MONTHLY

RELIGIOUS MAGAZINE.

VOLUME IX.

SECOND SERIES, VOLUME VII.

F. D. HUNTINGTON, EDITOR.

BOSTON:

LEONARD C. BOWLES.

1852.

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY 805073A

ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS R 1935 L

BOSTON:

PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SON, SCHOOL-STREET.

OUR Fathers, where are they? Two hundred years have rolled over their graves. God has been merciful unto us, and blessed us, and lengthened out our lives, so that, in the measured revolutions of time, we are now brought to another of the seasons that call upon us to consecrate anew the memory of our ancestors. Let us, then, lift up our hearts in gratitude to the Giver of all good, for the peculiar privilege of our birth, which has descended to us through so many generations. As Americans, let us rejoice in the glory of our Forefathers. As Christians, let us pay the reverence due to the virtues of the Pilgrims.

The 22d of December is the birthday of New England; of its noble perseverance, its prosperous fortune, its exalted patriotism, its steadfast piety. No other single day in our annals bears such a baptism of fortitude and faith. There can arrive no future era to cast it into shade. On that day, 1620, the sun first shone on the brave beginnings of American liberty. Its cradle was the wintry sea, and its lullaby the pitiless storm. But Heaven smiled on that adventurous life, and gave it a giant's strength from the everlasting rock on which it first set its foot. More than two centuries and a quarter have gone by since that eventful hour, when all that was precious of Puritan principle and Puritan zeal, blended with a wealth of affection which no danger could daunt, nor oceans wash away, was cast like a treasure