opens, Jesus had just entered upon a new and remarkable stage in his life-history. The work of the Messiah rose before his expectant imagination. The consciousness of his divinity possessed him, and with this new state of his affairs came also a new order of temptations.

A question not altogether unworthy of attention arises at this point respecting the temptations of Christ and their possible results. We are asked, Was it possible that Jesus should yield to them and sin against God? Was he peccable? These two forms of language are not, as they seem to be, identical in meaning; and one may readily answer the latter affirmatively, and yet hesitate as to the former. Liability to sin is a condition of our humanity, and when we ascribe to Jesus a perfect humanity, we necessarily predicate of him peccability. That he so understood the matter is manifest, else how could he be tempted? and there can be no virtue in refusing to do that which the tempted one knows he can not do. Jesus most certainly felt his temptations to be not only real but formidable also, and the victory which he obtained in them both evinced and more fully perfected in him the highest style of moral excellence. At the same time it was certain, beyond all possible contingencies, that he would not sin. Divine wisdom and power had so arranged these things that there could be no failure in the glorious scheme of redemption. The mission of the Son of God was not an adventure, subject to uncertainties as to its results; nor was it merely a second experimental probation in favor of our race. It was a DECREE; and its execution, according to God's eternal purpose, was sure beyond all peradventures. The Divine prescience, which saw the end from the beginning, in the darkest hour of the Redeemer's conflict, viewed the work of redemption as already accomplished, and contemplated our world as redeemed in him.

Assenting most heartily and without reservation to the ancient and traditional faith of the Church as to the person of Christ, and believing him to be at once and truly "very God and very man," with two whole and complete natures hypostatically united, yet not confounded, we follow out these important groundtruths into some of their details. Among these we now notice that in the person of Christ-God incarnate-there was to each nature a proper and perfect consciousness. Of the human consciousness we have the genesis in the history of Jesus-the child, the youth, the man-as given by the holy evangelists. Doubtless self-consciousness dawned in the mind of the Son of Mary as in other infant minds, and he himself became cognizant of his own mental process while growing in "wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man." Upon this point indeed every thing is plain, and there is no room for either doubt or difference of opinion. His divine consciousness, on the other hand, was eternally perfect, in the second person of the Godhead, nor did the incarnation either obscure or modify it. The only question to be examined relates to the recognition of the divine by the human. When did the divine consciousness first penetrate the thin partition between the natural and the supernatural in the person of Christ, so that Jesus of Nazareth, "the carpenter's son," recognized

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himself, by his own intuitions, as "God of God?" Surely there was a time when this was not yet done, nor is there any reason to suppose that it occurred during the period of his childhood. We reject as worse than puerile and denounce as profane the legends of the apocryphal Gospels which, professing to give the private history of Jesus, tell of his working miracles in his play and assuming the prerogatives of Godhead among his youthful associates. The earliest account of any thing unusual about him was on the occasion of his visit to Jerusalem at twelve years old; but the account of that affair comes quite short of proving that then the lad was aware of his own mysterious nature. His conversation with the doctors in the Temple was in the usual form of the discussions had there, especially during the great feasts, when strangers often brought their doubts to be solved by the great masters in Israel. Nor was it unusual for young lads to be found among the inquirers. That a Divine wisdom then inspired him can not be doubted, but it is not equally evident that he recognized it as the outbeaming of indwelling Godhead. His reply to his mother's chiding has an oracular tone, and even now its meaning is uncertain; yet it was suggestive, and as was evidently the case with many prophetical utterances recorded in the Bible, there is cause to suspect that this was not fully comprehended by him who used it.

