writings behind him, in which he constantly abhors all heresy. He instructed us also to avoid every thing that was heretical. In his discourses he always exhorted us to the practice of peace and charity, and his own life was a distinguished comment on his doctrine. After all the inquiry which we have made, we can find no blame attached to the doctrine or life of the said John Huss; but, on the contrary, every thing pious, laudable, and worthy of a true pastor. Ye have not only disgraced us by his condemnation, but have also unmercifully imprisoned, and perhaps already put to death, Jerome of Prague, a man of most profound learning and copious eloquence. Him also ye have condemned unconvicted. Notwithstanding all that has passed, we are resolved to sacrifice our lives for the defence of the Gospel of Christ, and of his faithful preachers." [To be continued.] ORIGINAL LETTER OF THE LATE REV. DR. BAYLEY. ESTEEMED SIR, WITH great pleasure I received your letter, and was thankful to God for his preserving you in so many dangers by sea and land. I was also glad to hear of your return to England, and should be happy to see you again in Manchester; but I begin to fear that will not be soon, on account of your sending for your books. Our almighty Father is, however, in all places, and always nigh unto them that call upon him in sincerity. Here we have no continuing city, and we know neither the time nor place of our dissolution; but our heavenly Father knows, and we are under his guardianship. At that hour how shall we regret that we were not more earnest for the glory of God, the good of men, and our own eternal welfare! We have now a short delay to redeem time and work out our salvation, and we need to tremble lest we fall short of the mark. The and a pillar of a cloud to give light by night. This I have experienced in my affliction, from which I am yet scarcely recovered; but let us sing praises, sing praises, for his mercy endureth for ever. The news of the country I need not repeat to you, as you have the same means of conveyance that we have; but I thank the Lord of lords that his little Zion here, I hope, does not decrease, but rather increase in number, and, I trust, in grace; and some have landed safe in the haven of eternal felicity. I trust the Lord will bless and prosper the attempts you may make for the good of souls where you are. are. Despair not, the success is with God, only be faithful. Be frequent and earnest at the throne of grace. You have known the sweetness of it. Stir up yourself, and the Lord will help you. I wish I could say something that would encourage and comfort you. Keep humble before the Lord. Strive to exercise faith in the promises, and cleave unto the Lord with full purpose of heart. The Lord will give grace and glory, and soon will call us to sing the song of Moses and the Lamb. Mrs. B. and all my family unite with me in prayer for your welfare, spiritual and eternal. I am, yours, &c. Let us take no man for our example. Christ hath left us an example that we should follow his steps. In following others we are in danger of erring, in imitating Jesus we cannot mistake. world, formerly a Paradise, is become a scene of snares and tempt ations; but Jesus accompanied the Israelites through the wilderness. To them he was, what he is to Sept. 1808. every true Christian, a sun by day, C. BAYLEY. THE WHISPER FROM THE GRAVE. THE last gleam of day glimmer'd faint on the hill; The hamlet was hush'd, and the neat-herd repos'd, "O daughter of Vanity, sportive and gay, Your dance you may weave, and your graces display; Of fashion the lovely but mutable slave! Prepare!' is the warning that comes from the grave. "O son of Festivity, madly enjoy The cups that betray, and the pleasures that cloy; But ah! the remonstrance will come from the grave. "Would you hear of a love that shall never decay? And gilded with glory the gloom of the grave. "The smitten of God,' and acquainted with grief,' Who felt for the widow, and pitied the thief; Who hung on the cross, and was laid in the cave, Will teach you, will bless you, will raise from the grave." I recorded the Whisper that came from the Grave. J. W. M. THE STORY OF LA ROCHE; OR, THE BENIGHTED TRAVELLER. EXTRACTED FROM AN ALPINE TALE *.