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MOSES AND SOLOMON THE FIRST NATURAL HISTORIANS.

After Moses, Solomon was the next great natural historian of whom we read. The precious works which he wrote, under the teaching of the Spirit of God, have come down to us-Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs, which is Solomon's. These have been preserved and transmitted, with divine care, and with these we might well be satisfied; and yet many a naturalist, we doubt not, has sighed over the loss of those ancient works of the wisest of men, in almost every department of natural science. "God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much." "And Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the East, and all the wisdom of Egypt; for he was wiser than all men. He spake three thousand proverbs, and his songs were one thousand and five. And he spake of trees from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon, even to the hyssop that springeth out of the wall; he spake also of beasts and of fowls, and of creeping things, and of fishes."

....

The next distinguished natural historian whose fame has reached us, is Aristotle, who lived above three hundred years before the coming of Christ, and who was undoubtedly one of the most remarkable men that ever lived. He enjoyed great advantages, in being for twenty years the favourite pupil of Plato, who for eight years had been the pupil of Socrates. So celebrated did he become, that he was asked by Philip, king of Macedon, to be the tutor of his son, afterwards Alexander the Great. His letter to Aristotle was in these words: "I inform you I have a son. I thank the gods, not so much for making me a father, as for giving me a son in an age when he can have Aristotle for his instructor. I hope you will make him a successor worthy of me, and a king worthy of Macedonia." His power over men's minds was more extensive and permanent than was the kingdom which Alexander so rapidly established over the face of the earth. The fame and power of Aristotle rested chiefly on his "Treatise on Logic;" but it is with his "Natural History" that we have at present to do. Never was naturalist (with the exception, it may be, of King Solomon), placed in so favourable circumstances; for Alexander not only most bountifully supplied him with money to aid him in the prosecution of his researches, but in his Asiatic expedition employed above a thousand men in collecting animals, and plants, and curiosities of all ¦ kinds, which were carefully sent to the philosopher.

But what are wealth, and learning, and power, without heavenly wisdom? How graphically was Alexander, in the rapidity of his victorious progress, described in the language of prophecy, as the "he goat" coming from the west, on the face of the whole earth, touching not the ground, and rushing on the ram with two horns (Media and Persia) in the fury of his power; and, moved with choler against him, smiting the ram, and breaking his two horns, casting him down to the ground and stamping upon him! And yet this Alexander, who subdued the nations, and humbled the proudest kings, and wept because there was not another world to conquer, had left unconquered one little kingdom, which, in the height of his power, rising up, brought on him sudden ruin. That little kingdom was his own heart. His appetites and

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passions were strangers to control, and at an early age the conqueror of the world fell the mournful victim of excess.

Alas, also, for Aristotle! for with all his knowledge he died in darkness. Science shed her brightest beams on his path; Nature, which he studied with so much assiduity, displayed her wonders, unlocked to him her rich treasuries, and unfolded many of her mysteries; the greatest of earthly kings patronized him; and the most distinguished of his contemporaries did homage to his genius; but though he had known that his name was to be still more highly honoured when a thousand years had passed away, this would not have rendered him happy at the hour of death. When expiring, he is said to have uttered the following sentiment: "Fade hunc mundum intravi; anxius vixi; perturbatus egredior; causa causarum miserere me.' ." He had thought and written of the existence of the Deity as the first great causewith sublime thoughts mingling inconsistency and perplexity. He knew enough of himself and enough of God to be afraid to die; and therefore at the hour of death, he says: "Perturbatus egredior”— "I leave the world in a state of perturbation." He knew not how man could be justified with God; nor how he can be made clean who is born of woman. He could only raise the cry of nature in the hour of danger and dismay, "Have mercy upon me!" He could not raise the prayer of faith; for he knew not Him in whom there is redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.

Alas for Aristotle! but much greater cause is there to be grieved for those who, in the present day, walk amidst sparks of their own kindling, and despise the bright beams of Gospel light. They can count, it may be, the number of the visible stars; they are acquainted with the movements, and can predict the eclipses, of the heavenly bodies; they can measure their distance, and tell their magnitude, and calculate their height; they are acquainted with almost all that moves in the deep, on the earth, and in the air; they try to trace the history of old Time till his very boyhood; they cross-question him respecting his hoarded treasures; they tear from his bosom ancient "medals," in the finest state of preservation, inscribed with characters which, if rightly deciphered, unfold secrets of remoter antiquity than those that were concealed for ages under the obscurity of Egyptian hieroglyphics. But what would it avail a person, though he understood all the mysteries of time, if, while he was poring over them, he were to forget that old Time, with stealthy step, was hurrying him on to the ocean of Eternity? And what would a man in the end be profited, though he could read every page of the Book of Nature, if he neglected the wonders of heavenly grace? Unhappy he, who thinks himself wise, because he can guess at the mysteries of Time, while he is treasuring up for himself eternal wrath against the day of wrath, by neglecting the great salvation freely offered, though purchased by the atoning blood of the Son of God!-

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Daily Bread.

