Well has it been said, "Cities may fall, whole empires disappear, yet man is indignant that he is mortal." Let us not turn away from the humiliating lesson which this view of the Past affords us. There is not only truth in its storehouses of knowledge, and wisdom in its vast experience, but there is eloquence in its silent grave. As we stand within the tomb of ages, and reflect that in the breast of each of these countless myriads, struggled hopes and fears and joys like our own, a sense of our comparative insignificance falls powerfully on the soul. Oh, how it stills the waves of passion and pales the flush of pride! And in the vastness and depth of those gloomy arches, we read a great truth, beautifully expressed in the language of another, "that we are but units, our friends but units, each having a definite value which is swallowed up in the infinite sum." BIRTHDAY REFLECTIONS. -Season adapted well to Fancy's flight, On such a morn as this fond mem'ry loves Us long to live in happiness and peace To see full many a birthday more What then around us passed seems full in view Perhaps just then the brilliant sun arose High in the firmament, and lighted up A world rich clad in beauteous vernal robes; With youthful loveliness, and warbling birds Of sunshine which we thought would e'er be ours,— O'er all-if pious Mother was our lot, And then with earnest voice besought that He Preserved her child, would still vouchsafe His grace : That he might grow to useful manhood's prime Oh! memory, thou dost well to lead us back If aught of evil in thy life has been; -And who is he whose life's not full of sin? Let reason speak-You've long-alas, too long And played the fool. Why should you longer strive To raise the brute and sink the man?" Immortal, stop!-bethink thee of thyself. Where art thou? Think.-Where wouldst thou be if dead? What are thy hopes? On what thy trust reposed? Hast thou in earnest ever ask'd wherefore thou livest? Or knowest thou for certain that thou art alive? Does life appear a dreary maze, or real? Mortal, bestir thee,-if thou art alive A greater lives than thee, who keeps thee thus: Then fear him for his power But if He's made thee as thou art, with all Thy powers of thought and feeling strangely joined, He must be wise beyond created, sure: Then ask for what He made thee such, lest thou The means neglecting should at length come short Lest thou should'st prove a cipher in the Lord's "Twere good for thee if thou hadst ne'er been born. Immortal, rise-why lie ye here asleep While all the world is marching on? Shroud not obliviously thy soul in sloth, But rather choose to die, already dead? Blind man, forbear thus to provoke thy fate. Till life no more a nullity appear, Till death seem solemn, sober verity. Reflect on time and vast eternity, Till time seem what it really is—a span And till eternity-eternal scem. 'Tis wiser far in such a real world, To deal in stern reality, than roam Thro' all the universe of airy dreams That flit across the minds of dreaming men. But if thou would'st look forward, then look far Thy future destiny, and from this hour commence THE FAMILY, THE BASIS OF CIVIL SOCIETY. Twice only have the choirs of Heaven sung on Earth; and well did the hills of Bethlehem and the Paradise of Eden deserve the peculiar honor. Were the great facts those spots commemorate fully comprehended, the great problems of life were fully solved; the glorious answer to that greatest question ever put in Heaven were fully understood. For, none the firmer did Jehovah lay Earth's deep foundations ere he hurled it on its course, than he laid the moral basis of life before the generations came upon it. The hosts who gazed upon the scenes of Eden saw in truth, the drama of life. The first few moments of the morning told the history of the day. There, from the golden East, the sunbeams smiled upon the holiness of Paradise, and never since has the pure heart wanted light and joy. There darkness veiled the sky from guilty man; and where has sin been severed since from gloom and wo? 'Twas there, too, hope was gladdened by the tale of brighter light to come; and misery was solaced by God's best earthly gift. For, in the distant West, the clouds were broken over Calvary even then, and farther still, beyond the sea, the light horizon told the coming glories of the last Millennial hour of day. And, in their loss of Eden, the wanderers were still blessed with earthly love, and bidden, hand-in-hand, to suffer and to wait. There the Creator spoke, and the great principle of society was uttered: "It is not good for man to be alone;" and in that first union formed in Eden, we find the basis of all other unions. We propose to show that it is the basis of Civil Society. The first point we mention is, that the family state is the means appointed by God for the perpetuation of the human race, the elements of all society. "And God blessed them, and said unto them: Be ye fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth." And though the marriage tie be not absolutely necessary to the existence of individuals, yet the laws of experience and the laws of nature go to show, that it is necessary to the preservation of the race. Fearfully are the sins of one generation in this respect, visited upon children's children. Were the marriage tie every where set at naught, Earth would soon be a desert. Even if its guilty tribes should escape the judgments that blasted the cities on Judea's plain, yet by the established laws of nature, they must waste away. Like the doomed red men of our Western world, the nations would retire before the grim destroyer, and not many years could pass ere the small remnant stood, a fainting band on the last shore of Time. Again, it is only where the family tie is respected, that the great objects of civil society can be attained. The first object of civil society we take to be Protection- Security; Protection to individuals; Security as a nation. To the protection of individuals, it is not enough that mutual forbearance be observed, only as the price of individual security. It is not enough that this be the only motive to the practice of that justice, without which no community can exist. Rights must be regarded, because each has virtually promised to regard them, and because they are rights, or they will not be regarded long Hence, a sense of moral obligation, and consequently, some principle of religion is at the foundation of society. Nations have existed when all true religion was unknown; but the history of that nation is yet to be written, where some idea of superior beings has not obtained; where Death has not forced out some glimmering of a future; where conscience has not roused some fear of coming retribution for the misdeeds of the present. The bonds of society may hold together; have held together when a people were given to the grossest idolatry; but the world has yet to witness the successful experiment of a nation of infidels. And what were morality and religion in a state where the family was unknown? What blunts so utterly the moral sense as unbridled licentiousness? How shall they respect the rights of man, who trample scornfully on the rights of woman? It has often been remarked, how large is the proportion of females among those who make up the churches of Christian lands. And this is one great means by which those lands are kept Christian; for, Christian mothers are ever the chief corner-stone of a lasting Christian state. And in the land of idols, we imagine that whatever wholesome influence those false religions have upon the state, is mainly owing to the superior earnestness with which woman grasps at the mere semblance of religion. In vain would church-spires point to heaven; in vain would pulpits sound their loud appeal; in vain would law seek to guard morality, amid a generation whose infancy and youth had never been attracted by the fireside graces of Christian life. We have no time to speak of the additional strength given by |