lay bleeding under the tyrant's lash; and the army which was to defend it was destitute, starving and mutinous. The stripes and stars seemed fading like blighted innocence; and the eagle which had hovered over the camp seemed ready, like Noah's dove, to take its flight back to its native heaven because it found not where to rest. At this dark and awful crisis Washington leaned upon the God of battles. It is said that a cherub never looks lovelier than when it bends, with veiled face, before the throne on high-and never was the father of his country greater than when he kneeled in the grove of Valley Forge. Think of it when you stand upon his tomb and see if it does not cast a brighter beam of glory on his laurels. Let the skeptic point you triumphantly to the names of Jefferson and Paine; tell him a greater than Jefferson or Paine is here. And when he holds up to you the "Age of Reason," and say this was Paine's creed, you can raise up your Bible and tell him this was Washington's creed. He leaned upon it in life. Upon its promises, in death, he "sleeps well;" and we know that if "An angel's arm could not snatch him from the grave, LABOR. IN Life's vast field fulfil the work of duty, Oh! ye who serve the one great power and true, Whether to spread the truth thy sacred mission And lead the erring soul to hopes sublime. Whether from forge or workshop, echoes ringing Let your heart to them beat perfect measure, 'Mid hopes of time remembering Life's great aim, Work, ceaseless work, not for the cankering treasure, But for laurels of immortal fame. A fame surpassing that of man's creation, Attends the spirit in its exaltation With hymns of praise to Heavens unseen abode. And toil with earnest faith; for faith to labor Is as the spirits to the outward frame, It ever vivifies, and prompts its neighbor, And steadfast stands in storm or calm the same! Else dead are all our acts; in self beginning, PROMPT AND PUNCTUAL. BY THE EDITOR. To act always at the proper time and to do it with quick decision is a great virtue. This is something to be desired and sought after by every young man and woman. Begin any particular business promptly -answer letters promptly-answer questions promptly-pay your debts promptly-do your duty promptly. Look around you and think of those men whom you love to meet, and with whom you love to dealand who are they? Not your slow, sneaking drones who come to you by a process, and leave you by a process; but your frank, open, decided men-those on whom you can rely because you know that they are prompt and punctual. Porches before the house are pleasant, but they are for pleasure and liesure; so long introductions and drawling approaches, may answer when there is nothing else to do, but they are intolerably to earnest men, who do not sit on the porch but serve in the temple. Be prompt. Do what you say, and do what you intend to do, quickly and with decision; then shall you be known, and called for, and depended upon, because it is known when and where you are to be found. There are few things which go so far to reduce a person in the confidence of others as want of promptness and punctuality. Men will not rely readily and with pleasure on their word or on them. There are hundreds in business, and social life, in church and in state, who have lost all their influence by a want of these virtues. A little item of business has been committed to them, and they have neglected it or put it off to the last moment, and then attended to it hastily and only half; and if they are unfaithful in that which is least, how shall men commit to them that which is great. He that lacks in promptness keeps others in continual suspense, and subjects them to delay and disappointment in their work. Thus time is lost, and a great deal of vexation caused. He has an appointment with one or more others to transact certain business. The rest, or some of them, have made their arrangements so as to be able to spare only that time and no more; but Droney comes not at all, or comes half an hour after the time. They wait with impatience, and when their time is up, and another appointment is pressing them, behold he comes dragging himself along like a wounded snail. Perhaps part of the business has been dispatched; but now the whole matter gone over must be reviewed so that Droney may be posted up. What moral right, we earnestly ask, has any man to rob one or three, or half-dozen men of half an hour while they are waiting on him? What is the difference, in morals, between stealing a pen-knife and stealing a half hour, which is worth more than a pen-knife to him. Who has not seen a body of ten or more men waiting over an hour on one Droney to make a quorum? Here are ten hours of valuable time gone to waste, through the want of promptness of one man. Can one who is in the habit of doing this keep up respect for himself in the estimation of others? Never. The first offense, will cause doubt of him, the second will awaken disgust for him, and the third will place him among drones where it will require a long effort till he gets himself into credit again. Not only does this vice derange the business of others; but it fatally interferes with Droney's own business. He gets his affairs into endless confusion. In a well ordered life the duties of a day or week are strung together, and dependent on one another like cars in a train; if one runs off the track all will feel the jolt. The whole train will be delayed; and as in rail-roading, those who fail to make time are ordered off the road, so are drones soon pushed out of the line of business. It has been amusingly, but truly said, that some persons seem to have been born half an hour too late, and are never able to make it up, hence they are always just almost up to their business but never reach it. Now if all Dronies could be transferred into a world of their own, a world-moving half an hour behind ours, it would work well enough. The trouble comes from their being mixed in the established order of this world. Here they are an intolerable drawback, hanging like a loose shoe-sole to the feet of the diligent. We propose-no-we give up all hopes of getting this wrong thing right. They will never catch up. Still we propose this, namely, that our young readers of the Guardian never fall into this inexcusable vice. We commend to the attention of our young readers the anecdote of Washington and his Secretary. The Father of his country was distinguished for his promptness and punctuality, and he expected the same virtue in all who held office under him. On one occasion his Secretary ame a few minutes after time to an appointment. Washington chided him. The Secretary excused himself by saying that his watch was a little out of time. Washington said: You must either have a new watch, or I must have a new Secretary." So little allowance did this great man make for a