dicious distribution of his precious time; not adopting the habit of those whose days and nights are so exclusively monopolized by their folios and stilus, that their public discourses diffuse more of the odor of the lamp than the redolence of holy incense, and are about as effectual in healing the broken-hearted as the random prescriptions of the bookish empiric who never condescends to examine his patients. Nor, on the other hand, does he follow the equally objectionable practice of those who, indulging an excessive inclination for society, or in compliance with the toooften unreasonable demands of their flock, are so incessantly gadding abroad that they become victims of mental dissipation, expose themselves to public contempt by undue familiarity, and cause even their starveling sermons sometimes mournfully to cry out: "O my leanness, my leanness!" In a word, by the harmonious combination of common sense and sterling principle, he is enabled so to regulate his intercourse with the world as to avoid alike the appearance of the self-complacent, haughty Pharisee, who despised others, and the time-serving ecclesiastical politician, who unscrupulously sacrifices, not only his own ministerial dignity, but the honor of his Master, for a savory mess of adulation. My limits will allow me, at present, only to glance at a negative yet invaluable characteristic of the preacher for these times,— I allude to his freedom from what is commonly termed eccentricity. There are in these days not a few men of real mental strength and moral worth, whose influence is greatly circumscribed by the unfortunate possession of some repulsive peculiarities or oddities, denominated, in charitable parlance, eccentricity. Indeed, some men seem not only aware that they possess singularities which have no necessary or favorable relation to Christian character, but they even cultivate these peculiarities, if they do not glory in them. Not so, however, our model pastor. He affects no departure from the usual customs of enlightened Christian society, nor indulges in any quaintness or oddities in the performance of his solemn functions which are calculated to divert attention from his subject to himself, and excite the prejudices of many over whom a different demeanor might enable him to exert a happy influence for he well knows that every man, especially every Christian minister, is required to avoid not only palpable evil, but the very appearance of evil. He knows that if a preacher have peculiarities, whether natural or acquired, which are justly offensive to those who have an intelligent and correct idea of ministerial propriety, and which tend to abridge his influence, he is religiously bound, as far as possible, to get rid of them. Thus, if a man's habit is to be coarse, abrupt, and severe, in his communication with others, he should go to the footstool of the meek and gentle Saviour, and lie there until delivered from this infirmity, lest his boasted frankness and fidelity be mistaken for impudence and ill-breeding. If a man finds himself inclined to indulge unduly in witticisms, or in ludicrous story-telling, he should overcome such propensities at all hazards, lest, before he is aware, he finds himself reduced in public estimation to the level of the harlequin. If a clergyman, by early habit, is distinguished for such marked attention to his person and apparel, that his appearance in the pulpit at once excites the suspicion that he has spent far more time at his toilette than in his closet, he ought to get the better of his weakness, lest the embassador of Christ be mistaken for a coxcomb, and the people, infected by his example, shall metamorphose the Church of God into a saloon of fashion. On the other hand, if he inclines so far to the other extreme as to appear singularly rustic, slovenly, or antiquated in his habiliments, he should conscientiously eschew such peculiarities at whatever cost, lest his negligence be construed into avarice, while his more charitable and tender-hearted hearers would be likely to spend the hour of his public administration in commiserating the poverty of the preacher, instead of meditating his subject. When I was quite young, I heard a man hold forth who possessed not only the lastnamed peculiarity, but evidently cultivated other eccentric habits. As he disdained the occupancy of the pulpit, and took his position in the broad aisle, his entire outer man was visible to most of the audience; but all that I can remember, besides, about him or his performance, were the huge patches of different colors of homespun which he had upon his knees, and his singular text, namely, "There is death in the pot." LOOK AT THE FACTS. THE OUR DESTINY AND OUR DUTY. HE sudden outspread of our country within a few years, with the numerous new and national consequences attendant upon it, has hardly been appreciated by most of its citizens, especially by Christian citizens. The politicians the demagogues-have taken it into account, mensurating well its bearings on their party schemes; but the friends of education and religion, they who have in their hands the most intrinsic elements of the national well-being, are they conscious of the stupendous outgrowth of the Republicof the perilous elements of its population, of the almost inevitable, and we were about to say, immeasurable disproportion which will soon exist between that population and the provisions of education and religion which we are making for it? toward our shores-that its ignorance and vice, wave