FRIDAY.

"Our Father which art in heaven."-MATT. vi. 9.
Father of all, whose powerful voice
Call'd forth this universal frame!
Whose mercies over all rejoice-
Through endless ages still the same;

Thou by thy word upholdest all;

Thy bounteous love to all is show'd;
Thou hear'st thy every creature's call,

And fill'st thy people's souls with good.

What doest thou, O Christian, complaining of all thy wants, and sighing under thy burdens? Is not God thy Father? Is it spiritual blessings thou wantest? Spread thy requests before him; for as he is thy Father, so he is the God of all grace, and will give unto thee of his fulness; for God loves that his children should be like him. Or is it temporal mercies thou wantest? Why, he is thy Father, and he is the "Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;" and why shouldst thou go so dejected and disconsolate who hast a Father so able and so willing to relieve and supply thee? Only beware that thou askest not stones for bread, nor scorpions for fish, and then ask what thou wilt for thy good, and thou shalt receive it.-Hopkins.

SATURDAY.

"Hallowed be thy name."-Ib. vi. 9. Father of earth and sky,

Thy name we magnify:

O that earth and heaven might join, Thy perfections to proclaimPraise thy attributes divine

Fear and love thy holy name!

That God's name may be hallowed let us ourselves endeavour to be holy; for it is impossible that an unholy heart or life should sanctify a holy God. Whilst we persevere in our wicked conversations, we do but mock God and ourselves when we desire to sanctify that name of his which we daily profane and pollute; nay, indeed we do but pray for our own destruction, even that God would sanctify his name, part whereof is his just and dreadful severity upon all those, and consequently upon ourselves, who defile and profane it.-16.

SABBATH.

"Thy kingdom come."-Ib. vi. 10. When shall thy Spirit reign

In every heart of man?

Father, bring the kingdom near-
Honour thy triumphant Son.

These are the chief and principal things that we beg of God for the Church militant, when we say, "Thy kingdom come;" namely, that it may attain to perfection of extent, and be planted where it is not; to a perfection of number, and may gain more proselytes and converts where it is planted; to a perfection of establishment, that it may not be rooted out by the violence of men, nor abandoned through the judgment of God; and to a perfection of purity and holiness, by the powerful dispensation of Gospel ordinances, attended by the efficacious concurrence of the Holy Spirit.—Ib.

MONDAY.

"Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven."-Ib. vi. 10.

Thy good and holy will

Let all on earth fulfil;

Men with minds angelic vie,

Saints below with saints above,

Thee to praise and glorify,

Thee to serve with perfect love.

Certainly, if ever we would do the will of God in heaven, we must accustom ourselves to do it here on earth. Here we are as apprentices that must learn the trade of holiness, that when our time is out, we may be fit to be made free denizens of the new Jerusalem. Here we are to tune our voices to the praises of God before we come to join with the heavenly choir. Here we are to learn what we must there for ever practise.-Hopkins.

TUESDAY.

"Give us this day our daily bread."-MATT. vi. 11.

This day with this day's bread

Thy hungry children feed;
Fountain of all blessings, grant
Now the manna from above;
Now supply our bodies' want,

Now sustain our souls with love.

We are all strangers and pilgrims upon earth; heaven is our country, and thither we are travelling; only in our journey we may call and bait at the world, and take what we find provided for us with sobriety and thankfulness; and therefore, this bread of bread (Ps. cv. 16): "He brake the staff of bread;" that we here pray for, is elsewhere called the staff And all this is to put us in mind that we are to ask (Ezek. v. 16): "I will break your staff of bread.” | for, and to use these earthly enjoyments only as travellers, that make use of a staff for their help and support whilst they are in their passage home. And we are hereby also taught to crave no more than will suffice for our convenient supplies, otherwise we make our staff our burden, and our support itself a load and pressure.-Ib.

