self here from the peltings of the storm, and she received me with a joy wholly unexpected. On turning round I saw the room was now parted into two, one of which was a bed-room. From this room I saw the husband coming, with his coat in his hand. I arose to meet him. "Ah!" said he, "you are the man who once called and comforted my poor wife! Well, I am that same wicked husband, who so often abused her goodness, and I am glad to see you. I have hoped I should one day see you, that I might tell you that so wicked a wretch has learned to pray! O I have been a great sinner! but my wife has forgiven me, and I pray that God would also!" He wiped his eyes on his white shirt sleeve, and I saw also the tears glistening in the eyes of his wife, unless those in my own deceived me. He spoke with a feeling, that could not but awaken feeling in others. In a conversation of about an hour in length, I learned that it was within the space of a fortnight previous, that he had become the subject of a powerful revival of religion in the village near by. He had exerted himself to oppose its progress, and though his hard heart was a stiff barrier against it, yet even that was subdued by omnipotent power. He was now to all appearance a new creature; and I beheld the man who had so often ill-treated the wife, and the wife who had so often prayed for the husband, and saw them both so happy, that I could not but feel deeply grateful for a religion which produces such a change. We united our hearts together before the throne of mercy, and each parted with mutual regret. As was coming out of the door, he took me by the hand-"Sir, you live in ; do you know Mr. H.?" Yes," "And Mrs. H.?" "Yes." "Well, tell Mrs. H. that the wicked James who used so often to make her so much trouble, and who finally left her because she reproved him for breaking the sabbath. O tell her that this same wicked James- now prays! Ask her to forgive me for I was very bad, and I pray God to forgive me. OI have often felt hurt at my conscience for leaving that good woman's service, just because she told me how wicked I was in breaking the sabbath! But by God's help, I am now to live differently." I left the now happy cottage with feelings wholly indescribable; and during a ride of six miles, had a good opportunity for meditating on the inscrutable ways of God. I have not since been that way; but I hear from authentic sources, that the change on the heart of the cottager is real; that he is now very industrious, and at the beginning of cold weather, he had got his little house repaired to make them comfortable during the winter. Indeed, there is as great a change in his outward appearances as in himself; he sends his two little boys to the nearest school, neatly dressed, and they promise yet to make useful and respectable members of society. His wife feels that her prayers are answered beyond her most sanguine hope, and is as happy as need be. Such are the now promising appearances; and it cannot be doubted but in the great day, still greater effects will be seen to have resulted from the power of religion in this cottage. T. B. Fourth Bucolic of Virgil. FOURTH BUCOLIC OF VIRGIL. To the Editor of the Christian Herald. 485 MR. EDITOR-Although your magazine is chiefly devoted to what has an immediate bearing on religion, yet I presume you would not object to the occasional insertion of short pieces of a rather different description. The relaxations of every student may afford him leisure to produce something that would amuse a fellow-student on a similar occasion. Should you think the following worthy of being read, it is before you. There are so many interesting circumstances and associations connected with the ancient classics, that we feel as if treading on sacred ground whenever we read them. Add to this, their own intrinsic excellence. They have stood the test of ages, and have so far become the standard of taste among all nations, that for any one to call their excellencies in question is to have his own sanity doubted. They survived the dark ages, and any thing that could shield itself against the bigotry and superstition of those times, must necessarily be valuable. The merits of Virgil, as a writer, are so well known and acknowledged, that any praise I could bestow on him would be only treading a path already worn smooth; I must however observe, for the sake of your younger readers, that the beauties of Virgil can never be fully seen in a school room. It is not when murdered and garbled by the tyro that he is any thing more than tolerable. It is at a later period, when our dictionary remains on the shelf, that we see his peculiar elegancies. Perhaps no part of Virgil's writings have attracted more attention from profound critics, than his fourth Bucolic; and perhaps no piece is explained with so little satisfaction to the reader. It certainly contains very many beauties, though often deformed by the introduction of his mythology. It has been supposed by some, and not without reason, that this Eclogue was written to commemorate the advent of the Saviour of the world; though many things seem to favour this idea, yet nothing certain can be proved on this point. I shall at this time briefly mention the reason of this supposition. 