Go to, ye rich ones! ye boast of your charity, of your christian humility, yet your liveried slaves attend you to the house of God: even there they may not sit beside you, but await respectfully in the free seats or in the porch: and at the very sacrament the pauper must stay till the pride-swollen magnate hath turned his back upon him and the altar.

And Christ was the son of a carpenter; he had not where to lay his head; he preferred the widow's mite: the poor were his brethren, his disciples, and his friends.

Verily, I say unto you, The rich shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven: they would require a place unto themselves, a place of select

company.

O, blessed, thrice blessed will be the dawn of that day which shall behold the extinction of man's feudal tyranny! Blessed, yea, seven times blessed the morning and evening of that day when man shall walk with man through the garden of life, as children of the same father, as brethren and friends; when there shall be no distinctions but those of real worth, which Love alloweth; when the whole earth shall be the Temple of the Holy one, where the rich and poor shall meet together in the equality of Love and Truth. One Lord is the maker of them all.

+

THE LIFE OF JESUS CHRIST.

JESUS CHRIST-if we may credit the "histories" that have come down to us -was the son of Mary, a carpenter's wife. Mary was a Jewish woman, of the tribe of Levi, and had been educated by the priests in the temple, where no doubt she had received the gift of the Holy Ghost to her great satisfaction. Joseph, the carpenter, having no desire of marrying a family, was minded, on discovering her condition, to put her away; however, he was a philosopher, and, moreover, a believer in the almighty power of God-so the matter was more pleasantly settled. Jesus Christ was born; and was adopted by the worthy carpenter. We know little of his infancy, except from the paintings of the Italian Masters, who may be as correct as any one else. His childhood probably gave some indications of the career he was to run. It is reported, that he was of so precocious an ability, that, at the age of twelve years, being among the doctors in the temple, he fairly posed them all by the acuteness of his replies and questionings. This may be no great proof of genius: however, it is not certain that the conference ever took place. It would be gratifying to know something of his character as a carpenter, since we have excellent evidence that he worked at his father's business, being a most dutiful son; but, unfortunately, we possess no record of any manual dexterity; nor is there any little thing of his fabrication, among the many undoubted relics treasured up by pious Christians. Our own decided opinion is, that he was a capital workman; and Justin Martyr agrees with us. We do not hear, either, of his marriage: and some Fathers of the Christian Church have not scrupled to throw out certain unworthy insinuations, which we do not think ourselves bound to answer. All this must remain a mystery, and proper subject of dispute. We believe that he commenced preaching when he was about thirty years of age. Some say, at an earlier age; some, at a later period: there is much to be said on all sides. It is also said that, previous to his appearance in public, he passed a great part of his life among the contemplative Essenians, or Therapeutes (a kind of Jewish Monks, living near Alexandria, in Egypt), and that from them he acquired his knowledge and gathered the principles of his morality. It is undoubted, that he was for some time a sojourner in Egypt: certainly there is a prophecy somewhere, indicative of the fact. His doctrine was a modification of that of the Samaneans (known throughout the East for above a thousand years before the time of Christ) who inculcated the equality of mankind; a community of goods; the virtue of self-denial, of forgiveness

His

and endurance of injuries; and the immortality of the soul. Most earnestly did he devote himself to the promulgation of these tenets, leading a simple and austere life, and continually preaching but with little success. severe rebukes of the priests, and repeated condemnation of a hired priesthood, drew upon him the hatred of that intolerant body; his unflinching assertion of the equality of mankind, his requisition of a community of goods, must have alarmed and disgusted all those who, in Christian parlance, had anything to lose; and his recommendation of rigid self-denial, the patient sufferance of injuries, and reliance upon moral power, even in the worst extremity, was as little likely to be palatable to the poorer class, who, doubtless, even in those days, were not more satisfied than now, with their unremedied miseries. The immortality of the soul was, perhaps, a matter of indifference to all parties. Though great multitudes followed his discourses, he appears to have won but few disciples, and those but lukewarm or treacherous. His preaching continued not more than three years, probably not nearly so long. Even one honest man is thought dangerous. He was then seized, and brought before the Roman governor; and accused, as all reformers are, of being seditious and a disturber of the peace of society. His condemnation naturally followed; Priestcraft and Wealth bearing witness against him. The extent of his popularity may be inferred from the fact, that the only tumult occasioned by his trial, was excited by the fear of an acquittal. He was crucified between two thieves, without the occurrence of any prodigies; and his followers were dispersed.

