TALES OF THE PURITAN S.

too."

83

Mary, or go forth a disinherited and homeless | said Margaret, "and I think if my father had wanderer. At the end of that week I went suffered as he did, he would have been a rebel forth to see my father's face no more. I rejoiced that I had strength given me to part from house and lands for the gospel's sake.

"I am sorry you have so little confidence in your father's loyalty, though you may have less before you have more. Since you are so much interested in the old man, you will not ob

"I did not return to the University. With the funds I had in hand I established myself in a branch of business with which I was some-ject to being the bearer of a message to him?" what acquainted, and was soon after married. For nearly ten years we lived in quietness, and our little daughter gave a joy to our hearts which we never expected to experience on this side of heaven.

"When the war came on, and it became my duty to take the field, we parted with many tears. My dear wife strengthened me in my purpose, and willingly exposed herself to danger for the good cause.

"When the changes of war brought the regiment to which I belonged into the vicinity of my dwelling, I rejoiced that I could see my loved ones once more, but trembled at the dangers to which they were exposed in consequence of that part of the country's becoming the seat of hostilities. I made an ineffectual attempt to remove them. What became of them you already know."

"By no means. Shall John go with me?" "No; I would that no one should know your object."

Margaret took the letter, and hastened towards the cottage. As she drew near, she heard the soldier's voice, and was sorry to find that he was not alone. As she stood doubting whether she ought not at once to return, the voice became more distinct, and she found that it was the voice of prayer. The petitions were distinctly heard. Her own name was mentioned, and blessings of which she had no definite conception were invoked upon her. She could not dismiss the conviction that there was within the cottage a personal presence, to whom the suppliant was earnestly yet reverently presenting his requests.

When his prayer was ended, she knocked, and was admitted. She delivered the letter.

"I think you told me you continued in the He started as he saw the superscription, and army till the close of the war?"

"Till the people of England, in their perverseness and folly, voted that Charles Stuart should rule over them. I then thought of leaving England; but without a clear call, I could not leave the graves of my wife and child. A friend purchased this secluded spot for me, and the good hand of the Lord has kept me till this hour."

"You still preserve your arms," pointing to the musket visible through the open door.

"I shall probably never war again, except with principalities and powers, and shall have no use for the weapon, still I take a pleasure in keeping it bright. It has reminded me of past mercies, and of my duty to keep my spiritual armour polished and in readiness."

Thanking him for his narrative, Margaret returned home, reflecting upon principles and feelings to which she had hitherto been an utter stranger.

CHAPTER IV.

ON Mr. Pemberton's return from London, his first inquiries were respecting the occupant of the cottage. Margaret's replies evinced an interest which raised a smile on the lips of her father. "One would almost be inclined to think that you have found a lover in the old rebel," said he.

gave her a searching glance. "My father directed me to hand it to you privately." He proceeded to read the letter. His eye brightened and his cheek glowed as he went on. When he had finished, he rose and said with great animation, "The time is well-nigh come: I did not expect to see it, but I shall see it before I die. The blood of his saints has not been shed in vain!"

Margaret regarded him with astonishment, and waited in vain for an explanation of his meaning. He seemed wrapt in thought, and indisposed to converse. She rose to depart. "Tell your father I will see him soon; more I cannot say now. Do not deem me unkind. Farewell!"

On Margaret's return to the Hall, her astonishment was increased by the arrival of a large number of visiters. They were all grave, and some of them even fierce-looking men. It was plainly no pleasure party which had gathered there. The laugh was not heard, and scarcely a smile was seen to move any lip. The hours were passed in grave deliberations, to which none but themselves might listen. The old soldier soon arrived and joined them. Having passed an hour with them, he retired with a glowing countenance and burning eye. As he passed Margaret he gave her an affectionate salutation, and hurried home with the elastic step of youth.

