have given full proof of their ability for usefulness, and whose labors are now urgently demanded, and who have every reasonable assurance of support in the ministry of the word, have laid aside their armor, their breast-plate and their shield; have put their swords into the scabbard; have hung the trump of the jubilee in their splendid halls, and refuse to do battle for their King-to the help of the Lord against the mighty?

Let each one say, Shall such an one as I give up the contest, when the shout of the King is in the camp! When the enemy is still in the field, and the victory seems to be doubtful, shall I sleep upon the post, when watchfulness and prayer are the only pledges of success? Oh, who would be recreant to a cause like this, when courage and toil will yield such trophies-and when, upon each moment, hangs a crown and waits a kingdom! And what if the danger be great and the task be difficult? And what if the reward be distant and the battle sore? The conqueror shall inherit all things. The day of the Lord cometh: a day of thick darkness and clouds -a day of wrath and of fire upon the world of the ungodly; but a day of gladness and of triumph to the faithful soldiers of the cross. Let the example of Joshua and Caleb, of Samuel and of David, of Ezra and Nehemiah, of Peter and of Paul, of Timothy and of Titus, stimulate you to action--to heroic deeds in the cause of the Redeemer; and forget not Him, the leader and perfecter of the faith, whose meat and drink it was to do the will of his Father who sent him, and to accomplish the work assigned him to do. JAS. CHALLEN.

WHAT IS EDUCATION?

EDUCATION is every thing that influences the mind, and it embraces the consideration of all circumstances and all affections. Education may, therefore, be either good or bad. It may qualify us for doing and enjoying much good, or it may fit us for doing much evil, and rendering ourselves and others both wretched and miserable.

As to the subject matter of what we are to learn, it is all contained in one volume. This volume, like most others, has its chapters and sections; its first and second parts; and has that, also, which is to all books indispensable-its title page. The title page of this volume is, indeed, very appropriate to its contents, and, when read by the student, he ceases to marvel at the magnitude of the book..

Its title page gives such interest to the student in the work, as to enable him to overcome all discouragements arising from its magnitude. As the volume is large and its contents valuable, it must, of course, command a high price. The currency of our country will not, however, purchase it; nor, indeed, can gold and silver be weighed as the price of it. The knowledge of its contents is more precious than rubies, and the gain thereof than fine gold. Yet costly as is this volume, all may, all, indeed, do, possess it. But as with other volumes, so, also, with this. The progress of those who study it, and all do study it, is by no means equal. make real progress in the knowledge of its contents. learnt, and so well learnt, as never to be forgotten. The topics which it embraces are but two, which, though distinct in their nature, necessity has connected them practically, as they are inseparable in the experience of all who study the volume.

All, however,
Lessons are

From what we have said, it will not be difficult to ascertain the title of the book. It will be found to read thus: "The knowledge of good and evil, embracing its theory and practice." From this volume men have acquired all their learning, since they have been capable of reading it. It is not, as a whole, an inspired volume. Our Maker is not its author. Man has furnished much of its materials. It, indeed, contains that which is inspired and divine, but its larger portion is furnished by human experience. From this volume, then, all deduce their theory and practice. Few, however, are found who can read it intelligently, or even apprehend its grand leading truths.

The contents of the volume being facts, furnished by divine wisdom and human experience, the dilligent student acquires from its perusal much of the knowledge of both good and evil.

We have said that every one must be educated in this volumehe must read and learn something of its contents. This knowledge is always influential and practical. And according to its tendency to what is good or evil, is his training or education good or bad. He who so reads it as to cause him to desire the good, is in the way of a correct understanding of the whole volume; has been, so far as he has gone, rightly educated. But another reads and meditates, and yet pursues that which is evil. He refuses the good, and is influenced by the evil. He also is being educated, no less than the former, who chooses the good. The great facts of the volume are alike before both, but, unhappily, men are rather disposed to learn of one another than of the Allwise; consequently, the world abounds with deception-life becomes a lie, and history a romance. That

portion of the volume of which our Maker is the author, is so arranged as to be set over against the evil, as the antidote is to the poison.

It is of his arrangement, as it is of his providing. Human experience, without it, is false, deceptive, and bewildering. The good apprehended gives the student the key that unlocks and opens to him all the mysteries of evil, as it exists within and around him. Moral good and moral evil being thus set before him, he perceives their opposite nature and tendencies, and he wills, in view of the results of both, to choose the good and refuse the evil. His mind, his will, and his affections, are all powerfully affected by the choice which he has made. Hence, we perceive his words and his actions to accord with his understanding and affections, and thus to prove the reality of the choice and of the change.

None can object, then, to our definition of education, when thus exemplified and illustrated.

The great end of education, in its highest sense, he has attained; which is to form habits of mental fellowship, which associate him, in spirit, with that company of holy intelligences which have fellowship with God. Such a person, in the language of scripture, may be said to have been translated out of darkness into His marvellous light.

