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ruling the clouds, both the 'thick' and the 'bright' one. But the purpose varies. He causeth it to come, whether for correction, or for his land, or for mercy.' Job xxxvii. 13. The heavens are not always angry when they gather blackness.' If the clouds be full and over-hang the earth, they have a good intention. It is not to frighten people who look at them, nor to deprive them of sun-light. They have a mission of mercy, which they fulfil by breaking to pieces, and emptying their contents in millions of globules, pure and sweet and beneficial, on the thirsty ground. Let those who are full and elevated be like the clouds, and drop their bounty on those beneath. You who are able, imitate bountiful nature. It is the description of a good man. 'He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor; his righteousness endureth for-ever; his horn shall be exalted with honour.' Ps. cxii. 9. If some of your precious rain falls on fruitless rocks, that make no good use of it, do not distress youselves about it. It is, perhaps, an unavoidable accident. Better a little should fall on stones than that the adjacent soil should lose its due.

'And if the tree fall toward the south or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth there it shall be.' To make this harmonize with its context, we must think not of a fallen tree that has been felled by the woodman's axe, and in its fall dropped northward or southward, but rather of a flourishing tree, which year by year yields rich crops. As the clouds are full of rain,' so the tree is full of fruit-a blessing is in it.' The word 'fall' has, in our judgment, been misunderstood, as if it indicated the end of life and unchangeableness of state consequent upon it. As when a tree is felled its growing time is done, so when a man dies, like a tree cut down, his final condition is fixed. It is better to think of a living tree growing in the south or in the north. In is the more obvious import of the preposition translated toward." Whether the tree be in the north or the south, let it do the best it can where its lot has fallen to it. If its situation is unfavourable, there will be no more expected of it than reason warrants. What comes to us by lot, or right of inheritance, or divine appointment, is said, in a tropical sense of the word, to 'fall' to us. So a contented person says, 'The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places.-Psa. xvi. 6. With the portion of goods that falleth to me' let me do what I can both for myself and others, and I shall be approved. Let no man cumber the ground he occupies. Seek to benefit others according to the position you hold; then you will be worthy of the soil into which your roots have struck.

'He that observeth the wind shall not sow, and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap.' A timid prudence is hostile to successful exertion. You may read the face of the sky too much, especially

if you love ease and lack energy. One sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold,' and another will not sow on account of the wind, which he thinks will blow the seed away, and a third will not reap because a strip of cloud here and there appears in the sky. If men wait till every small difficulty disappears, the season for action may be lost. Slothful souls see lions in the streets where diligent workers see nothing obstructive, and cowardly spies see giants where courageous Calebs see but ordinary men.

'As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child, even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.' Mysteries are no justification of inactivity. As in nature, so in Providence and grace, many things elude our search and escape our penetration. That which is far off and exceeding deep, who can find it out?' Eccles. vii. 25. When we have works of philanthropy to do, we might waste time in asking questions. Will the results be quick or slow? Will the success be large or small? Will our individual efforts have a result of their own distinct from that of other men's labours, or be melted and merged in some common issue? We must do our work and leave the issue. Duty is ours, events are God's. The farmer must not neglect sowing till proud science can clear up to him all the occult under-ground processes of vegetation. The mariner must spread his canvas to the breeze whether philosophy can enlighten him about the laws that rule the capricious wind or not. The moral reformer and the wealthy almoner must prosecute their labours without understanding the end from the beginning. A good end may be reached without us cognizing all its steps and stages. The regeneration of a soul may take place whilst you are enquiring how it can be. • The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence its cometh and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.' John iii. 8. Generation is referred to in this verse to quicken our solicitudes. Anything we do for the benefit of our fellows we may trust fully in His hands who superintended our coming into the world and formed and fashioned our members in process when as yet there was none of them.' His all-making power will save our honest endeavours from being abortive.

We are called on to sow all day. In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand.' Our morning labours are no excuse for evening slackness. And our diligence towards evening cannot redeem the loss of the precious morning hours. Many persons lose the morning entirely. The half of their life is slumbered off in slothful neglect of duty. It is noon before they begin the proper work of life. The lost time can never be recovered. Yet if the sting of regret be felt in a practical way

there may be good work done before the darkness puts a period to useful action. The negligent soul may weep over his wasted hours. And let him; it is fit that he should weep. But as he weeps, let him work the harder, and have his revenge upon his past neglects. If we have not done well in the morning, it is still worth trying to do well in the evening. It is better to cover the entire day with the labours due to it. Early workers in God's field, on whom the evening begins to fall, suffer the word of exhortation. Your morning work is a credit to you. You began early to serve God and his Church. You taught in the Sabbath-school. You reproved sin, gave counsel to the strayed and erring, comfort to the afflicted, and assistance to the indigent. You have continued all day toiling. What you have done has been achieved amid discouragement and hindrance, more or less. But it is done. Take the comfort of it in review. Only do not be so satisfied with it as to relax your energies. Your sun though setting is not set. Sow away a little longer. It is time that you feel exhaustion coming on you. Hard toilers are not so vigorous at eventide as they were at the dawn. A reasonable master will excuse you to the extent of that difference. But go on a little longer to the hour of dismissal. Weary sower, cast abroad the seed, withhold not thine hand. A few more steps and a few more casts, and the weary foot and the aching heart shall rest.

