are charged with the responsibility of sending it down into that age pure and potent as when it brought light and immortality to their own sinking, agonized spirits. The life which God imparts in conversion must be diffused through the masses of the age approaching, or impending ruin will fall upon their devoted heads.

And is it an unimportant fact that the very actors in the scenes we have described are now with us? In the arms of their mothers now sleep the future warriors of the world's great battle. Thank God, a few words of salutary instruction may be whispered in their ears as they pass out to join in the fearful strife. They may learn from the lips of wisdom the part they are to act to vindicate their own honor; to stay the tide of corruption; to check the proud career of infidelity, and win the approbation of Heaven. These are the decisive moments. Sin is gathering its dreadful force for the destruction of unborn millions. The devil is forming his combinations for the mastery of the coming age. The minds are going out from our nurseries, our schools, our streets, our churches, to marshal themselves according to the bias they are now receiving. The stamp of that age which rolls up before us in such fearful perspective, must now be given. Men, brethren, and fathers, what shall it be?

It remains to be decided whether the fierce activities of that age shall be arrested in their war upon truth - upon God and man

what portion of them shall be secured to

the service of pure and undefiled religion? The drift of education, of the arts and sciences, of genius and talent, is still measurably in our power. The redeeming agencies of the world are not destined to slumber in the coming future. With the vigorous life of the age will be seen the growing, acting, resistless energy of the evangelical eleHere at last will be found the spirit that will rule

ment.

the storm.

When the raging powers of the Prince of darkness shall have spent their force; when the dread crisis now seen in the distance shall have passed; God will reveal himself as the governor of the world, and the bright glow of millennial light will illumine the earth.

DISCONTENT.

A VISION.

BY REV. MARK TRAFTON, A. M.

BORNE on the breeze of fancy, oft I hear
The distant sighs of many a parted year;
Blest hours of youthful gladness, when I saw
Life as the Poet sees it, who would draw
A lively landscape full to Fancy's eye,
Where naught but choicest beauties we espy,
Not fancy all, nor all reality.

A waking dream, a Poet's second sight,

Like midnight's tresses braided in with light:

So came the visions of this life to me,

Sober sometimes, and then in mockery;

Now Youth's gay genius with hope's gladness crowned, Now with despairing eye, in sorrow drowned.

Yet still I question whether then I drew

More pain than pleasure from my future view.

When my ambitious spirit longed to be

From parents and from pedagogues set free,

'T was joy to see me in the place of men, 'T was grief to be assured that even then I must alone, my rugged pathway hew,

On right and left, rocks, hills and forests through :
To breast the billow, rolling on the shore,

And having conquered, yet to try once more;
To hear the echoes shout encore

encore,

Among the cliffs above the ocean's roar.

Such visions gave me pain, and then the plan
Seemed vastly wiser, to stay where I am.
'Tis said, to bear, 't is better, what we must,
Than to the promise of the future trust :

So strongly I inclined to lag in youth,

And go no farther

yet, to tell the truth,

Of all conditions I had passed, none pleased,

And when they changed, my heart was greatly eased.

I dreamed; no sooner was old Morpheus' seal

Upon my eyes, than lo, I saw the wheel

Of life's still varying changes, vast and high,
Like that which rolled before the Prophet's eye;
So high, 't was dreadful, yet not full of eyes,
But strangely checkered o'er with smiles and sighs;
Which, as it rolled its vast circumference up,
Some in despair would sink, some rise to hope;
All stations, all conditions one might see
Mapped out and drawn on its periphery;

Some fell just as the nectar cup they sip;

Some with a shout half finished on the lip;

Some wept, some laughed, some cursed, while others prayed, And yet the more the whirling wonder stayed;

Astonished, I upon the mystery gazed,

As one from fearful dreams, awakes, amazed;
When, lo! a venerable form appears,

Whose whitened locks betokened numerous years;
Tall, stately, graceful, both in form and mein,
Such as with mortals, seldom here is seen.

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His eye was lustrous as the morning star,
His voice was sweet as evening zephyr's are:
He spoke -
My name is Destiny, behold
In me the power by which all are controlled :
Mortal, the vision thou amazed, didst see,
Is but a view of life's variety;

Such changes are by all men rashly sought

Most madly wished, with all their evil fraught;
Though greatly blessed, these gifts they treat with scorn,
Nor know to prize them, till they are withdrawn.
O, would they know, what often hath been taught,
The present's worth, contentment with their lot;

This vulture would no longer tear the heart,
And tears and vain regrets would then depart."

Superior Being, I presumed to say,

With me, O let this lesson ever stay;