overtopping wave, rolls in upon the land, the danger assumes a still more startling aspect. In about forty-six years from this day our population shall equal the present aggregate population of England, France, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, and Denmark. A step further in the calculation presents a prospect still more surprising and impressive; in about seventy-six years (we use exact terms, for we reckon by exact data) from to-day this mighty mass of commingled peoples will have swollen to the stupendous aggregate of two hundred and forty-six millions-equaling the present population. of all Europe. According to the statistics of life, there are hundreds of thousands of our present population-one twenty-ninth at least-who will witness this truly grand result. What have you, friends of education and religion, what have you to do Look at the facts, we repeat. In less within that time? Your present intelthan half a century from this date, more lectual and moral provisions for the peothan one hundred millions of human souls ple are, as we have said, far short of the will be dependent upon these provisions wants of your present twenty-five millions, for their intellectual and moral nutriment. and in seventy-six years you must provide They bear now no adequate relation to the for more than two hundred and twenty adnecessities of the land. Our larger comm- ditional millions-and these millions, to a munities are continually degenerating, great extent, composed of semibarbarous our new territories make but a dubious foreigners, and their mistrained children. moral progress. Ask yourself, then, the question, Christian citizen, if, after more than two centuries of religious and educational efforts, under the most auspicious circumstances of the country, we have but partially provided for twenty-five millions, how shall we in only fifty years meet the immensely enlarged moral wants of four times that number-of a hundred millions? The question is an appalling one-it is stunning. Our rapid growth, so much the boast of the nation, is, be assured, its most imminent peril-it is too rapid to be healthful; it is to be the severest test of both our religion and our liberties, for the one is the essential condition of the other. And yet it cannot, by any probable contingencies, be restrained. It has a momentum which will bear down, and overleap all the ordinary obstructions of population. We cannot want work, we cannot want bread, and where these exist, population must advance as inevitably as the waters under the laws of the tide. And when we remind ourselves that so much of this popular increase is from abroad, that Europe is in an "exodus" Look at the facts, we again repeat. Ponder them, and let every good man who has a cent to give or a prayer to offer for his country feel that on us, the citizens of the republic, at this the middle of the nineteenth century, devolves a moral exigency such as, perhaps, no other land ever saw-an exigency as full of sublimity as it is of urgency, as grand in its opportunity as it is in (we were about to say) its magnificent peril. Look at the facts, we repeat again. This immense prospective populationcertain though prospective is to be thrown out, by the almighty hand of Providence, upon one of the grandest arenas of the world. Here, on this great continent, girded in its distant independence by the Atlantic, the Pacific, the great tropic Gulf, and the Arctic-here, away from the traditional governments and faiths and other antiquated checks of the old world, it is to play its great drama of destiny-of destiny which, as we have shown, must numerically, at least, be in seventy-six years as potential as all present Europe, and how much more potential in all moral, political, and commercial respects? What an idea would it bethat of all Europe consolidated into one mighty, untrammeled commonwealth, in the highest civilization, liberty, religious enlightenment, and industrial development -and this mighty revolution to be completed in seventy-six years from to-day! Who would credit the conception? Yet our republic will, in that time, more than realize the stupendous idea, if its unity and moral character be not sacrificed. Look at its field. According to an official report, the following are its grand outlines. Pause a little on each of them : This estimate is found to be even short of the truth; various official reports from the Land Office, and the aggregate of the census, show 3,220,572 square miles. It is estimated from these facts that the territorial extent of the republic is nearly ten times as large as that of Great Britain and France united; three times as large as the whole of Britain, France, Austria, Prussia, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Holland, and Denmark combined; one and a half times as large as the Russian empire in Europe; one sixth less only than the area covered by the fifty-nine or sixty empires, states, or republics of Europe; of equal extent with the Roman empire, or that of Alexander, neither of which is said to have exceeded three millions of square miles. What a theater is this for the achievements of civilization and religion! Surely there should be "giants in these days" to enact worthily the enterprises of such a field; and, if circumstances make men, are we not to hope that the consciousness of this unparalleled destiny will enlarge and ennoble the intellect, the philanthropy and moral energy of the country to a scale of corresponding magnificence-will bring forth