difference will be followed by a corresponding real or apparent difference in the intellectual aptitudes and moral feeling of the individual; and this again may disturb the sleep, occasion dreaming, and characterize its images.

This effect of indisposition upon the mental manifestations we often experience when awake; and inaptitude for intellectual exertion, a want of interest in spiritual objects and pursuits, and irritability of temper, form portions of that trial which awaits us here below, and exercises our industry, our dependence upon Almighty aid, our faith and hope and confidence, our struggling against that which is evil, and our determination, in the strength of the Lord our God, to be victorious over that imperfection and frailty which cling to our fallen nature, and which we are constantly called upon to oppose with effort, with watchfulness, with prayer, with the shield of faith, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. But during sleep we are unable to oppose the influence of body upon mind, because the combination of ideas is involuntary, and becomes, in its turn, a stimulus to the brain to enter into new associations, and to give a great variety of character to the dreams.

Dreams which are depending for their origin upon these states, will probably be characterized by moral or intellectual agency, unless the brain shall have been so far disturbed by its early impressions as to lose the distinctive character of the first in the subsequently associated organic actions; and this will depend very much upon the state of the bodily system at the time. In all these instances, however, we find, that, in order to the production of dreaming, brainular action must be dissociated from the will; and then, being submitted to its own agency, or to the impulse it has received from organic causes, these pheno

mena occur.

One other source of dreaming will be found in the recollected impressions of the preceding day, or of some antecedent period. It will often happen, that the dream may be traced to some thought or action which has occupied the attention during the day, and which will be re-produced at night in dreams; grotesquely associated with other persons and things, and, if the sleep be light, with an air of vraisemblance which makes the patient really doubt if it be a dream or a truth. The last impression of the evening will often be revived and carried on; and at other times a long-lost emotion will be recalled by an action which we cannot comprehend, but which depends upon some law of nature, by which impressions once made upon the brain may ever afterwards be revived by its own action, spontaneously, and without any kind of effort. Yet here, again, brainular impression must precede.

Lastly; accidental association will characterize the dreams: such, for instance, are dreams of hunger and thirst. "It shall be even as when a hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite."

(To be continued.)

THE DANGERS OF RELIGIOUS STUDENTS.

as

Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer.

IN your publication for August 1825, a query was proposed, respecting the difficulties incident to the situation of religious students; and I am surprised that no attempt has been made by your correspondents to pursue an inquiry of so much interest. I may, perhaps,

under proper restrictions, is both a rational and useful recreation to the clergy; yet it is not the avocation to which, in the Ordination Service, they have solemnly vowed to dedicate their time and talents. The influence of literature in succouring the souls of men, is at best but indirect that of scriptural preaching, zealous exhortation, affectionate reproof, and holy example, is direct and tangible. Now there is some danger that young men, bringing to their parishes a large fund of academical opinions and habitsfurnished rather with the artillery of controversy than with the peaceful implements of the pastoral office, and accustomed rather to contend with the ambitious and to dispute with the learned, than to carry consolation and knowledge into the humble dwellings of poverty and ignorance-may be induced to shrink from the more homely parts of the ministerial function. The transition from the subtleties of the schools to the lisping accents of childish simplicity, from the shadowy phantasies of polite literature to the awful realities of a dying bed, is almost too abrupt to permit a hope that the powers, intently employed upon the former, can be at once, and successfully, brought to bear upon the latter. Such duties cannot be efficiently discharged, unless the mind brings to their exercise the habit of familiarly studying the wants, manners, and opinions of the poor and uninstructed; of acquiring an ability for simple, yet pointed, discourse upon religious subjects: above all, patient forbearance, persevering hope, and watchful self-discipline; fervent and continual prayer; and careful reference to the facts, sentiments, and language of the sacred volume. Now these are objects which demand much time and attention, in addition to that occupied in the direct discharge of the pastoral duties; and this time and attention must be borrowed from

that which we are tempted to lavish upon the fascinating pursuits of human learning.

Allusion has already been made to the study of Scripture; but this is a point too important to deserve a merely transient notice. The surpassing claims of the Oracles of Truth upon our time and faculties, are too apt to be rivalled by those of general learning and polemic theology. The multiform productions of our prolific press, especially those of the periodical kind, are permitted to consume too many valuable hours: as confections, fitted only to stimulate a sickly appetite, are sometimes substituted for a simple aliment which invigorates the system. In the Bible, not only the best and safest, but a fully sufficient, model is afforded, for private devotion, for exhortation, and for Apostolical preaching. From the spiritstirring descriptions contained in Scripture, of conversion, faith, and holiness, we may repair, without any violent transition, to scenes where those graces of the Christian life must form the subject of our admonitions. From the alarming pictures therein presented, of death, resurrection, and judgment, we may naturally pass to the dwellings of those to whose eyes they must speedily be realized. Let our best hours of leisure, then, be devoted to the study of this volume; and let every other be regarded in a merely supplementary light.

