IMPORTANCE OF HAPPY MEMORIES.

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the recollection of Judas; the haunt where innocence was blasted shall stand full imaged in the spoiler's remembrance. Nor will it be otherwise with the spots of special sacred interest. Bethel will be eternised in Jacob's heart. The well of Sychar, where the woman of Samaria met with the compassionate Jesus, and communed with Him, and got from Him the living water, shall never slip out of her purified spirit. The upper room, where the last passover was observed with the attached disciples, and their loved Master's gracious intercessions ascended to heaven, and His tender farewell counsels were given to them, shall never vanish from their mind. The place where Mary Magdalene met her risen Lord, and embraced Him, and the place where Lydia's heart was opened to a cordial reception of Christ, and salvation through Him, shall live in their remembrance for ever, and be the occasion of gratulations and joy.

How careful should we then be as to the stores we lay up in the memory, as to the kind of life we lead, the kind of thoughts, feelings, imaginations, and devices we entertain, and which are the sources whence memory is replenished! Keep out the tale of folly and the deed of guilt; burden it not with the cares of business, the schemes and struggles of political ambition, and the frivolous gaieties of the mere world in sin. Lay not up in it merely the solemn and useful incidents and lessons in historythe charming products in literature, and the important facts in science. These may not be rejected. But, ah! if these be all, the main thing for the soul and for eternity is wanting. What a memory must that be that has no revealed truth in it; or if in any measure in it, not rightly known, and not truly believed! Without this there can be no right preparation for eternity. How saddening to find the great Chatham, in his closing days, make his son read to him the conclusion of Pope's Homer, describing the death of Hector; and when he had done, he said "Read it again!" And was this to teach him rightly and safely how to die Something else than pagan light and pagan example was needed by the illustrious senator, in passing under the shadow of death, and appearing at the tribunal of Jesus Christ. Better

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and wiser to have taken the lamp that God has given for guidance and comfort in the darkness of affliction and of dissolution, and which He keeps for ever burning in the sepulchre of the righteous. Without this, there can be no real fitness for personal reckoning. The memory will be stored with what conscience shall disapprove and condemn, and which will minister fuel to the fire that shall never be quenched. What if we contemn the love and work of Christ-the beseechings of mercy-the remonstrances of interested authority, and the pleadings of tenderness! What if the memory shall, before the tribunal of the Most High, re-create Calvary, and on it erect the cross of the crucified Nazarene, and envelop the sacred mount and its accursed tree with the blackness which fills with terror-broken, and rendered only more hideous and overpowering by the flames of incensed justice that pour forth without stop, and the thunders of vengeance that roll on for ever, and shake with trembling-growing hour by hour, deeper and more intense,—the spirit whose memory is replete with guilt. On earth at times, the hearts of thoughtless and unfearing men "meditate terror." "A wounded spirit who can bear!" But much more is this the fact in the world unseen, when deception is at an end; when the mask is of no service; when all that deceives and misleads is for ever done away. Then will memory tell its facts without wavering and shrinking; and conscience will barb all its arrows, and dip them in the indignation of the Lord. It will distort no tale, and will corrupt no testimony.

Memory stands in close relation to man's future destiny, whether for weal or for woe. Progress in knowledge is not thereafter and for ever stopped, but rather accelerated. In the redeemed, knowledge grows, and shall continue to grow without end, and memory records all the events as they arise. These, as they ruminate on them, shall contribute to their joy. In the unsaved, knowledge grows, and shall continue to grow; for there can be no cessation in the exercise of their powers. Their minds cannot sink into inaction. Whatever may be the nature of the phenomena which shall be within their sphere, these shall call them into investiga

PLEASURE OR PUNISHMENT IN MEMORY.

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tion and activity; and memory shall retain all the events that occur, and these, with fresh acquisitions every instant, as duration sweeps on without exhaustion, shall aid to aggravate weariness and forlornness, and to intensify anguish. The labour which the increase of knowledge occasions here does not result in relief, quietness, and peace. Nor will it be otherwise in the region

of unbelief and unrelieved passion.