sublime examples of public devotion, of talent, and moral heroism? Look at one other fact-a most interesting one-the large proportion of our juvenile population. It is a most impressive argument for the friends of education, and especially of Sunday schools. Where there is plenty of food, as there must indefinitely be in this country, there will always be plenty of children. It is a beneficent, a beautiful law-but that remark only en passant. More than half our present white population are yet in what may be called the flower of youth. We almost literally present an example of national adolescence-the freshness, the ardor, the vigor, and the susceptibility of childhood and young manhood. The white population in 1850 was 19,553,068; that portion which was under twenty years of age, 10,130,731. Under one year, 537,661; between one and five, 2,358,797; five and ten, 2,704,128; ten and fifteen, 2,402,129; fifteen and twenty, 2,128,116. Total, 10,130,731. Pause here, educators, Sunday-school teachers-all you upon whom devolves the instruction of the young of the country!-see you not that its destiny is in your hands? The population of to-day is to surpass all the millions of Europe in about seventy-five years; and you, yes, precisely you, hold within your power onehalf of the population of to-day-one-half the present elements of the grand geometrical progression. Work out, then, with a tireless hand and a sublime consciousness, this mighty arithmetic of destiny. Half the basis of this immense future nationality is under your controlsee you that it is founded in the everlasting principles of truth and right. This is the first, because the most momentous lesson of the subject. We have not introduced our calculations to croak over them-they are grave, they are almost solemn in their importance; but they challenge us to action, not to despair. Never before was there a battle-field for humanity like this; never were the elements of good and evil set forth against stand no free pulpits. Already the land suffers for want of preachers. The complaint comes from all its length and breadth. Every denomination utters it. The Christian ministry is unquestionably in a comparative decline throughout the country. Temporary causes may contribute to the melancholy fact-the absorption of our young men by money-making pursuits, through the recent excitements produced by the California mines, and the great consequent outbreak of all sorts of busi each other in a grander arena; never was humanity thrown out upon conditions more experimental, more free from the trammels of old institutions, of old traditions, of old lies. It must be mighty here that is inevitable; but it will be mighty in the strength of its wickedness, like the antediluvian giants who brought the world to dissolution; or mighty in the virtues which shall subdue the world to the reign of intelligence, virtue, and lib- | erty. You, the teachers of the young you, unhonored as your office may be, layness. But independently of these intera mightier hand upon this sublime future than any other heroes in the field. Acquit yourselves like men, then! The legislators of the land-its high places of power and of professional life, may do much for it; but its humble places of education-its primary schools are its true fortresses-"the cheap defense of nations," as Burke called them. These calculations present a lesson, a startling one to the teachers of religion, and all its public agents in the land. It seems almost impracticable that adequate provisions of religion can be made for this rapid progress of population. Look at the facts here again, not to despond over them, but to arouse our sense of duty. According to the census returns, the aggregate "accommodations" of all the sects of the land for religion do not now amount to thirteen million eight hundred and fifty thousand; these include not only churches or chapels, but halls, &c., used for public worship. Deduct the Roman Catholics and other non-evangelical sects, and you have but little more than thirteen million "sittings." Hardly more than half your present population have, therefore, such accommodations-this after generations of effort and expenditure. How, then, are you to provide, in about seventy-five years, for two hundred and twenty additional millions? Does not the voice of Providence, like the trumpet of destiny, call upon you to arise to this great emergency? Did there ever pass over any Christian land a day like that which is now rising upon yours? Was there ever a period in which more energy, self-sacrifice, unresting labor, devolved upon the Church? And how are we, in this comparatively brief period, to meet the national necessity for public religious teachers? The pulpit is the citadel of truth in the world. No free legislative halls can stand where | ferences, how are we to provide, within seventy-five years, for the pulpits which shall be demanded by two hundred and twenty additional millions of people? Look at the question-pause over it. We must look to God in incessant prayers that he would raise up laborers-but we must also look to ourselves. We must open our eyes to the overwhelming exigency; we must talk about it, write about it, preach about it, till we move the Church as in a crusade for the salvation of the land. The young men of the Church must be everywhere rallied to her pulpit batteries. They must be made to feel that an extraordinary providential call for them is reverberating all along its altars; that Protestant Christianity, with