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fusely the fountains of kindness for its alleviation. These lessons regarded, the results moral and humane will be more than compensations for the suffering and the sorrow.

Hail then to the New Year with bright hopes and anticipations! Hope largely and the fruition will be more likely to come. For the largest faith is that which takes God at his word most perfectly and so rises into a prophecy of the brightest future. Doubt and despondency are a distrust of the divine veracity, and when we forecast evil God takes us at our word and lets the evil come. Here then, at the threshold of 1872, pray aright and cast your horoscope aright, and you may see a pathway opening always into sunshine.

A SEANCE.

The strong argument for woman suffrage has been, that women at the polls will be a guarantee for the good behavior of the men, for purity and courtesy of speech, and for the purification of politics generally. We hope the Seance in New York, noticed and commented on by "The New-York Independent," is not a sign of what we are to expect in the new order of things. Bad men are bad enough, bad women are very bad and will be no better in politics than out of them. "The Seance at Steinway Hall," says "The Independent," "at which the distinguished Greek 'hiding under a woman's gown' held forth to a rabble more boisterous than the waves on the subject of Free Love, was certainly one of the dirtiest meetings that have been held in New York."

ROBERT DALE OWEN'S NEW BOOK.

Mr. Owen is the best and most reasonable writer on Spiritualism that we know of. His style is simple and clear, and he gives his facts and their vouchers; some of them facts of a very remarkable character. His new book bears the title of "The Debatable Land between this World and the Next." The only fault we should be disposed to find with his book would be that he sometimes forgets that the land is debatable, forsakes the purely Baconian method, and tries to pull down systems and build up in their place on too flimsy a foundation of fact and discovery. It is claimed in some quarters that the Spiritualists number five millions. This probably is an extreme statement, but there are multitudes of believers who do not profess their faith openly and numbers more who are almost persuaded but not quite. That there is a nucleus of fact, though

shrouded in a great deal of bombast, we think cannot be denied. Let us be patient and keep rigidly to the inductive method, avoiding both mulish incredulity and the faith that takes imaginations for facts, and by and by we shall have the ground fairly won on which to build a broader spiritual philosophy, and one which will show both worlds in more open and harmonic relations.

LOVE OF THE CHURCH.

No church is worthy of the name if it does not inspire among its best minds a devout loyalty and tender filial love. It opens a home for the soul, if it be a true church of Christ, not only as a centre of rest and peace, but as a centre for the forthgoing of the most inspired and delightful activities. The English Church, with all its sins, must embody much of the spirit and love of Christ to inspire such lines as the following. We do not remember where they came from or where we first found them:

"O England! while the nations toss

Like waves on Adria's wave,

Cling to thy Church that lifts thy cross
To stay, to heal, to save,

That trains thy youth in right and truth
And faith that spurns the grave.

"Thine oaken hearts, thine iron hands,
Thy billowy rampart wall,

Thy tribute stores from thousand lands,
Would only tempt thy fall

Lived not a power in yon low tower
To shield and prosper all.

"The quickening wave, the shadowy hand,

The living food of life,

The word of grandeur and command,

Prayer's all-victorious strife,

These kept by thee shall keep thee free

While license round is rife.

"Home of my home! of kindred friends,
Of all that love holds dear,
The prayer that for thy weal ascends
Mounts confident and clear.

Bless Lord with grace thy dwelling place,
For thou, too, dwellest here!

A PURE, BEAUTIFUL, AND UNSELFISH CHRISTIAN LIFE

serves as a revelation of heaven upon earth, and as such is a blessing to society, even to the society beyond the sphere of its immediate influence. It illustrates the possibility of overcoming the world, of holding all its pleasures and allurements in complete subordination, and making its means and privileges the opportunities of well doing and the channels of blessing and beneficence. There are many who overcome the world through struggles of privation, suffering and sorrow, and learn hence the denial of self and the world in entire consecration to the Lord and his service. More rare, we think, are the grace and the virtue of entire simplicity of character and unselfish devotion to the highest ends amid the continuous and unclouded sunshine of prosperity. But there are those who thus attain, and the encouragement that comes from their lives and memories is a precious legacy not only to personal friends, but to all who are striving to tread with equal steps the upward pathway. The following exceedingly graceful tribute will be recognized at ence by many of our readers as a true characterization of a life which hardly needed "the changing of its sphere" to blend with the life above. (From "The Transcript.")