want of punctuallity. It is moreover said that Washington never waited beyond the fixed time in an appointment with others. If they were not on the ground he immediately left. This example is as much to his credit, as it is a reproof of all those time-pirates who by their tardiness steal the precious life of others by inches. STANZAS. [Impromtu in an omnibus while riding with a party up the side of a ravine along the Susquehanna. Penciled down by a Lady.] On the river Sunbeams quiver Bright and pure and fair; Just so brightly, Just so sprightly, Opening joys of childhood are. From the mountains Just so sweetly, Just so fleetly, Glides our childhood's song. Clouds are flying, From the earth away; So the wildwood THE STUGGLES OF DEATH AND LIFE. BY THE EDITOR. REPENTANCE in its true sense moves hand in hand with conversion; they have one ground in regeneration, work together towards a holy lifehaving as their end the entire renewing of the outward and inward man into the spirit and image of Christ. This process of renewal consists in two things: "The mortification of the old, and the quickening of the new man." This conversion involves two things because it lies in the very nature of a change, or conversion, that it is from one thing to another. As turning from sin is not yet a conversion; it also requires a positive turning to Christ. So also a turning to Christ necessarily pre-supposes a turning from sin. These God has joined together, let no one put them asunder. The scriptures speak of the natural man-by which they mean man in his state of depravity, man dead in sin, and at enmity with God. 1 Cor. 2: 14. This is the same as the old man. Eph. 4: 22; Rom. 4: 6. The scriptures also speak of the outward man. 2 Cor. 4: 16. By this is meant his mortal body, including also those evils which most naturally exercise themselves by means of the body. This is one side of the christian man. Now we have corresponding expressions, designating the other side. Thus we have mentioned the inward man, (Rom. 7: 22; Eph. 3: 16,) by which is meant the new life of grace in the soul. This is same as the new man. Eph. 4; 24; Col. 3: 10. This again is the same as the hidden man. 1 Pet. 3: 4. According to the teaching of the scriptures all men are born in this natural, old, outward state-depravity pervades man entirely, and sin reigns. In order, therefore, to be saved, he must be born anew. This is not done by a mere reforming of the old, but by the death of the old. This is done by generating in him a new life, or a new man, which under cover of the old unfolds itself; and by unfolding itself it kills the old nature. There has no greater, no more sublime mystery, ever transpired before the eyes of men-except the incarnation of the divine in the human in Christ-than this blessed and glorious generation and evolution of a new creature amid the corruptions and death struggles of the old nature. How wonderful this life in the midst of death! This life out of death! This life triumphing over death! This life born of a birth, the pains and pangs of which are the groans and dying agonies of the old man! As this double process is mysterious, it can only be seen by us in its effects, and can only be represented by figures and symbols as is done in the scriptures. Let us see now how this double process of the dying of the old and the quickening of the new life is exhibited and illustrated in the holy scripture. It is done by processes seen in lower spheres-in the kingdom of nature. It is well known to careful students of the sacred writers that they continually make the lower world of nature utter pro phecies of the higher world of spirit and grace. On this fact are based all our Saviour's parables. I. If we begin with the lower-the vegetable kingdom-we find some passages in which the unfolding of the new man in and under the old is presented under figure of a seed in the earth. The new life in the heart is as the germ of the seed: the old nature is as the outer and grosser substance which covers the germ. “All seeds are composed of two parts: the germ, which contains the rudiments of the future plant, and the lobes, or body of the seed, which, by their decomposition in the ground, become the first nourishment to the extremely fine and delicate roots of the embryo plant. The body dies that the germ may live." (Clark on Rom. 6: 6') The new life of the plant is not quickened except the old die; and it is only quickened as fast as the old dies. The new also is quickened under cover of the old and in connection with it, till, at a certain stage of the process, the old entirely disappears. "So is the kingdom of God, as if the man should cast seed in the ground; and should sleep, and should rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear." Mark 4: 26-28. The kingdom of grace, in the world and in the heart, works in this way. Christian life has been lodged as the germ of a seed into the bosom of the corrupt world-it has laid hold on what surrounds it in the way of growth. It does not at once destroy the old, but begins to renovate it. Hence it works under and in the old forms. Its movements are in secret. It cometh not by observation, and yet it comes renovating and triumphing. In the individual man, where this kingdom also dwells, it works by the same laws. II. If we ascend into the sphere of animal nature we have the same mystery referred to. There are a number of passages in which there is evidently an allusion to a similar fact in animal life. Though there is no direct reference to the transformations of animal existence in its lower forms, yet there is a direct reference to the animal life of man: and this in a way which shows that the conception has been suggested by what is familiarly known from lower grades of animal life. There are some insects which begin their being in a larva or chrysalis state. In this state their life is covered by a rough and vile exterior: under cover of which the beautiful insect which at length emerges from it is undergoing a transition. Its life, at first feeble and scarcely concious, becomes ever stronger. It appropriates to its growth what can be so assumed from its larva or covering. Thus in one sense, and to a certain extent, it renews the larva itself by assuming of it to itself, and penetrating and pervading it with its own life. There is, however, part of the larva which the life cannot use except as the rough covering under which it is protected in its own grand evolution. This it casts off at length and escapes from it. In like manner the old, natural, outward man, is the covering of a new creature mysteriously begotton in Christ Jesus. This new being unfolds his powers under the larva of the old; till the time comes when the "body of death" is entirely cast off. Now the perfected and emancipated man mounts away to heaven; while the power of renovation, in |