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As all manner of sin lies couched and compre hended in that body of sin which we carry about with us, so all manner of graces are couched also in his own children; and when the devil, by a temptathat principle of grace which God hath implanted in tion, calls forth a particular sin, God also, by his exciting influence, calls forth a particular contrary they are tempted to pride, God calls forth humility. grace, to hinder the commission of it. Thus, when So, when they are tempted to wrath and passion, he and repining at God's dispensations, he puts patience stirs up meekness to oppose it. When a murmuring upon its perfect work.-İb.

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THE CHRISTIAN TREASURY.

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TIMOTHY, OR THE CHRISTIAN EDUCATION OF THE YOUNG;

A Sermon.

BY THE REV. ANDREW THOMSON, EDINBURGH.

"From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which | powerful, noiseless, every-day influence upon

are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus."-2 TIM. iii. 15.

THE objection has sometimes been urged, that the beneficent effects of the Gospel upon the nations into which it has been introduced, have been few and insignificant. Those who make it, show that they are either grossly ignorant of the history of Christianity, or that they have marked its operations with a prejudiced mind. It is impossible for them to escape the charge of inconsiderateness, or of something worse; for may we not ask of them--what has expelled idolatry and the cruel rites of superstition from so many countries what has softened the horrors of war? what has mingled more benign and equitable principles with the laws of nations? what has reared asylums and hospitals for the poor, the sick, the disabled, and the aged? what has driven grosser vices altogether out of sight, and made many of the virtues that were once considered heroic become common? what has given a new value to human life? what has elevated woman to her proper rank in the scale of society, by making her man's companion, and not his slave, and thereby giving a new grace and gentleness to human manners, and alleviating human misery in a thousand forms? If any one hesitates for a reply, we bid him compare the nations of Christendom with Heathen countries, both in ancient and in modern times, and then let him deny, if he can, that Christianity has done it all.

In making these statements, however, we have not said all that might be said; we have not even brought forth our main defence. The truth is, the objector has been looking for the beneficial effects of Christianity in the wrong place, and from the wrong position. It is not in camps, and courts, and senates, that the influences of the Gospel are most seen and felt; but in the calm privacies of domestic life, taking hold of the heart of the individual, and awakening in it a new class of affections towards God and man. The scene where those affections are most fully and favourably developed is the family circle. The various social relations are strengthened by a new bond, sweetened by a new tenderness, and regarded with a new fidelity. Home has obtained, through the Gospel, a new meaning and a new attractiveness. And if we would form a just estimate of what the Gospel has done, and is now doing, to promote man's present happiness, we must look, not to some one splendid act of public heroism or of national enthusiasm, but to its No. 17.

millions of individuals and of homes. This, we repeat it, is the proper sphere of its operation; and when we consider that the greater part of happiness or misery is experienced in our family relations and at our firesides, can we attach too much importance to that wondrous moral instrument which has ingrafted new qualities upon our family relations, and, just in so far as it operates, converts home into a sanctuary and a heaven?

We have been led into this not unimportant train of remark by the circumstance that our text introduces us to one of those domestic scenes not unfrequent in the New Testament, and shows us a home hallowed and made happy by the faith of the Gospel. It is the home in which was reared Timothy, the young evangelist, Paul's son in the Gospel, who enjoyed so large a share of the venerable apostle's affection, who was favoured more than any other individual with his inspired correspondence, and who almost seems to have received the last breath of the man of God. We are led back to the time when he was yet a child, and when his character obtained that form and direction which so eminently fitted him for future usefulness: "From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." We wish now to fix your attention on these words, which bring before us the four following things. viz.:Timothy's instructors; the season of his instruction; the matter of it; and its tendency and results.

I. Timothy's Instructors.-These are not expressly named in the text, but they are obviously referred to, and the remembrance of them would no doubt be vividly excited in Timothy's mind as he read the apostle's words. We have only to turn back to an earlier passage in this Epistle in order to have our interest in the matter set at rest. At the 5th verse of the 1st chapter we meet with the following words: "When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also.” We may look also at Acts xvi. 1, which supplies us with a few additional particulars: "Then came he (Paul) to Derbe and Lystra: and, behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timotheus, the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess, and believed; but his father was a Greek." When we place these two citations June 20, 1845.

in connection with our text, they supply us with the following facts, viz.: That Timothy was a native of Derbe or Lystra-most probably of the latter place; that his father was a Gentile, but that his mother and grandmother were of the race of Abraham; and that, whatever may have been the religious character of his father, his mother Eunice, and his grandmother Lois, were persons of unfeigned piety and sterling excellence. On them, there is reason to think, there devolved the principal charge of Timothy's early instruction; and they had most faithfully and assiduously discharged their stewardship; for "from a child he had known the Holy Scriptures."

