establishing, but still greatly adorning, the fundamental doctrines of revelation. Even from those investigations that have been undertaken and prosecuted without immediate reference to divine truth, what unexpected light has sometimes been thrown upon some obscure passage, or some controverted point of scriptural history! Of this the labors of the Champollions and their co-adjutors are an illustrious instance.

We trust enough has been said to show the importance of pushing every department of biblical knowledge to its utmost limits. But by whom shall this werk be performed? We answer, individuals must devote themselves to its several departments, according as their education, their native turn of mind, their station, and their means shall direct. It cannot be performed by the mass of the christian ministry, for they have not the requisite time and apparatus. Whoever hopes materially to enlarge the boundaries of any one of its branches, will need to devote to it many years of patient and laborious investigation. Take, for example, the department of Hebrew lexicography. The Hebrew has been for twenty-three centuries a dead language. In its words, in its grammatical inflections, and in its idioms it differs widely from the languages of Europe, ancient or modern. Moreover all the monuments of this language are comprised within the compass of one volume. Many words occur but once or twice, and then, oftentimes, in connections that throw little or no light upon their signification. The lexicographer who would contribute any thing valuable to this important department, must first carefully examine and collate the sacred text; then, in difficult passages, he must consult the ancient versions and paraphrases; where these fail to give satisfactory results, he must resort to a comparison of the cognate dialects, as the Aramaean, Arabic, and Ethiopic. How many years of study and research will this employment consume! So the departments of ancient history, archaeology, etc., present immense fields of investigation, enough and more than enough to exhaust the energies of the man who aims at their ermanent advancement. But though the prime of his strength be thus concentrated to a single point, let it not be supposed that it is either wasted or unprofitably spent. Those who are accustomed to estimate men's labors only by their immediate visible results, may speak lightly of him as a mere book-worm, a recluse that is of no service to mankind; but the lovers of sacred learning will better appreciate his toils, and

he will have the satisfaction of knowing that while he has labored, other men will enter into his labors. There is no danger at the present day that any valuable discovery in sacred literature will be lost. Once registered on the printed page, it will become an advanced position from which others will push forward their investigations to a still further limit; and their labors will become in turn the basis of future discoveries. Thus, each generation availing itself of the labors of its predecessors, and urging forward every department of sacred learning to its extreme limits, the most glorious results to the cause of truth, may be confidently anticipated.

2. The great body of the christian ministry must receive such an education as shall enable them to avail themselves of the results of the investigations of others. We shall here exclude the previous mental discipline which the academical course of study is designed to furnish, and speak only of that education which is strictly theological. With this limitation we would say that the education of which we speak must include a thorough introduction to the several departments of biblical and theological knowledge. This introduction will embrace an accurate acquaintance with the elementary principles, the modes of investigation, the sources of knowledge, and the means of deciding controverted points, that pertain to each. To these may be added more or less of its details, according as its nature, or the circumstances of the student may dictate. For an illustration of this position take the department of ancient history. Whoever would reap the benefit of the elaborate investigations of those who have devoted their lives to the study of this subject, must make himself familiar with all its great outlines, the order and succession of the different monarchies with which the history of the Israelitish nation is connected, their relative position and political connections, and especially with the synchronisms of sacred and profane history; with the sources of ancient history, and the principles upon which their comparative authority is to be determined; and, finally, with various methods which learned men have proposed for reconciling contradictions either in chronology or in matters of fact. Then he will be prepared to avail himself of all the light which may from time to time be shed upon this department by the toils of others. Otherwise, his views will be so chaotic and confused that he can neither prosecute it himself to advantage

(unless indeed he is willing to commence anew) nor intelligently judge of the results of other men's labors.

For another illustration, take the department of language. The man who has made himself accurately acquainted with the original languages of Scripture is prepared intelligently to examine and judge of the results of the investigations of those who have devoted their lives to the subject. Otherwise these results can be of no service to him, except so far as he is willing to take the ipse dixit of the translator or commentator for truth. For the want of three years' training in the original languages of Scripture, he loses the fruit of thirty years of incessant toil and research; nay more, of the accumulated results of ages of investigation. Can any thing short of imperative necessity be admitted as an excuse for such negligence? Shall the candidate for the christian ministry be in such haste to do good that he cannot take time to qualify himself for the work? This looks to us very much like an army's leaving their artillery behind because of their haste to meet the enemy. Such a course, we admit, may in some extraordinary cases, be justifiable. There may be crises in which it is better to encounter the enemy with muskets and swords, than to lose time. So we have known cases in which it was our decided judgment that individuals should be commissioned to preach the gospel without any knowledge of the original languages of Scripture. But exceptions, be it remembered, do not constitute the rule. So far as our experience and observation go, those young men who make the most ado about losing time, most need to be kept back from the sacred office until they shall have had time to qualify themselves for its solemn responsibilities. Nor is it strange that it should be so, for it is an old adage that ignorance is the parent of self-confidence.

