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and keep alive its feelings. The perplexed and doubting spirit loves to find a breast where it can deposite them without fear or shame; and would to God, that next to him you might always find that confidant at home! Husbands and wives, let not this be the only subject on which you are ignorant of each other's meditations, or destitute of each other's confidence. Venture to disdain the false maxims and tyranny of the world, and try what religion will add to your domestic felicity.

THE EAGLE'S SPEECH.

BY HORATIO HALE.

AN Eagle came from his eyrie down,
On the loftiest peak of Monadnoc's crown;
The flash of his dark eye was terribly bright,
As the marsh-fire's gleam in the dead of night;
And the war-darts shook in his red right claw,
But the bough of peace in his left I saw.

Then slowly he opened his ivory beak,
And he stood like a senator ready to speak;
And the forests shook, and the winds grew still,
And hushed was the voice of the noisy rill;
And the raven cowered in his hollow oak,
As well he might when the Eagle spoke.

I am the monarch of air, said he;
Proudly I soar over land and sea;

And I feel the breezes around me sing

To the hurricane sweep of my mighty wing;

And my flight is chainless, and fearless, and free,
For I am the bright bird of Liberty!

I marshal the course of the free and the brave,
Upward and onward, o'er mountain and wave;
I lead them to glory, I beckon them on,
And I join in the din till the battle is won;
And the dim eye will gladden my shadow to see,
For I am the bright bird of Liberty!

In the days of old, with the freemen of Rome,
With Brutus and Cato I made me a home;
And my wing was before them unwearied and fleet,
Till the princes of earth were all low at their feet,
And the Roman was master by land and by sea,
For he followed the bright bird of Liberty!

But luxury came, like the simoom's hot breath,
And the flowers were all withered in valor's green wreath,
And virtue was trampled and hustled aside

By the pageant of guilt and the purple of pride;
But fetters, though gilded, are hateful to me,
So I fled to the mountains for Liberty!

THE EAGLE'S SPEECH.

Then ages went by, till Muscovia's czar,
In hatred determined my glory to mar;

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So he seized me, and chained me, and struck off my head,
But courteously gave me two others instead ;
My own noble beauty he never could see,
For most loathsome to despots is Liberty!

But tyranny's chains are too feeble to bind,
When the will is unfettered, unbroken the mind;
So I made my adieus, with a very bad grace,
And I threw my superfluous head in his face ;
And southward I sped, over forest and sea,
To France, the bright region of Liberty!

Oh, this was my season of triumph and pride,
On the smoke-wreath of battle 't was glory to ride,
Till kingdoms were shattered, and despots o'erthrown,
And the hero of destiny called me his own;
Of the masters of earth none so mighty as he,
For they loved not the bright bird of Liberty!

But the warrior was dazzled by glory's red ray,
And forgot the mild lustre of freedom's new day,
Till pontiff and tyrant arose from the shock,
And the hero was chained on the far ocean-rock,
And the slaves who forsook him bent lowly the knee
To the tyrants who trample on Liberty!

So I parted in scorn from the land of the slave,
And I found me an eyrie beyond the broad wave:
With Columbia's children I made me a home;
And wider than Russia, and greater than Rome,
And prouder than Gaul shall their father-land be,
If they cherish the bright bird of Liberty!

15*

EARLY BAPTISTS OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.

BY REV. EBENEZER E. CUMMINGS.

THE events of time-fleeting, wasting time, urge us to the solemn inquiry," Our Fathers, where are they, and the prophets, do they live for ever?" They pass one after another into eternity, but we would not be so insensible of their worth as to suffer either their characters or their labors to slumber in forgetfulness. And with equal earnestness should we labor to wrest from the hand of oblivion the history of the first churches, planted in the wilderness of New Hampshire.

No

The first settlement within the limits of New Hampshire, was made at the mouth of Piscataqua River in 1623. account, however, is given of any persons among the first settlers who embraced the sentiments of our denomination.

The first minister of whom we have any account, who embraced and defended the Baptist sentiment, was the Rev. Hanserd Knollys, who preached for some time to the people of Dover, about the year 1639, but his sentiments furnished his enemies with abundant occasion to oppose and persecute him, until at length he returned to Boston, where, after suffering imprisonment, he returned to England, his native country.

Nothing more is heard of our denomination until 1720, when a pious and very devoted lady moved from Rehoboth, Mass., to Stratham. She was most firmly established in her faith on the doctrines and duties of the gospel, and labored most devoutly to spread divine light around her. She did not, however, witness much fruit during her life, but it appeared in ripening harvest after her death. There might

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indeed have been many at this period who were Baptists in sentiment, but when we survey the oppressive measures that were adopted to prevent the introduction of our sentiments into the State, it is not at all surprising that they were so slow in making their appearance.

It should be understood, that however mild the laws of this State may be at present, in regard to religious matters, at the time of which we are now speaking, the jurisdiction of Massachusetts extended over New Hampshire, and made provision for the due administration of justice. From eighteen years after its first settlement to the year 1679, the laws of Massachusetts operated through all the province. So that, whatever laws were imposed in one State would be in the other, if circumstances demanded it. And the merest glance at the laws in Massachusetts at this time will show that they were most severe on this subject. The laws at this period required the inflicting of corporeal punishment upon any person who should be guilty of holding a religious. meeting or speaking against pedo-baptism. It is moreover very apparent these laws were prosecuted with great energy on the part of the civil authority. Public sentiment went also against the prevalence of all intruding sects, and of the number of such intruders, who, in the apprehension of the guardians of the public morals, threatened to sap the foundation of the institutions of religion, the Baptists were not the least spoken against.

Surrounded by such circumstances, it is not at all surprising that we find the cause progressing very slowly. There was indeed a gradual gaining of strength from the time of the formation of the church in Newtown, until 1770, though it was almost imperceptible.

In 1770, commenced a new era in the history of our denomination in New Hampshire.

It would be doing manifest injustice were I not to refer to the character and labors of our Fathers in the ministry,