THE PURPOSES OF PROVIDENCE. "Neither swear by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King; neither swear by thy head, for thou canst not make one hair white or black." No two allusions would seem, at first sight, more alien and remote from each other; but, when unfolded by the light of these visions, the harmony between them will evidently appear. In the kingdom of the Son of Man "Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord." Repaired from its long desolation, it will then be the metropolis of a ransomed world, the centre and seat of a pure and holy dominion. "It shall not be plucked up nor thrown down from henceforth even for ever. "The name of the city shall be from that day, The Lord is there." "The sun shall be ashamed, and the moon confounded, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously." How will this title, given by our Lord himself amid his most spiritual messages, "the city of the great King," then shine forth as with supernatural brightness! An oath, by that sacred name, will then appear evidently to involve a direct appeal to God himself, all whose attributes will be wondrously displayed in the destinies of Zion, when he shall have made the place of his feet glorious. But while the name of God will be signally manifest in "the city of the great King," when, according to his promise, he shall extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream," it is as truly, though less conspicuously, revealed in all the steps of Providence which have led the way to that final triumph. The minutest events of this present time are secretly linked in his all-wise counsels with the glory that shall then be revealed. "Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, for thou canst not make one hair white or black." Why should an object so trivial be joined here with that august and magnificent hope implied in the words, “The city of the great King?” To remind us that all Providence, in every jot and tittle, however minute, is a prophecy of that full redemption to come. The one verse supplies a telescope, the other a microscope, to the hand of faith; but the mysteries which each of them reveals are only various parts of the same plan. God, in his infinite wisdom, is directing all things, even the least, towards that joyful consummation. The falling sparrow, the leaves of the forest, the secret thoughts and projects of the millions of mankind, and the minutest changes of their personal history in body or in soul-all are so many links in the execution of his unfathomable counsels. And as the architect or artist keeps ever in view the great ideal at which he aims, and the place of every stone in the building, every stroke of the chisel or pencil, however fine, is guided by this secret reference : so also the divine Saviour, while he counts the steps of his people, or numbers the hairs of their head, keeps his eye ever fixed on that glorious kingdom which is to be the final issue of all the changes of time. What an element of mystery and of life is thus infused into all things around us! What a gleam of bright and heavenly sunshine, does the hope of this kingdom, thus revealed to us, shed on all the trials and experience of the Christian here below! * *Rev. T. R. Birks's "Two First Visions of Daniel," pp. 379-381. ARRA. THE FAMILY OF GLENCARRA.-No. V. BY SIDNEY O'MORE. There is a liberty which persecution, fraud, Bought with His blood who gave it to mankind, How delightful is the realization of hope long deferred! It descends upon the weary watch-worn heart, like a reviving shower upon parched and withering verdure, recalling its bloom, and restoring it to fresh-springing life. Such revivifying impulse did we experience, when, at length, anxious fears for our beloved parents' safety, were exchanged for glad certainty of their welfare. Several of their letters had, long before, reached Glencarra, but Mabel's grandchildren knew not where to forward them, until the youngest, Norah, chanced to meet Owen Rua, and, from him, learned the secret of our island-residence. The kind-hearted girl immediately set off to Sligo, and with some difficulty discovered our retreat. From the welcome packet which she conveyed to us, I shall make some extracts; as my mother's adventures will be better related in her own words, than they could be in any prolix narrative of mine. * * * 'Wexford, July 3rd, 1798. 'We left London in a small vessel, upon the first of last month, and had hoped, my beloved children, to have rejoined you ere this. I had also hoped that your father's health, shaken as it was by his tedious illness, would have been restored by the salutary mountain-air of his native Glencarra. However, our little vessel was captured by some rebel sloops, who were cruising near Wexford harbour, in search of some government provision-ships. We returned to our native country as prisoners: and we were landed in the midst of an infuriated mob of halfintoxicated pikemen, who were loud in their exclamations- To the bridge, to the bridge, with the heretics! 'By the intervention of a gracious Providence, some humane leaders arrived before the living torrent had swept us to the bridge; and these gentlemen succeeded in rescuing us from our enemies, and conveying us in safety to a prison-ship, which lay in the harbour. The court-house and gaol had been, already, so crowded with occupants, that fever was rife among them, and prisoners daily fell a sacrifice to its pestilential fury. 'Sixteen miserable days, we passed in the odious confinement in the prison-ship, rendered doubly miserable by uncertainty of your fate, my dearest children; (we have since learned with gratitude that the scourge of civil war has not extended so far west as dear Glencarra.) We were barred down into the hold of the vessel by an iron grating; our only food, two days in each week, consisted of potatoes and rancid butter, which was lowered down to us in the dirty bucket of the ship; at other times our diet was composed of black barley bread, with half a pint of milk each for breakfast, and coarse boiled beef and potatoes for dinner, all let down in the same dirty bucket, and consumed without the luxury of knives and forks. Our only bedding consisted of a little straw, scattered upon the large stones which formed the ship's ballast. To complete the measure of our discomfort, we were crowded, almost beyond endurance, ladies as well as gentlemen confined in the same small space, which was rendered almost suffocating by the intense heat of the weather. One lady was so distracted by her sufferings, together with the constant apprehension of being murdered by the wretches whose shouts we continually heard from shore, that she determined on suicide, and we had some difficulty in restraining her attempts to cast herself into the water. Your father and I found some alleviation of trial, in meditation and conversation upon eternity; then only did present misery shrink in its dimensions and appear light and transient, while compared with an abounding and undying weight of glory. Often wrestling in prayer, we were at length enabled to cast ourselves, and you, still dearer objects of our love, upon the will of Providence, knowing that all things must work together for good to them who love God. * * Our prayers have been heard, but how shall we return thanks to the Lord for his infinite mercies, for preserving us among the few who survive the massacre ! 'On the 20th of June, a low-born townsman, named Dixon, who had raised himself to the rank of rebel captain, went to the gaol, and swore that by sunset all its inmates should be no more. This man was in the habit of riding continually about the streets, exciting the populace to violence and mischief; and, for the honour of the sex, I am ashamed to say that his wife usually accompanied him, and was equally energetic in promoting sedition. Civil war lets loose the evil passions in all countries: Dixon did not find it difficult to assemble a number of men as cruel as himself. At the NOVEMBER, 1845. 2 G |