OH TRIFLE NOT WITH ANY HEART.

Oh trifle not with any heart,
However weak or wrong,

And from thy quiver send no dart,
To join the poisoned throng.
The averted eye, and heart of ice,
May freeze the trembling soul,
When but a word of kind advice,
Had saved it clean and whole.

There is no heart unblessed by truth,
-Where virtue has no place,-
There is no age, there is no youth,
Without its latent grace.

The brightest mind may be o'ercast
By Error's gloomy cloud,

The wisest soul may, for a time,
Seem lost in Folly's shroud ;-

But

eye of faith, and heart of love,
Can see no deathly "shroud,"
And not a ray shines from above,
But loves to gild the cloud.

Then trifle not with any heart,
However weak or wrong,
And add no anguish to its smart,
By speech, nor yet by song.

If any sins be growing there,
And spreading wide their roots,
Instilling death into the air,

And yielding bitter fruits,

With careful eye, and tender hand,
Remove their parent stem;—
But virtues, too, are growing there,
Be sure and water them.

So shall your path, by hill and dale,
O'er life's uneven road,

Be peaceful as the stream which "flows
Fast by the Throne of God."

THE BIBLE.

Why is this repository of ancient history and literature, written by the greatest minds which have ever visited the earth, and inspired by the Almighty with the loftiest strains of eloquence and truth; why is this vast mine of intellectual and spiritual wealth so poorly appreciated and so little studied? This is a question of vital importance. Here is a book, which, independent of its sacred associations, stands alone, unrivalled, unapproached, as the master-piece of the world's literature, and yet few, out of the pale of the priest-hood, are at all acquainted with its beauties. Rich beyond all comparison in bold and glowing imagery; breathing, throughout, the most stirring eloquence, betraying in every; line a thorough mastery of the human soul; its poetry of such dazzling brilliance as to astonish and overawe the most gigantic minds which the world has produced; it is looked upon by the great majority of readers as a book fit only for spiritual enthusiasts, and bigoted fanatics. It is read as a task and not as a delight. It is approached with an undefinable awe which beclouds its beauty, and renders its light dull and uncertain. How shall we account for this strange state of things? And, which is of more importance, how shall we brush the dust from its neglected leaves, scatter the mist which envelops its pages, and induce reflecting and intelligent people to search after its hidden treasures, and explore its unfathomable mines?

In answer to the first question, I would reply, it has been looked upon with an unnatural reverence and a superstitious fear. The shadow of the Church has fallen upon it and obscured its brightness. It has been buried up beneath uncounted volumes of stupid commentary, and barrel upon barrel of dingy sermons. Sectarians have placed false sign-boards over every passage, puzzling the mind with all manner of foolish directions and false indices. Verse after verse has been wrenched from its proper connection and perverted to all manner of base uses. In this way

the pure stream of living waters, gushing fresh from the great fountain of truth, has been darkened and polluted, until it seems to have lost all its healing and invigorating power. To drop the simile and speak the naked truth, the Bible has been so outrageously abused, that men lay it, carelessly, upon the shelf, where it has become moth-eaten and dust-worn for want of use.

In answer to my next question, how shall we brush the dust from its leaves, and induce intelligent and reflecting people to search for its hidden treasures, I answer, let them read it for themselves. Cast aside all commentaries, disrobe your mind of all prejudices, and enter upon its perusal with candid hearts and teachable minds. You will then wonder, as you peruse its brilliant pages, that you have been so long ignorant of their intrinsic worth. Every chapter will inspire you with the noblest enthusiasm. Imperceptibly, but surely and permanently, its noble spirit will steal over your soul, and give tone and character to your whole life. The cobwebs of modern religion will be swept from your mind, and thenceforth your heart will feel absolved from all priest-worship and creed-worship, and devoted to the service of the true God. Thus it is that the Bible will be redeemed from daily neglect and profanation, and many, to whom now it is a sealed book, will pant for its pure gospel "as the hart panteth after the water-brook." Even priests and D. D's will then be compelled to interpret it aright, and will become ashamed of the old wive's fables and Munchausen stories which they have been so long in the habit of representing to their parishioners as part and parcel of God's word.

THE WORLDLY GREAT.

It is amusing (and instructive) to see how the friends of the various sectarian enterprises of the country, seize upon the influence of "the worldly great," and even the worldly vicious, to help them out in their great work of enslaving humanity. It was made matter of loud boasting in the religious newspapers, a short time since, that the honorable Henry Clay was a church-goer. Now I have no question that Henry Clay's moral character will bear a triumphant comparison with that of the American priesthood,—still it amuses me to hear that priesthood with one breath talk of its discipleship to the "meek and lowly Jesus," and with the next, "crow," with the zeal of a Chapman, over the possession of titled adherents;-at one moment talk of the purity and piety of its ranks, and the next, brag of its slave-holding advocates.— Unlike their professed Master, these fishers of men delight to bask in the sunlight of "principalities and powers," and when they are lucky enough to hook up a Lord, a President, or a "Member of the Cabinet," they are tickled e'enmost out of theirw its. Indeed it may be set down as the distinctive feature of modern christianity, that it relies for support upon the favor of the great and the mighty. Conscious of its utter deficiency in all the elements of a pure and self-relying faith, it clings to the powers of the world as its only support, and enters into a compromise with them to 66 secure a more perfect union." The connexion is not "sanctioned and sanctified" by law, as in the old world,—but on the contrary is an illicit connexion, carried on cunningly and secretly. As its part of the contract the state defends the church with the whole force of its military power, while she, in turn, stands ready, with outstretched hand, to baptize all the laws of that state in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and compel the obedience of her victims with all the mighty enginery of "hell." As a proof of this position, take the course which the clergy have pursued towards the great constitu

tional institution of this country,-chattel slavery. With a few exceptions they have brought to bear all their immense influence in its defence, so that, in order to reach that most accursed of human institutions, the Reformer has had to hew his way through the very bowels of the church. And then the voices of both church and state have joined together to anathematize him as an infidel. Nothing is more despised in the professedly christian community than a religion which declares itself independent of principalities, and relies wholly for its success on the intrinsic humanity of its character. I mistake. There is one thing which is despised more still, and that is, a religion, which, in addition to its simple humanity, ventures to assert that the laws of God are more powerful for the pulling down of the strong holds of Satan than the laws of man. It is a most remarkable and significant fact, that the moment you declare absolute reliance upon the perfect law of God—which is only another name for the "perfect law of love" —that moment you are classed by all the religionists in the land as a hopeless atheist! It will be seen, from a thoughtful consideration of these facts, that the religion of the day, instead of being the pure religion taught and lived by Jesus Christ, which consists simply in a life of brotherly love,—is a complicated and perplexing system, which requires for its support and defence all the cumbrous and destructive machinery of the state, and not only of the state, but of corporate power in all its departments.

My attention was drawn to this subject by an article in a recent number of the Salem Register, on the subject of "American Missionaries abroad." The object of the article was to inform the people of the important fact that the honorable Caleb Cushing of Newburyport, Mass., late political Missionary to China, had fallen in with the religious Missionaries to that benighted country, and, since his return, had given them a good round puff.— The Register grows warm on the subject, and says of these American Missionaries, that the "places of diplomacy and power are resounding with their praise!" In confirmation of these highsounding laudations, the Register quotes a letter from "Lord