Association. Let the rich give of their abundance, and the poor of their penury. Let it ever be kept in mind by all, that the magnitude and costliness of a gift unto the Lord will be in proportion to the purity of the motive with which it is offered. FORETASTES. "And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come." WHAT the future looks to a man, colors for him his life in the present, and his faculties are drawn into a use correspondent to whatever rises up before him, as the object of his life. Under the influence of what our future is to be, as we hope, our nature quickens, our minds are shaped, and our courses in life turn. There is in the young man the feeling of what life may prove to be for him; and under that hope, that possibility, his aims take their direction, and his efforts are made. Before one man, in the vista of years, there is a merchant's honorable success, the result of industry, and fortitude, and success, and that quick use of events which is almost like the mastery of them. And with admiration of this future, the powers of the man rise within him, and strengthen, and make for their object, as though claiming it by nature. Another man has before him what can be reached only in long and painful years. And the more solemnly he is persuaded of the difficulty of his purpose, the better fitted indeed he is for attempting it. He has before him, in the long distance, heights of spiritual worth, which he will climb, ascending paths, up which have gone men of the 66 great immortal names, which are not meant to die,". ways so painful and often so sad, before those regions are reached where learning opens into wide views, and earthly darkness lies below. And on the soul of the man, as he looks up these heights, there fall the shadows of them; shades with which he grows solemn and earnest. There is on him the spell which only the right persons feel, and with the strange feeling of which they grow more fit for those paths which can be climbed only in loneliness and with a struggling soul. Away in the future, the long future, - that in which the gates of the grave open and shut, and beyond those gates, there rise thrones and principalities, and there hang crowns jewelled and glorious. And of these heavenly objects there is the power on the soul of every believer in them. The saintly heights, which I long after, are high, very high; and with looking up to them, my soul in me grows higher and higher in her aspirations and aims, and has her sight grow clearer, and sees things round her afresh, and looking more divinely than of old they used to. Yes, on us dwellers in this world, on us souls that are heavenly not yet, on us in the flesh, with business to mind and families to provide for, on us now already there are the powers of the world to come. But there are those who see and feel what this world is, only to feel themselves grow the more distrustful of the world to come. And they say, "Immortality, immortality! Can that certainly be man's when it is not nature's? Eternity, eternity! Is that for man to last on in, while in it stars have been like motes, and suns have grown dim and vanished? The world that is to come, it is to come by having this world yield a way for it. But can this great thing be hoped for man's sake? This world end for the sake of man! This world exist for the sake of man! — this world, on the face of which men are but like ants on a mole-hill, this world, with a history like what geology tells of! Heirship to God! Is not it too great a thing, - a thing too great for belief, too great for man's misgiving heart, since worlds and ages are part of such an inheritance as God must give? And to thoughts such as these, and in the clear, cold light of science, what could be answered, — and how could faith justify itself to reason, — only that now already, at home, at church, in the street, the soul can taste the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come? The decay, the death, under which all things perish, empires declining for a thousand years, and insects fluttering through their tiny lives in an hour,—the mortality by which this round earth is a globe almost of human ashes and tears, the vanity to which the creature has been made subject, though not willingly, we feel it, suffer from it, confront it but saying, living, and praying with Christ, in the presence of this awful mystery, we feel a law working in our hearts, - the law of the spirit of life; we taste "the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come ; and our hearts grow strong and hopeful. The powers of the world to come, powers because of the world to come, - powers which are - how they make themselves felt in our hearts, by remorseful, repentant struggles, by holy longings and gentle prayers, and by passionate, irrepressible outcries! Movements of the soul, by which the soul itself is purified. THE WORCESTER AUTUMNAL CONVENTION. THE Twelfth Autumnal Convention assembled at Worcester, on Tuesday, October 18, 1853. Rev. Samuel K. Lothrop, D.D. was appointed President; Rev. I. Nichols, D.D. of Portland, Hon. John Davis of Worcester, Rev. Samuel Gilman, D.D. of Charleston, S. C., and Hon. Stephen Fairbanks of Boston, were appointed Vice-Presidents. In the absence of Dr. Nichols, the Hon. Henry Hubbard of Charlestown, N. H. was subsequently elected in his place. Rev. William O. White of Keene, N. H. and Rev. Solon W. Bush of Brattleboro', Vt. were appointed Secretaries. Three questions were brought before the Convention by Rev. Dr. Hedge, the Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements, appointed at the previous Convention. These questions were accepted as subjects of discussion, and were as follows: 1. By what means may the religious services of our churches be made more impressive? 2. What constitutes membership of the Church of Christ, and a right to partake of the Lord's Supper? 3. How may we promote greater concert of action in the churches of our connection, and is an association of churches for that end expedient or desirable? It was a part of the judicious plans of the Committee of Arrangements, which we hope will be imitated in subsequent Conventions, to have each of the above questions laid open to the Convention by a short and carefully prepared Essay. The advantages of this plan were obvious at once. The Essay presented clearly the important points involved in the question, and thus saved much time, and shut off much useless discussion, hitherto given to attempts to make the subject generally understood. Opening at once the central views of the question by few and sensible words, it seemed to be an invitation for only short and sênsible speeches to follow. During the two days' session of the Convention, Essays were read, on the first question, by the Rev. Dr. Hedge; on the second question, by Rev. Rufus Ellis; while the third question was explained by Rev. Cazneau Palfrey, not by a written essay, but in a short speech, remarkable, like all speeches from his lips, for precision and force of state ment. It would occupy too many of our pages were we to transcribe all that was said upon these questions. Very full reports were given in the Register and Inquirer, and it will be sufficient for us to make such a record as may be not without its use as a permanent memorial of this Con vention. Of course, every one acquainted with the usages of our body knows perfectly well that the objects contemplated by the autumnal gathering of our friends do not include the proposal of any specific modes of action, or the passage of any resolutions of opinion. We assemble for the purpose of strengthening the ties of fraternal and social affection, and for a free interchange of thought and feeling on any subject that may have a present interest to our minds. How far the first-named object was accomplished will be apparent to every one who remembers, as all, we are sure, will long remember, the cordial welcome with which we were greeted, the elegant hospitalities to which we were received, the sentiments of Christian sympathy and affection that were expressed, and the impressive services of worship in which we unitedly joined. |