"Oh! glorious Father, let my soul pursue The wondrous labyrinth of love divine, And follow my Redeemer to the cross. Nailed to the cross--his hands, his feet, all torn With agonizing torture! Stupendous sacrifice! Mysterious love! He died! The Lord of life--the Saviour died! All nature sympathizing, felt the shock. The sun his beams withdrew, and wrapt his face In sable clouds and midnight's deepest shade, To mourn the absence of a brighter sun-- The Sun of righteousness eclipsed in death! A short eclipse. For soon he rose again, All glorious, to resume his native skies! Oh, love beyond conception! In silent rapture all my powers adore." In the religious experience of Joseph Badger, as intimated by this poem, Christ with him is always the central sun, the presiding power. "I do not think," says Mr. B., "that persons can _tell_ their religious experience, if their change is real and they have fully felt the effects of love divine. They are led to say with St. Peter, that it is 'joy unspeakable and full of glory.' Human language cannot describe the fulness and sweetness of the religion of Christ. Viewing the invisible depth of its wealth, how faint are our descriptions? How weak our best comparisons, and the metaphors by which we attempt to represent it! The soul which has become a partaker of the divine nature, of its love, is ever ready to exclaim--'The half had never been told me;' yet words, and other imperfect signs, will easily indicate the presence of the reality enjoyed. "Eighteen hundred and eleven! that memorable year will never be forgotten by thousands now living, on account of the victorious spread of the Gospel in North America. Generations yet unborn will trace the pages of ecclesiastical history with anxiety and delight, to learn what transpired among their ancestors during this year. But how soon, when a heavenly influence is in the ascendant, some counteracting power will enter the field with ruinous violence! The cruel war soon succeeded, and devastation spread her vermilion garb over our happy and enlightened land.