Lines,

Addressed to Miss B. E. W.

May I respectfully ask of Mr. Leeser the republication of the following lines in The Occident,* as they are addressed to a daughter of Israel of whom indeed Israel may well be proud. This estimable young lady some time ago came from Philadelphia to Columbia on a visit to her friends; and seeing the people to whom she belonged without any regular or slated meetings for religious worship, immediately set about the formation of a Sunday School, wisely judging that the parents would soon take such an interest in those meetings as to become regular attendants. She was not disappointed; the parents became not only regular attendants, but animated by the zeal of herself and her female co-labourers, determined to do something more for the spiritual improvement of themselves and their children, by the erection of a suitable building for the use of the Hebrew Society. In this laudable undertaking they were cheerfully assisted by Christians as well as Jews, and a very handsome edifice for the above object is now completed. It is indeed a gratifying sight, to see the Israelites of Columbia and their children assemble together and offer up to the God of Jacob those hymns of adoration and praise so often sung by their fathers in the holy temple.†

* They have already appeared in the “South Carolina Temperance Advocate.”

† Let it not be thought from the foregoing, that the Israelites of Columbia have adopted the Christian Sabbath as theirs. They observe only the Sabbath of their forefathers.

The minstrel is aged, and rude is his lyre,
And almost extinguished his poetic fire;
But maiden, fair maiden, though aged he be,
The lyre shall be strung and awakened to thee.

He sings not thy beauty of form or of face,
Though all are commending thy carriage and grace;
He lauds not thy smile, nor thy sweet beaming eye,
Though youths look upon thee and heave a fond sigh.

But maiden, fair maiden, could he wake the lyre,
With poetic fervour and poetic fire,
Thy goodness, thy virtues, thy graces he’d tell,
And on thy attractions with pleasure he’d dwell.

And surely the prophets and priesthood above
Must look with delight on thy labours of love;
To see thee a witness for God and His truth,
Consoling the aged, instructing the youth.

The mothers of Israel, who’ve gained that blessed shore
Where fierce persecutors bereave them no more,
Look down with a smile as they witness and see
Their zeal and devotion still practised by thee.

A Christian, fair maiden, for thee waked a strain,
Which he thought he should never awaken again;
And of thee he will think, and for thee he will pray,
When the winds and the billows shall bear thee away.

CAROLAN.

Columbia, S.C.

Note.—Although we are not in the habit of giving insertion to pieces having a merely personal bearing, we depart in this instance from this rule; first, out of compliment to the writer, and then, because the subject thereof has been, under Providence, the means of commencing a great good, which we trust will ultimately ripen into a revival of religion on a permanent basis in Columbia.