still and the grave of the good pastor's wife, and the intimation, on the humble stone that marks the place, of the suddenness of her removal from glad young life to the solemnities of the unbounded future :

"Cabe-nescitis horam."

R. R. T.

ESSAY ON SINFUL GLORYING.

THE chief end of man is to glorify God on earth, and to bask for ever above in the light of His countenance. With a chain stronger than adamant, and indissoluble as Heaven's decree, the supreme Ruler of the universe has linked holiness with happiness, human zeal with the Divine honour.

Man was alike the last and best production on earth of the Triune Maker. Having first prepared the earth, the great Proprietor then formed and introduced its lord, giving him dominion over the fishes that swim in the pathless ocean, the birds that fly in the air, and every beast of the field. Man's pristine state was one of dignity and blessedness. Spirituality, immortality, and freedom of will, enter into that natural image of God in which Adam was made; on which reposed the crown of the moral image, consisting of knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. To speak with exactitude, it would be, perhaps, more precise to say, that dominion is an accidental property, rather than an essential one, of the Divine nature: for, in that duration when Jehovah inhabited the solitudes of eternity, before His almighty voice had startled the dread silence of the past, there could be no dominion. And so one might reason, as to man; regarding dominion as something with which he was invested after his formation, rather than a part of the image in which he was created. His body was "fearfully and wonderfully made." His pulse throbbed with glorious life; his mind bounded with strength; his faculties were perfectly balanced, and exquisitely adapted to the purpose of his existence. His was the play of fancy, the rush of electric energy, the might of intellect, the bright flash of genius, and the tenderness of holy love. His principle and actions were alike holy. Alas, that this primeval state was so brief! The roses have scarcely blown, ere they wither. The fountains have scarcely gushed, ere they become dry. The innocence and intelligence of "the human face divine " have scarcely excited the joyous shouts of "the morning stars," ere they turn to the sinful blush of shame. The "old serpent" crawls over Eden's purity, and leaves the slime of sin on souls which but a little while ago infinite wisdom pronounced "very good." Scarcely has the echo of the Creator's approval ceased, when the first sinning pair are driven by cherubim from the garden of delights, into a waste howling wilderness, cursed for man's sake. We are born in Adam's " own likeness." "That which is born of the flesh is flesh."

Jeremiah warned the Jews of coming judgments. plead their defences; their wisdom, wealth, and power.

They were ready to

Boasting of these,

they deemed their city impregnable. The seer sternly informs them that herein are no defences at all, either for their city or for themselves. Sinful glorying is forbidden by the mouth of the holy prophet: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches." (Jer. ix. 23.)

Ours is an ambitious age, when everyone is hastening to be rich, or covetous of some other distinction. But we shall do well to remember that "man was not made for power and office, for glorious success or bright nobility;" that "the end of his being does not consist in anything which this world can give." Three things are enumerated, in all of which the child of the earth is prone to boast, but in none of which he is allowed to boast. The last shall be first. It is hardly needful to premise, that to glory means to exult, boast, or be proud of anything.

1. RICHES.-Wealth is a most valuable talent. In avoiding the folly and sin of trusting in it, or boasting of it, let us guard against the other extreme of decrying it in the abstract. (An extreme, indeed, to which few now incline to go.) In common with other gifts of our sovereign Lord, it is oft abused; and yet, viewed abstractedly, wealth is a precious largess from the Divine treasury. The wise man avers, with reference to more than the transactions of business, or the comforts of house and home, that 66 money answereth all things." Riches we take to mean the surplus that remains after one is provided with all the comforts which he has learned to account needful. By wealth, the body may be well clothed, well fed, and well housed. By wealth, the mind may be enlarged with knowledge, stored with ideas, and garnished with the wisdom of the "mighty dead;" exhilarated by poesy, instructed by philosophy, informed by travel, cultured by literature, gratified by inventions, and regaled by novelty and beauty. Wealth introduces its possessor into a higher circle of society than that to which the humble and labouring classes have access.

"A thousand-pound supplies

The want of twenty thousand qualities.”

By wealth, titles may be purchased, and favours obtained, which are denied to the poor, however meritorious. In a word, to parody a hackneyed sentence of our great experimental philosopher, we may say, Wealth is power.