Man's understanding, will, desires and affections, are, in his preternatural state, confused and chaotic, and darkness covers his intellectual and moral nature; so that he can neither see, nor desire what is truly good. The Spirit of God must move again upon the face of the deep, and, by His Almighty fiat, bring forth light and dissipate the darkness of ignorance. The entrance of Thy word gives light. His word is still the instrument of His power. It dispels darkness moral, as it did darkness physical.

We labor, then, in vain to be learned, unless we also aim at being wise. But wisdom is not acquired by dint of study; it is, as we have shown, the gift of God. As He is the Truth and the Light, we of course must be taught by Him. He alone is capable of instructing us in the truth, since he made it and possesses it, and He alone knows what we need, and how we can bear the impartation of knowledge. Whom He instructs and enlightens, he humbles. But humility is never an attribute of the self-taught man. He has not, with all his learning, the knowledge that reproves and humbles. But he who is taught of God, comes before the Searcher of Hearts sensible that His eye is upon him, and his petition is, "Open thou mine eyes, that light may enter-I come to be reproved. Search,

purify, lead me, O Thou Way, Truth and Life. I dread the darkness, and would escape into light-the light of thy revealing word." Need we say, in conclusion, that he is badly educated, let his attainments be what they may in classical literature, in the arts and sciences, who, after all, remains undelivered from the power of darkness, and, consequently, a slave to divers lusts and pleasures? A. W. C.

FAMILY CULTURE.

CONVERSATIONS AT THE CARLTON HOUSE-No. XVII. ROMANS VIII. 26-39.

"In like manner, also, the Spirit helps our infirmities; for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; however, the Spirit himself intercedes for us, in sighs which cannot be uttered. But he who searches the hearts, knows the mind of the Spirit; that, according to the will of God, he makes intercession for the saints. Besides, we know that all things work together for good, to them who love God; to them who are called according to his purpose. For, whom he foreknew, he also predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son; that he might be the first born among many brethren. Moreover, whom he predestinated, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we say, then, to these things? Since God is for us, who can be against us? He, certainly, who spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how will he not, with him, also, graciously give us all things? Who will bring an accusation against the elect of God? Is it God who justifies them? Who is he who condemns them? Is it Christ, who died; or rather, who has risen; who, also, is at the right hand of God, and who makes intercession for us? Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, Truly, for thy sake, we are put to death all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we do more than overcome, through him who has loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life; neither angels, nor principalities; nor powers; neither things present, nor to come; neither height, nor depth; nor any created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is by Christ Jesus our Lord."

Olympas." The first fruits" of the Holy Spirit in the hearts and lives of the Christian family, exhibited by the apostle as the common portion of all its members-such as "love, joy, peace, hope”— do not preclude the sigh, the groan, the lunging for release from this body of sin and death, though waiting, with much assurance, "for the redemption of our body" from the grave, and, consequently, from the power of all the seeds and elements of contamination and corruption sown in our fallen constitution. In this long conflict and

agony we are sustained, he affirms, by the hope of deliverance and by the intercession of the Spirit for us, "with groans which cannot be uttered." We are, then, at best, only sustained under the pressure from within and from without, in the hope of a final victory and release. And with the apostle we sympathize in saying, "But if we hope for what we do not see, with patience we wait for it."

Meantime, not knowing exactly what we want, nor for what we should pray, the Spirit complains for us by inarticulate groanings. What, Bro. Aquila, do you understand by these inarticulate groanings?

Aquila. They are the sighs and longings of the soul, expressed in groans, without words. There is a peculiar eloquence in groans, which the Spirit of God understands, and by them complains for us in a language understood in heaven.

Olympas.-I concur with you, and with some other Bible students, in preferring complain to intercede. We have entunkano, in its simple form, but five times in the New Testament, and huperentunkano only in this one place. In its simple form, the first time found (Acts xxv. 24) it is translated, "The Jews complained to me concerning Paul;" and in this epistle, chap. xi. 2, it is translated to "intercede against Israel;" which is, virtually, to "complain." Macknight also adduces a passage from the Maccabees, viii. 32, in which it is found, and is translated," If they complain any more against thee." It would seem to be more congenial with the work of the Holy Spirit to convict, to complain, to comfort, as the case may be, than to "make intercession for." The Lord Jesus is the only intercessor, because his obedience to death for us, gives him a right to intercede for us; but no such idea is found in the Bible, as that of the Spirit interceding for us. Dr. Chalmers, with other free expositors of scripture, regards the motions of our spirits, under the influence of the Divine Spirit, as fairly attributable to the Spirit of God, as the cause of them. If so, then it will be in harmony with such a theory to say that the Spirit complains for the saints, as much as to say that it intercedes for them. Then the simple question is, which of these better suits the facts of the case before us, and the history of the work of intercession. Doubtless to complain for us, is more apposite than to intercede for us, inasmuch as these complaints suggested by the Spirit, if any one pleases, are virtually intercessions, while formally they are but complaints, being groans of dissatisfaction with ourselves.

There is, indeed, often more eloquence and argument in a deep groan, than in any of the most beautiful forms of speech, however