If memory be as powerful as has been alleged, how awful must be its relation to crime! This power, sinner, is at the command of thy Maker and Lord. In a moment, He can cause it to bring to light forgotten iniquities, and make thy soul quiver with remorse. Thus may He unroll the whole record of thy crime before thy guilty spirit. And when God withdraws thee from all that covers up thy sins, He will give unrestrained power to thy memory through the ages of eternity. Thou canst not flee from Him who holds thy past and thy future alike in His hand. Thy sin shall ever stand before thee. Thou canst neither flee from memory nor from thyself. Unpardoned and unpurified, there is a hell within thee. Bigg thus strongly and strikingly sets forth the momentous fact:

Solicit the aid

Treasure up Acquire true

Provide well, then, for the great future now. of the revealing, quickening, and purifying Spirit. revealed truth, and embrace the divine Saviour. holiness. Bring forth the fruits of righteousness, and then the memory shall be bathed in unfading light and love, purity, and joy; and its reminiscences, in all coming duration, shall be remorseless and blissful. Then you may exclaim with Rogers,

"Hail! memory, hail! in thy exhaustless mine,
From age to age unnumber'd treasures shine!
Thought and her shadowy brood thy call obey,

H

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ROGERS ON THE MEMORY.

And place and time are subject to thy sway.
Thy pleasures most we feel when most alone;
The only pleasures we can call our own.
Lighter than air, Hope's summer visions die,
If but a fleeting cloud obscure the sky;
If but a beam of sober reason play,

Lo! Fancy's fairy frost-work melts away;
But can the wiles of art, the grasp of power,
Snatch the rich relics of a well-spent hour?
These, when the trembling spirit wings her flight,
Pour round her path a stream of living light,
And gild those pure and perfect realms of rest,
Where Virtue triumphs, and her sons are blest!"

CHAPTER IV.

ON THE WILL AND MORAL TENDENCIES-THE MEANS OF EDUCATING THEM AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON MAN'S HAPPINESS.

Nature of the Will: Relation and Influence of Motive-it gives a Moral Character. Man's Agency limited to Choice. Blame incurred by a wrong choice. Man's power of Choice-the reason of his Accountableness. Man superintends Volition-strength of Bad Dispositions does not diminish Guilt. Inferior Powers and the Moral Tendencies-Animal Appetites-acquired Appetites. Desire and its various objects-acquired Desires. Affection : its Nature and Manifestations. Parental Relations: Filial Love-the Family compact-Friendship. Mutual regard between the Sexes: Female virtue to be honoured-disregard to it destructive to the strength of a Nation. Female Writers not inferior on some topics to those of the Male sex examples-opinion of Rousseau. Strength of Affection: Mary Magdalene. Gratitude : Compassion: Public spirit. Malevolent Affections: emulation resentment. Passion its nature and effects-physical and moral. Passion may give an impulse to what is good: Love, and its results: Joy, and its indications: Hope, and its aspirations. Passion may give an impulse to what is bad: Hatred in its various phases: Anger, its nature and developments: Sorrow, its origin and manifestations: Fear, its cause, nature, and effects. Irregular action of the Moral Tendencies from perversion and excess: causes of their irregularity. Innate Moral State of Man deteriorated: ignorance. Influence of present objects: ungovernableness of Self-Love. Means for the proper Education of the Moral Tendencies: right regulation of Volition, Education, Experience, Habit, Novelty, Light and Dictates of Conscience—revealed truth understood, believed, obeyed, meets Man's entire condition as a sinner. Christianity not a living and transforming power through Mechanical systems. Christianity acts on the heart. The Reformation. The English Reformation-Hampden, Blake, Cromwell. Interested contemplation of Good Examples: their careful study. Organizations seldom accomplish much benefit. Individual minds called forth in Providence for particular emergencies: Anti-CornLaw-League-Cobden: Anti-Slavery Societies-Brougham: Great Patterns-Luther and Calvin: their excellencies and defects. The First Heralds of Christianity: their character and fitness. The Immaculate Saviour His use of the Divine Word against the Tempter: His every act in every relation without defect. Influence of the Moral Tendencies on Man's Happiness: his happiness or misery dependent on their nature.