Is this a time for soldiers of the cross To point their weapons, each at other's breast, When the great Enemy, the common Foe, Though baffled, unsubdued, lays ever wait For some unguarded pass, to cheat the walls Not all his dread artillery could breach? How is each lunge, and ward, of tart reproof, And bitter repartee--painful to friends-- By th' Adversary hailed with general yell Of triumph, or derision! O, my friends! Believe me, lines of loving charity Dishearten enemies, encourage friends, And woo enlistment to your ranks, more sure Than the best weapon of the readiest wit, Whose point is venomed with the gall of scorn. How wiser then, forbearing bitterness At points of polity, or shades of faith That different show to different-seeing eyes, To shun perplexing doctrines which th' Allwise Has willed obscure, and imitate HIS life; HIS, the meek Founder of our faith, who sowed HIS earthly way with blessings as with seed: Bearing, forbearing, ever rendering good; The Counsellor, the Comforter, the Friend: How ope soe'er HIS word to various sense, HIS _life_ is plain; and all that life was love: Be this our guide, we cannot widely stray. _March, 1844._ THE ENGLISH STATE TRIALS. DURING THE POPISH PLOT. The recent Irish State Trials seem to have been conducted on the part of the government with something of the same violence and partiality that dishonor the ancient records of Great Britain's criminal jurisprudence. The exclusion of Roman Catholics from the jury was an arbitrary and unwarrantable act; unjust in itself, disrespectful to the larger portion of the Irish people, and calculated to destroy the moral effect of the verdict, by producing the impression on the public mind that the prisoners did not have a fair trial. We would not be understood as complaining of the verdict. We do not see how, with a strict adherence to the law and to the evidence, the jury could well have decided otherwise. It is the eagerness to convict the prisoners manifested on the part of the law-officers of the crown that is the object of just reprehension.