sparkles with intelligence. Animation speaks in every feature. It is plain to every one who watches him that he is absorbed by his subject, and that all the powers of his mind are on the stretch, while he earnestly explains and commends the truth to his youthful audience. If you approach nearer, so as to overhear his words, your expectations are not disappointed. You are surprised at the ease and simplicity of his discourse, at its familiarity, its adaptation, and at the pathos with which every now and then he exhorts his hearers. Rarely do you see a wandering look in any of his class; and whenever such is the case it is brought back again by a single word or a single glance of the eye. In fact, he has complete power over the will and affections of his scholars. They have come under the moral spell of his earnestness. They feel that he is their friend, sincerely anxious for their welfare, and desirous of winning them over to the truth. Sometimes he will pause in his remarks to give his young charge breathing time; and sometimes you will hear the scholar's voice instead of the teacher's. A passage of scripture must be read which bears upon the subject of his address. The teacher all the while anxiously listens to catch the meaning of every word as it is uttered; and no sooner is the verse finished than he commences the work of instruction again, explaining some obscure word, or remote allusion, and connecting the verse with the theme before the class. And now as the lesson terminates, and the time expires, his soul seems to gather together all its forces in a vigorous effort to do good. Having guaged the minds of his scholars, and carefully noted their disposition towards the truth, he makes a last attempt, in winning, soulsubduing tones, to bring them to Christ. And as he proceeds, you may see here and there the responding look, or perchance the silent tear stealing down the cheek. Oh! the luxury of that moment, both to the teacher and him who is permitted to witness the happy result of his labour!

Persevere, O my friend, in thy divine work! Never may thine earnestness decline! And may God give thee many souls for thy hire.

Look forward,

Press onward:

Death, judgment, eternity—all are in view;

Be thine the bright heaven of the "faithful and few!"

THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING AND THE REFORMATION.

The way of God is perfect. Although often mysterious, inexplicable, and opposed to the hasty judgment of man, yet is it perfect. What God does and ordains will eventually appear to be right. Even the evil which he permits, will at some future day be acknowledged as the source of good. It is his prerogative to bring order out of confusion, and light out of darkness; as in that day when our chaos world, “without form and void," was transformed into a world of beauty and fertility. We are finite beings and cannot see "the end from the beginning." It is our part to wait for the period when God will finally explain all his proceedings, and satisfy his creatures that "the judge of all the earth" does right.

The two disciples who journeyed to Emmaus were lost in perplexity at the providence of God which permitted Christ to be crucified; and many, doubtless, were the unbelieving thoughts which troubled their hearts. They "thought it had been he who should have redeemed Israel." Their hope had vanished; for Christ was dead. How little did they understand the plan of God! That very death, which seemed to them so mysterious, was the method in which Israel was redeemed; and he to whom they expressed their doubts was their risen Saviour! Let us learn a lesson from their conduct, assured that "what we know not now, we shall know hereafter."

Sometimes, however, the divine Ruler permits us to trace the wisdom of his providential arrangements in a remarkable manner. If one generation enjoys not the high privilege, another does. Some ages ago the swarthy inhabitants of Africa were seized and transported to the islands of the west, there to be held in bondage for the gain of their cruel masters. That an overruling Providence should permit this seemed once a mysterious thing. But now, who cannot see how it has been overruled for good, and is likely to be productive of extensive benefit to a whole continent. The slave in the West Indies has received the gospel and liberty, that he may transmit both in coming ages to those who have hitherto been ignorant of the true God.

In a similar manner we are permitted to trace the wise

arrangements of Providence during the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries, for the purpose of bringing about the Reformation of the sixteenth; and thereby enfranchising— doubly enfranchising, whole kingdoms, and letting in light upon the world. We have the privilege of surveying the past, and tracing the causes as they germinated and grew and eventually developed their influence. Were we living, with our present sentiments respecting religion and religious things, in the fif teenth century, we should probably be lost in wonder at the enormities practised by a dominant religion in all parts of Europe, and ask how an overruling Providence could permit such things to be. But living as we do in the nineteenth century, we see how, even then, providence was slowly, but surely and effectually, overruling evil for future good.

