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MANCHESTER:

PRINTED BY CHARLES SIMMS AND

CO.

CONTENTS OF VOL. II.

Alice Parker; or, the Tea Drinking..

All Ye are Brethren

•page 241

33

Annals (The) of Birch Chapel, pages 97, 121, 145, 193,

265.

Bishop (The) of Exeter's Letter to the Churchwardens of Falmouth..

Correspondence, pages 21, 48, 71, 94, 119, 143, 165, 215, 239, 262.

Church (The) in the Alps

Devotion

Dialogue-Anthem (A)

Extracts, pages 13, 39, 66, 90, 113, 137, 211, 238.

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185

235

274

204

226

85

9

86

64

60

34

59

Old (The) Church Clock, pages 1, 25, 49, 73.

Old (An) Man's Wanderings, pages 103, 127, 151, 169,

205, 217, 257, 275.

Passage (A) from the Life of Sir Thomas More
Prayers at Church and Prayers at Meeting

Reviews, pages 17, 48, 68, 118, 141, 165, 192, 214, 283.
Second Sunday after the Epiphany

Sonnet

230

224

38

126

THE

CHRISTIAN MAGAZINE.

VOL. II.

THE OLD CHURCH CLOCK.

(Continued from vol. 1, page 361.)

CHAPTER XI.

Even such a man (inheriting the zeal
And from the sanctity of elder times
Not deviating, a priest, the like of whom,
If multiplied, and in their stations set,
Would o'er the bosom of a joyful land
Spread true religion and its genuine fruits)
Before me stood that day.

THE EXCURSION.

"My brethren,' said the priest, resting his hand on the Bible, and looking round upon the anxious audience with an expression which showed some degree of agitation of mind, mixed with his habitual calmness and self-possesion, -My dear brethren, I am about to do what is quite unusual, and, I fear, wrong in me;—I am about to address you in language which I have not first carefully considered, and, word for word, committed to paper. Though I have preached the blessed Gospel of our LORD to you and your fathers, from this place, for the long period of fifty years, I have never ventured to do this before. I have had too much fear both for myself and you- too much anxiety

CHRISTIAN MAGAZINE, NO. XVII.

VOL. II.-A.

that not a word should drop from me which was not agreeable to the language and spirit of the Gospel, to trust myself to unarranged thoughts, and unconsidered words. But fifty years have given confidence to my mind, that nothing which is not of GOD can slip from me in this house, even in the warmth and heat of a moment like this; and thoughts arise now in my mind which seem fitted for the occasion, and yet which had not occurred to me in the silent meditation of my closet. And surely I have experienced too long the full enjoyment of that holy truth that "GOD is love," to shrink from speaking of it, (and especially before you, my children,) without shame, and without fear! I call you my children; for many as are the grey heads that I now see before me, there is hardly one who has been born again into the blessed kingdom of our LORD without the ministration of these hands, unworthy as indeed they are to be made the instruments of so divine a thing! There is one, indeed, now present,'here his eye naturally turned to the seat almost close beside him, in which sat the venerable partner of his joys and cares, (sorrows, I believe, in the worldly sense, he was too good a man to have any,) in her little black silk quaker-like bonnet, and neat white cap; retaining on her cheeks much of the bloom and some of the beauty which had made her, between sixty and seventy years ago, the admiration of the parish:C There is one, indeed,' he repeated; his voice faltered, and it was clear that he would have some difficulty in proceeding with his discourse: and here it was beautiful to observe what happened. The old lady, seeing how matters stood, looked up to him from under her bonnet with a quiet smile, conveying at once an expression of kind encouragement and gentle rebuke, which is quite indescribable. The effect was immediate. A slight flush of shame crossed the old man's brow, and he at once resumed his wonted composure. There was something in that smile which had reminded him of the days of their youth when she was the buxom maiden and he the gallant lover- and he doubtless felt some

shame that he should not show himself at least as firm and

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