-SUGGESTED BY FACT. It was on a dismal evening in the month of December, when the various engagements of the day had been concluded, and the family were seated round a fire, whose vivid blaze diffused a cheerful light through the room, that their attention was suddenly arrested by a tap at the window. The snow had fallen in large flakes, and with little intermission, since the morning; and the ravines, to which it was generally drifted, and through whose covert the road lay, were by this time supposed to be impassable. Situated as the mansion of Du Blesne was, and accessible only by the path leading to the lake, and another that traversed the mountain in its rear, and conducted to the adjoining canton, it seldom happened that they were visited but when the weather was propitious, unless it was as we have related, by some traveller benighted on his way. At the first apprehension, therefore, that any one might require the services they were ever eager to render, an instinctive terror seized them, and every breath was instantaneously hushed. Though the storm had in some degree abated, the wind still howled angrily over the surrounding steeps, and had drawn from them the sigh of compassion for those who might be exposed to its inclemency, while it excited many a grateful smile through the little circle as they looked at the blaze, and thought of their own comfortable It may be observed, that the entire of this narrative was originally intended for, and promised to, the Christian Guardian. It became so voluminous, however, under some alterations which suggested themselves to the writer, that he considered it too great an intrusion on that valuable dwelling, and the numerous blessings that rested on its favoured inhabitants. It was when they were thus not unbecomingly employed in calling their mercies to remembrance, and in paying a deserved tribute to the Hand that bestowed them, that their conversation was interrupted in the manner we have mentioned. While respiration was suspended by a mixture of doubt and alarm, and they were attentively listening for a repetition of the noise that had attracted their notice, a second tap, not louder than the former, put an end to their painful uncertainty. Mary, whose gentle heart already pictured some scene of misery, flew to the door, and in a moment all were in motion. The unfortunate wanderer, whoever he might be, had sunk exhausted on the ground, and was lying stretched beneath the window in a state of insensibility, and almost buried in the snow. Each one vieing with another in endeavours to relieve him, they carried him into the house, and promptly applying those restoratives which their intelligent benevolence knew so well how to administer, found their ef forts, after a short but anxious interval, crowned with the desired success. He opened his eyes, and looking round on them with a smile of gratitude, said, with a voice tremulous from age; but in a tone that bespoke the fervour of his heart: "How gracious is my heavenly Friend! How kind are you! I was a hungered, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in." An hour or two elapsed, and his Miscellany to occupy so large a portion of limbs, which had been benumbed its pages. He has preferred, therefore, inserting merely an extract. from and the power of utterance again gradually returning, he thus broke the long and solemn silence that had prevailed: "I am aware you must be solicitous to learn the circumstances which have thus mysteriously thrown me as an intruder on your generous hospitality, and to hear the particulars of my mournful story." The tear slowly rolled along his cheek-he wiped it, and continued: 66 It is, indeed, too little interesting to merit narra. tion; yet it may tend, under the blessing from on high, to awaken in all of us some profitable emotions, and lead us to set our affections on the things above." The venerable aspect of the old man, the placidity of his countenance, the dignity of his manners, and the purity of his accent, denoting some other than an Alpine education, had, during these few words, already commanded the esteem and rivetted the attention of his hosts; when, fetching a deep sigh, he thus related his melancholy tale: "Not unknown in the annals of my country, De la Roche is my name. It was in Alsace that I first drew the vital air. Born to an estate which had descended to me through a long line of ancestors, I was instructed in such accomplishments as were considered suitable to my rank and expectations; and, being an only child, I met with every indulgence from my too fond parents. Before I entered on my fifteenth year, I had the misfortune to lose my father. Intrusted to the guardianship of my mother, and having no control but her mild and gentle reproof, I quickly became impatient of restraint. The victim of an ardent imagination, and encouraged by my companions in crime, I was no sooner the master of my own actions than I determined to disengage myself from the trammels of maternal entreaties, withdraw from the presence of one JUNE 1822. whose conduct was a continual rebuke, and procure elsewhere that liberty of transgression which was denied me under her watchful care. "Confirmed in this resolution by what I regarded as a laudable desire of acquainting myself with foreign nations, and the manners and customs of the world, I now sought a favourable opportunity for informing my mother of my intentions. Conscious of the anguish which the disclosure would occasion, I