This, however, is only half the truth: for every shield has two sides. Now look at the obverse. Rich men, look at it, and be warned; poor men, look at it, lest you should inordinately desire to be rich. Ye who are fixed in "the golden mean," equi-distant between riches and poverty,-who enjoy the requisites of life with the poor, the comforts of life with the artisan, and the elegancies of life with merchants and professional men, but have nothing over,-look at it, and then say whether it would be wise or safe, if it were possible, to change your position. How few, even among preachers of the Gospel, have courage to warn the rich, circumstantially and directly, of their danger, and to point out their easily besetting sin! Let us not shun "to declare all the counsel of God." With modest but unshrinking

boldness, then, we aver, that wealth is extremely dangerous to its possessors; its tendency being to produce an undue estimate of themselves, and so to engender pride, which is most hateful to the great Proprietor of the universe. By pride is meant inordinate self-esteem, by which a person thinks more highly of himself than he ought to think. The great Teacher says a monitory word about "the deceitfulness of riches." The natural tendency of wealth is to foster a notion of superiority, leading to arrogance and selfwill. Wesley graphically says, of riches, that "they smile, and betray; kiss, and smite into hell. They put out the eyes, harden the heart, steal away all the life of God; fill the soul with pride, anger, and love of the world." Mammon attracts attentions, distinctions, and adulations, from society in general. But all this is food for pride; while praise, obsequiousness, and honours are perilous even to the graces of the Christian.

Having glanced at riches in their value, and in their danger, we may further observe, as a reason why they are not to be gloried in, that a rich man is not a proprietor, but only a steward. "For every beast of the forest is mine," says the Lord, "and the cattle upon a thousand hills. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof." God's sovereignty bestowed riches, and He will suffer none to have lofty thoughts but Himself. Riches are not to be gloried in; for they prevent not calamity, and shield not from disease. Moreover, they have often been possessed by the most worthless men that ever crawled upon this fair and beautiful planet: as, by Belshazzar, the profane; Herod, the impious; and Dives, the miserable. Riches not only do not shield from harm, but, on the other hand, they often allure men to their undoing. They deceive, by promising without performing. How oft do they elude the grasp of the votary in pursuit of happiness! Just when he supposes he has reached the goal, his hand, eager to grasp, passes through the phantom, which leaves nothing behind, but the motto of ancient wisdom, "Vanity of vanities; all is vanity." Meantime, the riches "make to themselves wings, and fly away." While they have never given true happiness, they have often produced real misery; therefore we should be jealous of our gains, and rather fear than desire wealth. "Extraordinary favours to wicked men," Bishop Hall remarks, "are the forerunners of their ruin." "Thus saith the Lord, Let not the rich man glory in his riches."

2. MIGHT. This may refer to physical might. "The glory of young men is their strength." Some have possessed this attribute in a prodigious degree; as Samson, who snapped the green withs as thread. Such, notably, was Goliath's boast, when he defied the armies of Israel. Now, when the body is developed to its utmost perfection, when the vital power is at its greatest, and the nerves and muscles are trained to perform feats that we call marvellous, what is man's strength, compared with that of the elephant, or his speed, compared with that of the stag? Neither is the race to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. The stripling, David, brings down the stalking giant; and Delilah's cunning shears Samson of his locks.

To might beauty is allied. Symmetry of form is pleasing to the eye;

so is beauty of complexion, of features, and expression, answering to the old Roman definition,—“ multitude in unity." But what are these to the God of majesty on high?" He delighteth not in the strength of the horse : He taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man." There may be an allusion, also, to the might of social position and influence. Among the upper ten thousand, manner is power, and position is influence. Yet, what are these? Alexander's weeping provokes pity or laughter. It has been said, that the most fitting monument for Napoleon I. would be a pyramid of human skulls. Wellington's great victory at Waterloo made the hero weep, as he gazed upon the heaps of slain, and saw what a great price he had to pay, in order to cage a great military tyrant, and disenthrall Europe. But what is all this varied might?-the speed of Asahel, the beauty of Absalom, the strength of Samson, the prowess of David; the flashing eye of the commander-in-chief, amid reeking sabres and the cannon's roar, the groans of the dying, and the shouts of victory? Who gave the active limb, the majestic gait, the eagle-glance? "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights." Strength, beauty, and influence are alike evanescent and unsatisfying. In truth has it been asserted, that "worldly honour is neither worthy of our suit, nor unworthy of our acceptance."

