kind, lies at the root of this somewhat popular sentiment. Perhaps some justification of it is supposed to be found in Holy Scripture, which, speaking of departed saints, says, "Of whom the world was not worthy." But this does not prove that they are too good to make it proper for them to remain any longer on earth, but that the men of their generation were too evil to render their stay of any real use. We also read, that "good men are taken away from the evil to come;" but the meaning of that expression seems to me, that they are removed to spare them the pain of witnessing and enduring those divine judgments with which a righteous God is about to visit a guilty people.

But we should be unwilling to admit that any man, whatever his excellences, his qualifications, or his ability, is too good to live and to be a blessing in the world. To allow of such a theory seems to be a tacit reflection on the benevolence of God. He who sent his own Son into the world to live and labour for its benefit, would not be likely to snatch away some promising youth of either sex, on the ground of being too good for the place on earth which he or she was likely to fill with profit to others. Should any be disposed to suggest that the shortness of the Saviour's life might be adduced on the other side of the argument, we may answer that the Saviour's life was short because he came to benefit the world by something more than his beneficent life and his bright example. The great end of his incarnation was the sacrifice He came to offer, in his own person, for the sins of the world; and therefore it was fitting that when he fulfilled the law by a perfect obedience, and had continued long enough to be fairly and fully understood, he should hasten to the consummation of his great work of mercy by offering himself up as "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world." We may, however, safely grant the Son of God was too good to remain on earth, because his nature was divine, his home was the bosom of the Father, his right was the throne of glory by his Father's side; and therefore it was not fitting that he should sojourn in this guilty world a day longer than was necessary for the accomplishment of the counsels

of eternity. But in granting this, we are not required to allow that the same or similar reasoning can be applied to any other human being.

It is saying too much in praise of the loveliest character that ever breathed on earth, that he is too good to live among his fellow sinners. There are however features of character which we are naturally disposed to estimate beyond their real worth. There are qualities which shine with meteoric brilliancy in early life, but are wanting in that firmness and stability which will stand the test of time, and survive the storms of adversity; and many a youth, whom kind friends pronounce too good to live, is taken away by the hand of love, because infinite wisdom sees him to be too frail to live consistently and well. What man deems excellence, God knows to be weakness. The youth is removed in mercy to himself, because if he lived he would not justify the promise of his early years in being a blessing to the world.

Considerations of this kind should teach us to use discrimination in forming our estimate of character. You see a lovely plant in your garden; it grows with great rapidity; a few sunny days and showery nights cause it to produce green and flourishing shoots. But from the luxuriance of its growth, if from nothing else, you are sure it can never become a firm and sturdy oak, which will defy alike the winter's blast and summer's scorching heat. There is a limit beyond which your tender plant cannot grow, and a period beyond which it cannot last; that limit is narrow, and that period short; but the slowly growing oak survives a long succession of those ephemeral productions, which have died, not because they were too good, but because they were too fragile and too useless to live. Such is the condition of many young Christians; their minds are not firm enough for the rough work which the servants of God have to do, and for the assaults of temptation which they have to endure, in a world of trials, dangers, and temptations.

We are here supposing only cases in which a real work of divine grace has begun, for we see nothing in the best

purely natural disposition which can fit the soul to stand in the presence of a holy God, and to enjoy the happiness of a holy heaven. But even where we have scriptural ground to believe that the heart is under the quickening influence of the Holy Spirit, we may easily understand that the peculiar natural temperament and constitution of the mind may disqualify it for usefulness among elements utterly uncongenial to its taste, and among persons incapable of making allowance for its weakness or singularities.

