REGENERATION-ITS EFFECT ON | The wondrous and soul-stirring perfections of THE MIND. BY CLERICUS. The regeneration of the soul is a most impor tant event. It involves an entire transformation, a complete renovation of the moral character. But this is not all the change. Let us look at the effect of regeneration upon the intellectual powers. The new creature has the same mental organization as he had before; still, in an importent sense, he has a new mind. The loftiest intellects are expanded and beautified, when the man becomes " a new creature in Christ." Whoever has been observant has discovered the same in inferior minds. Persons who seemed but little in advance of brutes, whose minds were weak and grovelling, after regeneration, have shown quite a different character. At once they become thinking beings. Their minds have shown elasticity and power, which could never have been anticipated, and which have astonished the beholder. The intellect is waked up by the grace of God. There are good reasons for this result. The man is introduced into a new world-new objects of thought and inquiry pass before the mind. And those objects are cultivated to excite and animate and strengthen the intellect. ual powers. He thus first begins to commune with God-to hold converse with the great mind that pervades the universe-that fills immensity. And is it possible to do this without receiving a mental as well as a moral impulse? Before regeneration the mind has been turned away from Jehovah. But the newborn soul has been introduced to a new object, not only of worship but of contemplation. Nor can hethink on the Infinite without mental expansion. thoughts of Deity are his daily companions. He forgets earth and looks to Heaven. And how can he do so without becoming possessed of mental power, to which he has before been a stranger? In this respect, the Christian is a wonder to himself. The regenerate soul sees God in his works. In the heavens, studded with so many gems, he discovers the handiwork of Deity. “In every star his glory shines." As the grace of Jesus looks out upon the world-its rocks and hills-the fields carpeted with green and flowers; or waiving with the golden harvest-the foliage and fruits-all tell him of God. He sees him there. The mind must expand with such a conception. He no longer looks upon the ear h, merely as that from which he must force an existence, but as the footstool of Jehovah-every particle of which shows creative wisdom and exuberant beneficence. Such views of God in his works must give impulse and power to the human intellect. The object of a liberal education is to enlarge and invigorate the mind. It has this effect, because it makes us acquainted with the master minds of the earth who have gone before us. The study of their thoughts enlarges ours. But if this be the effect of mere human knowledge-if the strength and beauty of one mind imparts these qualities to others, what must be the inevitable effect of our coming in contact with infinite wisdom, and prayerfully studying the lessons which God propounds to us both in his work and his word. It must, it does enlarge and beautify the human mind. to grasp infinity; and are enabled to make some approximation to Heaven. NEW KIND OF WOOL. We learn God has revealed himself to man. The Bible calls to nobler contemplations. It opens before The French scientific world is making a us truths appropriate to stir the mental powers, great stir about pine wool, or forest wool as it and endorse the circle of thought and feeling is called. This is something perfectly new in The plans and purposes and powers of the Cre-France, although it has been known for many ator become subjects of inquiry, and interest to the heaven-born soul. And the result must be to lift up and expand and purify the intellect. From being an earth worm,and having his mind chained down to a clod of dust, he becomes a student of "the mysteries of Godliness." years in Germany. A Mr. Bannevitz, of Bres lau, first discovered that the aciculary leaves of pines, firs and coniferous trees generally, are composed of fibres extremely fine and strong, which are kept together by a resinous substance. Mr. Bannevitz was not long in seeing all the utility that this discovery might be to the industrial world, and he invented a chemical proceeding by which the fine, threadlike substance contained in the long narrow leaves of the pine could be drawn out. He called it forest wool, because it curled and could be carded like ordinary wool. When by decoction, and the employment of certain reactives well known in chemistry, the resinous substance has been dissolved, it is easy to separate the fibres from each other, to wash and clean them perfectly. The first use which was made of forest wool was to substitute it for cotton and ordinary wool in bed clothes. A few years ago, the hospital at Vienna bought five hundred of these bed covers, and after long use and trial, it has just renewed the provision. What makes the wool invaluable for beds, is that no kind of insect ever approaches a bedstead thus furnished and although the aromatic odor of the wool is strong enough to frighten away insects, it is said to be very pleasant and healthy to persons occupying the beds. It costs much less than hair, and is better in every way for stuffing furniture. It can also be spun and woven; the fine threads resembling flax, and being also quite as strong. Woven like cloth, it can be used for rugs, housings for horses, &c. The membraneous substance which remains after the washing and filtering, can be dried and made into bricks, which are excellent for fuel, and which produce a gas which can be used for lamps, and which gives a very brilliant and soft light. The water in which the leaves are washed, is adinirable for baths, and can be bottled and sent to any dis tance. For the Literary Miscellany. NOW AND THEN. BY R. E. H. LEVERING. Now the earth confines our gaze, Now we feeble mortals are Now our sin brings certain woe, Griefs and sins together swell, Now by ignorance opprest, Fools in thoughts and deeds confest: Blind till death shall ope our eyes— Now fell sickness in a day Now in foul dishonor born, Now confin'd to party name, Now the different lands apart, Now our Christ is crucified For the Miscellany. LINES. BY T. D. W. There is to all some certain end Along life's dreary pathless way, Some bourne to which our footstep stend, And which our actions all obey. We see