The great Reformation commenced virtually in the year 1517. The principal agent employed by God in bringing it about was Martin Luther. He was in every respect a wonderful man, and was qualified by natural gifts, and moral courage, and persevering activity, to accomplish what hundreds confederated together could not. A very Sampson—he had, if any had, the power to pull down the pillars of that temple of formalism, superstition, and idolatry, which fifteen centuries had erected: but no one man was able to do so much. He was assisted by others in the great work: and the circumstances of the age, and of his own country in particular, were favourable to its accomplishment. Causes had been at work, changes had taken place, events had occurred, which, meeting at that period, made it a fitting one for the great effort. God had been preparing the world for a new era before Luther was born: and when the era arrived he qualified Luther for the prominent part he was destined to take. It was "in the fulness of time" that "God sent forth his Son:" in a similar way, it was in the fulness of time— it was after the preliminaries of a providential predisposing of things had been completed, that Luther was summoned to with. stand the power of Rome.

Huss in Bohemia, and Wickliffe in England, had attempted long before this period, and without success, what was now to be achieved. Their views were as enlightened as those of the German Reformer, indeed more so than those of the German Reformer when first he set about his task. But

their efforts were not seconded to any extent by others. They applied the light to the mine, but the train had not been prepared sufficiently; and consequently Rome stood in proud defiance, as before, against those who had hoped to level its pretensions to the ground. Huss and Wickliffe were of service: they helped to prepare the way for one who at the proper season should accomplish the work contemplated by God. But nothing more. The sixteenth century was the age in which the Reformation was to take place; other and preceding ages prepared it. Germany was to be the great field of operation; and Germany was prepared for the service when the age came. Luther was to be the chief agent in defence of truth; and Luther was prepared for his office when the time actually arrived.

We shall notice, in our present article, one of the means by which an overruling Providence prepared the way for the Reformation:-this is, the gradual advancement of learning in Europe from the tenth to the sixteenth century.

The establishment of the barbarous nations on the ruins of the Roman empire in the west, was accompanied by an almost universal loss of that learning which had been accumulated in the Latin and Greek languages, and which we call "ancient" or "classical." No other kind of learning was substituted for it. The Romish church planted itself about this time, and afterwards grew in the increasing gloom. Public calamities in the fifth century accelerated this downward progress, which lasted until about the tenth century. Gregory I, the founder of the papal supremacy, and his subordinate ecclesiastics, in a great measure promoted this spirit. Saving that in the monasteries many manuscripts were preserved, everything pertaining to human knowledge seemed to decline. Genius, taste, poetry, philosophy, were all extinguished in the darkness of the middle age. It was a dark iron age. In the tenth and eleventh centuries some light sprang up here and there-principally in Ireland and England. In the twelfth the dawn of a new era appeared. The causes of this were, 1, the institution of universities; 2, the cultivation of the modern languages, followed by the multiplication of books, and the art of writing; 3, the investigation of the Roman law; 4, the return to the study of the Latin language in its ancient models. Linen paper was in use in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries; but not extensively until the fifteenth. It

was an useful invention, tending to the spread of knowledge. Invented before the art of printing, it came into service when it was required. This last invention-the art of printing-we must not overlook amongst the circumstances leading to the Reformation. Until the fifteenth century books were written by hand: they were consequently scarce and dear. So long as this was the case, knowledge could not be widely disseminated. Though the monasteries were busy in copying old manuscripts, and students at the universities imitated them, yet little comparatively was done to supply the people with information: only the very rich had many books. Light was to be poured in upon Europe, and providence prepared the way for it. There is a dispute as to who was the inventor of the art: some ascribing it to Costar of Haarlem; others to Gutenburg of Mentz; and others, more justly, as to all that was practically serviceable in the invention, to Schoeffer, who was the first to discover and apply a method of casting type. In the middle of the fifteenth century books first began to be printed, and knowledge to increase. This was the pioneer of the Reformation. It is remarkable that it originated among the German people, where the Reformation arose. Its first and most important results flowed out to them; and before Luther's time learning had made rapid progress among his fellow-countrymen. Heretofore the Latin language had locked up the treasures of truth, and the common people were compelled to receive only what was conveyed to them at second-hand. But from this time the Bible and religious books were printed, and translations were made, in the German and other languages. The influence of this was very extensive in preparing the minds of men for a change. Indeed we have proof of this in the fear expressed by the ecclesiastics of the church in 1486. Berthold, archbishop of Mentz, instituted a censorship of books; and the mandate which he issued affords clear evidence that even then the Romish clergy were losing their hold on the people, mainly through the instrumentality of books; and that this censorship was instituted for the purpose of preventing the publication of those works which might tend to create dissatisfaction with things as they were.

The gradually progressive result of this simple invention was amazing. The simplicity of ignorance could no longer be imposed upon as before; it was exchanged for the curiosity of partial