Undoubtedly, it is the duty of all persons subject to such infirmities or singularities, to contend against them, and to endeavour to overcome them; and much may often be done to modify and subdue them. But this is not the point of our present paper. We are supposing the case of those to whom the opportunity of such resistance is scarcely, if at all granted. They perish, like a lovely garden flower, beneath the first tempest which sweeps along the sky. And we ask, "Why is the world deprived of so much that is attractive in person, manner, and disposition?" Shall we say, "They were too good for this world; " as if we thought our heavenly Father begrudged the world which he has made, the treasure which he has lent it for a moment, and then taken it away before it could become of any real use? Ought we not to view such dispensations of His providence as mercies rather than as judgments-as mercies to the individual removed,¦ rather than as judgments on those who remain? Nay. more; they are mercies even to the survivors. A father weeps over a lovely daughter, whom he sees with cheeks flushed by hectic fever, and eyes sparkling with the brilliancy peculiar to pulmonary disease, and wonders why he is so soon and so certainly to lose the earthly solace of his declining years. Is she taken away because she is too good for him? Perhaps he will be tempted to think so; but there are other reasons of a far weightier kind. Perhaps she was drawing insensibly his own heart down to earth; she was retarding instead of furthering his progress towards heaven; she kept his spirit from soaring towards

his eternal home; and it was needful to break the tie. Or she might have grown up to be a source of trouble and anxiety to his mind; her increasing age might not have brought forth fruit corresponding with the promise of her opening spring; and therefore, for her sake, her removal had become necessary. We may believe that our heavenly Father will take his children at their best, not because they are then too good to live, but because a longer stay would but render them less fit to die. This we would regard as a rule, without denying that exceptions to it may exist.-Christian Observer.

EVANGELICAL PREACHING.

In the department of Christian morality, I think many of those who are distinguished as evangelical preachers greatly and culpably deficient. They rarely, if ever, take some one topic of moral duty,-as honesty, veracity, impartiality, Christian temper, forgiveness of injuries, temperance (in any of its branches), the improvement of time, -and investigate specially its principle, rules, discriminations, adaptations. There is none of the casuistry found in many of the old divines. Such discussions would have cost far more labour of thought, than dwelling and expatiating on the general evangelical doctrines, but would have been eminently useful; and it is very necessary, in order to set people's judgments and consciences to rights. It is partly in consequence of this neglect (very general, I believe), that many religious kinds of people have unfixed and ill-defined apprehensions of moral discriminations. Robert Hall told Anderson, that in former years he had oftener insisted on subjects of this order: I know not whence the ill-judged alteration, during his residence at Bristol; to judge from so much as I heard. He could hardly have fallen in with the common notion; "Lead them to the true evangelical principles of doctrine, and the morals will follow of themselves." I would answer

"If so, how superfluous is a large portion of the New Testament, as being specifically, and often minutely pre- | ceptive!"-John Foster's Life and Correspondence.

VARIETIES.

FEEL WHAT YOU SAY!

However highly gifted he may otherwise be, it is a valid objection to a preacher, that he does not feel what he says; that spoils more than his oratory. An obscure man rose up to address the French Convention. At the close of his oration, Mirabeau, the giant genius of the Revolution, turned round to his neighbour and eagerly asked, “Who is that?" The other, who had been in no way interested by the address, wondered at Mirabeau's curiosity. Whereupon the latter said, "That man will yet act a great part;" and, when asked to explain himself, added, "He speaks as one who believes every word he says." Much of pulpit power under God depends on that,-admits of that explanation, or one closely allied to it. They make others feel who feel themselves. How can he plead for souls who does not know the value of his own? How can he recommend a Saviour to others who himself personally despises and rejects him? Unhappy, indeed, and doubly blind, those whose leader is as blind as they are, and unhappiest of all the blind preacher, for while leader and led shall fall into the ditch, he falls undermost,-his will be the heaviest condemnation, the deepest and most damned perdition. In possession of such a man,-of one who has adopted the church as other men the law, or army, or navy, as a mere profession, and goes through the routine of the duties with the coldness of an official, the pulpit seems filled with the ghastly form of a skeleton, which in its cold and bony fingers holds a burning lamp.

THE DUTIES OF A MOTHER.

She must be firm, gentle, kind; always ready to attend to her children. She should never laugh at what they do