The fact leads us to notice the parental obligation, and the divine wisdom and benignity shown in the formation of it. The duty of the parent to care for his child-to provide for his sustenance--to train his intellect to seek the renovation and guidance of his moral naturethis is a duty growing out of the very constitution. of families, and which Christianity cannot so much be said to create as to confirm by new sanctions, and to regulate by new rules. To attempt escaping such an obligation would not only be to divest ourselves of the Christian, but to become the Atheist-it would be "to deny the faith, and be worse than an Infidel.” The charge is not a matter of mere choice, but of imperative duty; it is a charge which, in common circumstances, cannot, without blame, ever be transferred. The moment that God puts a living child into a parent's hands, he conveys along with it the most weighty responsibilities-responsibilities the neglect or faithful discharge of which will be followed by an eternity of corresponding results. When the Bible says: "Train up a child in the way in which he should go," it does but utter, in a more loud, and distinct, and solemn voice, what nature had said before it.

Now mark here, I beseech you, the beautiful illustration which this constitution of things gives us of the divine wisdom and benevolence. Is there nothing to be admired in the circumstance that the training of the immortal mind, in its earliest and most susceptible years, has been committed to those very persons who, of all others on the earth, are most disposed to seek its welfare? An affection which never knows fatigue-which sympathizes with every infant joy or sorrow-which has found a new life in the child's life, and watches with intense desire and satisfaction the development of its powers-this is to be found in the bosom of every parent, save the very base and abandoned. And to this parent it is that God has committed the sacred trust of its mental and spiritual culture.---But there is a double beauty in the arrangement. We learn the most readily from those whom we love and trust. The words of a father and mother are not readily suspected by their child, either of folly or of falsehood. Whatever others may think of them,

he is disposed to invest them with a sort of absolute wisdom. Indeed a child always confides, until he has found himself deceived. Here, then, there is a double vantage, indicating a double benevolence. And may we not expect that, where these favouring circumstances are intelligently and scripturally improved, and the child is trained up in the way in which he should go, when he is old he will not depart from it? Such was the training of Timothy, and such were its blessed fruits. Following the proposed order of our remarks, let us notice, II. The Season of Timothy's Instruction.-His education was begun in very early life: "From 2 child he had known the Holy Scriptures," &c. And instruction, if we would insure success, mus be commenced thus early. If we were asked to fix the proper time for entering on the mental, and still more on the moral culture of a child, we should say, Begin your training just as soon as your child is capable of receiving it. It is a different question altogether, and on which it is not our province to discuss or t settle here, how soon the child is to be brought under the systematic discipline of the school or the academy. To decide this question, it would be necessary to take into view the bodily and mental constitution of the child. Be every one must see that long before the time ef systematic education commonly begins, nume rous impressions, especially of a moral kind, have already been made; and these, whether favourable or unfavourable, are likely to prove deep, if not indelible. If we are asked, then, to fix the time for entering on the culture c the child's spiritual nature, we answer, Begin as soon as he is capable of receiving spir tual impressions. When am I to teach m child to love truth, and to abhor a lie! Ju as soon as he is capable of perceiving the distinction between right and wrong. When am I to convey to his mind the doctrine of a supreme Divinity-the almighty Framerthe benignant Preserver-the Father of all! Whenever the sublime sentiment can even be faintly apprehended by him? And so with the great vital principles of that wondrous restora tive economy which it is the design of the Scriptures to reveal-with the history, and character, and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. These must be conveyed to his mind just as soon as he is able to bear it. There is no limit fixing the period of commencing this depart ment of instruction, but the child's own caps; city. Now is the seed-time of his immortal existence, which, when once let pass, can never return.

The truth is, impressions of some kind will be made upon the youthful heart, so that the real practical question is, not whether the chil shall receive moral impressions or not, but whether the impressions made on it shall be of the right sort or the wrong. There is no period of life in which the imagination is lively, or the curiosity so excited, or the con

THE CHRISTIAN EDUCATION OF YOUTH.

science so awake, or the heart so tender, and, therefore, in which the facilities for occupying and informing with truth are so great. But let the opportunity be let slip, and the seeds of divine truth remain unsown, and the bosom will not continue a blank; but a sad harvest will, in all likelihood, hereafter be gathered of poison and death. The heart will not remain untenanted and uncontrolled; for if the truth do not occupy and govern it, the devil will.