1. There was no person, unless it be the Messiah, to whom this song is at all applicable. Virgil was never backward to flatter; yet if this piece be applied to any one of his own day, it must have been a man of no very high rank; yet in point of flattery it exceeds any he has given to the emperor's family, or even to Æneas himself. If the expression, "progenies cœlo demittitur," be applied to a man born in the usual way, I conceive it to disagree with his own philosophy. [Vide lib. 6.-724 et seq.] 2. There was an universal expectation of the Messiah at the time Virgil lived. Nor was this belief confined to Judea. Two very respectable historians, (Tacitus and Suetonius,) mention expressly, that in their day, there was a common opinion spread throughout the whole eastern world, that a man was soon to arise from Judea, who was to rule the whole world—(“ orbem terrarum.") Now, if such a person was actually expected by all the nations of the east, I see not why it would be unnatural for Virgil to celebrate the birth of so illustrious a personage, in the manner he has done. Would his "Magnus ab integro sæclórum nascitur ordo," be at all like the expression he would bestow on a common man? 3. The books of the Sybils, at this time, very generally contained predictions of the birth of an extraordinary person about to come from Judea. It is very easy to imagine where they obtained these predictions and expectations, which they so darkly wove into their mysterious books. The Romans, at that period, had frequent intercourse with the Jews, who were subject to the power of the former. Now the Jews had firm persuasions of such an event. Besides, the wise men, or magi, who came to Judea at the birth of Christ, actually came from some other province; nor have we proof that they were Jews any more than Romans. 4. It is very highly probable that Virgil had such intercourse with the Jews, that he not only had this belief in common with others, but had some more definite ideas respecting the reign of the Messiah, as understood by the Jews. (See Isaiah xi. 6.) "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid: and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain." The lines of Virgil can bear no comparison with the above for sublimity and elegance. Yet they have so much resemblance, that one would almost think he had actually seen Isaiah. "Ipse lacte domum referent distenta capella Occidet et serpens, et fallax herba veneni 5. We know that the writer invokes the person to whom he addresses his ode, in a manner unknown to the ancients. We need not be told that the Roman nation was sunk in superstition and idolatry, yet it was never their custom to ask, in the form of a solemn prayer, for the forgiveness of sin from their fellow-men. But this person is prayed to forgive sin. —“ si qua manent sceleris vestigia nostri, Irrita perpetuâ solvent formidine terras." On the whole, then, there are probabilities favouring the idea that this prince of Latin poets ascribes this song to the Saviour;-if this opinion be correct, how much is it to be lamented that his light on this interesting subject was so dim. If it applies to Christ, it is a poem of very peculiar interest; if it does not, it is still a beautiful fabric, but whose height is beyond the power of man to measure. D. R. Review.-Rev. Mr. Strong's Sermon. REVIEW. 487 THE PESTILENCE A PUNISHMENT FOR PUBLIC SINS. A Sermon preached in the Middle Dutch Church, November 17th, 1822, after the cessation of the Yellow Fever, which prevailed in New York in 1822. By PASCHAL N. STRONG A. M. one of the collegiate ministers of the Reformed Dutch Church in New-York. Published by request. NewYork: H Sage. 1822. pp. 26, 8vo. It is not without feelings of mortification and regret, that we notice this performance. We find it difficult to express our own opinion, or that which is generally entertained, concerning it, without indulging a severity of language which it becomes us to avoid. We should blush to say what we think of it, considered as a sermon, actually preached from the pulpit of a Christian church, and should forbear any particular remarks upon it, were not the public impression already as unfavourable as any one could wish it, and did we not hope that what we have to say would not be wholly lost upon the author. With regard to the leading principle assumed in the sermon, that the late fever was judicially sent as a punishment, we refer to an article in our number for December 7th, 1822. The author has advanced nothing tending to invalidate the view there taken of this subject. We would recommend to him to