The visiters disappeared, but not so the cloud "He is an exceedingly interesting old man," upon Pemberton's brow. Day after day seemed

to increase the weight of anxiety which was weighing upon his soul.

In a few months they returned in safety, and the weapon was restored to its former place, never to be taken down again.

"It has done its last work," said the soldier,

News at length came of the landing of William of Orange. A message to the cottage brought the old soldier, with his burnished" and so has its owner." musket to the Hall. In company with Pemberton he rode away to join the army of the Prince.

Margaret watched by his bedside during his last illness, and received his parting blessings.

HYMN TO THE OCEAN.

BY MRS. E. C. KINNEY.

FOR ever callest thou, unfathomed Deep,
Unto the spirit's yet profounder depths!
And HE who gave thee that mysterious voice,
Whose hollow tones make tremulous my soul,
From thought's abyss awakens its response.
Who, that hath gazed on thy portentous breast,
And seen it heave, as if some mighty heart
Convulsively beneath its surface beat,
Can marvel that through superstition's mists
The ancients saw and feared thee as a god?
For when Imagination spreads her wings
Above thy trackless, measureless expanse,
Lo! thou becomest a huge Titan stretched
In ominous repose, and breathing hoarse,
As muttered thunder in yon gathering cloud;
But as that rises, growing dark and dense,
Thou wakenest too, in thy terrific might,
Foaming with rage, and for the combat armed
From the munitions of thy secret caves;
While every threatening thunder-peal of Heaven
Is bellowed back from thy defiant waves!

Thus, Ocean, I, on airy pinions poised,
Behold thee in the sunlight and the storm;
But, when I rise to Reason's purer realms,
My truer vision views thee as thou art-
No god thyself, but God's stupendous thought!-
The chief expression of his matchless might,
And swayed for ever by great Nature's laws.
Ay, nature's Sovereign, lest in turbulence
Thou break from his vast chain of harmonies,
Hath placed a shining monitor on high,
Whose mystic signs thy restless tides obey:
. Oh! when her smile serene upon thee beams,
How thy wild waves rejoice and laugh again-
Chasing each other as in frolic mood
They cast white pebbles on the beaten shore.
And how resplendent art thou, when, with morn,
In golden livery Phoebus' heralds come,

And burnished lances gleam athwart thy breast!
The fiery steeds that urge his radiant car

Seem leaping as from out thy hidden depths
To mount the orient, while all nature hails,
And thine exulting waves the chorus join!
Then sends the soul her orisons above,
Timed to the music of thy morning hymn.

When murky clouds at twilight veil the sky,
And flit like spectres o'er the leaden sea,

A murmurous moan, from thy deep caverns sent,
Appals my ear, as each receding wave
Gives pause a moment to the breakers' boom;
A supernatural awe steals through my soul,
While ghosts of buried memories rise in troops,
And pass in slow review across the brain;
Then, too, prayer wakens, but its trembling thought
Shrinks from the lips that palsying Fear hath sealed,
And timid hides within the heart's recess.

But oh, when night and storms contend without,
The distant roar of thy tumultuous surge
Startles imagination, like to groans

Of demons from the pit of Erebus!

I seem to stand alone on danger's brink,
That trembles with the crash of breaking seas-
To linger there, as spellbound by the sense,
The awfulness of true sublimity-

Old Ocean warring with the incensed winds!

From year to year, from age to age, thy voice,
Perpetual Sea, proclaims Omnipotence!

An uncreated, all-creating power,
Transcending far as heaven thy proudest heights;
Deeper than thine unfathomable depths;
Wider than is thy limitless expanse-

Encircling thee in its immensity,

And staying thy ambitious waves at will.

Ah, here Thought's subtlest faculty must fail

It cannot pierce the dim indefinite,

Which awes the soul through thee, mysterial Deep!
And nearest brings it that engulfing sea,
Where thou, thyself art lost-ETERNITY.

all 1) in

of his

..... in peace s in the vicinity.

