ministers of Christ." Melancholy as this statement is, it is not beyond the truth; and all who read it will feel that Christians, blessed with knowledge and means, have not been faithful stewards to do 'good and communicate' to the unfortunate poor. They may have contributed from their purse, but while it is plainly our duty to relieve their bodily wants, money cannot elevate their moral nature-money cannot convince them of the sinfulness of sin, and show them a way of salvation.

When we dwell on this melancholy picture, we have reason to bless God that a missionary spirit is growing among Christians, and the Poor have become the object of their care. In America, where Unitarian Christianity increases under the fostering care of Heaven, the amiable and enlightened Dr. Tuckerman has led the van in this noble work. For years he has been labouring among the children of ignorance and want; he went forth as an apostle of peace and consolation to the distressed and unpitied; and his love to his poor brethren was not lessened, nay, it was increased and confirmed by nearer and closer intercourse with them. Let him speak for himself.

"I know that amongst the poor there are those in whom the purposes of the adorable Father, in giving the nature which he has given, are most gloriously illustrated; and never have I seen our nature exalted to a higher excellence than in some of the abodes of the deepest poverty which I have ever yet visited. There are those who, under circumstances the most unfavourable to every moral exertion, have yet, through a faithful maintenance of principle, and struggling with the temptations and difficulties of their condition, maintained a piety, a devotion, a fidelity to the sense of duty, which has exalted them nearer to my conception of the angelic and heavenly nature of spirits than it has been my privilege to see elsewhere. It has been my privilege to see a poor creature, the tenant of a cold, dark, damp room, sinking gradually under a disease, which she perfectly well understood, was soon to terminate her existence,-suffering much from this disease, a poor widow, the mother of three children, and the youngest of these children a cripple, drawing its little body about the dirty floor, which she could not cleanse; I have seen that wretched mother passing through the spasms of a dreadful disease, and have

gazed upon her, waiting till the spasms should have passed, and at last, as I have seen her opening her eyes, directed to me with a sweet smile, have said to her, "Well Martha, how do you do now?" She has exclaimed, "Oh, sir, I could pass through any suffering, while it shall give me the evidence I now feel, of the love of my Father in Heaven."-Yes, the love of God enabled her to pass through every conceivable struggle, to give up herself, her children, her all to his care, and to feel happier than she would have done in the possession of the fee-simple of worlds, because she had a Father whom she could supremely love, to whom she could commit herself for time and for eternity."

"

It is cheering to know that the benevolent and missionary spirit of Tuckerman has been communicated to others that in America they are labouring diligently in this "plenteous harvest," and that the brethren in England have also awaked to a sense of their duty. There are now missionaries to the poor of the great metropolis of our empire, and we are rejoiced to know that their exertions and their means are yearly increasing. We think we can see in these things the dawn of a more active and zealous era in the church; when, feeling deeply the value of the Truth in Jesus ourselves, we shall burn to impart it to others; and when we shall hear the unfortunate poor in our own land beseeching us by their want, their suffering and their vice, “to come over and help them."

SEASONS OF PRAYER.

To Prayer, to Prayer-for the morning breaks,
And earth, in her Maker's smiles awakes;

His light is on all below and above,

The light of gladness, and life, and love ;-
O, then, on the breath of his early air,
Send upward the incense of grateful Prayer!

To Prayer,-for the glorious sun is gone,
And the gathering darkness of night comes on;
Like a curtain from God's kind hand it flows,
To shade the couch where his children repose ;-
Then kneel, while the watching stars are bright,
And give your last thoughts to the guardian of night.

*See Dr. Tuckerman's Speech at Manchester, as reported in the Unitarian Magazine,_No. V.

To Prayer-for the day that God has blessed
Comes tranquilly on with its welcome rest;
It speaks of creation's early bloom-

It speaks of the Prince that burst the tomb;
Then summon the spirit's exalted powers,
And devote to Heaven the hallowed hours.

There are smiles and tears in the Mother's eyes,
For her new born infant beside her lies-
O hour of bliss! when the heart o'erflows
With rapture a mother only knows ;—

Let it gush forth in words of fervent Prayer-
Let it swell up to Heaven for her precious care.

There are smiles and tears in that gathering band,
Where the heart is pledged with a trembling hand;
What trying thoughts in her bosom swell,
As the bride bids parents and home farewell !—
Kneel down by the side of the tearful fair,
And strengthen the perilous hour with Prayer.

Kneel down by the dying sinner's side,
And pray for his soul through him who died;
Large drops of anguish are thick on his brow-
O, what is earth and its pleasures now!
And what shall assuage his dark despair
But the penitent cry of humble Prayer?

