a bond so dear." And THE MANAGER IS DEAD. "THE manager is dead," said a lad to me as I passed the Bowery Theatre this morning. The walls, the pillars, the arches, the log cabin, the old arm chairs of Uncle Tom and Aunt Chloe, the bulletin boards, the hand-bills and the door ways to the pit were all deeply draped in black, for the manager is dead. A theatre in mourning-a place made for mirth in mourning! Oh, it was a sad sight. Even the Bowery boys seemed all subdued because death had been there and called for the manager. There have been frequent deaths there before, and sudden deaths, living deaths, and yet no sign of woe appeared. The young have often entered those walls alive, but when they come out the leprosy of death was upon them. A great school for the youth was kept there, and the manager, who is now dead, was the principal of that school. He had apt scholars, and he taught them whatsoever he pleased, and never had he a sleepy, uninterested scholar; all were wide awake. Was that favorable moment improved to teach noble and exalted things? Say, manager, how does it all look from your present stand-point? A man who can manage a theatre well has gifts of no ordinary character. A man of mean talents could not do it. Were those gifts and talents well improved for the best good of mankind, and the accomplishment of all life's great objects? How does thy work compare with the work of the noiseless, faithful Sabbath-school teacher, who approaches a home where a child dwells with blessings on his lips, and who watches blank moments to speak to that child somewhat of the delicious narratives of Christ's love. Said a good man to me once, "Of all the places in the world, I would love best to die is the Sabbath-school," but to go from the theatre to the grave is a mournful passage. There is no harmony between the theatre and the grave. Oh, then, let the theatre remain in mourning. Forever let its walls be shrouded in black. It is a fit place for mourning, not for mirth. Its Alpha and Omega is death. Then let the death token hang as a beacon to every passing traveler. JAMES POLLOCK, GOVERNOR OF PENNSYLVANIA. BY THE EDITOR. "Lives of great men all remind us We may make our lives sublime." We have desired, for several reasons, to give the readers of The Guardian a sketch of the newly inaugurated Governor. One reason is that there is a general desire to know something of the history of a man whom the people, by their free will and vote, elevate to such a position of power and honor. Another is, that the life and career of the Governor is another illustration of the grand fact that the way to eminence, honor and usefulness, is open to all who have the energy and industry to prepare themselves for it, and the moral excellence to deserve it. We have before us a man who begins in a small village in the interior of Pennsylvania, as he grows worthier his influence extends wider; modestly and humbly and faithfully, he acts in each sphere to which he is called, and as he wins on the confidence of the community the circle of his strength widens, until he finds himself crowned with the highest honors in the gift of a free and mighty State. We need scarcely say that we are no politician. Our Guardian moves in a more quiet range. It is not, therefore, for any political ends, or in a political spirit, that we desire to speak of the Governor. We love to catch hold of such examples of what is called "rising in the world," and hold them up to young men, with a view of stimulating them to become industrious that they may become honorable, and good that they may become great. James Pollock was born in Milton, a small but pleasant town on the east bank of the Susquehanna, in Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, on the 11th of September, 1810, of respectable parents, in easy circumstances. His father was engaged in mercantile pursuits, but died before his son James had attained his eighth year. It was designed that the son should pursue the business of the parent; and he was, accordingly, early put behind the counter, having previously enjoyed no great amount of school advantages. Tiring however of shop-keeping, and a better course of academical instruction than is usually found in the interior having offered itself in the village, under the direction of the Rev. David Kirkpatrick, he was induced to embrace it, and speedily became prominent in the institution as an apt scholar in all the branches taught, but especially in the classical and mathematical departments. Having completed with credit his academical career, he entered the college of New Jersey, at Princeton, in the junior class, half advanced. He there prosecuted his studies with zeal and industry, and graduated in the fall of 1831, receiving the highest honors of his class. Returning home, he shortly after entered the office of Samuel Hepburn, Esq., as a student of law, and was admitted to the bar as a practising attorney in November, 1833. He had undoubtedly chosen the profession most in accordance with his tastes, talents and attainments, and soon gained a handsome practice, high character as a sound lawyer, and able and eloquent advocate. In 1837 he was married to