American watchman and Delaware advertiser. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1822-1828, 1827-05-18
THE STREAM OF LIFE.

mon preached by Bishop Heber, to his parishoners
at Hotinet short time before his departure fol
India, in 1898.
life bears us on like the stream of mighty
river. Our boat, at first, glides down the narrow
channel, through the playful murmurinss of the
little brook, and the wndngs of its grassy border
The trees shed their blossoms over cur young
heads the flowers on the brink seem to offer
themselves to our young hands; we are happy in
hope, and we grasp eagerly at the beauties around
US; but the stream hurries on, and still our hands
are empty.
Sour course in youth and manhood is along a
wider and deeper flood, and amid objects more
striking and magnificent. We are animated by
the moving picture Of enjoyment and industry
which passes before us, we are excited by some
short-lived success, or depressed and rendered
miserable by some equally shortyed disappont-
ment. But our energy and our dependence are
both in vain. The stream bears us on, and our
joys and our grieis alike are left behind US /; we
may be shipwrecked but we cannot anchor; our
voyage may be FASTENED but it cannot be delay
ed; whether rough smooth. the river hastens
towards its home, till the roaring of the ocean is
in ears and the tossing OF his waves is beneath
our keel, and the lands lessen from our eyes and
the Hoods are lifted up around US, and the earth
loses sight of US, and we take our last leave of
earth and its inhabitants and of our further voyage
there is no witness but the Infinite and Eternal
"And do we still take SO much anxious thought
for the future days. when the days which are gone
by have so strangely and uniformly deceived US !?
Can we still set our hearts on the creatures Of
God, when we find by sad experience, that the
Creator only is permanent Or shall we not rather
lay aside every weight and every sin which does
most easily beset us, and think of ourselves hence
forth as wayfaring persons only, who have no
abiding inheritance but in the hope OF better
world, and to whom even that world would be
worse than hopeless, if it were not for our Lord
Jesus Christ, and the interest which we have OBJ
tanned i'll his merces."
Ingenious Erpedisnt-Mr. Dickson, one Of
the English gentlemen engaged in making discoy-
cries in the interior of Africa, was detained by the
Shah natives, on pretence that the Fetish, their
idol or oracle, was unfavorabe 70 hs advance
Mr. ID. obtained permission to try the white man S
Fetish Being provided with galvanic battery,
he had fowl Killed, which he placed upon the
battery, and it performed the ordinary actions OF
the bird while it was alive, futtering, and almost
flying away. The natives could not resist the
miracle, and allowed him to proceed. This anec-
dote reminds US of that recorded of Columbus. who
found great difficulty in obtaining provisions, &c.
for his followers while in the Island of Hispanioa
lie told the natives that God was angry with them,
and that, on the morrow, the sun would become
red blood, the stars would shine at noon day, &c.
BY his skill in astronomy, he had ascertaned that
an eclipse of the sun was then to take place. and
he made use of this experiment, which was entire
ly successful the natives crowding around him
with abundant supplies, and revercncing him as a
demi-sod.
These two anecdotes illustrate, with great force.
the advantages in moral power, possessed by the
enlightened over the enghtened-the educated
over the uneducated; and go to strengthen the
many arguments in favor of practical, scientific
education, wherever attanable.
HosfOn pafriOt.