I am afraid that the doctrine of human depravity has sometimes been sadly abused in its bearings on this subject; and men have perversely drawn an excuse for the delay of moral instruction, from the very circumstance that should have quickened them to early and vigorous effort. They have tried to persuade themselves that the work of moral training will be not more difficult ten years hence than it is now, while they will then have the advantage of a more matured and vigorous intellect. Never was there a greater, and seldom has there been a more fatal mistake. We admit the doctrine of natural depravity to its full extent; but then, is there no difference between that tendency to evil with which we are born, when viewed in its native virulence, and when enlarged by years of unchecked indulgence and strengthened by habit? Whether is it easier to pluck up the sapling or the tree? Whether are you more likely to succeed in diverting the current of the rill or of the river? A neglected child is like so much soil handed over to Satan to cultivate. Oh, yes! if we would see our children, in the days of manhood, walking in the paths of wisdom and holiness if we would meet them in a future world with congratulations and joy-we must teach them to "Remember now their Creator in the days of their youth."

It is possible, however, to have some vague impression of parental responsibility, and cordially to accede to the opinion that mental and moral discipline, to be effectual, must be early, while the mode and character of our instruction may be grossly defective or injurious. But the text not only suggests the law on this subject, but points to the lesson-book. This will come under our notice by considering,

III. The Matter of Timothy's Instruction.-It was divine truth: "From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures." His education was conducted on truly sound and liberal principles; for his parents contemplated him, above all, in his relations as moral and immortal, and trained him, not for the hour, or even for time merely, but for eternity. The only part of the Scriptures at that time in existence was the Old Testament; and I can easily imagine how the interesting child would listen for hours to the words of the affectionate Eunice or the venerable Lois, as they depicted before him the lives of the patriarchs; or pursued with him the history of Moses, their great lawgiver, from his cradle on the Nile to the triumphant departure

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of Israel from Egypt; or followed the Israelites in their forty years' wanderings in the wilderness, under the friendly guidance of the mystic pillar of cloud and fire; or traced their further history in the Promised Land, through centuries of miracle and mercy, returned so oft with rebellion and defection; mingling with all those moral and spiritual lessons which they so naturally and richly suggest, and pointing his thoughts, above all, to the manner in which both history, and type, and prediction, prepared the way and adumbrated the glory of the Christ that was to come. With what glistening eye would the young disciple hear the sacred story! How many and how strange would be the questions he would ask !-questions never addressed to a pious parent's car in vain. Oh! then it was at a parent's knee that those seeds were sown which afterwards grew up unto eternal life.

What, then, it may perhaps be asked--do we propose that education should be exclusively confined to religion? We propose nothing SO very unreasonable and preposterous. We know that man is 'destined, for a season, to be an inhabitant of this world; and we would have him, in all respects, qualified for his sphere. What we condemn is, seeking to have our children all accomplished merely for the present life. What we condemn is, allowing the classic to supersede the catechism, and science to eclipse Scripture. What we condemn, and what, when discovered in the families of professing Christians, has excited in us feelings akin to horror, is the fact that, when passing from childhood into youth, they should sometimes be more familar with the wanderings of Æneas, and with the battles of Hector and Achilles, than with the ministry, and sufferings, and death of the Son of God and Saviour of the world. We do not quarrel with you for making your child wise in reference to this world; but we do blame you for overlooking the far more important work of making him wise unto salvation. These things ye ought to have done, and not to have left the other undone. Exclude religion from the matter of your instruction, and you are, in all likelihood, preparing your child to become at some future day a more splendid ruin! That, and that alone, is an education worthy of the name, which places the child's immortal interests first, and in the whole scheme of its arrangements" seeks for him first the kingdom of God and his righteousness."

And here I would take occasion to remark on a very injurious mistake that, I fear, prevails to some extent on the subject of educationI refer to the opinion, that education solely consists in the direct and formal communication of knowledge. This is much too narrow a view of the matter. It would be far more correct to say, that all that the child sees and hears in the household is his education; at least, this is strictly true to the extent of his moral training. The direct lesson may be the text, but the parents' conduct is the proof and

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