Kneel down at the couch of departing faith,
And hear the last word the believer saith:-
He has bidden adieu to his earthly friends;
There is peace in his eye that upward bends;
There is peace in his calm confiding air,—
For his last thoughts are God's-his last words Prayer.

The voice of Prayer at the sable bier,—

A voice to sustain, to soothe, and to cheer-
It commends the spirit to God who gave;
It lifts the thoughts from the cold dark grave;
It points to the glory where He shall reign,
Who whispered "Thy brother shall rise again."

The voice of Prayer in the world of bliss!
But gladder-purer than rose from this;
The ransomed shout to their glorious King-
Where no sorrow shades the soul as they sing,
But a sinless and joyous song they raise-
And their voice of prayer is eternal praise.

Awake-awake-and gird up thy strength,
To join that holy band at length :-
To Him who unceasing love displays,
Whom the powers of nature unceasingly praise,-
To Him thy heart and thy hours be given;
For a life of Prayer is the life of Heaven.

H. WARE

THERE are few men whose memory the Unitarian Christian will more gratefully cherish, than that of Thomas Emlyn. His name is associated with a dark, though recent age in the history of Protestantism; and his manful and devoted adherence to religious freedom, in sore trials and in bonds, has raised a monument to his glory, more lasting than the "storied urn or animated bust" that records the lineage, or perpetuates the form of hereditary greatness and accidental beauty. He lived at a period, when primitive Christianity was little known. It is true, that men had partially thrown aside the weight of ceremonies that encrusted their faith; they had emancipated themselves from something of the bondage under which their fathers groaned. Nearly one hundred and ifty years had rolled on, since the spirit of a Zwingle and a Knox had burst the spell by which Europe for full ten centuries was entranced; but in their tide, little, very little of the bigotry was swept away, that till then had grown upon the human mind. There had been various changes in religion; but with the multitude, the change was more in name, than in reality, and originated rather in accident than conviction. Freedom of thought and freedom of speech, which form the true touch-stone of a Christian spirit, were then as little known as in the worst ages of Popery. As a proof of the spirit of the times, we find that in a representation by the Lower House of Convocation to Queen Anne, in June, 1711, it is made a matter of serious complaint, that the Unitarians had proceeded so far as even to set up a religious assembly, where divine worship was publicly performed. From this complaint it would seem, that it was deemed criminal as well as marvellous, for a man to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience! But this is not the only evidence we have of the spirit that marked the religious world in the beginning of the last century. The writings of the theologians of that day abound with bigoted and domineering sentiments-as a sample take the following. "Orthodoxy," says Bishop Hare, "will cover a multitude of sins, but a cloud of virtues cannot cover the want of the minutest particle of Orthodoxy ;-the greatest immoralities, nay, a long course of them, shall often escape unpunished, especially if a man be very Orthodox."

We have made these remarks for the purpose of introducing to the readers of the Bible Christian, a biographical sketch of Thomas Emlyn: they will prepare them for the extraordinary circumstances connected with his history; and that history will tend, by embodying the spirit of the age, to impress them with a deeper hatred of all intolerance and persecution; a stronger love of fearless, free inquiry. And in that Confessor's life, there are traces of a meek, patient spirit, that is strangely in contrast with the prevailing character of his enemies, yet beautifully in unison with the mild and heavenly spirit of his blessed master. He instructs us not less by his resignation and forbearance, than by his sufferings; and exhibits a practical illustration of the Saviour's words, that "if any man would be his disciple, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow him."

Mr. Emlyn was born at Stamford, in Lincolnshire, May 27, 1663. His father possessed a small estate in that neighbourhood, and was thus enabled to give his son a good education. It is probable that the seeds of his future fame and integrity were sown at an early age, as his mother was a woman of strong understanding and fervent piety. We find the following memorandum respecting her character: " she was a person of great sincerity and prudent useful holiness, very devout and charitable, of good natural abilities and them well improved by the advantage of education, being always studious and much given to books." How often does the character of the mother mould that of the son, and impressions made in the very infancy of life imperceptibly, but strongly influence its after years-"Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined." What a noble inclination was that which in this case was given to Mr. Emlyn, which neither the attractions of ease and greatness, nor the storms of persecution could afterwards make to deviate from its settled position. In his eleventh year he was removed from his mother's assiduous care, and sent to a public school where he remained for four years; and during his stay here, was on Sundays, the constant auditor of the famous Richard Brocklesby, at that time incumbent of the parish. Mr. Emlyn's parents were members of the Established church; but from the declining state of religion with that party, and the greater seriousness and piety that