The general tenor of his doctrines would lead us to conclude that he was a gentle and benevolent enthusiast; though certain of his biographers have endeavoured to blacken his character by anecdotes of a malicious and revengeful nature, and would fain prove that he was no more than a common conjuror and sleight-of-hand man: but, as every one of these historians accuses all the others of lying, we may as well believe them on this point as on any other. In truth, so scanty and unauthenticated are the only materials for a history of Jesus Christ, that we can form nothing but conjectures as to his character and conduct. We are bound to confess, that even his existence has been doubted, and we must acknowledge that his names give much reason for the doubt. Christ is no other than Chris, the conservator (the same as the Hindoo Chrisen or Christna), the Sun, which passes through the constellation of the Virgin, &c. &c.; and Jesus or Yes-us is Yes, the cabalistic name of Bacchus, with a Latin termination-still preserved over Christian pulpits and altars: I H S (H being the Greek letter E) surrounded by rays, identifying it with the Sun. Many," says Tertullian, an orthodox bishop of the early Christian Church, "suppose with greater probability that the Sun is our God and they refer us to the religion of the Persians."

* See the Gospel of the Infancy, also those of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, &c.

May 11, 1839.

LOVELINESS.

How beautiful art thou, fair Moon! that calmest

The worn earth with thy womanly sweet smile;
How thrill thy luscious ditties, Nightingale!

As a fond wooer's most melodious wile;

Many-hued Flower! thou in thy heart embalmest,

As in a woman's passion, fragrancy;

Thou cherishing Heat! in whose embrace doth quail
Day, thy voluptuous lord-thy fervency

Claspeth like woman's faith: all lovely things

Are but of Love material shadowings;

And light, and warmth, freshness, and melody,

Poor echoes of the Woman-harmony.

What seeks't Thou in heaven's eyes? There is more glory
In Thy love-eloquent gaze than all the mooned story.

7.

LEBANON AND BALBEC.

LIBANUS, the Lebanon of the Bible-mountains of Turkey in Asia, famous for their forests of cedars, supposed to have furnished timber for the roof of Solomon's Temple. On a ridge, near the highest part of Lebanon, which is covered with snow during half the year, stand a few venerable cedars, believed by the Arab summer-dwellers beneath their shadow, to have been contemporary with the Wisest Monarch. Balbec, the City of the Sun, is said to have been built by him. A few ruined columns alone remain. The worship of the Sun is gone-all save a few misshapen forms. Its better spirit is buried in the Tomb of Calvary. But as Lebanon, the cedar-roofed, outlasteth the unquarried Temple, so shall the Religion of Nature arise again to displace the many "systems" of the idol-worship of the man-created Gods.

MARIANA.

"Mariana in the moated grange."-Measure for Meusure.

1.

WITH blackest moss the flower-plots
Were thickly crusted, one and all,
The rusted nails fell from the knots
That held the peach to the garden-wall.
The broken sheds looked sad and strange,
Unlifted was the clinking latch,
Weeded and worn the ancient thatch

Upon the lonely moated grange.

She only said "My life is dreary,
He cometh not," she said;
She said "I am aweary, aweary;
I would that I were dead!"

2.

Her tears fell with the dews at even,

Her tears fell ere the dews were dried,
She could not look on the sweet heaven,
Either at morn or eventide.

After the flitting of the bats,

When thickest dark did trance the sky,
She drew her casement-curtain by,
And glanced athwart the glooming flats.
She only said "The night is dreary,
He cometh not," she said;
She said "I am aweary, aweary,
I would that I were dead!"

3.

Upon the middle of the night,

Waking she heard the night-fowl crow:
The cock sung out an hour ere light:
From the dark fen the oxen's low
Came to her without hope of change,

In sleep she seemed to walk forlorn,
Till cold winds woke the grey-eyed morn
About the lonely moated grange.

She only said, "The day is dreary,
He cometh not," she said;