Here we wish to say a word respecting the Latin language as an aid to sacred literature. No part of the inspired volume is written in this language, and, for this reason, some have strenuously insisted upon banishing it, as a useless incumbrance from the circle of theological studies. To this we reply that the Latin tongue was for fifteen centuries identified with the history and literature of the church. It is the language of that people who, at the time of our Saviour's advent wielded the sceptre of the civilized world; the language of all the Western fathers; and, above all, the language of science, philosophy, and literature throughout Europe from the first introduction of

Christianity till the period of the reformation, and, to a great extent, throughout the whole of that mighty conflict of truth with error; and that, as a necessary consequence, it embodies vast stores of theological learning of every kind, and is interwoven in ways innumerable, as well with the literature of the Bible, as with the history of Christianity. But it may be maintained in opposition to this argument, that all that is valuable in the Latin language for the purposes of theological learning has been transferred to the English language. To this we reply that the student who makes himself thoroughly acquainted with the Latin tongue and with the sacred learning which it embodies, will know that the assertion is grossly incorrect. While he is yet ignorant of the language, or only a superficial smatterer in it, he may be made to believe it, but not afterwards. Moreover, how is the student in theology to assure himself that the Latin tongue has thus been rifled of the accumulated treasures of ages, and left an empty shell? When he sees year after year new and valuable translations from this into the English, it cannot be thought either strange or unreasonable that he should have some misgivings on the subject, and determine to examine and judge for himself.

It is freely conceded that many individuals, without a knowledge either of this or of any ancient language, have been eminently successful as preachers of the gospel, and that others, well versed in these languages, have been but feeble and inefficient ministers of the word. But the success of the former was attributable not to their ignorance, but to eminent ministerial qualifications in other respects, which were wanting in the latter. There is a tendency in some minds to draw unwarrantable general conclusions from two or three particular facts. They have known several instances of important enterprises commenced on Friday which terminated disastrously. They ascribe it to the day. Some of their neighbors who use alcohol have robust, others who use water, feeble constitutions. They are confident that the beverage makes all the difference.

Theological seminaries are not founded upon principles deduced from such narrow premises. The experience of eighteen centuries has shown that the efficiency of Christ's ambassadors, taken as a body, is proportioned to their piety and intelligence, and, furthermore, that nothing but intelligence can prevent even piety from degenerating into superstition and fanaticism. The demand for a thoroughly educated ministry has called these in

stitutions into existence, and so long as this demand continues, they will be sustained. Experience will codoubtedly modify some of their provisions, but, if we rigidly judge the signs of the times, these modications will not consist either in abridging or excluding any of the departments of theclogical learning now taught in them, but rather in the introduction of more perfect methods of intellectual investigation and moral training. The question, how shall the spirit of active piety be maintained in vigorous exercise in the bosoms of theological students during the period of their education, so that the cultivation of their moral feelings may keep pace with the development of their intellectual faculties is one of vital importance, and is receiving, as it ought, the devout consideration of those who are called to preside over these schools of the prophets. In our Western seminaries the fields of activity which offer themselves to those who are in a course of training for the christian ministry are so many, and so accessible, that little difficulty is experienced, so far as external arrangements are concerned. Our young men can, if they will, find opportunities enough of doing good which do not interfere with the vigorous prosecution of their studies. If they suffer their christian affections to grow torpid for want of exercise, it is their own fault. What we have now said respecting the West will, we believe, upon careful inquiry, be found to hold true of all parts of the United States. If our theological students wish for humble opportunities of usefulness, they can be found every day in all places. From these seminaries of the church, thus perfected by experience, the most cheering results may be anticipated. We may confidently hope that they will train up and send forth an army of young men thoroughly furnished to the work of the ministry, who shall know how successfully to wield the sword of the Spirit, for the demolition of Satan's empire. The present may be emphatically styled the monumental era of revelation. The record of the introduction of Christianity into this apostate world, of its mighty conflicts with the powers of darkness, and of the stupendous miracles which attested its divine origin, is now so incorporated into the history of mankind, that to efface it would be to blot out the annals of the world; so inseparably interwoven into the institutions of civilized nations, that to annihilate it would be to annihilate the whole fabric of society. It is spread out on the pages of antiquity, it is sculptured on monuments, it is impressed on coins and medals, it lifts up its