ceeds with the narration as follows:-" After harvest, Gov. Bradford sent four men a fowling, so that we might, after a special manner, rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labours. These men killed as much fowl as, with little help, lasted the company a week. Among other recreations we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming among us, also Massasoit and ninety men, whom for three days we feasted and entertained." 66 Here is the origin of the first New England Thanksgiving, in the opinion of Rev. Dr. Young, the author of Chronicles of the Pilgrims; and, on the whole, there is reason to believe that his opinion is correct, so far as we have any written records to prove it. It is true that the Pilgrims did offer thanksgiving to their Preserver immediately on landing, and, perhaps, afterwards; but they could not thank God for the fruits of the earth, for they had none to gather in. But in the above record, it is specially mentioned that the festival was after harvest," and that it was by appointment of the "Governor," and that the rejoicing was "after a special manner." Of course so pious a people as the Pilgrims would not have a week of rejoicing, as it seems they did, without at least one day devoted to religious exercises. And it is most natural to suppose, from the manner that the Pilgrims observed their sacred days, that the recreations, exercising in arms, &c., occurred not on the day devoted to worship, but on days preceding or following. The first thanksgiving was then two hundred and thirty-three years ago, and provided it has been observed every year from that day to this, we shall to-day enjoy the two hundred and thirty-fourth thanksgiving day of our land.-Courier & Enquirer. THE FEMALE PILGRIMS. A LARGER proportion of women was found at Plymouth than at the commencement of any other colony. Only two females came to Virginia during the first two years after its settlement; twelve years elapsed before many followed in their footsteps. Eighteen wives came with their husbands to Plymouth. There is a beautiful and plausible tradition that the first and foremost of those who landed from the Mayflower, was a young maiden, Mary Chilton. True sisters of charity, ministering angels rather-they were doubtless watched, as they tended the sick, by savage spies hidden in the tree-tops. Their presence was a proof not to be gainsaid, that the pilgrim's errand was not a kidnapper's- or even the unscrupulous fur trader's, or fisherman's. What but these helps meet for man so won the heart of SAMOSET that, though his friends had been sold into slavery by white men, this chief came at length to their doors, welcome himself as an angel, shouting in their own tongue wherein they were born, WELCOME! WELCOME! and was an interpreter for the pale faces, who spoke with stammering lips among men of a strange language. Besides conciliating the savages, who can estimate how many of the sick female tenderness kept back from death?-or how much energy female helplessness may have developed in the convalescing? In after years, recalling these heavy times, more than one of those heroines may have said to her husband or lover: "Alack, what trouble Was I then to you?" His answer must have been, "Oh! a cherubim Thou wast, that did preserve me. Thou didst smile, which raised in me An undergoing spirit to bear up As if to reward the dauntlessness of woman at this crisis, in the manner which poetical justice would dictate, the last survivor of the first comers was a female, Mary Allerton, who lived to see the planting of twelve of the thirteen colonies, which at first composed these United States. The contemporary planters of Weymouth, being all able men, had boasted of what they would bring to pass in comparison of the people of Plymouth, who had so many women and children with them. But within a single year, their plantation was broken up, and they would all have been scalped, but for the interposition of despised Plymouth, while the little ones and wives whom they said should be a prey, possessed the land, and their days were long in it. Worthy are ye of a martyrology penned by apostles; ye whom some call "godintoxicated men," strangers and pilgrims, "unshaken, unseduced, unterrified," saw ye not in your Patmos visions of the Revelation?-Congregational Journal. THE LIGHTHOUSES OF THE WORLD. "Could a Christian community exist and stand erect in the family of civilized nations, and shroud its shores in utter darkness? For what do we see when we look around us? The British Islands, blazing with three hundred lights; France, with more than one hundred and fifty; the Baltic, the Mediterranean, the Euxine, all illu minated; and even in the frozen North, Imperial Russia lighting the American mariner on his pathway through the White Sea out to the Polar Basin. The whole globe, from North to South, from East to West, is encircled with these living monuments of humanity and civilization."-Duty of the Am. Union to Improve its Navigable Waters. THAT even the best of men should think precisely alike in religious matters, is scarcely to be expected, when we consider the different grades of intellect and degrees of information, as well as the influence exerted upon their views by the different circumstances under which they are placed. Of course, all Christians will agree in those points both of doctrine and morals, which are essential to salvation; for though it is true that there is no part of divine revelation which is superfluous, it is evident that there are some doctrines and truths which must be believed in order to salvation, whilst there are others in regard to which the pious may differ. Wherever there is agreement on the essentials of Christianity, there is a foundation for Christian fellowship, and there is an obligation that cannot be cancelled, to maintain such fellowship. Unfortunately for the cause of piety, there is a strange propensity in men to attach a very undue importance to their peculiarities, and consequently to give them a prominence both in their public discourses and their writings to which they are not entitled. We do not mean to say that there is any danger that any part of divine truth will be too much loved; but there is danger that the less important doctrines, or perhaps erroneous peculiarities, will occupy more attention than the fundamental doctrines of the Cross. There is another evil connected with this. Religious principles more strongly enlist the feelings than those of a different character. Consequently, men are apt to become excited when they hear their favourite notions opposed. It is not uncommon, therefore, to find much alienation of feeling amongst brethren, merely in consequence of differences in doctrinal views, which are far from being fundamental. Nor is it less common to find persons