The account given of Christ's baptism, and the attendant events, seems to mark it as the time when he first became fully assured of his own proper divinity. The time for him to enter upon his public duties had arrived, for "Jesus began to be about thirty years old," at which age, according to the law of Moses, the priests were inducted into their sacred office. John the Baptist had already opened his more than prophetic mission in Judea, and was preaching repentance with such power and boldness as suggested a comparison with the prophet Elijah, and the whole land was moved by his words. The fame of these things at length reached the distant region of Galilee, and in Nazareth the oldest son of the now widowed Mary of Bethlehem felt in himself an impulse to seek out that wonderful preacher and to join the repentant throng at his baptisms; for even then his heart sympathized with the penitent, and he loved to be where they were. Approaching the Baptist, who by a divine suggestion identified him as the "Lamb of God," he sought and obtained the solemn rite for himself. The events recorded as occurring immediately after the baptism are indeed worthy of the wonderful occasion. "The heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." This was truly a full and glorious manifestation of triune Godhead, and the accompanying declaration pronounced and set forth Jesus as the Messiah. It was the full revelation of the God-man to his own consciousness. This seems to have been the design of the transaction. The manifestation, unlike others made afterward, was evidently not only to Jesus, but for his use and information. The opening heavens, the descending Spirit, and the confessing and approving

voice were all to him and for him. Then he fully apprehended his own character; and with that discovery came also a sense of the great work that lay before him. A new scene opened to his interior vision with which he saw himself to be most intimately related. A ruined world waited for redemption, to which great work the Father had sent him forth, and was now calling him to proceed to its accomplish

ment.

The sacred narrative of the temptation opens at this point: "Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil." We accept this statement as sufficiently full and explicit, not caring to determine whether the Spirit's impulses by which Jesus was led up into the wilderness appeared to him objectively or subjectively-as from another or as by spontaneous suggestions. Either view of the case will answer all the necessary conditions, and while we incline to the latter we make no objection to the former. Similar reflections and remarks will also apply to the form of the temptations; for while some suppose that they were addressed to Jesus, as coming from another person, others-with whose views we sympathize-prefer to think of them as first showing themselves in the form of intuitive suggestions, though really of diabolical origin. There is something agreeable in the thought of the now self-recognized Messiah turning away from all human companionship, and impelled by a spiritual influence, going away into the solitudes of the wilderness to pray and meditate and prepare for his great lifemission. The same light by which he recognized his own divinity and saw his Messianic character, also disclosed to him the real nature of the Messianic kingdom-differing very widely from that anticipated by even the most enlightened and spiritual of the Jews-a misapprehension which not unlikely he had himself shared. He now saw in a new and heavenly light the kingdom that God would establish in the world and his own relations to it as the anointed head of that kingdom. Oppressed by these great thoughts he sought for solitude in which to commune with the Father; and like Moses and Elijah-two of his great antitypes-he fasted forty days, revolving meanwhile the mighty themes of redemption, while buffeted continually by the ever-present adversary.

We have spoken of temptation as a fact arising naturally out of our condition and the relations of our surroundings to our mental and moral constitution: of their use and practical design we will now speak briefly. Though always to be shunned when that is compatible with duty, yet are they oftentimes God's means for the accomplishment of the highest ends in those who are exercised by them. The temptations which Jesus endured may be said-without denying to them also a proper mediatorial characterto have been needful for him, in order to the just development and symmetrical ordering of his own character. No human virtue is perfected till it has been tempered in the fires of temptations, and he only is fully prepared to contend with and to overcome sin in the world, who has already passed through the conflict and obtained the victory at the door of his own heart. To be tempted and to successfully resist is more than a present victory-it is

a perpetual and enduring triumph. The same temptation seldom returns again if once fairly overcome; and he who has met the enemy at the citadel and foiled him in his fiercest onsets, is then, and not sooner, prepared to meet and vanquish him in the open field of the world. So was Jesus fitted for his great work. In the various temptations of common life his character had already taken shape and expression in the perfection of human virtue. In him, therefore, the Father, in whose favor he had increased during all his previous history, was now "well pleased." In all the common virtues of manhood he needed no further tests nor increase. But his new position as Messiah, and his character as God-man presented new temptations, and relative to them he needed a more completely-perfected virtue. It will be seen, too, that all these later temptations implied Christ's own recognition of his Messiahship; and by reason of his perfect victory over these was he prepared for the prosecution of his mediatorial work.