Our ignorance of results is brought to bear as a motive. thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.' The evening seed may yield better than that sown in the morning. Or the morning work might prove the best; or they might be equal. Ancient husbandry was exposed to many casualties. So is modern agriculture. But the seed prospers more or less. It is not supposed that both morning and evening work will be unprofitable, nor that either will be so. But one may be superior to the other.

It is ours to be liberal and active, in spite of adverse 'wind' or threatening clouds.' If we turn slack for trifles we forego the honours awaiting perseverance. If we do not sow, we shall not reap. The world will have nothing to thank us for; and when the final harvest is gathered we shall be mortified to know how little we contributed to the golden conclusion. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that you labour is not in vain in the Lord.' T. G.

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ART. IV.-EMERSON'S RELIGIOUS OPINIONS.*

SECOND ARTICLE.

HEN a man sets up for a profound and original thinker, it is natural to inquire what cardinal principles he has accepted and what methods he employs. In Emerson we have found the fundamental conviction to be, that man is himself the source of all truth. But this statement must be taken in a broad and generous spirit. Emerson does not mean to exclude the study of history, nor conversation with living thinkers. He maintains that men should refuse each other the position of masters, and that truth should be accepted, not upon authority, but on an immediate and individual perception of its reality. This maxim is too obviously true and important to be overlooked. But with what modifications must such a statement be accepted? That we should apply it when possible in all important matters, every body concedes. What folly to think of enjoying by proxy the splendours of dawn, the fragrance of June roses, or the strains of Beethoven! Yet nobody ever pushes any pursuit far without coming upon the perplexing fact of his own limitations. None are so keenly alive to their own deficiencies as the masters in every province of science, art, and culture. Encyclopedic minds exist only in the dreams of schoolboys and visionaries. Our life is so short, the range of our faculties so narrow, and the domain of truth so vast, that none can be an independent thinker in every realm. Men in general have to accept the law of gravitation without any familiarity with the sublime reasonings which are its demonstration. In such matters Emerson confesses and accepts the limitations of our nature. He finds these bounds inexorable and insuperable, and deems it nobler to admit ignorance than to affect superior wisdom. He has studied the past with eager and searching eyes-its history, philosophy, literature, and religion have all been investigated with patient and fearless scrutiny. Meantime he deems the living soul of the wise inquirer a deeper fountain of knowledge than all records of past ages. Reading those records, he does not hesitate to say :

'I am the owner of the sphere,

Of the seven stars, and the solar year,
Of Cesar's hand, and Plato's brain,

Of Lord Christ's heart, and Shakspeare's strain.'

'Seek not beyond

He who owns so much is royal everywhere. thyself,' is his way of saying, 'Man is the measure of all things.' In his view, truth is the common but largely un-determined inheritance of mankind. He who has traversed and surveyed more of it than others is entitled to correct their half-truth and errors. *From the American Methodist Quarterly Review.'

He may set aside theories, books and masters. In some tribes of savages he assumes the headship whose prowess none dares to match; so in the realm of wisdom, he is chief whose vision is broader and more exact than any other. Yet this perilous headship can only be retained at the cost of constant struggles, and must be surrendered to the next more comprehensive brain. By such stern rivalry alone can science retain her vitality and refresh her charms.

There is nothing novel in such teachings. What is novel in Emerson's handling of them is the poetic beauty with which he clothes them, and the wider range he gives to their application. By these tests would he try the dogmas of the Church, the Bible, Christ, Christianity, Judaism, and Mohamedanism; in short, everything that offers itself to examination. This experiment gains interest, in Emerson's hands, from the absolute rigour with which he conducts it. Nothing is so time-honoured, nothing so useful, nothing so venerable and awful, as not to be coolly subjected to his terrific scrutiny. It may prove instructive to follow his proceedings with some care, indicate his conclusions on important subjects, and show the questions which he entirely fails to resolve.

Every man who thinks seriously on the great questions of philosophy, is forced to choose his position. Is it not curious to hear such a thinker deny the possibility, in any strict sense, of Divine revelations to man! When Emerson haughtily rejects such notions as chimerical, and declares that from the human intellect alone are we to expect all positive and possible knowledge of God, do we not wait in silent wonder for the next step? And is not the next step, strangely enough, the rejection of the possibility of aid or light for man on these subjects from his logical faculties? We perceive at once that a philosopher who says, 'I cannot state the arguments on which any doctrine of mine rests,' and, 'I know not what arguments mean in reference to any expression of a thought,' has wonderfully limited the range of his investigations. On the questions of the Existence of God and the Immortality of the Soul, his field of vision must be very narrow. If consistent with its loudly-proclaimed principles, his system will yield the most meager results on these heads; nay, will present a complete void. If appalled at so strange and undesirable a conclusion, he strives to give a happier aspect to the business; he can only put an abusive strain upon those faculties whose competence to deal with such questions he still concedes.

The student who turns to Rothe's Dogmatik finds the logical proof of the existence of God arrayed in formal order: The Ontological Argument, the Cosmological Argument, the Physicotheological Argument, the Moral Argument, and the Historical

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