"IN MEMORIAM.

F. D. B.
I.

"To pass through life beloved as few are loved,
To prove the joys of earth as few have proved,
And still to keep the soul's white robe unstained,
Such is the victory that thou hast gained.

II.

"How few, like thine, the pilgrim feet that come
Unworn, unwounded to the heavenly home!
Yet he, who guides in sorrow's sorest need,
As well by pleasant paths his own may lead.

III.

“And love, that guards where wintry tempests beat,

To thee was shelter from the summer heat.

What need for grief to blight or ills annoy
The heart whose God was her exceeding joy?

IV.

"And so that radiant path, all sweet and pure,
Found fitting close in perfect peace secure ;

No haste to go, no anxious wish to stay,
No childish terror of the untried way.

v.

"But, wrapped in trance of holy thought and prayer,
Yet full of human tenderness and care,

Undimmed its lustre and unchilled its love,
Thy spirit passed to cloudless light above.

VI.

"In the far north, where, over frosts and gloom,
The midnight skies with rosy brightness bloom,
There comes in all the year one day complete,
Wherein the sunset and the sunrise meet.

VII.

"So, in the region of thy fearless faith,

No hour of darkness marked the approach of death;
But, ere the evening splendor was withdrawn,
Fair flushed the light along the hills of dawn."

SPIRITISM AND SPIRITUALISM.

E. S.

"The Independent" makes a just distinction between Spiritism, which seeks intercourse with spirits by mechanical means, and Spiritualism, which involves not only a faith in immortality, but in the guardianship of angels, and the tokens of their presence which come in the orderly course of the Divine Providence. This faith is not new, nor is it confined to any sect, nor even to Christianity. It is a beautiful feature of nearly all the Great Religions. By confounding this with Spiritism, with its table-liftings, and lumping them together, the new sect is made to number five or six millions. By discriminating, it numbers probably only a few thousand people. That it may have its use as well as abuse we are not disposed to deny. That it runs into the grossest delusions, and palms off the emptiest bombast as divine revelations, is equally undeniable. Huxley thinks its chief use is to dissuade people from suicide, since, if people talk so like fools after they have crossed over, they had better stay on this side as long as possible.

THE FAITHFUL LITTLE MOURNER.

The body of Mary Stuart after her execution was taken from her weeping servants; a green cloth, taken from an old billiard table, was thrown over it, and it was left alone and remained two days unwatched and unattended except by her little lap-dog, which would

not quit the body of its mistress. The faithful little mourner was found dead there two days afterwards beside the body, having died of grief. So much more of sorrow and humane sympathy was found in this little animal than in the heart of the Queen of England. May the society who have taken the protection of "our dumb animals" under their charge be faithful and efficient in their work, till the hearts of men shall be moved with a compassion and sympathy towards the animals, as tender as they often manifest towards us, the lords of creation. The incident above narrated is given by Mrs. Jameson, and it moved Bulwer to one of his most touching effusions.

"The world is full of life and love;

The world methinks might spare
From millions, one to watch above
The dust of monarchs there.

"And not one human eye! yet lo!
What stirs the funeral pall?
What sound - it is not human woe —
Wails moaning through the hall?"

CHRISTMAS IN 1821 AND IN 1871.

Fifty years have wrought a wonderful change in respect to holidays, and the change consists in popularizing the sacred days of the church, and especially those which commemorate the birth and the death and the resurrection of Christ. The celebration of these days has ceased to characterize two of the sects of Christendom. The days come round not only to all Christian denominations, but to multitudes of no denomination, as seasons of rejoicing, chastened by reverent homage. Is this accidental? or is it merely a love of holiday pleasures and a desire to multiply them? We think not. It is because the Ideas which these days commemorate are entering more joyfully and truthfully into the common mind and the common heart. It is because the religion of Christ in its benign and cheerful aspects is having a wider and deeper acknowledgment, and not one that is merely ecclesiastical. A more vital faith in immortality, and more rational views of the resurrection, inspire the rejoicings of Easter morning, and a growing conviction that all true knowledge leads to Christ like a guiding star gives a clearer and more triumphant tone to the ringing of the Christmas bells.

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