The three temptations specified by the evan elists were all incitements to a misuse of his divine power by Jesus, and were thus adapted to his condition, both as a sinless soul and as the self-recognized Son of God. Their method also indicates "device" and "subtilty" in the tempter, since they meet their object in a kind of emergency, and-at least the first two-incite to actions not in themselves wrong, and also apparently called for. The last one comes nearer to a direct solicitation to sin, though probably it was not so presented to the mind of the tempted one. An examination of these several temptations in detail will best illustrate their real character.

The first was an impulse to use his divine power to provide the means of satisfying his hunger. He had now fasted forty days and felt the cravings of his long unsatisfied appetite, the means to satisfy which could not be attained in that wilderness except by a miracle. The prophet Elijah in similar circumstances had been miraculously supplied-might not he "command these stones that they be made bread?" So we may now ask, still doubting as to why the thing is presented as sinful. But the question is not a very difficult one. His divine power was given for a higher and nobler purpose than to serve any merely natural designs. He would work no miracle to accomplish that which might be effected by ordinary means. He also had need to teach himself, by a vietory over his merely natural impulses, that ministering to these is the least part of duty. "Bread" the type of all we call property-is good and necessary in its degree, but in an infinitely less degree than the more valuable property offered to us in the word of God. Incarnate Godhead, sent forth to redeem a ruined world, had better business upon which to employ his omnipotence than the making of bread. Let natural means minister to natural ends, while supernatural and heavenly ones go out to meet the wants of the soul. Happy would it be if all who would be the followers of the Savior could realize for themselves that it is a desecration to bow down a heaven-born spirit to the poor drudgery of making bread that is, gaining this world's perishable stores.

The second was a suggestion to test his divine power

by precipitating himself from "the pinnacle of the temple" into the vast rocky chasm of several hundred feet deep, relying on the divine interposition to save him from injury, as seemed to be promised in one of the Messianic prophecies. But the perversion of the cited passage by the tempter is obvious, and this Jesus at once saw and opposed to it a cautionary precept of universal application. Humbly to trust the divine Providence at all times is a dictate of piety; but to "tempt God," by incurring unnecessary danger, implies neither humility nor piety. The Savior of men felt and confessed that his divine power was not given him to be played with, and that though vested with omnipotence he was still "the servant of God."

The third temptation assumes a deeper significance than either of the others, as it related directly to the establishment of the Messianic kingdom-the great work upon which Jesus was now about to enter. Shall that kingdom be an outward and earthly one, or one purely spiritual? The former was the notion universally entertained by the Israelitish people. To that view of the case had Jesus himself been educated, and probably the influences of these early predilections still affected him. To abandon it would disappoint the cherished hopes of Israel, expose himself to opposition, and apparently endanger the whole design. Should he now set up the standard of the promised seed of David upon the mountains of Israel and proclaim himself the expected restorer of the kingdom, all Judea and Galilee would leap responsive to his call, and the thousands of dispersed Israelites would come, bringing their tribute from every nation. Over against the slow and painful development of a purely-spiritual kingdom was imaged the glory of an earthly monarchy more powerful than that of David and more affluent than Solomon's. The language of prophecy, as interpreted by the age, described Messiah's kingdom as such a one, and it is not wonderful that for the moment the suggestion of the tempter was considered by the Redeemer. It was considered, but not entertained, much less assented to.

And if we may without impiety entertain the thought, and in fancy contemplate Jesus only in his humanity, entering the lists of earth's mighty ones, and assuming for himself the name and place of an earthly prince and conqueror, do we not find in him all the elements of greatness in such large propor

tions and harmonious development, that, compared with him and the career he would have made, the mighty names of history would fade and pale as the stars before the rising sun? Read the seventy-second Psalm, and understand it as the image of an earthly prince and kingdom-and so it was understood by the Jews-and see in it that to which the tempter now solicited the Messiah. Add to this the motives of a devout human patriotism, which beyond a question Jesus possessed in a large measure. He saw his loved countrymen, the seed of Jacob, enslaved and dominated over by the heathen-a sight to move the spirit in him, and to incite him, like Moses when he slew the Egyptian, to undertake their deliverance. The land of Palestine, given to Abraham by covenant, conquered by his own illustrious antitype, Joshua, and hallowed by the residence of untold generations of God-chosen ones, lay helpless before him imploring deliverance, while "all the kingdoms of the earth, and the glory thereof," rose before his mind as ready to fall willingly under his authority. Was ever such a temptation offered to any other than Jesus the Christ? or offered to any other, would it have been rejected?

