wondering gaze of other worlds. And just as in traversing the deep, when there rises on the view some spot of awful interest or affecting memory, you slack the sail, and passengers strain the eye, and look on in silent reverence; so, in their journeys through immensity, the flight of highest intelligences falters into wonder and delay as they near this little globe. There is something in it which makes them feel like Moses at Horeb, "Let me draw near and see this great sight," a marvel and a mystery here which angels desire to look into. It is a little world, but it is the world where God was manifest in flesh. And though there may be spots round which the interest gathers in most touching intensity; though it may be possible to visit the very land whose acres were trod by "those blessed feet which our offences nailed to the accursed tree;" though you might like to look on David's town where the advent took place, and on the hills of Galilee where his sermons were preached, and on the limpid Gennesareth which once kissed his buoyant sandals, and on that Jerusalem which He loved and pitied, and where He died, and that Olivet, from whose gentle slope the Prince of Peace ascended, I own that with me it is not so much Jerusalem or Palestine as Earth, Earth herself. Since it received the visit of the Son of God, in the eye of the universe the entire globe is a Holy Land; and such let it ever be to me. And though an illustrious author wrote, "I have long lost all attachment to this world as a locality,"* I do not wish to share the feeling. I like it for its very littleness. I like to stand on its lonely remoteness, and look aloft to vaster and brighter orbs; and when I consider the heavens, the moon and the stars, then say I, "What is man that thou shouldst visit him?" And, as in the voyage of the spheres, I sail away in this, the little barque of man, it comes over me with melting surprise and adoring astonishment that mine is the very world into which the Saviour came; and as I farther recall who that Saviour was-that for Him to become the highest seraph would have been an infinite descent, or to inhabit the hugest globe a strange captivity -instead of seeking to inflate this tiny ball into the mightiest sphere, or stilt up this feeble race to angelic stature, I see many a reason why, if an Incarnation were at all to be, a little world should be the theatre, and a little race the object. THE YOUNG AND THE OLD. My young friends, let me claim your kindness for the old. They are well entitled to your sympathy. Through this bright world they move mistily, and though they rise as soon as the birds begin to sing, they cannot hear the music. Their limbs are stiff, their senses dull, and that body which was once their beautiful abode and their willing servant, has become a cage and a heavy clog. And they have outlived most of those dear companions with whom they once took sweet counsel. "One world deceas'd, another born, Like Noah they behold, O'er whose white hairs and furrow'd brows Make it up to them as well as you can. Be eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame. On their way to the sanctuary be their supporting staff, and though it may need an extra effort to convey your words into their blunted ear, make that effort;-for youth is never so beautiful as when it acts as a guardian angel, or a ministering spirit to old age. And should extreme infirmity or occasional fretfulness try your patience, remember that to all intents you were once the same, and may be the same again;-in second childhood, as in first, the debtor of other's patience and tenderness and magnanimity. And, my aged friends, let me commend you to the sympathy of the Saviour. The merciful High Priest knows your frame. The dull ear and the dim eye are no obstacles to intercourse with Him; and the frequent infirmities prayer * Foster. can convert into pleas for his compassion. "What are you doing?" said a minister, as he one day visited a feeble old man, who dwelt in a windy hovel. "What are you doing?" as he saw him sitting beneath the dripping rafters in his smoky chamber, with his Bible open on his knee. "Oh, Sir! I am sitting under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit is sweet to my taste!" That is dainty food which even Barzillai might discern. Feed upon its promises; draw water from its wells of salvation. And when one sight after another fades away from your darkening eyes, look more and more to Jesus;—for if He be your joy, your hope, your life, the faster you are clothed with the snows of eld, the sooner will you renew your youth in the realms of immortality. "In age and feebleness extreme Who shall a helpless worm redeem? TRUST IN CHRIST IS PEACE WITH GOD. They that are in the flesh cannot please God, and instead of being good in order to be forgiven, you had need to be forgiven as the first movement towards becoming good. The separating gulf is too deep for the tallest specimen of human virtue to ford, and too wide for the sincerest repentance or the most faultless morality to bridge over; and were you confronting the realities of the case you would find that Christless painstaking is only a pilgrimage along a sea-girt promontory. Peace with God is not a boon which it requires good deeds to purchase or prayers to ensure; but peace with God is a gift from God, already come from heaven and awaiting your acceptance. And, just as the vexed wanderer lifted up his eyes, and in the boat, with its benignant pilot, recognized the little skiff which had so long hovered unheeded near his own abode; so, were the Spirit of God to make you earnest now-were He convincing you of sin or of the futility of your own exertions, you would see your salvation in some thrice-told tale-some text with which you have been familiar long ago. Eternal life is the gift of God." "God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." To as many as received Him Jesus gave power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." "The Son of man must be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him may not perish, but have eternal life." "Look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth." Like some dim object anchored near your dwelling, texts like these are associated with your earliest memory. These texts are gospels. Any one of them is such "a faithful saying," that fully realized and implicitly credited, it would carry your soul to heaven. Any one of them is an ark of salvation with none less than the Friend of sinners in it; and you have only to be persuaded of its good-will and its trustworthiness, so as to transfer your immortal interests to the Saviour's keeping, and you will soon discover that TRUST IN CHRIST IS PEACE WITH GOD. A justifying righteousness is not a privilege which you buy, but a present which you receive. It is not a result which you accomplish, nor a reward which you earn, but it is a gratuity which you accept. It is the "gift of righte ousness," a gift promiscuous to sinners of our race,-a gift as wide as the human "whosoever;" a gift outstanding which was within the reach of your earliest intelligence had you been so disposed, and which is not yet withdrawn, -a gift which it needs neither prayer to bring nearer nor a price before or after to make surer, but which it only needs your open hand, your open heart to make your personal possession;-not a bargain, but a boon; not an achievement, but an acquiescence; the gift of righteousness;-the righteousness of God which seeks, not that we deserve it, but that we "submit" to