rocks, and the rise of the thermometer in the water, all suggested the sup position of a climatic melioration toward the pole. "There is much in Dr. Kane's wonderful narrative to remind the reader of the story of old William Barentz, who, two hundred and fifty-nine years ago, wintered on the coast of Nova Zembla. His men, seventeen in num. ber, broke down during the trials of winter, and three died, just as of the eighteen under Dr. Kane three had gone. Barentz abandoned his vessel, as the Americans abandoned theirs, took to his boats, and escaped along the Lapland coast to lands of Norwegian civilization. The Americans embarked with sledges and boats to attempt the same thing. They had the longer journey, and the more difficult one, before them. Barentz lost, as they did, a cherished comrade by the wayside. But one resemblance luckily does not exist: Barentz himself perished-Dr. Kane lived to write an account of all that he suffered in a noble cause. No mere abstract of his narrative can give an idea of its absorbing interest. His book is above all common praise, on account of the simple, manly, unaffected style in which the narrative of arduous enterprise and firm endurance is told. It is obviously a faithful record of occurrences, made by a man who was quite aware that what he had to tell needed no extraneous embellishment. There is, however, so much of artistic order in the mind of the narrator, that the unvarnished record has naturally shaped itself into a work of distinguished excellence upon literary grounds. The scenes which it describes are so vividly and vigorously brought before the reader, that there are few who sit down to the perusal of the narrative but will fancy, before they rise from the engrossing occupation, their own flesh paralyzed by the cold one hundred degrees greater than frost, and their blood scurvyfilled by the four months' sunlessness. It is only just also to remark, that there is unmistakable evidence in the pages of this interesting book, that the doctor was no less eminently gifted for the duties of his command than he has been happy in his relation of its history. Every step in his arduous path seems to have been taken only after the exercise of deliberately matured forethought. When the preparations for the final escape were under consideration, the following record was made in the doctor's journal: 'Whatever of executive ability I have picked up during this brain-and-body-wearying cruise warns me against immature preparation or vacillating purposes. I must have an exact discipline, a rigid routine, and a perfectly thought-out organization. For the past six weeks I have, in the intervals between my duties to the sick and the ship, arranged the schedule of our future course; much of it is already under way. My journal shows what I have done, but what there is to do is appalling.' Appalling as it was, the heroic man who had to look the necessity in the face, was equal to the position." THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF THAT EMINENT AMERICAN MISSIONARY, ADONIRAM JUDSON. NO PRINCIPLE in man is so powerful as that of religion. Stranger as he is in this world, knowing but little around him, ignorant even of himself, his mind, as it develops, becomes aroused to the enigma of his existence. "Who am I?” "What was my origin ?" "Whither am I tending?" are questions of solemn import. Comparatively helpless, enveloped in mysteries, man feels the necessity of looking for a mightier power as the source of all things, and as a guide through the unknown future. The emotions thus originated, are united with the profoundest veneration for the great Unseen and Incomprehensible. This is Natural Religion, that which exists in the heart of every human being. The affections of the natural man open to the religious sentiment as the plants open to the light. The great want of humanity is a supreme object of worship and adoration. If destitute of this, man gropes in the dark and in his honest endeavors to minister to his religious faculties, falls a victim to horrible superstitions. The blackest records in history are those of crimes committed in the name of religion. But Revelation unfolds to a man, an idea-the grandest that can enter the soul of mortal-an idea so vast that no finite being can comprehend it-the idea contained in that awful word-GOD! God, the creator and author of all that has been, that is, and that is to be; God, the omnipotent, the omnipresent, and the omniscient, who holds the world in the hollow of his hand, and has the universe for his footstool,-who pervades all space, whose eye is upon all things, even to our thoughts: God Almighty, the good father of us all! With the idea of God, revelation presents that other great idea—IMMORTALITY! This life is but the beginning: man is to live forever: a higher world may be his, where there is no sorrow and no sin. There, all his faculties, moral, social and intellectual, the just exercise of which, even on earth, with the impediment of a perishing frame, give so much joy, are to have full scope and in a more glorious, a perfect body. Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, to conceive of the full measure of bliss that awaits him at the hands of his eternal Father When to these two great ideas is united the third-SALVATION BY FAITH, and these triune ideas,-GOD! IMMORTALITY! HEAVEN!-take full possession of a man, he is ready for anything. Counting this life as nothing, he willingly dies, if need be, the death of a martyr, and under most excruciating tortures. Mortal agony is endured by the hope of immortal joy. We propose to trace on these leaves the history of one such, to whom to peril, no suffering, was to be avoided, if thereby his fellow-men were to derive benefit. We allude to that self-sacrificing, eminent American missionary, Adoniram Judson. Five years after the close of the American Revolution, August 9, 1788, Adoniram Judson was born, in the town of Malden, Massachusetts. His father was the pastor of a Congregational church, and therefore his son was, in common phrase, "well born," for in the New England States, the clergy are of preeminent influence. As a boy at school, Judson was noted for his sprightliness of disposition, studious habits, and ease in acquiring knowledge. At the proper age, he became a student of Brown University, and graduated there in 1807, with the highest honors of his class. He subsequently taught school at Plymouth, where his fine amiable traits and pleasing address won universal esteem. Unfortunately he had, while at college, fallen into the very common error of young men of his age, of disbelieving the truths of the Christian religion. These skeptical ideas were dissipated afterward by a very sudden and surprising incident. Closing his school, he determined to travel in the Southern States, where it was thought he had an idea of settling, and much against the wishes of his parents. He got ready, and bade them farewell: they shed tears at the parting, and their continual affection and love were seldom from his mind, during his absence. This, to young Judson, was a second Damascus journey. It was destined to change his whole career, and lead him eventually into that high calling, for which he was so peculiarly fitted. He had not long been absent when an event occurred that changed his determination. He put up at an inn, on his journey, where, it seems, one of his favorite fellow-graduates was also stopping, though he was ignorant of the fact. The same night the graduate died, and when Judson approached the corpse, as he thought of a traveling stranger, he was horrified as he gazed upon the inanimate form of his favorite college associate, and the same one, principally, through whom his infidelity had been imbibed. He fell into a train of solemn reflection. This circumstance, and his parent's prayers, began to whisper at his heart. He resolved to abandon his tour, retrace his steps, and devote himself to the study of the Holy Scriptures. He soon returned home, greatly to the surprise and joy of his parents and friends. True to his purpose, he commenced a rigid examination of the scriptures, and the subject of revealed religion, and soon after, entered the Andover Theological Seminary, though it was ordinarily a privilege enjoyed exclusively by religious young men, having the ministry in view this regulation, however, was suspended in his case. He devoted himself to his studies with unwearied application. As a result of his investigation, his infidelity, that had trembled before a father's prayer, a mother's tear, and a friend's death-bed, was completely overturned. |