In so

But quite another purpose controlled the mind of the tempted Jesus. All this he knew was "of the earth, earthy." It all lay within the dominions of the "God of this world," to whom worship must be rendered as a condition of the proposed conquest and possession. And that might not be. God alone may be worshiped and served; and however alluring the price offered for any other service it must be rejected, and the whole soul consecrated to God alone. deciding at that fearful hour Jesus achieved a great victory, triumphing against the adversary, and fixing his own heart immovably in God. From the comparatively low level of human virtues he rose into the sphere of the heavenly, elevating his soul to the godlike and adapting his humanity to its divine association. Well might the tempter then depart from Nor is it strange that the divinity suffused his whole soul, so that "he returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee," and so preached the Gospel that "there went out a fame of him through all the region round about." This was the great moral victory of the Anointed of the Lord over the power of the adversary, upon which, as upon a pivot, turned the wonderful scheme of redemption.

him.

WAS PHARAOH DESTROYED IN THE RED SEA?-In our July issue some of the reasons for an affirmative answer to this question were given. We cheerfully give place to the following from Professor Mudge presenting the opposite view. We do not, however, find in it enough to convince us of any error in the views expressed before. We are willing our readers should see both sides. The Professor says:

I have just read, with interest, your answer to this question. It is the common, and, it may be, the true one. But the Bible is not so decided upon this point as our painters

and poets are. The strong poetic language of Psalm cvi, 11, cxxxvi, 15, may possibly teach this fact; Moses is not so clear. It is worth a moment's consideration.

Up to the time that the King of Egypt stands by the sea it is Pharaoh-Pharaoh every-where. And so the fourteenth of Exodus commences. In verse 3, it is Pharaoh who is to say they are entangled in the land. In verse 4, it is Pharaoh's heart which is to be hardened that he may follow. In verse 5, it is told the King of Egypt that the people fled; and it is the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants that is turned against the people. In verse 6, he made ready his chariot, and in verse 7, he took six hundred chosen chariots, and in verse 8, the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh and he pur

sued, and in verse 10, Pharaoh draws nigh to Israel on the sea-shore. But now there is a change of which we had received some intimations in verses 4 and 9. We hear no more of Pharaoh personally in this, or in the song, in the next chapter, only that God would get him honor upon Pharaoh, as he certainly did, whether Pharaoh was drowned, or whether he escaped. Henceforth we hear continually of the host of Pharaoh and of the Egyptians. When Israel enters the sea it is not as in verse 4, I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he shall follow; but, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow-verse 17-and in verse 18, it is the Egyptians that shall know that I am the Lord, and in verses 19 and 20 the angel of the Lord comes between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. In verse 23 the Egyptians pursue and go in to the midst of the sea, and, verse 24, the Lord troubles the host of the Egyptians, fightsverse 25 against the Egyptians, and, verse 26, the waters come upon the Egyptians, and, verse 27, the Egyptians flee, and the Lord overthrows the Egyptians, and, verse 28, the waters cover the host of Pharaoh, and, verse 30, the Lord saves Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel see the Egyptians dead, and see-verse 31-the great work which the Lord does to the Egyptians.

Now, all this difference may be accidental. It looks like design.

Verse 28 is about as strong as that strong passage for the personal destruction of Pharaoh in Psalm cvi, 11. There remained not so much as one of them. But is not that qualified by the expression of the same verse, "That came into the sea after them?" And may it not imply that there were some who, for prudential reasons, did not venture into the waters? It certainly was miraculous it, in a place so narrow as that where it is usually supposed the Israelites crossed the sea, a whole army is so surrounded with water that not a horse or a chariot can escape. It is a rare thing to find a whole army concentrated into a space "now two-thirds of a mile wide in the narrowest part "-Robinson, Vol. I, p. 85-for from the narrowest part there is always opportunity to escape. Beyond question the place where Israel passed the sea "was probably once wider." If it was twice as wide and the army but two-thirds of a mile from front to rear, any one can see that portions of it were but a third of a mile, an easy three minutes' ride, from the shore. It was something more than Robinson supposes, a tide returning under a strong wind, that could thus overwhelm horsemen who had every reason to be on their guard against danger.