it glimm'ring from afar Though pain and anguish we endure; It is our guiding polar star, The heart's long-wished for cynosure." Has bright Ambition held his prize, Deck'd with the sunlight's ruddy glare; Shining before the dazzled eyes To lure the spirit to his snare? Believe him not, he leads us on O'er trackless plains and mountains high, Till when his flick'ring light is gone, He leaves the heart alone to die. Has Mammon with his syren tongue, Unto thine ear his glories told; What sweets and pleasures all belong To shining coin, and chests of gold. Oh trust him not! tho' ev'ry mine, Be garnered of its golden store, And all its wealth forever thine, Thy heart would be content no more. Where can the weary spirit find, Contentment, the poor heart to bless, What can console the troubled mind, And yield a lasting happiness? Despair not! for a brighter home Than this cold earth of ours is given, For pain and sorrow never come To blast our peace and joy in heaven. Feb. 1853. HANDWRITING. At a recent sitting of the Academy of Sciences, some papers were read relative to handwriting. Among the facts stated, the most remarkable was, that no man can ever get rid of the style of handwriting peculiar to his own nation. If he be English he always writes in English style; if he be French, in the French style; if German, Italian or Spanish in the style peculiar to his nation. I am acquainted with a Frenchman who has passed all his life in England, and who is English in dress, habits, taste, everything: who speaks English like one of our countrymen, and writes Eng. lish with ten times more correctness than ninety-nine in a hundred of us, but who cannot for the life of him imitate our mode of writing. I have also heard speak of a Scotch youth, who was carefully educated in this country, and for eighteen years of his life mixed exclusively with French people, but who, though he had a French writing master, and perhaps never saw any thing but French writing in his life, always wrote in the same style as we all do; it was really National instinct. In Paris all the writing-masters profess to teach the English manner of writing, but with all their exertions they can never get their pupils to any but the cramped hand of the French. Some person pretended that he could tell the character of individuals by their handwritings. I know not wheth er he spoke truth or not, but assuredly he might have asserted, with the most perfect confidence, that he could distinguish a man's country by his handwriting. The difference between our writing and that of the French is immense-a schoolboy would distinguish it at a glance. Mix together a hundred sheets of manuscript written by a hundred of our own countrymen, and no one would fail to say which was the British, and which was the French, even though they should all be written in the same language, and with the same pens, ink and paper. The dif ference between Italian and Spanish and German styles of writing is equally as great.-Edinburg Weekly Review. TRIUMPH OF GENIUS. BY REV. E. D. KENNICOTT, A. M. Ye who with eager joy would crush The voice of its avenging power? Its wanderings in the realms of light? Think ye, God's image is not there, To scourge, to triumph, and to bear? Go,-when the thunder-cloud is black, And chain the lightnings in their course; Go, bring the angry tempest back The hurricanes's unyielding force Or fetter in its hour of dread, The earthquake struggling to be free; Or fasten in their watery bed, The battling billows of the sea ;— And then ye may have hope to find A shackle for the noble mind! Above all barriers, will rise The proud nobility of soul, Nor can ye trace beneath the skies, A limit for the mind's control. it will not bow-it will not bear The tyranny of human clay, No earthly potentate can tear Its crown of living light away;But with renewed, unbending force, Upward and onward is its course. From the Temperance Advocate. THE POWER OF MUSIC. BY T. D. W. It is stated that at a Concert given by Miss Catharine Hayes in San Francisco, that flowers, hats, watches, and even large lumps of gold, were thrown upon the stage. Music divine, what hidden power And lead our spirits with a song, The highest charm that man e'er knows, And calm it to a sweet repose? All Nature owns thy revery-and swells The chorus, on the evening breeze, A tale of melody she tells, Thro' waving corn, and bending trees, How sweet it is at dewy morn To listen to the lark's first song, As by cool zephyrs swiftly borne, It floats melodiously along A fable by the poets told, Says Orpheus tamed a nation wild, Upon the harp strings of the heart, Nature is one vast choir, and joins With ev'ry breeze that sweeps the shore, The insects' busy hum combines, With the volcano's deaf'ning roar, We hear her in the bird's carol Sounding o'er hill and meadow free, There's music in the ocean's deep, While music's reigning ev'ry where, From the Temperauce Advocate. To whom it will apply. Thine is a soul, which in the trial-hour Faithful to Truth and Righteousness is found, Dwelling beneath the shadow of that power Which shelters all who stand on hallowed ground. A Christian love, and a deep reverence To all mankind the gifts of Love and Light, Joy shall attend thee, and around thy path, Shall cluster blessings which no worldling hath. Salem, O. B. S. S. From the Temperance Advocate. What in the mischief is meant by the fussing, The Temperance people have everywhere made! You'd think that dram drinking the country was cussing, And selling rum-toddy is a mighty mean trade, So that it's rather a job to get home, Blamenation, say we, take the Temperance cause, Matters ain't now as they once used to was. 'Tis but a few years, since treating a fellow mon, And loafers too often must suffer a drought And if we get groggy and wallop a woman Good lack! what a terrible rumpus and rout. Blamenation, say we, take the Temperance cause, 'Taint a great while since a fellow had freedom, Matters ain't now as they once used to was. In the publicest place for his liquor to call, And swig twenty drams if he fancied he'd need 'em, While nobody thought, it was nothing at all. Must call for it slyly as ever he can, As though a rumsucker was hardly a man, Blamenation, say we, take the Temperance cause, Matters aint now as they once used to was. Why bless you! no one thought it wrong for To tip cause, Darned if I care,they may fume and may splut- Matters ain't now as they once used to was. |