POETRY. God Glorious in Condescension. AWAKE once more, my lyre, and sweetly move, The blood-stain'd falchion, and the shiver'd shield ; Wide as existence, just, as wide his rule; With man! base man! to whom all ills belong, Yet God more fix'd the ruin'd wretch to save. By his own death to purchase peace for earth, Mysterious wisdom! more mysterious love! Like clouds of incense to the list'ning skies : To thee, its blest executor, God-man. To thee, its life, blest dove, an equal strain, God, all in all, in glory ever reign. Donations to the Missionary Society of Connecticut. From a friend of Missions, 1000 religious pamphlets, to be sent to the inhabitants of the new settlements. The Life and Death of Professor ments, contracts, and judicial C Gellert. acts; an exercise which, in a less ardent mind, might have stifled the poetic spirit which soon burst forth in Gellert. In his thirteenth year he wrote a poem on his father's birth day, which must have possessed considerable merit, as many could recite it by memory, and preferred it to his other compositions. Gellert went in 1734 to Leipsick, and studied there four HRISTIAN F. GELLERT, the third among thirteen children, was born at Haynichen, in Saxony, in 1715. His father was second minister of the place; fulfilled the duties of his charge for fifty years with exemplary zeal and fidelity; and died Dean at the age of seventy-five. His mother, by her precepts, impressed on the mind of her chil-years, when his father was oblidren the principles of piety; and by her example, conducted them to the practice of active virtue. She lived to see her eldest son, Frederic, principal commissary of the posts in Saxony; and her youngest, inspector of the mines at Frieburg. ged to recal him from inability to support the expense of maintaining him at the university. On his return home he began to preach; and his first attempt, which was very inauspicious, he thus relates in his memoirs. "It was at the age of fifteen, Christian Gellert received his and in my native town, that I first education at a public school made the first essay of my elat Meissen, where his friend-oquence. One of the citizens ship commenced with Gartner had requested me to be godfaand Rabener, a friendship which ther to his child, which child much contributed to the happiness of his future life. At the age of eleven he was employed in copying a multitude of docuVOL. I. NO. 9. died a few days after. I undertook his funeral sermon, though my father agreed rather unwillingly to my so doing. The Rr His limited circumstances did not allow him to devote his whole time to the cultivation of his own talents. In 1739, he undertook the care of several pupils; and, zealous in the discharge of this important duty, child was to be buried at noon; at eight in the morning I began to compose my discourse, which was not completed till very late. I lost what time remained in composing an epitaph, and had but one hour to fix what I had just written in my memory.he trusted not to his own However, I boldly entered the strength; he prayed for superichurch, and began my discourse or assistance. On the right em with much solemnity, and at-ployment of the Sabbath he tained nearly to the third sen-justly laid particular stress; he tence. Suddenly my ideas be-considered it as an indispensa came confused, and the pre- ble means, and the most useful sumptuous orator found himself in a state of anxiety, from which it was difficult for him to recover. At length I had recourse to my papers, written in the form of a deed, on one large sheet, I unrolled it slowly before the eyes "For on that day, (he would of my audience, who were as say,) to withdraw ourselves from much disturbed as myself; I all earthly occupations, to make placed it in my hat and continu- a serious examination of our ed my discourse with tolerable hearts, to raise them to heaven, boldness.-Ardent youth! let to nourish them with the truths my example teach thee to con- founded on faith, is to fortify duct thyself with more pru- them for the whole week, to predence. I presumed too much pare ourselves for a faithful disupon myself, I was punished charge of the duties of our callfor it, and I frequently after-ing. Amidst the tumults of the wards deplored my foolish te-world, and the occupations of merity be wiser than I was "life, we too easily lose the senti of all, for quickening our progress in religion and piety;" he thought that " on our mode of employing the Sabbath," de pended "the use we made of the week." It is pleasing thus to see a ment of our weakness and miseman profit by his errors, and ry, if we do not set apart a cer even disclose them for the bene-tain portion of time for medifit of others; as the marinertating on our insufficiency, and marks in his chart the fatal sands on which his vessel struck. From this incident Gellert conceived a timidity, which he was never able to overcome, and which, together with bad health, weak lungs, and a memory not very firm, prevented him from becoming that ornament to the pulpit, which his early attempts promised, and engaged him to employ his talents in a different line. on the power and goodness of God; on our nothingness, and on his greatness. The better your dispositions, the more ac tive your zeal in discharging your duties, the more secure you may think your progress in virtue, the more reason you will have to fear the surprises of spiritual pride. Consecrate, therefore, the Lord's Day to acts of humility. Impress your heart deeply with the meditation of this great truth: that your ex- | Matthew Hale, " is the Lord of istence, your felicity or your mis-our time, and lends it to us, and, ery, your faith, your piety, are as it is but just we should conentirely and wholly dependent on the Supreme Being. Entertain a deep sense of the goodness of God, and of your own weakness. Awaken your mind to the sense of God's mercies; enjoy the conversation of your pious friends, rejoice in the felicity which is their portion, in the beauties and in the wonders of nature." secrate this part (the Sabbath) of that time to him, so I have found, by a strict and diligent observation, that a due observation of the duty of this day hath ever joined to it a blessing upon the rest of my time, and the week that hath been so begun hath been blessed and prosperous to me; and, on the other side, when I have been negligent of the duties of this day, the rest of the week hath been unsuc secular employments; so that I could easily make an estimate of my successes in my secular employments the week following, by the manner of my passing this day; and this I do not This testimony from Gellert, whose assiduity in the discharge of the arduous duties of his sta-cessful and unhappy to my own tion was unremitting, is surely a sufficient answer to those who plead the toils of the week as an apology for the dissipation in which they spend that day which God has claimed for himself. If to adore their Creator is bur-write lightly or inconsiderately, thensome; if to hold commun- but upon a long and sound obion with their Redeemer, and servation and experience."* gratefully to contemplate the wonders of his love, is not a delightful employment; if a sense of their own insufficiency does not lead them to implore the assistance of the Holy Spirit; it is a sure proof that their hearts are not right before God; and no other argument is want-work was commenced, called, ing to shew how necessary it is "Amusements of the Heart and that they should diligently use Understanding," in which Gelall the appointed means of grace, lert "inserted many tales and and thankfully acknowledge the fables, some didactic poems, and wisdom and goodness of God, several discourses in prose." in having set apart one day in seven for peculiar attention to our spiritual concerns. To the opinion of Gellert we may add the testimony of one, eminent for his profound knowledge of English law, and still more eminent for his unshaken integrity and exalted piety. In 1741, Gellert having conducted his nephew, to whom he had for some time been tutor, to the University of Leipsick, there continued to instruct him, and undertook the education of some other pupils. Soon after his return to Leipsick, a periodical "Those," says his biographer, "were perused with eagerness, they were read over and over, and learned by heart. The easy and natural style of his narrations, perfectly simple and *Directions touching the keeping of the Lord's Day, to his chil "God Almighty," says Sirdren. |