it. And when once the right relation is brought about, the right affection must follow. It could not come before. THE PRESBYTERIAN MAGAZINE. OCTOBER, 1851. Miscellaneous Articles. HOME, THE SCHOOL, AND THE CHURCH. THREE agencies are chiefly instrumental in preparing the human soul for the duties of this life and of the life to come. The agency of HOME is, by God's appointment, peculiarly great in its forming power. It is to parental training, to a father's counsels, or a mother's instructions, that the most of men are indebted in Providence for the character they possess, and for the hope that enters within the vail. By the familiar fireside, beneath the welcome shelter of the paternal roof, in the midst of the kindly and endearing influences of the homes of childhood, an early impress and direction were given to future destiny. Next to home, the SCHOOL has an important agency in developing character for good or for evil. Whether in the country common school of rude appearance, or in the city academy and seminary of higher pretension, wherever an education was obtained, it was there that active power was at work to make men what they are. schoolhouses of youth are looked back upon as the places where the mind, and the heart, and the conscience received deep and enduring impressions. The The other agency is that of the CHURCH. The old family pew has records of immortality for the parents and children who occupied it-records of glory or of shame, which outlast the pulling down of old churches and the putting up of new ones. The salvation of the soul, however much promoted by early training and education, is most frequently consummated in the sanctuary. According to the ordinances of grace, the preaching of the cross is ordinarily the occasion of revealing the wisdom and the power of God. It is not maintained that there are no other agencies in forming VOL. I.-No. 10. 56 the human character than those mentioned, but these are believed to be the principal. HOME. "Every thing that is moral in a nation, and holy, worthy, and useful in the Church, if not actually formed, is fostered and cherished before the household fire." 1. One of the great advantages of HOME for the inculcation of religion is, that its instructions begin early. Long before the teacher or the minister can gain access, the parent is in daily contact with God's immortal gift. Though our nature is corrupt, even unto death, the arrangement of Providence which gives a faithful parent the opportunity to bring God, and truth, and duty before the dawning mind, is a most precious and weighty compensation. A great deal can be done by early training to secure spiritual blessings. The promises of God, like the angels who welcomed the infant Redeemer, are a heavenly host, bright-shining, and glorious witnesses of the fulfilment of the covenant. God has connected the means with the end. Whilst the blessing is with his Spirit, the agency is with his people. That agency primarily consists in home nurture, early and piously at work, resting upon divine promises, and therefore industrious in elaborating the comprehensive and mysterious means. "I will be a God to thee and to thy seed after thee:" "Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it." The raising of the seed is God's stipulation in the covenant; and the promise of the man is in the training of the child. The early nurture of home is of unspeakable advantage in maturing the true ends of education. The mysterious power of a right beginning is never more clearly exemplified than in the great work of training the human soul for "glory, honour, and immortality." 2. Home, also, has peculiar opportunities of illustrating by example. Divine truth exemplified in the consistent lives of parents, makes a deep impression upon the youthful mind. A child in whose presence religion is daily acted out in all the familiarities of the social circle, is highly favoured of the Lord. Before he understands doctrine, he is made acquainted with practice, and is thus insensibly led on in the way everlasting. The power of godly example, utterly insufficient in itself to counteract natural depravity, is sanctified by divine grace in the salvation of children and of children's children. 3. Another of the elements which characterize home nurture, is its facilities for training. To teach, to give a good example, and to train, are three distinct parts of the work of education. It is important to communicate divine knowledge early, and to illustrate it by example; but it is also important to see that the child applies the knowledge he thus acquires. A parent has constant opportunities at home of forming correct habits in children, of directing and restraining their impulses, of superintending their whole conduct, of training them to act out what is right. By means of watchful supervision, seasonable counsel and discipline, vicious ways can be in a good degree anticipated or broken up, and habits of rectitude early cultivated. 4. Then, too, there is a direct power in the parental and filial relation itself to give efficacy to home instruction. The tie which binds parent and child is among the sweetest attachments of life. The natural authority of the parent is acquiesced in with deference and affection; and the instructions of a father and mother possess greater influence than those which flow through any other channel. 5. Nor must be omitted among the advantages of home, the fact that its nurture is carried on amidst the seclusions of domestic life, comparatively free from the temptations, the turmoil, and the interruptions of the world. God has separated the home-kingdom from invasion by natural boundaries better defined and more authoritative than mountain landmark, or civil and political division. Considerations like these give to home instruction a prominence among the means that sway the destiny of our race. Religion claims the advantages of the domestic circle as her own covenant rights, she says, "Fathers! mothers! bring up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Receive them, as God's gracious gifts for his glory! Their salvation is closely connected with your faithful endeavours. The promise is to you, and to your children, to those children whom you have so often nursed in infancy, kissed with tenderest love, and whose very curls and smiles are grateful to your heart. The promise of immortal life is to you and to them; but it is a promise linked with active duties on your part." "These words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart. And thou shalt diligently teach them unto thy children, . . . . and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." "That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born, who should arise and declare them to their children." .... It is a true remark, that "although grace does not come by succession, it commonly comes in succession." The destiny of children is in a great measure decided by household influences, and Christianity has ever vindicated and honoured home as the scene of her triumphs, the favoured retreat of her enlightening and gracious instructions made efficacious by the Divine Spirit. THE SCHOOL. The SCHOOL, as an instrumentality for the promulgation of religion, has an important place among the means of human instruction. Institutions of education occupy at the present age a more commanding position than at any other period. The advancement of society has brought with it more organized benevolence, more concentration of effort, more enlarged plans. The Jews were, how |