manifest much greater zeal in trying to gain a proselyte from a sister denomination to their own, than in seeking the conversion of sinners. Another evil perhaps not less than these, is the strong propensity in men to transfer their dislike of what they regard as errors to the persons who hold them. Hence the frequency with which religious discussions, at first interesting and profitable, degenerate into degrading personalities. To avoid this evil is not always easy, particularly when a party assails the personal character of those who may differ from them. Besides, when there are "wolves in sheep's clothing,"men who, under the garb of religion, are leading astray the unwary, and indulging in crime, faithfulness may absolutely require an exposure of their "deeds of darkness." The best remedy for these evils is, doubtless, fervent piety, which, whilst it enlightens the mind to discern the truth, purifies the heart, and elevates the affections above the bigoted feelings of the sectarian. It strongly attaches us to the truth; but it discriminates between truths, assigning to each its proper place in the great system.-St. Louis Presbyterian. MAN'S RESPONSIBILITY FOR HIS BELIEF. THE following letter on "Man's Responsibility for his Belief," is from the correspondence of Dr. Chalmers, recently published: My dear Madam,-Lord Byron's assertion that 'man is not responsible for his belief,'—an assertion repeated by Mr. Brougham and several others, seems to have proceeded from the imagination that belief is in no case voluntary. Now it is very true that we are only responsible for what is voluntary; and it is also true, that we cannot believe without evidence. But then it is a very possible thing that a doctrine may possess the most abundant evidence, and yet the evidence be not attended to. Grant that belief is not a voluntary act-it is quite enough for the refutation of Mr. Brougham's principle if attention be a voluntary One attends to a subject because he so chooses, or he does not attend because he so chooses. It is the fact of the attention being given or withheld which forms the thing that is to be morally reckoned with. And if the attention has been withheld when it ought to have been given, for this we are the subjects of rightful condemnation. act. "It is enough to make unbelief a thing of choice, and a thing of affection, that we have power over the direction of our noticing and investigating faculties. You are not to blame if you have not found some valuable article that you have lost in an apartment of the thickest darkness; but you are to blame if you might have opened the shutters, or lighted a candle, so as to have admitted enough of light for the discovery. Neither are you to blame if you do not find the hidden treasure of the Gospel, provided it is placed beyond the reach of all your strenuousness, and of every expedient that can be used for its discovery; but you are to blame if you have not gone in quest of it, or if you have wilfully and determinedly shut your eyes against it, or if you have not stirred up those powers of your mind over which the mind has a voluntary control, to the inquiring after it. The Discerner of the heart will see where the lurking deficiency lies, and make it manifest to all who remain in the darkness, that they loved the darkness-of all who have not come to Christ, that they were not willing to come. "Christ lays no unreasonable service on men, and far less that service which were most unreasonable of all, the homage of your belief, without affirming such evidence as, if attended to, will constrain the belief. Our religion has its proofs, and it also has its probabilities. Its proofs can only be got at by patient and laborious inquiry, and when gotten, they carry the belief along with them. Its probabilities again may, some of them, be seen at first sight, and though not enough to compel our belief, yet they form a sufficient claim upon our attention. They form that sort of precognition which entitles Christianity at least to a full and fair trial; and if not worthy all at once of a place in our creed, it is worthy of a full hearing. Now all I want is, that that hearing shall be given, that the evidences of Christianity shall be studied, that the Bible shall be read with patience and prayer, and moral earnestness; and, on the principle that he who seeketh findeth, I have no apprehension of such a course not terminating in a full and steadfast conviction that the Bible is an authentic message from heaven to earth, and contains in it the records of God's will for man's salvation. "I am, dear Madam, yours truly, "THOMAS CHAlmers." THE BIBLE. GOD's Bible is the book for all, just like the winds of heaven, and God's sunlight and his pure water, free for all. Good for the prince-good for the peasant. It goes higher than human intellect can reach. It goes lower than human degradation can descend. It is an ocean for an Edwards or a Chalmers to swim in, and to the poor, ignorant cottager it is the "small rain from heaven." THE PRESBYTERIAN MAGAZINE. DECEMBER, 1855. Miscellaneous Articles. LIVING AND WALKING IN THE SPIRIT. Is it not strange that a living being should ever be suspected of acting contrary to the law of his inward life? Did ever a plant produce an animal; or an animal a vegetable offspring? Yet we hear St. Paul exhorting Christian people, supposed to have the life of the Spirit, that they walk in the Spirit; that is, that they form no character, nor follow any course of life but such as the living Spirit in them would produce. How is this unnatural fact to be explained? The life of the animal and vegetable kingdoms is perfect by the first creation. It needs not to be created anew in order to accomplish the end of its being-to reach its highest good. The wild grape of the wilderness has no character to form, no end to gain, but by bringing forth its natural fruit; its clusters of wild grapes. But man comes into life, by the first creation destined to bear the image of his Maker, yet born with a nature, which sins and comes short of the glory of God; the image he is destined to bear. No unfolding of the nature he receives from the first Adam can raise him to his true glory. He must be created again. He must have a new life-a life which was not to run in the channels of nature through the line of human generations; but to consist of a supernatural infusion of the Spirit of God. This Spirit was given to Christ, the Mediator, to be communicated by Him to his people. The Holy Spirit takes possession of the natural mind of the Christian, and there maintains a conflict, working continually to subdue the whole man to the law of the Spiritual life. The conflict continues through the earthly term of the believer. The flesh warreth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. The |