APPROACH OF THE ISRAELITES TO MOUNT SINAI.

BY THE REV. J. P. DURBIN, D. D.

(See Engraving.)

of Wady Feiran and Wady Sheikh, an Arab, with a form of the finest proportions, came forward and respectfully saluted Tualib. His full, loose garment hung gracefully around his person, and his finger was adorned with a ring.

Arab, in prospect of a Sheikhship. His herds of sheep and goats were browsing on the opposite side of the valley. I was surprised to see him assist in pitching our tents, but quickly learned that his flocks were to furnish the

Tualib and his chief friends were invited. As the young Bedouin prince led away his friends,

hold the Belvidere Apollo !" The symmetry and grace of that noble and independent son of the desert will long live in my memory.

WE left Israel at Rephidim, celebrating the victory gained over the Amalekites. "And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it JEHOVAH-NISSI:" i. e. The Lord my banner. Ancient monuments in honour of great events were always expressive of a religious senti- | He was a nephew of our old chief, a rich young ment, because deliverance and victory were regarded as given by the supreme power, known to the different nations as Jehovah, Jove, or Lord. In the neighbourhood of this altar they remained several days, during which time the Jewish commonwealth began to as-roasted kids for a feast that night, to which sume a more regular and consistent form. The occasion of this was the visit and wisdom of Jethro, the Priest of Midian, and the father-in-one of my young companions exclaimed, "Belaw of Moses. Some forty years before this, Moses, the illustrious fugitive from Egypt, had taken refuge in these mountains; and finding the family and flocks of Jethro here, he entered As yet the administration of the affairs of into his service. According to the custom of the Hebrews was divided into three great dethe East, the daughter of Jethro, probably, partments, over which Moses, however, exertended her father's flocks, and thus Moses and cised a general supervision. The religious Zipporah were thrown together at the wells, affairs were committed to Aaron, the military where the flocks were watered in the evenings, to Joshua, and the judicial to Moses. The day and in the deep shade of the overhanging after the feast, Moses sat to judge the people mountains in the heat of the day. One might from morning until evening; and Jethro rereadily have anticipated the result; they were mained with him. He readily perceived that quickly married. When Moses was called back no man could endure the daily fatigue which to Egypt, for the purpose of bringing the people Moses had to undergo, and he very wisely said of Israel from thence, in order to lead them to to him, "The thing that thou doest is not good. the Promised Land, he took his wife with him This work of judging the people is too heavy several days' journey, when some unexplained for thee: thou art not able to perform it thycause occasioned her to return, with her two self alone. Hearken unto my voice, I will give sons, to her father, Jethro, who seems to have thee counsel, and God shall be with thee. remained in the vicinity of Horeb with his Thou shalt make them ordinances and laws, flocks. After witnessing the signal overthrow and shalt show them the way wherein they of Amalek at Rephidim, and probably hearing must walk, and the work that they must do. rumours of Moses' greatness, he hastened to And choose thou from among the people, able the Hebrew camp with Zipporah his daughter, men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating the wife of Moses, and her two sons Gershom covetousness, and make them rulers of thouand Eliezer. Their meeting is characteristic sands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and of the East unto this day. "And Moses went rulers of tens, that they may judge the people. out to meet his father-in-law, and did obeisance, And if there be any matter too hard for the and kissed him; and they asked each other of inferior judge, let it be carried to the next their welfare; and they came into the tent. superior, and if it be too hard for any of them, And Aaron came, and all the elders of Israel, then let it be brought to thee. Thus thou shalt to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law before be able to endure, and all this people shall God." Within the group of the same moun- also go to their place (the Promised Land) in tains I witnessed similar meetings between our peace." Moses accepted this wise advice of his Sheikh Tualib and his friends, in 1843. father-in-law, and then dismissed him in peace we pitched our tents at evening, at the junction to his own land or pasture grounds in the vicinity.

As