MSS. of John Randolph, Letter IV [pp. 568-571]

SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER.
elements of perpetuity) but christianity. This connects and surrounds these endearing sentiments with
associations which diffuse over them a brighter light,
and give them an infinitely higher value than they
could have without it. "Christianity not only reveals
to us the Infinite One, the great Supreme, as the Father
alike of all men; it not only instructs all whom it addresses in looking over, and as far as we may, in looking into, and through the mighty universe, to say and to
feel'our Father made it all;' it not only says to each
individual, and to all the race,'all ye are brethren;' and
requires each one to cherish for the rest a brother's interest, and sympathy, and affection; but it requires us
also, when we pray, to carry with us these sympathies
and affections to the throne of infinite mercy and love,
and there to strengthen and hallow the feeling of our
connexion with our fellow-men, through our common
relation to God, by addressing him as-not my, but
'our Father who art in Heaven.' Who, indeed, can
feel that he is a child of God-that he has an immortal
nature-that in his intellectual and moral powers, and
and in his capacity of eternal progress, he has also the
capacity of an eternal advancement in likeness to God
himself, and therefore in all which can forever exalt his
nature, and secure and increase his happiness; who
can feel all this, and at the same time, (what it is equally important we should feel,) that the most untaught,
the poorest, and mbst degraded of our race, possesses
the principles of a common nature with ourselves, and
is equally a child of God, and as such, our brother;who can thus comprehend his own soul, and thus feel
his relation to his fellow-man, without feeling his heart
drawn out in sympathy with human weakness, and
ignorance, and want, and wretchedness, and sin?"
With these convictions deeply, and I hope indelibly
engraven on my heart, I cannot bid adieu to you on the
present occasion, without most earnestly entreating you
to make them your own as speedily as possible, if this
has not already been done. In making this request, I
address myself principally to such of my auditors, of
both sexes, as are still the subjects of scholastic instruction and discipline. Upon you, and others of your age,
will chiefly depend the welfare and happiness of yourselves and the next generation-nay, I may add, ofall future generations, since each age is most materially affected by that which has immediately preceded it. The hope
of rendering yout, my young friends, some small service,
was my chief object in coming here this evening; and
could I depart with the confident expectation that my
humble efforts might contribute in any degree towards
leading even one of you to your God, it would afford me
a gratification-a joy which I have no language to express. Few are the enjoyments left, in a great majority of cases, to those who, like myself, are fast approaching the verge of their graves; but it is in the power of
the young to multiply these enjoyments far beyond
what they themselves are able to conceive. It is in the
power of such as you, my youthful hearers, to furnish
the generally gloomy and painful close of long protracted life with intellectual repasts infinitely more delightful than can possibly'be afforded by the sensual
gratifications of the most ardent of all the sinful passions of youth. It is in the power of such as yourselves
to invigorate with unspeakable pleasure the feebleness
of old age-to raise their sinking hearts with the most
animating anticipations of your future prosperity, fame
and happiness-to banish forever from their minds the
utter misery of leaving you in the broad road to destruction-and even to surround the bed of a beloved
and aged parent's death with joys and foretastes of
future felicity to each, such as none but a mother's or
father's imagination can possibly conceive. Leave not
this room then, leave it not, I beseech you, without an
unalterable determination to exert this power from the
present moment to the end of your lives. Let your
temporal destiny then be what it may,-no earthly bereavement-none of what are called the calamities and
miseries of life, can possibly deprive you of that greatest of all earthly blessings-conscious rectitude; nor
of that last, that highest reward of all christian hopea never fading inheritance in a world of endless duration and perfect beatitude.
A CASE
NOT TO BE FOUND IN ANY OF THE BOOKS.
Barney Cunningham was dancing with all his might,
while Pat O'Leary was playing Paddy Carey on his
Jews Harp, and Jemmy Callahan sitting quietly looking
on, smoking his pipe on the head of an empty whiskey
barrel. All of a sudden the Divil got into Pat, who
changed the tune to Molly put the kettle on, which, as
it were, brought Barney up all standing, and caused him
to bite his tongue almost through. Upon this, Barney,
without saying a word, quietly marches up to Pat and
gives him a black eye, and upon that Pat appeals to
Jemmy Callahan whether this was not offending against
good manners. Whereupon Jemmy decides, that Pat
had no right to change the tune withoutgiving the
gentleman notice, and so the matter was settled to the
satisfaction of all parties.
MSS. OF JOHN RANDOLPH.*
LETTER IV.
GEORG;E TOWN, Dec. 31,f 1811.
.My Dear Madam,-Under that most severe visitation
of Divine Providence, which it is your fate to suffer, I
well know how worse than useless-how almost cruel
and insulting may appear any mention of comfort, or
consolation on the part of a fiiend. I have none such
to offer: yet I cannot resist the feeling which impels me,
at this awful moment, to speak to you: to remind you
that our Heavenly Father chasteneth whom he loveth;
that his eye is upon us, who died for our sins; who,
having partaken of our nature, looks with pity upon
its errors and its sufferings, and offers to our acceptance
a sure and eternal refuge from the calamities of this life
and of the next. It is he who calls upon us to endure,
* We are indebted for the letters now published, to the same
personal friend of Mr. Randolph, who furnished us those for the
July number of the Messenger. We hope to be able to procure
others for September.
t Five days after the Richmond Theatre was burnt.
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