endeavoured to break the affair to her as gently as possible ; for, though steeled against every other sentiment of rectitude, the chord of filial affection was still unbroken in my heart. But scarcely had I made the first distant allusion, when her solicitude, ever tremblingly alive to my welfare, pierced the veil I wished to cast over my design. Never shall I forget her agony! Afraid she would instantly have expired, so dreadful was the shock she had received, I told her that I would at least defer my departure, and perhaps indefinitely postpone it. But this was merely a disguise. I had laid my plans, and was not to be diverted from putting them in execution, even by the alarming agitation of a parent whom I loved and respected. "I now commenced in secret the preparations for my journey. The day arrived, and all was in readiness. I could not, however, think of quitting the house without taking leave of my unhappy mother. It was a moment of indescribable emotion: but now I was to decide, or for ever abandon my projects. I ran hastily into her apartment-communicated my determination-and was hurrying away from the gaze of an eye where delirium was already depicted, when she flew towards me and caught me in her arms. At first, incapable of utterance, she could only hang upon my neck, and E E bathe my cheek with her tears. At length, in a voice scarcely articulate, and interrupted by her sobs, she said-'O my son, my son! Will my Claude forsake his poor mother, who brought him forth in sorrow and fed him from her breast, who watched so anxiously over his helpless infancy, and spent so many a sleepless night beside his bed? O Claude! and shall I then behold the face of my ungrateful but still-beloved boy no more? Feeling my courage begin to fail me, and dreading lest I should be unable to resist longer an interview of so affecting a nature, I tore myself from her embraces, and rushed to the carriage which I had previously ordered to be in waiting to receive me. This is a scene to which memory has since recurred with many a bitter reflection. I never after saw her alive. 66 For several years, I was leader in all the dissipations of a licentious court. Endowed from my birth with a robust constitution, I withstood excesses which carried many of my wretched companions to an untimely and awful grave. Buoyed up by the flattering anticipations of youth and inexperience, I gave my heart to know madness and folly,' and said, 'Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth.' I visited distant countries. I frequented every resort where pleasure was sought or reported to have been found. In a word, I passed my days as if there was no God that judgeth in the earth. At length my mother, who had not ceased to follow me with the most tender expostulations, while compelled to blend with them the language of warning, wrote to inform me that my abandoned conduct (which had reached her ears through a thousand channels), united with my unkindness, had broken her heart, and that she expected soon to be removed from a world where she had experienced many afflictions; 'most of all,' she added, in the behaviour of my still dear son. Freely I forgive you, Claude; may a heavenly Father forgive you freely too! O how many an unutterable pang have I endured on your account! How many a painful hour have I spent in supplication for you, my illfated, unfortunate child! But I will yet trust, that my prayers for you will be answered, when the hand that now traces these lines is lifeless and mouldering, and when the heart that dictates them has ceased to beat. Yea, I will hope even against hope, that the goodness and long-suffering of that Saviour who has supported me under all my trials, will yet lead you to repentance; and that I shall hereafter meet you in those abodes where you will no longer need reproof, and where your affectionate mother will for ever dry her tears.' Stung with remorse, I hurried home; and eagerly inquiring for my unhappy parent, was told that she had just expired, with her latest breath imploring the divine pardon on my head. I flew to 66 the chamber of death'-I fell upon her face, and kissed her, and wept-till exhausted nature gave way, and I was carried insensible to bed. Here I lay in the delirium of a fever, wavering on the borders of eternity for nearly three months. It pleased Him, however, who keepeth mercy for thousands,' to spare me yet a little. And, O how shall I sufficiently adore and magnify the gracious dispensation which still granted me leisure to 'call my sins to remembrance!' A pious aunt, the sister of my mother, who had come to attend her during her illness, watched over me through the whole period of my sickness and convalescence, with the most tender assiduity, and seized every favourable opportunity to impress my mind with the value of the things invisible. And ever glorified be |