from wisdom, charm she never so wisely: but except they are born anew by the power of the Spirit of Truth, they cannot comprehend, neither enjoy the inheritance laid up for the children of Light. The influences of the Most High can alone effect this change, but much depends on rational and accountable agents also. It were fanaticism of the husbandman to expect a good crop resting exclusively on the efficacy of sunshine and rain; he must sow the seed, and gather out the rubbish and thorns, and then pray for a blessing on his labour, which is only then according to the will of God.

The good seed of the kingdom is the Word of God: but in many cases, especially that of children, a human agent sows it. "A man went forth to sow." A cultivator of flowers carefully prepares the soil before the seed is sown. It is walled in, and fenced from whatever might frustrate his hopes: it is left open to the beneficent influence of sunshine and dew, but excluded from blighting and chilling winds.

He sows the precious seed, and diligently eradicates every weed that would draw from the germ which he cultivates the strength of the soil. It is sad that although even nature itself teaches this, as well as reason and experience, men are only wise concerning passing things. It is sad that the moral soil is left to become covered with its spontaneous growth: expecting at the same time the good seed to germinate and produce the effects of righteousness. Alas! the influence of dew and light go to the maturity of thorns and thistles, as well as grapes and figs. Truth is either a savour of life or of death.

Our Lord in His parable of the sower and the seed, shows us the various evils of unprepared and encumbered soils. Some seeds were scattered on the public thorough

fare, where it only found a surface; it is carried away without effect, leaving the road as hard as before. Some fell on a stony place where there was not sufficient depth of earth; the root is checked in its growth, no support is given to the quickly springing grain, for when the sun is up, it is scorched and withered away. Some seed fell among thorns; a soil that had been allowed to run to neglect, under the strong mastery of the desires of the mind and the flesh. The seed sown there is choaked with the spontaneous growth of the soil. Some seed is sown on good ground; cultivated with diligent care, the root strikes and ramifies deeply, imbibing the goodness of the soil to the nourishment of the vigorous plant: the noon-day sun is met by a well supported principle of life, and his beneficent influences impart the richest beauty and fragrance to the flower.

Our Lord teaches in the first example, that the understanding not having been recognized the opportunity is thus afforded to the enemy, who catches up that which merely touched the feelings. The understanding is the soil into which the seed of the Word is to be sown. It is in the ground-work of uprightness and conscientiousness that Truth must demonstrate its life and power. In the second example, he instructs, that while the Word may be received with joy as a means of salvation, it may become an offence when an honest testimony to Truth is called for. Thus it was with the Galatians, who at the beginning were ready to pluck out their own eyes for Paul: but anon were offended because he told them the truth concerning their errors and follies. The third order he illustrates by such as are surrounded by ease and affluence, while they are little aware of the deceptiveness of those infatuating artificials. The seed of truth is choaked by the cares and perplexities which

these engender. The principle of the new life is borne down, and at last the worldling returns to his dust, and the spirit to its place. "He shall go to the generation of his fathers, they shall never see light." "Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish.”

O that parents and teachers would take discretion and common sense as the handmaids of Truth, their labour would not be in vain in the Lord.

But if the early training of the sapling is a means of securing the straightness of the tree, care must be taken not to counteract the wisdom of the nursery by the folly of the seminary and college. Is the young mind, which was wont to expatiate on the moral greatness of Godlike men, who lived above the low desires and sordid pursuits of the herd, to turn away from the contemplation of Truth, and be turned to error. Is your son now to shut out, as it were, the noon-day sun, and betake himself to sparks kindled by heathen genius. Are licentious gods, and blood-thirsty heroes, now to dazzle and bewilder his imagination; and guilt the most flagitious to become consecrated by the names of Virgil and Ovid?

Are you asleep to the interests of your offspring the moment they leave your roof? Instead of children's bread, do you send them to devour worse than empty husks. Are you become all at once like the cruel ostrich, who void of understanding, " leaveth her young ones in the sand, forgetful that the foot may crush them, or that the wild beast may devour them. She hardeneth her heart against her young, as though they were not hers: her labour is in vain, without fear, because God hath deprived her of wisdom; neither has he imparted unto her understanding." Often have your parental feelings been wrung in reflecting

on the infatuation which could quench nature in the heart of the heathen mother, by devoting her first-born to the burning arms of Moloch. That is a mote in comparison of the beam in your own eye. They sacrifice the body, because they are ignorant of the light of revelation. You sacrifice, or at least place in jeopardy, soul and body, because the God of this world has blinded you, that you should not obey the glorious Gospel. "If the light that is in you be thus turned to darkness, how great is that darkness ?"

The opinion of the world is the omnipotence to which you bow. You cannot abide its frown of dissatisfaction, or its “dread laugh." The light of its countenance you cannot bear to lose.

Perhaps you are a church-going, society-supporting, missionary-sending Christian, and you fear it would be esteemed a want of humility if you should see that to be evil which has thus long passed current with the religious world. The friendship of the world is desirable, inasmuch as the future interests of the youth are to be promoted by the eclat of high classical fame and honour, they must be placed in a situation where they may form early friendships with those of rank and influence, who have patronage to bestow. Dear self-deceived parent, you are heaping up so much wood, hay, and stubble on the sure foundation which is laid. Love is jealous of the souls, which, by obedience unto death, it would call its

own.

The Gospel, which breathes" peace on earth, good will to man," shall be brought to judge you. The Lamb who laid down his life to redeem you and your's from the corruptions which are in the world, shall be wroth. Love worketh wrath. What indignation burns so fiercely as slighted

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love? From justice there is an appeal left open to mercy, but from perverted grace, and insulted love, there is no appeal. There remaineth no more sacrifice for sin but a certain fearful-looking of judgment, and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversary; but if the worship of these relics of heathen sentiment and manners is to be deplored in ordinary cases, how does the magnitude of perverseness confound all reason, when the heathen classics are studied conjointly with that which condemns them, in the case of those who are to testify, in the presence of God and men, that they believe themselves called by the Holy Spirit to the office of the ministry?

This is even as if the moles and bats should become officers of state to the sun, whose light they cannot endure.

If God has given a revelation of his mind and will, obey him. If these relics of heathen times are the gods of your idolatry, clęave to them exclusively; but do not attempt to amalgamate truth and lies. Do not study the things of Christ and those of Belial. Perhaps nothing better illustrates the obliquity of intellect, than in the ambition of being able to read with ease, and write with elegance, the language in which Homer and Virgil sung their fictions and panegyrized their vices.

While the one pure language, in which the finger of God wrote His Law, in which Isaiah and his holy companions sung the triumphs of Truth in the subversion of Satan's kingdoms, and in the coming of His kingdom of righteousness and peace, is neither read with case nor translated with accuracy. Fallacy is dived into, while truth is superficially, if at all, skimmed over. The mire and dirt which the former casts up is valued, while the unsearchable treasures which are hid in the latter are disregarded. "All flesh have perverted their way;" and