reconsider this principle. If he is right, doubtless he can show such a parallel between the facts of the two cases referred to, as clearly to justify his reasoning from one to the other. Let him show that mankind are now actually treated by Providence according to the principles, promises and threatenings of the ancient dispensation. If his present opinion is correct, it is of the highest importance to this community and to the world. We may know for certain that this city will be destroyed by judicial visitations of Providence, (if the people are not reformed by the late calamity ;) and it must be the solemn duty of the ministers of religion to denounce upon it all the threatenings contained in Moses; and to assure the children of God, that instead of having, generally, tribulation in this world, they may expect the temporal blessings covenanted to the ancient saints, and count upon being discriminated from the wicked in this respect. We commend this subject to the author as demanding the attention of every man who claims to speak in the name of Jehovah, and to be commissioned by him as ancient prophets were, "who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." The text which our author has chosen for the foundation of his discourse is from Leviticus xxvi. 23, 24. "If ye will not be reformed by me, by these things, but will walk contrary unto me; then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins." The author proposes "to consider the peculiar form, the probable causes, and the Divine purpose of our recent calamity, and the awful danger to which, as a city, we are subject, if we are not reformed by these things.' What is advanced under the first of these topics, appears to us to be inconsistent and irrelevant; and to contain a number of untenable propositions. The author puts this head first, "because it is of no ordinary importance to be distinctly reviewed, and correctly understood, in as much as the form of his judgments is, generally speaking, the key, the clew, to open and unravel the sins for which the judgment has been sent." We do not perceive, however, that he has made any such use of this head. He seems to argue that pestilence is more certainly a divine judgment, than war or famine; and that the sins which procure a judgment so immediately from the hand of God, must be peculiarly flagrant; and yet he quotes David in proof that a judgment in this form is less to be dreaded than in either of the others, because it is better to fall into the hand of the Lord than into the hand of man. His description of the calamity itself is, we think, in some particulars, very much exaggerated, and in others not justified by facts. He pronounces it "a pestilence highly contagious, voracious in its thirst for prey, rapid in its work of death, dreadfully malignant,—spreading from person to person, from house to house, from street to street," &c. Again" It completely depopulated one third of this great and mighty city," &c. We pass to the second general head of the discourse, which is thus introduced: "In endeavouring to enumerate some of the probable causes of this judgment, we make no pretensions to any infallibility of opinion.' The first cause adduced by him is, "the public contempt which this city, as such, has affixed to God's sabbath, to God's ministry, to God's ordinances." This refers to a well known meeting at the City Hall, in 1821, in which the author says, "the sanctification of the sabbath of God was voted down; his authority and his ministers were insulted; and thousands of our citizens did publicly declare, 'We will act as we please,' on the day of which God hath said, ‘Remember it, to keep it holy.' Here we challenge the author to prove his facts. We have nothing to say of the measures proposed by the friends of the sabbath at the above meeting; and we have only to say of the conduct of those who opposed the said measures, that it displayed much misapprehension of them, and malignity against them. But we call upon the author, in view of his disavowal of any pretensions to "infallibilty of opinion," and his saying, immediately after the passage above quoted respecting the meeting, "Now, bre thren, we have not the least hesitation in pronouncing this to be one of the sins of New-York, for which she has this season been scourged and for her conduct on that occasion she has had a glorious commentary in her closed sanctuaries, and her silent sabbaths !—and, instead of celebrating the sabbath of the God of grace, she has had, week after week, and month after month, to keep the sabbath of the God of jndgment:" and that, "so far as concerns the desolated portion of our city, it has been something like the sabbaths that sinners will have in hell!"-We call upon him to prove what he asserts; to prove the charge he has brought against "this city, as such;" to prove that any such vote was taken in the above meeting, as would bear out his as |