3. WISDOM.-Here we rise higher in the scale. Croesus, reputed to be the richest of men, was compelled to acknowledge that wealth did not insure happiness. The children of the millennium may regard our heroes, of the nineteenth century, merely as sagacious adventurers in the twilight that followed "the dark ages." Wisdom is that which applies knowledge to its best use, and therefore presupposes knowledge. "A knowledge of letters is good; of things, is better; of principles, better still; of ourselves, yet more desirable; of God, most of all essential." Wisdom has been poetically described by an allusion to "drops of the crystal dew, which the wings of seraphs scatter; grains of the diamond sand, the radiant floor of heaven;" "flashes from on high, shed from the windows of the skies."

Wisdom, as a general term, includes art, science, literature, talent, genius, and all the bright galaxy of intellectual gifts. It distinguishes man in the scale of being, giving him kindred with angels. No one can solve the enigma of the original difference between one mind and another; it eludes the most acute analyst. Intellectual glory, by general consent, eventually eclipses all other distinctions. The great epic poet describes the great dramatist as" sepulchred in such pomp,"

"That kings for such a tomb would wish to die."

But it depends upon the possessor's moral power, whether intellectual endowments prove a curse or a blessing; and therefore in none of these is man permitted to boast.

The present is an age of hero-worship. Talent is applauded, and genius idolized. This is one of our great dangers. Yet genius is oft found in

alliance with imperfection; not unfrequently, alas! with immorality; and, in marked instances, it has sunk in hopeless eclipse,

"The stage all darkened, ere the curtain fell."

Sir Isaac Newton discovered the true theory of light, and found the magic girdle of attraction: but when requested, in his declining years, to explain some difficult passage in his "Principia," he could not, but pathetically said, "I once knew that it was true." Of the first Duke of Marlborough it is recorded, that, when the history of his own campaigns was read to him, now in the "sere and yellow leaf," so much were his mental faculties impaired that he was oblivious of what he had done, and asked in admiration, from time to time, "Who commanded?" All the glory of man, even in that of which he is most apt to pride and plume himself, is "as the flower of the field." The poetical genius of Robert Burns is the boast of Scotland, but his moral character excites the pity of Christendom. England's first dramatist may be termed the greatest genius the world ever produced. He appears to have surpassed all uninspired men in the faculties of conception and expression. His was, perhaps, the greatest mind that ever inhabited a human frame. His religion, however, has been set down as nothing beyond "a species of ideal pantheism;" while some of his pages exhibit a license of speech not to be endured.* Finally, to ascend to an incomparably higher region, to show that abstractedly there is nothing in "wisdom," when not sanctified, of which to glory, Solomon the wise became, in his latter days, an idolater and an apostate.

It has been said, that "it is in passion, and the work of passion, not in ideas, and the results of ideas, that the majority of men are interested." The foregoing examples prove, however, that whether man be marked by the inventive or the imaginative faculty,-whether he be found

"Seeking the bubble, reputation,

Even in the cannon's mouth,"

or successfully passing the sentinels who sternly guard every avenue to Parnassus, whether he be a contemplative sage or a flaming orator; a successful warrior or a popular poet,-in none of these, not even in all of them combined, is it seemly or right to find matter of boasting. To do so is to rob God, whose steward man is, and from whom all men receive their capacities, as cups are filled from a flagon.

Riches are dangerous and unsatisfying. Might is uncertain in its duration. Wisdom, unsanctified, isoften a curse, instead of a blessing. In a word, nothing earthly can fill our affections, or satisfy the vehement longings of an immortal spirit. At man's fearful plunge into the abyss of eternity, all earthly distinctions will be drowned. "For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out." Time

This estimate of the "religion" of the Bard of Avon, if taken to include his religious views, as expressed in the most serious and sublime of his passages, may be called in question.-EDITOR.