Yet, after all, the maxim I have been exposing is not _untrue_. _Example_ IS better than _precept_: DOES more effectually shew _the right way_. But it is _fallacious_, and _mischievous_, by being misapplied. Instead of being regarded merely as a rebuke to the adviser, it is absurdly taken by the _advised_ as a justication to himself in persisting in error. In most cases it is not even a _just_ rebuke to the _adviser_: because ten to one there is _some dissimilarity of situation or of circumstances_, which makes it not expedient or proper for him to do what he nevertheless _properly_ recommends to another. While I shew you your road--and shew it with perfect correctness--my own duty or pleasure may call me another way, or may bid me remain where I am. But the adage is _never_ an apology for the advised party's neglect of advice: and whensoever he attempts to use it as such, his plea, though abstractly true, is impertinent--is nothing to the purpose. M. For the Southern Literary Messenger. THE POWER OF FAITH. "Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the "days of Herod the King, behold there came wise men from the "east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born king of the "Jews? for we have seen his star in the east and have come to "worship him." Pleasure! thou cheat of a world's dim night, What shadows pass over thy disk of light! To follow thy flitting and quivering flame, Is to die in the depths of despair and shame; 'Tis to perish afar on a lone wild moor, Or the wreck of a ship on a hopeless shore. Come listen, ye gay! I will tell of a star Whose beaming is brighter and steadier far; It rose in the East, and the wise men came To see if its light were indeed the same Which their old books said would be seen to rest On Bethlehem's plains, in its silver vest, To point to the spot where a Saviour lay, Who would gather his flock, all gone astray; Would frighten the wolf from his helpless fold, And loosen the grasp of his demon hold; And lead them away to his pastures green, Where all is so verdant and fadeless seen, Where the river of life is a ceaseless stream, And the light of his love is the sweetest beam That ever shone out on benighted eyes, And brighter the face of those lovely skies, Than ever was seen in the softest sleep When the senses are hushed in calmness deep; And spirits are thought, with their gentle breath, To breathe on the lids of a seeming death, And whisper such things in the ear of wo, As the waking sinner must never know. Oh, what doth he ask in return for this, The light of his love, and such draughts of bliss? What doth he ask for the boon thus given?-- Faith in the blood of the Son of Heaven.