Dangers, however, there are, from which the laborious investigator of Scripture itself cannot hope to be entirely exempted. It is incident to great and general truths, that they may be tortured into a seeming conformity with various and conflicting opinions; and this is more especially true of those which relate to elevated and mysterious subjects-to the Divine nature, to unfulfilled prophecy, to eternity and the invisible world. It is not surprising that themes like these should have

employed, above all others, the reason and imagination of mankind from the earliest ages; nor is it unnatural that speculations of such a character should acquire a deep colouring from human prejudice and passion. The Biblical student is peculiarly liable to be beguiled into these fascinating, though too often dangerous, tracks of research; for it is with matters of this nature that he is conversant in the pulpit, in discourse, and in his closet. While, therefore, he devotes his days and nights to the study of the sacred volume, let him beware, lest, in the heat of argument or composition, he should be tempted to darken that which it is his province to illustrate, and pervert that which he has undertaken to enforce. In the present constitution of human nature, controversies are sometimes unavoid able. Enemies to religion and revelation will appear in every age; difficulties will be started, which demand an answer; and differences of opinion will arise, which require discussion. The scoffer must be silenced, the treacherous friend unmasked, the weak in faith established: but let the controversialist remember that he treads upon the verge of a precipice he is continually solicited to transgress the rules of decorum and Christian temper, or even to lose sight of truth and edification in an ambitious struggle for victory. Polemical pursuits in general, more especially where the contest is of a minute and personal nature, present an easy and alluring path, in which transient distinction may often be cheaply purchased;--a distinction sufficient to dazzle and elate the inexperienced mind, but far from adequate to lay the foundation of a solid and permanent remembrance. Individuals are often called out of obscurity by a religious controversy, which throws a momentary lustre upon names that would never have appeared conspicuous in the light of truth and reason; but such candidates for fame are often eventually

:

outstripped by the more patient and humble labourer in the field of sacred science, who studied not the applause of men, but only duty and utility.

But there is another danger, to which the student of Scripture is frequently exposed. A large portion of valuable time is lavished by many, unnecessarily, upon the details of language or chronology. It is well that a few minds, of extraordinary application and acuteness, should have applied themselves to these pursuits useful light is thus occasionally thrown upon the obscurities of the sacred volume, and a way laid open for larger and more edifying researches: but if something has been gained by attention to these branches of knowledge, may not more, in some instances, have been lost? May not understandings which might have attained to strength and magnitude upon a diet more generous, have become stunted in their growth by long restrictions to this meagre aliment? And is it not found, that when the mind has been long and intently devoted to the elucidation of a date or the restoration of a genealogy, it cannot readily amplify itself for the admission of those images which bear a relation to the warfare and the prospects of the Christian?

:

Lastly the prevalence of imagination is not unlikely to endanger the religious equipoise of the mind. There are, perhaps, few persons, of a susceptible temperament, over whom the season of youth has passed without awakening some glow of poetical feeling; and the religious student may find, that when this spring is touched it may unlock to his view treasures well fitted for the noblest purposes of song. But this pursuit, like many others which result from choice rather than duty, is liable to absorb the whole mind; and may perhaps beguile us farther from the practical duties of life than even the profound researches of science: and there is this additional evil, that whereas science in

vigorates the mind, poetry has a tendency to soften and enervate it. The language of Scripture is indeed in the highest sense poetical, and a fervid mind may naturally catch a portion of its lofty enthusiasm ; but those passages which most directly relate to the great doctrines and duties of our holy profession; those which seem most replete with "doctrine, reproof, and instruction in righteousness;" are, for the most part, upon a level with the understandings of babes in knowledge. If the style of the Bible has a poetical character, it is no less remarkable for its simplicity, and its adaptation to the wants and purposes of human nature. The Christian minister should therefore beware, lest he make those sterling qualities subservient to a style of thought or composition by which the imagination may be allured and the passions excited, without any of those sacred impressions upon the heart which might become the means of its renewal.

Upon the whole, while we do no violence to the natural bent of our understandings, it may be desirable to avoid an exclusive addiction to any particular branch of knowledge. By such a restricted line of study the capacity of the mind becomes narrowed, and that enlargement of spirit is impeded which is an important auxiliary in becoming "all things to all men, that we may save some." The preceding remarks may be superfluous to those who are possessed with an earnest anxiety to place the pursuits of science on their true foundation; who have been enabled to mortify the desire of advancement and the love of praise, in their zeal for the Divine glory and an anxiety to rescue the souls of men from that perdition into which they are rushing. Let a minister once acknowledge these for his paramount principles of action, and he can scarcely be liable to errors injurious to the eternal interests of himself or of others; but if these be wanting, it is to be

feared the soundest judgment and the utmost diligence will be no security against the perils by which he is environed. He may avoid, indeed, a fallacy in argument, or a defect in taste; he may become a skilful polemic, a sublime poet, or an eloquent preacher; he may even perform many duties of an active parish priest; he may make a conspicuous figure among the most splendid works of charity but he will be deficient in that character which can alone survive the ordeal of the final judgment.

It is highly important to keep distinct the literary and the spiritual character. The first is formed by. habits the cultivation of which is rather opposed, than otherwise, to the growth of the latter. Its aim is too commonly to indulge a vainglorious temper, or to refine the enjoyments of the present life. But the foundations of the spiritual character must be laid deeply in humility, self-denial, and the love of God: its influence must embrace the future and invisible world: its aim must be to relax those fetters which bind us to the things of sense and time; and its fruit is everlasting glory.

It is evident, then, that these two courses of life cannot naturally pursue the same direction. The former, if exclusively followed, can never bring us nearer to the high prize of our calling; but the spiritual life is able, without any extraneous aid, to guide us in the way everlasting. Still, the literary life may be usefully engrafted upon the spiritual: it may endow us with the means of extending to others the invaluable blessings of religion; of rendering its cause more honourable and triumphant in the world; and of explaining those Divine oracles to which it appeals. But in all these functions learning must still remain subservient: it may take its place among those utensils of the sanctuary which are consecrated to the service of God, but it must not be placed upon the altar as an object of worship.

A. R. C.