Written for the Gavel, THE HEBREW MOTHER. BY NINESKA. THE day shone bright upon the land of Judah. "The horizon was of a fine golden tint, changing gradually into a pure apple green, and from that into the deep blue of the mid-heaven." The dark blue waters of her gentle streams, as they meandered along, rejoiced in their own being. The flowers unfolded their petals also to welcome the bright monarch of the east. The pearly dew that glittered on their glossy leaves, fled at its approach, and naught was left to deck them save their own bright hues. No sound was heard save the lays of the forest bird, whose warbling notes sent "music, sweet music to the soul," while chanting its morning hymn to its Creator. In this calm and holy hour a gentle mother, one of Syria's favorite daughters, with her first born son, journeyed through this smiling land to Zion, where stood the temple of the living God. On her calm and lofty brow, devotion to her God was stamped-the soft light of her dark eye spoke of those holy feelings that did fill that Hebrew mother's breast; the world held no claim upon her-she forgot all for the one great object she had before her. Slowly yet joyful did she wend her way toward the holy place in order to fulfill the vow which she had male to God respecting her son-her only son. She had consecrated him to God from his birth, and now rejoiced that aught so pure, so beautiful, was hers to bring before her God." She heard nature's voice all around her, but the voice of her boy was dearer to her heart than aught beside. He too admired the beauties of nature, and would now and then exclaim, Mother! dear mother! how great must be that God who formed these flowers and gave to each a different hue. And as he spoke he observed her wipe a tear from off her face. But ah, how little did he know what caused this gush of feeling-these deep emotions which fill a mother's heart. 66 The temple was before her in all its majesty. The hour had come when she must leave her boy and journey homeward. Oh, who can tell a mother's anguish "Compassion touched her pure, pathetic soul, as she beheld her child turning from the white robed priest and clinging to her. Then parental love filled the mother's soul-her heart yearned as she beheld deep gloom portrayed upon that joyous face. At last her soul broke forth "in weeping and in song. Alas my boy! I fear I cannot leave thee; thy tears, thy looks, I cannot bear to see them thus, and then depart. Oh my boy, can I, must I leave thee? must I return childless unto my home, and hear no more the sweet tones of thy gentle voice? When I am gone what mother shall soothe thy anxious fears-shall cheer thee when in sadness shall watch o'er thy couch and wipe the death damps from thy brow? But be thou still my soul-vain, foolish are my fears. Have not I given thee to God, "in whom I have lived, moved, and had my being," who hath watched over my infancy, and preserved me from all the temptations with which I have been surrounded from my earliest years and do I now hesitate to give to God that child which he gave 'me in mercy, and can take away without iny consent if I yield it unwillingly. No: I will give thee to thy God my child. He will preserve thee and keep thee from every danger. Then fare thee well my child. I give thee to the living God, and expect at last to meet thee around the throne of Jesus. Then, then will we strike our melodious harps of gold in unison. Then shall our love be consummated-refined-elevated. Then shall I meet again my beloved son, with such improved charms, new beauty, that even a mother's tender partiality can but just recognize him as her own son: the child of her faith-child of her prayers. Albany, February, 1845. Written for the Gavel. SCIENCE. Ne te quaesiveris extra. BY BRO. L. VAN WIE. SCIENTIFIC research too often assumes the appearance of an atomic chaos, over which no regulating spirit sheds benignant rays of order, or imparts the quickening influence and intellectual necessity of formgiving power. Science, Bacon substantially defines to be the assimilation of observed phenomena. The perfection of science in his view then appears to have been attained, when general principles, justified by particular phenomena, were arrived at; and these, as all know who have ever marked the proneness of even the untaught to embody experience in form of maxims, when proposed are more susceptible of verification by experiment, as well as fitter subjects of investigation, than millions of unconnected simple facts. By giving to simple sources independence and individual existence, the harmony of the whole, as well as the observed interdependence of the parts are disregarded, or will not be appreciated. A single well chosen expression, appreciated by an inquirer, will often do more to convince, inferm or elucidate a systematic truth than months of hard study, toiling through indefinite longings and thirstings after knowledge. All effort, all science, all discovery must be made and obtained in subservience to the capability of our nature, and its limitations are the references in all and in either progress. In our utmost efforts and highest attainments, we but develope a law of our own existence, and a condition of our organization. Newton's most profound discoveries are but the result of his own mental efforts, and sw the extent of his powers was their utmost extent. When light shines into the dark corners of this our prison house, facts and particulars previously imbedded in darkness, deep and mysterious, are brought to our consciousness by that light, and discoveries of