The "temptations in the wilderness" were as real and as terrible as any which your virtue is called to encounter. * * * The scheme of Divine Providence is one from the beginning to the end, and is ever in progressive development. Every succeeding age helps to unfold the mighty plan. There are, indeed, times of darkness; but even then it is light to faith, and lighter to the eye of God; and even then there is progress, though to sense and fear all motion seems retrograde. To despond now, is not cowardice merely, but atheism; for now, as the world in its swift progress brings us nearer and nearer to the latter day, faith, instructed by the signs of the times, and looking up in devotion, sees on the blushing sky the promise of the morning. CHRISTIANITY IN HISTORY. The more we study Christ and the influence of Christianity in history, the deeper, also, and more cheering will be our conviction that Christianity, as one of the forces that control the progress of nations and of the human race, has never demonstrated all its efficacy. In the ages past, the various and complicated moral forces that move the world have been in opposition to its influence, or have acted to corrupt it. Its mission in the world is to work itself free from the corruptions that have soiled its purity and impaired its efficacy, and mingling itself with all that acts on human character,-literature, art, philosophy, education, law, statesmanship, commerce,-to bring all things into subordination to itself, and to sway all the complicated elements of power for the renovation of the world. We, brethren in the commonwealth of letters, all of us, from the most gifted to the humblest, are workers in history. Christianity, if we are true to our position and our nurture, is working through us upon the destinies of our country and of our race. Not the missionary only who goes forth, in the calm glow of apostolic zeal, to labor and to die in barbarous lands for the extension of Christ's empire,-not the theologian only who devotes himself to the learned investigation and the scientific exposition of the Christian faith,-not the preacher and the pastor only, but all who act in any manner or in any measure on the character and moral destiny of their fellow-men, are privileged to be the organs and the functionaries of Christianity. The senator, whose fearless voice and vote turn back from the yet uncontaminated soil of his country the polluting and blighting barbarism of slavery, and consecrate that soil eternally to freedom; the patriot statesman, who, in defiance of the ardor civium prava jubentium, lifts up his voice like a prophet's cry against the barbarous and pagan policy of war and conquest; the jurist, who, like Granville Sharp, by long and patient years of toil, forces the law to recognise at last some disregarded principle of justice; the teacher, the author, the artist, the physician, and the man of business, who, in their various places of duty and of influence, are serving their generation under the influence of Christian principles;-these all are in their several functions the anointed ministers of Christianity,"kings and priests to God." In the all-embracing scheme of the eternal Providence, no act, or effort, or aspiration of goodness shall be in vain. No rain-drop mingles with the ocean or falls upon the desert sand, no particle of dew moistens the loneliest and baldest cliff, but God sees it and saves it for the uses of his own beneficence. The vanished aspirations of the youth who fell and was forgotten-whose early promise sparkled for a moment and exhaled-are not wholly lost; he has not lived nor died in vain. Let these thoughts cheer us as we labor, and bear us up in our discouragements. "Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, Is our destined end or way; "Let us, then, be up and doing, Phi Beta Kappa Oration. EDWARD C. PINKNEY, 1802-1828. EDWARD COATE PINKNEY, son of Hon. William Pinkney,' of Baltimore, Maryland, was born in London in October, 1802, his father being at that time minister at the Court of St. James. On the return of the family, he entered "St. Mary's College" about 1812, and, at the age of fourteen, was appointed midshipman in the navy. After a varied service of nine years, he resigned his place in the navy, was married, and was admitted to the bar in 1824. But his previous habits of life were not favorable to the steady and earnest pursuit of legal investigations, and his poetic temperament did not suit well with the contentions of the court-room; consequently he had but little success as a lawyer. His health, too, had been for 1 William Pinkney was a native of Annapolis.-born 1764, died 1822.