members of the church had, early in the autumn, felt the necessity of a
close union. Left by their esteemed pastor, who had been their "guide,
philosopher, and friend" for twelve years, and by some of its leading
members, they rested with more directness and simplicity of faith on
God. They ordained a fast. Evening and lecture meetings were observed to
be full of eager listeners. A marked attention was paid on the Sabbath
when Mr. J.D. Stevens, who had come into the harbor late in the fall,
bound westward, agreed to pass the winter and occupied Mr. Ferry's empty
desk. The Sabbath schools in the village and at the mission were
observed to be well attended. Indeed, it was not long in being noticed
that we were in the midst of a quiet and deeply-spread revival. Never,
it would seem, was there a truer exemplification of the maxim that "the
race is not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong," for we
had supposed ourselves to be shorn of all strength by the loss of our
pastor, by the failure of help from the Home Missionary Society, and by
the withdrawal from the island of some of our most efficient members.
This feeling of weakness and desertion was, in fact, the secret of our
strength, which laid in the church's humility. Ere we were aware of it,
a spirit of profound seriousness stole over the community like a soft
and gentle wind.

_28th_. Maj. Whiting writes, from Detroit: "There is nothing new in the
political world, excepting that Michigan has no governor yet, and that
the council has authorized a convention to form a State Government next
April. Some think the step premature; others that it is all a matter of
course. The cold has been excessive on the Atlantic seaboard--down to
about 40 deg. below zero in New England, and even 22 deg. below at Washington.
Here we have had it hardly down to 0."

_Feb. 3d_. Mr. Robert Stuart writes, from Brooklyn, in relation to the
revival in a portion of the inhabitants of this island, among whom he
has so long lived, in terms of Christian sympathy. Mackinack is a point
where, to amass "silver and gold," has been the great struggle of men
from the earliest days of our history. Few places on the continent have
been so celebrated a locality, for so long a period, of wild and
unlicensed enjoyment, for both _burgeois_ and _voyageur_ engaged in the
perilous and adventuresome business of the fur trade. Those who speak of
its history during the last half of the eighteenth and beginn