the most remote of nature's bodies or laws but elucidate our own mys-terious selves, but when light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not, then mind is shut out from the beauty of the universal whole, as epitomised in the arcana of the soul, and the laws of our nature in the darkness of our ignorance are the de-.. stroyers of our peace, and the ministers of a fate blind in our own blindness and imperious as that ignorance renders them uncontrolable. This is the power of Fate; where falsity has obtained currency. Truth undeformed and unadorned is the only antidote, which fearlessly advocated and unreservedly proclaimed will set at large the souls which are now in bonds, and who, if this be not proclaimed, and this consummation ensured to them, must be regarded as sacrificial offerings at the shrine of a consecrated folly, despotic as destructive. "How long, Oh! how long ere the day star arise," ere men shall recognize the divinely inspired command and sentiment, that all are brothers; when prejudices, which have a tendency to pros-trate millions of the human race before the destroying strength of fears unfounded and hopes impracticable and visionary, shall give place to the persuasion that truth is not to be eschewed, and that freedom from fear does not necessarily infer that all the wisdom of God to be sought, and the blessings of that knowledge, are insufficient to keep men in obedience to law and order. The same laws of constitution, physical and mental, are now active which originally impelled the sweet singer of Israel, which dictated the wisdom of Solomon, and gave ability and ingenuity to the many who aided in erecting to the God of all glory a temple worthy of his majesty, and typical of his eternal and infinite wisdom, power and ways. It was not by consulting and trammeling his mind by the dictation of others, and hearkening to the limited views of faction, prejudice and partial feeling, that the noble Homer arose, like a star in the midst of pitchy darkness, to shine out and attract the attention of the present and future millions. He pursued the even tenor of his way in the strength of his mind's eye, and now, as then, finds an echo and a response in the bosoms of the most, as well as the least, enlightened. Such is the force of mind; and this the truth that never dies, that circles as it originates in eternity, and shines on though darkness envelope the earth and black darkness the people; it speaks in man, of man, and to all men; therefore seek not beyond thyself. Albany, Feb. 25, 1845. AMOUNT of relief paid by the Order in this state for the year 1844 was $35,274. Reported for the Gavel. · Delivered on the occasion of presenting a banner to Allen Lodge, No. 92, I. 0.0. F. Jan. 20th, 1845. BY BRO. E. B. SHAW. Ir we contemplate man in the morning of his existence, we shall discover as much beauty, and harmony, in his moral and social nature, as in his physical constitution. In primeval purity all was sunshine and peace. Vice had not entered the moral system, and passion had not ruffled the smooth sea of life. All was unclouded joy and heavenly serenity-man, like the heavenly bodies, traveled on in the track which his creator had provided, enjoying unbounded bliss and exciting the admiration of angels; but sin entered the world, the great destroyer came and threw him for his orbit; since that fatal day he wanders in a devious track on the confines of a moral universe, pushing further and further into darkness and night from that radiant centre which draws and calls him back. The first transgression engendered and brought to maturity the whole brood of hateful passions. Anger, Lust, Envy, Hatred, and Revenge, with all their dreadful effects, swept across the human breast and overturned God's moral temple from its low foundation; instead of the raptures and joys of paradise, how feel we now? in our tumultuous bosoms waves of passion follow wave-sin has entered there and taken possession of our better natures. Within our hearts the gnawing worm is laid which preys upon our vitals, and wears out this weary, toil-worn frame; this beautiful moral edifice is but a ruin; man's moral form is scarcely an outline of what it was, of what it ought to be, of what it may hereafter be. To repair this ruin, to rebuild this grand temple which transgression has dilapidated, to restore fallen man to his primitive state of purity and holiness, to awaken the latent sensibility of his moral and social nature, which sin has blunted, to call into active exercise those intellectual powers of the mind which constitute man the noblest work of God; to teach man his relationship to his fellow man and to his God, and to wipe the tear of bereavement, of sorrow, from the eye of the disconsolate, is the professed object of Odd Fellowship. In its full development it teaches the prostrate nations of the earth the right divine of the people to life, liberty, and the pursuits of happiness. It teaches them no longer to regard the drop of royal blood as worth an ocean from the hearts of the people; that there is a greatness which exceeds all the worl calls great; that moral greatness as much surpasses the greatness of the hero as the light of the sun outshines the faintest glimmerings of the twinkling star. It throws a sacredness around the person of the peasant as well as that of the prince, over the humble tent of the soldier as over the gorgeous pavilion of the emperor. It makes us feel that the truly good man is the truly great man, and far richer than the proprietor of conquered kingdoms. That he who is found |