its consequences to civilization and liberty, here in its chief field on the earth, devolves its destiny upon them; that the hour has come for self-sacrifices and moral heroism such as no other modern age has seen in Christendom. This is not rhetoric, it is stringent logic-we have given the proofs, mathematical proofs. | Display them everywhere in the Churchthey will tell; they will rouse and rally the young manhood of our Protestantism to its great last battles. The incentives are sublime, the arena presents a territorial greatness, the exigency a moral grandeur which cannot fail to ennoble the youthful piety of the country. Popery, infidelity, popular depravity confront us here in an open field and challenge us to a pitched and conclusive battle. Who that loves the Church and his country can be indifferent to the call? One more lesson. The religious philanthropy of the land must be redoubled, and that right speedily. It has been increasing greatly within a few years. In this respect alone we have a providential indication that we may pass safely through 66 the crisis. The idea of "systematic beneficence" of the consecration of business life on the same principle as the consecration of missionary life itself—is | dawning into the mind of the Church. There are now not a few successful Christian merchants and mechanics who feel that they are not proprietors but stewards of their property, and must give account in the "great day"-who are convinced they are not their own," but belong unto the Lord, and that they have no more right to "live unto themselves," than has their Christian brother, the missionary, in the ends of the world. This is not a religious whim, it is a great logical principle of practical Christianity. It is the idea that is to save the world, and the lack of it has, more than anything else, postponed its salvation. It is yet to become general. The time will assuredly come before the millennium, when a rich, covetous man will find the floor of the Church of God burn beneath his feet when her voice, taking up the calls of a perishing world, will cry out against him, "Let him be anathema maranatha!" when his own conscience will stifle his very prayers and smite him with confusion in the presence of his brethren. God speed that auspicious time! The world is now nearly all open for Christian propagandism. There are pecuniary resources enough in Christendom to cover the earth with the light of the truth. We need but to call out those resources, and this can only be done by enforcing everywhere the true idea of the relation of Christian men to their property. The pulpit, tracts and prize essays, are discussing it; they must discuss it more and more. A change amounting to something like a revolution must be effected in this respect. The moral prospect of our country, as we have shown it, demonstrates the doctrine overwhelmingly. Christian business men, look forth upon that prospect, and ask what your country and your religion demand of you under such circumstances? Labor in your workshops and your marts for the common salvation. Endow schools, promote publications, send forth laborers. It is a sublime opportunity for you; it will ennoble and sanctify from their sordidness the pursuits of your secular life; you will no longer live only to live, but for moral ends which will glorify both your life and your death. For you, who, as Christian men, "look for the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour," any other life is a solecism, which will be fearfully refuted, if not now, yet in the hour of death or the day of judgment. We have written these remarks with emphasis, but with sober and stern arguments, "mathematical arguments," as we have called them. How could such a subject be treated otherwise than emphatically? Was there ever a matter of greater urgency presented to this Christian nation? We are reluctant to dismiss it, and yet would not impair the effect of our reasonings by their length. The subject has its dark side, but we do not despond. Through the indifference of the Church of the land a fearful night may lower over our children, but we will hope otherwise. All the indications of Providence would seem to betoken the breaking up of heathenism and Mohammedanism, and the general triumph of the truth; let us then rather hope that "the night is far spent, the day is at hand; and let us, therefore, cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light." A STORY FOR THE YOUNG. FOUND IN THE NURSERY OF HOLYROOD. Nanded on to seek their fortunes. The way was smooth before them, the bright sun shone benignantly upon their innocent faces, and the birds cheered them with sweet songs. Thus they danced merrily on till noon, when their feet grew weary, and turning aside from the path, they lay down and slept, till the shadows of the trees grew quite long. They then rose up refreshed, for the sleep of children is sweet, and went on their way rejoicing, till they reached the termination of their path, at a sandy beach that bordered on a wide and deep lake. And now their hearts were troubled; for, afar off, they saw the sun slowly descending into the water, and darkness was unfolding her dusky curtain. They were sorrowfully wandering hither and thither, hoping to find a new path, when the sound of wheels was heard, and a splendid carriage, drawn by white horses, caparisoned in velvet and silver, rolled swiftly along the beach. When it reached the children, the liveried coachman drew in the reins; a princess looked out of the |