the daughter of Mr. Hepburn, and in the same year received the appointment of deputy attorney for Northumberland county, and retained the appointment for three years under different attorney generals-William B. Reed and others. His popular manners, the strong hold he had upon the public mind, his eloquence as an advocate and on public occasions, where frequent opportunities called for the exhibition of it, soon however drew him in a great measure from his profession, and embarked him in political life. In 1844 he was presented by the whig party, at the special election to fill the place in Congress from the XIIIth Congressional district of Pennsylvania vacated by the death of its then late incumbent, the Hon. Henry Frick. His success was hardly deemed possible, the district being so overwhelmingly democratic that au opposition candidate was received as put forward on a forlorn hope. He, however, carried the district by a flattering majority, and in two succeeding elections, to the XXIXth and XXXth Congresses, was equally successful, until the opposition had some difficulty in finding a champion willing to enter the lists against him. His Congressional course, embracing a period of six years, had interfered with his private affairs, and especially, and largely so, with his professional pursuits, and he with difficulty, but positively, declined a fourth canvass. His career in Congress redounded much to his credit, and gave him a wide spread reputation. He sustained with ability the great conservative principles of the party which elected him, as his speeches and votes on the tariff, internal improvements, and so forth, will show. His report, in the first session of the XXXth Congress, on the Whitney railroad to the Pacific, of which committee he was chairman, is the ablest and most extended exhibition. of the advantages that might be expected to result from that road of any paper we have seen. He was, during the various sessions while he occupied a seat in Congress, a member of some of the most important committees of that body, as, on Territories, Claims, Ways and Means, and so forth, and always brought competent learning, ability, and industry to the faithful and able discharge of the duties devolved upon him. He gained many friends, in and out of Congress, and returned home with an increased reputation, fairly acquired in the public councils, as an able debater and an unflinching advocate of every measure he deemed promotive of the best interests of his country. Once more at home in private life, he resumed the practice of the law, and rapidly regained the ground his Congressional career had lost him, till, in January, 1851, he was again called into public life by Governor Johnston. The death of Judge Anthony, in 1849, had left a vacancy on the bench of the Eighth Judicial District of Pennsylvania. Mr. Pollock was not an applicant for the vacant presidency, but the commission was conferred upon him without his solicitation or knowledge that it was designed for him. He accepted it, however, and retained the office of president judge of the district, embracing the counties of Northumberland, Lycoming, Columbia and Montour, till December, 1851, when the Pennsylvania law providing for the election of judges by the people, brought another individual (Alexander Jordan, Esq.) in his place on the bench. In the canvass Mr. Pollock peremptorily declined being a candidate, and Mr. Jordan was elected without opposition. His services for the short period he occupied the bench, eminently established his fitness for the position. He was mild and courteous in his deportment, prompt and untiring in the discharge of his duties with unquestioned learning, impartial and honest in his decisions. On retiring from the bench, public dinners were tendered to him by the bar in the counties in which he had presided, and numerous resolutions passed, showing their appreciation of his merits as a judge, by those best enabled to estimate his qualifications and to pronounce upon the honesty and ability of his administration. Now he is again at the bar, in the vigor of life, and with the prospects of a successful career before him; and while about reaping the rewards of assiduity, perseverance and industry in his profession, a telegraphic communication announces his nomination for Governor of the State by the Whig party. He accepts the nomination in accordance with the wishes of his friends and those admiring his sentiments on the great topics, National and State. He is put at the head of several reform tickets, and the people at the late election confirmed the choice by an unusuallly large majority, thus elevating him to the Chief Magistracy of the State. Behold the eminence of honor, but also of responsibility, which he has reached. What guarantee have we that these responsibili ties will be met, not with infalibility, but at least in the utmost honesty of purpose? We answer, in his strictly moral and religious character. We have a Christian Governor-not in name merely, but in reality, as we have reason to know and believe. Mr. Pollock connected himself with the church-the Reformed Presbyterian-in early life. The influence of religion, as a reno |