John Pounds died on the 1st January 1839, aged seventy two years. As in the busy school he sat, What despot ever sway'd A sunbeam circling his gray hair, From thence, on many a youthful head, Thick tangled locks, rich clustering curls, With quip and crank and cheery words He answered merrily To questions strange, and bold enow A sage's brain to try. And with their talk that hammer's click Was in sweet harmony. JANE BOWRING CRANCH. CHAPTER III. HARLAN PAGE, THE JOINER. "Instant in season, out of season."-2 TIM. iv. 2. See thousands dying at your side, Your brethren, kindred, friends at home; See millions perishing afar, Haste, brethren! to the rescue come! THE love of souls is a God-like emotion. It was this which sent the Redeemer to the world. This moved so deeply the heart of the Son of God, and led him, in obedience to his Father, to endure humiliation and death. It was this which dictated such words of welcome to anxious sinners, such tender and tearful expostulations with the careless, such awful rebukes to the wicked, as were uttered by Him who spake as never man had done. It is this love of souls which causes the Holy Ghost to hover over our troubled world, notwithstanding its long rejection of most marvellous grace. Every child of God feels this love. It is an important characteristic of the renewed nature. It beats with its pulse of life, and in proportion to its liveliness. In some it merely exists, because faith is weak, and love to the Lord lukewarm; therefore little prayer and little effort for others mark them. They hide their Lord's money. In others it is fervent they have strong faith, possess the Spirit of Jesus, and wrestle in prayer for souls till Christ be formed in them the hope of glory. HARLAN PAGE exhibited a zeal in the conversion of souls seldom seen among the godly; and, because of this, we select him as the subject of a sketch for the improvement of our readers. He was born at Coventry, Connecticut, on the 28th July 1791, and after receiving a common education, became a house-joiner; at which he laboured for many years. He married in 1813. In 1814 his spiritual life began, when, as a burdened sinner, he found rest in Jesus. His distress for sin was so great "that he frequently left his work to retire and pray; and as he rode to and from a neighbouring town, where he was employed in business, he often felt constrained to stop and go into the grove to plead for mercy." It was the crisis of his history. He was in the throes of the new birth. His eternity depended on that hour. It was not strange, therefore, that he was so earnest. Luther, in the same ordeal, was wasted to a skeleton; Saul of Tarsus could not eat nor drink; an old saint“ forgot to eat his bread;" "A Stranger Here" could not sleep till the great controversy was settled. Reader! were you ever so deeply concerned about your salvation? Harlan Page believed and lived. He passed the strait gate. He confessed his Saviour. Then he thus evidenced his love of souls: "WHEN I FIRST OBTAINED A HOPE, I FELT THAT I MUST LABOUR FOR SOULS. I PRAYED YEAR AFTER YEAR THAT GOD WOULD MAKE ME THE MEANS OF SAVING SOULS." This was the purpose to which he consecrated his life while following his occupation. He carried it out fully, embracing every opportunity of speaking in the name of Christ to perishing sinners. He acted like one who believed that the divine blessing would accompany his efforts, and he amply verified the promise. "Our faith in eternal realities," he said, "is weak, and our sense of duty faint, while we neglect the salvation of our fellow-beings. Let us awake to duty, and while we have a tongue or pen, devote them to the service of the Most High, not in our own strength, but with strong faith and confidence in him." He endeavoured to do good in various ways, but the chief were writing letters and speaking to individuals most solemnly regarding their eternal state. His words, whether written or spoken, were always pointed, urgent, and tender. "Nothing but love impels me to write," he would add to his appeal. Letter-writing was consecrated by Harlan Page to the highest end, the salvation of souls. Individuals whom he did not personally know were frequently addressed, as well as those with whom he was acquainted. I think much of you," he wrote to a female relative, "and long to see you in the ark of safety. Have you reason to hope that your souls are pardoned through a Saviour's blood? If not, consider your danger." To another: "You are now in an awful crisis. Your eternal all may depend on the course you take. The Lord has taught you by his Spirit that you are a wretched, perishing sinner. You feel that you have no preparation for heaven, and see nothing before you but eternal woe. O, my friend, there is a refuge. The Lord Jesus in vites in melting strains: 'Look to me and live: come unto me, and find rest.' O, go to him now, as you value your precious, your immortal soul." To another: "Will you not take up in earnest the great subject of the salvation of your own soul, feel your guilt and danger, and flee to the arms of the blessed Saviour? 'Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation." Writing to a young woman, he addressed her thus: “An affectionate regard for your immortal interests has induced me to write a few lines, though I know not that they will be welcome or beneficial. While others have been accepting Christ, I have anxiously hoped to hear the same of you. * * * On no other subject should I address you; but on the momentous concerns of the soul you will not feel that I need to apologize for the performance of the duty." When at a religious meeting, we are told, “his mind would often become intensely fixed upon the conversion of some impenitent individual. He would address the individual with great solemnity, urging an immediate compliance with the terms of the gospel; and as his friend accompanied him homewards, such was sometimes the pressure upon his heart, that they would seek a retired spot, and there, even in the depth of winter, kneel and plead with God for the person's salvation." Prayer meetings were the delight of his soul. He was ever ready to join with a few to supplicate the throne of grace. Having had occasion to labour in Jewett City, he speedily established meetings for prayer. He also conversed with each person employed in the factory on the state of their souls, instructed classes, visited families, distributed tracts, succeeded in forming a church, and securing an evangelical pastor, where none had before been. What a valuable mechanic, thus working for God and the good of souls! O that each workshop had even one! 66 Tract distribution was ever with him a favourite means of doing good. Enclosing them in letters, he would add a word from his pen: Accept the enclosed from one who earnestly desires your best good; and may I beg the favour that you will read it with candour, and weigh well the sentiments it contains?" or thus: "Will you and your companion oblige me so much as to give the enclosed an attentive perusal before you go to rest this night?" He paid entrance" to the workshop in which he was employed by giving tracts to the workmen. In 1825 he was appointed depositary of the American Tract Society, and removed to New York. There he laboured, during the remaining nine years of his life, with such eagerness as if he were in haste to die. Nor were his labours merely official. He dealt with the consciences of the persons employed in the tract-houses, taught Sabbath schools, visited the degraded, kept prayer-meetings, and wrote spirit-stirring letters with increased devotedness. He lived to win souls. He ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears." Let us mark the results of his labours of love.-He was as leaven in the world, and his blessed influence spread far and wide. "Mr. Page's conversation first led me to think seriously of my soul and eternity," said one. "But for the efforts of Mr. Page and a dear Christian friend of his in Coventry, my soul, to all human view, must have been lost," confessed Captain T. Of one hundred and twenty-five of his Sabbath scholars in Coventry, "eighty-four are thought to have given evidence of piety, and six are preachers of the gospel." Of individuals in the same place, with whom he had conversed personally or by letter-and he knew of no young person in the congregation undealt with by him— thirty adorned the faith. Upwards of one hundred young women were employed in the Tract and Bible houses, and |