-He was appointed to various European missions by our Government, and held other eminent public stations. His greatest celebrity, however, was attained at the bar, where he was distinguished alike for learning and eloquence. He it was who, in the House of Delegates in Maryland, in 1789, uttered the noble sentiment,"Sir, by the eternal principles of natural justice, no master in this State has a right to hold his slave for a single hour." some time feeble, so that he had hardly the physical powers necessary to attain distinction in any profession. He had been for some years known as a poet to his circle of friends; and in 1825 a small volume appeared, entitled Rodolph, and other Poems. Rodolph-his longest work-has not much merit; but some of his minor pieces are very beautiful, and richly merit preservation. Had his life been spared, he would doubtless have trodden a higher walk; but he died on the 11th of April, 1828, at the early age of twenty-five. ITALY. Know'st thou the land which lovers ought to choose? In gleaming streams the crystal rivers run, The purple vintage clusters in the sun; Odors of flowers haunt the balmy breeze, Rich fruits hang high upon the verdant trees; Where bright-plumed birds discourse their careless loves. Until thy light feet press that green shore's yellow sand. Look seaward thence, and naught shall meet thine eye It looks a dimple on the face of earth, The place's genius, feminine and fair; The winds are awed, nor dare to breathe aloud; There Art, too, shows, when Nature's beauty palls, Then come, beloved!-hasten o'er the sea, To build our happy hearth in blooming Italy. A HEALTH. I fill this cup to one made up of loveliness alone, A woman, of her gentle sex the seeming paragon; To whom the better elements and kindly stars have given A form so fair, that, like the air, 'tis less of earth than heaven. Her every tone is music's own, like those of morning birds, Affections are as thoughts to her, the measures of her hours; Of her bright face one glance will trace a picture on the brain, I fill'd this cup to one made up of loveliness alone, A woman, of her gentle sex the seeming paragon, Her health and would on earth there stood some more of such a frame, That life might be all poetry, and weariness a name. A SERENADE. Look out upon the stars, my love, Of blending shades and light; Sleep not!-thine image wakes for aye Within my watching breast: Sleep not!-from her soft sleep should fly, Who robs all hearts of rest. Nay, lady, from thy slumbers break, And make this darkness gay With looks, whose brightness well might make GEORGE P. MORRIS. GEORGE P. MORRIS, to whom the common voice of the country has given the title of THE SONG-WRITER OF AMERICA, was born in Philadelphia in 1802. He early commenced his literary career, and in 1822 became the editor of "The New York Mirror," which remained under his control till 1843, when pecuniary diffi culties, occasioned by the storm of financial embarrassment which had but shortly before passed over the country, compelled him to relinquish its publication. During this long period, this periodical was very ably conducted, and became the vehicle of introduction to the public of some of the best writers in the country. In 1844, he established "The New Mirror," in conjunction with his friend N. P. Willis, which was soon after changed into "The Evening Mirror." This, after being continued a year as a daily paper, with great spirit and taste, was sold out, and in November, 1846, these two gifted authors started a weekly paper, called "The Home Journal," which has been continued from year to year, with increasing popularity,—a popularity richly deserved, from the taste, elegance, and enterprise with which it is conducted. General Morris has published the following works:-The Deserted Bride, and other Poems, 1843; The Whip-poor-will, a Poem; American Melodies; two or three dramas; and, in conjunction with his friend Willis, an admirable book entitled The Prose and Poetry of Europe and America. But it is as a writer of songs, which exert no little influence upon national character and manners, and of a few short pieces which, by their elevated moral sentiment and touching pathos, go right to the heart, that General Morris will hold an enduring place in American literature. 1 "General Morris's fame as 'The Song-Writer of America' belongs to two hemispheres, and is greater now than it has ever been before. You ask me,' says a recent letter from an English gentleman, now representing in the House of Commons one of the most ancient of the English boroughs, whether I have seen General Morris's last song, "Jenny Marsh of Cherry Valley." You can hardly know, when you put such a question, the place he has built himself in the hearts of all classes here. His many songs and ballads are household words in every home in England, and have a dear old chair by every circle in which kindly friends are gathered; and parents smile with pleasure to see brothers and sisters join their voices in the evening song, and twine closer those loving chords, -the tenderest of the human heart. It is no mean reward to feel that the child of one's brain has a chair in such circles, and that the love for the child passes in hundreds of hearts into love for its unseen parent. After all, what are all the throat-warblings in the world to one such heart-song as " My Mother's Bible"? It possesses the true test of genius, touching with sympathy the human heart equally in the palace and the cottage."" For a most beautifully-written critical essay upon General Morris's genius and poems, read "Literary Criticisms, and other Papers, by the late Horace Binney Wallace, Esq., of Philadelphia,"- -a volume which does the highest credit to the author as a man of pure taste, correct judgment, and finished scholarship. *He receives the title of General from his holding the rank of brigadier-general in the military organization of New York. |