Look, before we close, at the song of Moses in the fifteenth chapter. The overthrow of an army is a common thing in the history of our world, but not the death of a king in battle. And would any man of the poetic fire of Moses dwell with burning words on the destruction of a host and the drowning of the chosen captains-verses 1 to 12-and yet say nothing of the death of one who, like Pharaoh, had before been so conspicuous in all the narrative? Or if he mentioned his death, mentioned it so indefinitely as-verses 9, 10-the enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil! Thou didst blow, they sunk as lead!

Not thus does the less poetic Deborah treat the death of the less renowned Sisera. Judges v, 24-31. It would have added greatly to the effect of this song of Moses to have said, not Pharaoh's chariot and his host hath he cast into the sea; his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea, but Pharaoh hath he cast into the sea. So let all their enemies perish, O Lord. Let them be as Pharaoh!

True, we hear nothing of Pharaoh afterward, for he was most thoroughly overthrown, or, as the Hebrew reads, shaken off at the Red Sea. Psalm cxxxvi, 15. He might have been drowned. We simply say the Bible is not so clear in reference to this as to authorize us to speak so decidedly as we usually do. T. H. M.

UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.-I wish to object to the reasons assigned by the author quoted by "H. B." in the July number, for believing that the Almighty created by a direct act the types observed among the races. He speaks of the enlarging of Japeth, the

1

blessing of Shem, the cursing of Canaan, and the increasing of Ishmael; and after observing that "thus we have four distinct blessings," etc., asks, "How were these blessings, curses, and promises to be fulfilled?" To which he answers, only by impresaing physical changes on the races. To this conclusion he arrives by a very common but very erroneous interpretation of Scripture. For the best critics and soundest theologians agree in regarding the words of Noah, not as declarative of a design of God as to the condition of the race, but as prophetic of what the children of Noah would, by their own free ageney, occasion and bring upon themselves. To show the inadmissibility of such an interpretation-how could God inflict the curse of barbarism on one racethe Ishmaelites-and of servitude on another-the Canaanites-in such a way that they could not possibly escape them, and yet be no respecter of persons, or even just? J. P. L.

CHARACTER OF ST. PAUL'S HANDWRITING.-The text in Galatians vi, 11, has caused great diversity of opinion among the commentators; but the translation should be, "Ye see in what large letters I have written unto you with mine own hand." St. Paul here refers to the capital-uncial-letters in which the best and most ancient manuscripts of the Greek Septuagint and New Testament are written, as distinguished from the small or cursive letters, in which slaves wrote. Thus Cato the Elder wrote histories for his son in large characters. (Plut. Cato the Censor, xx.) The writing in Greek capital letters, as in Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriae, Arabic, and Ethiopic, which had then no cursive character, indieated a more solemn and dignified manner, and would be more legible to the Gauls than the cursive character, which even now, from its numerous contractions, em barrasses the Greek student. In legal documents of a more solemn character the writing is engrossed (= en gros, or large character.)-Eng. Notes & Queries.

HENPECKED. It may be said of the term "henpecked," as it may of many other vernacular expressions, that though it be deemed trivial it is grounded on actual observation, and is true to nature and to fact. The ordinary cock of the farm-yard, however bold and fightful in his bearing toward other barn-door cocks, will sometimes submit to be pecked by his hens without resistance. Reaumur relates how, two hens being shut up with a cock, they both together attacked him, and finally succeeded in killing him. Several cocks were afterward shut up successively with the same two hens, and would have experienced the fate of the first, if not withdrawn in time. "The extraordinary part of this case was, that the cocks were strong and bold, and would easily have governed thirty rebel hens at large, yet, cooped up, did not attempt either to defend themselves, or even to avoid the attacks of the furies, their wives." (Mowbray's Practical Treatise, 1830, p. 93. See also D'Orbigny's Dictionnaire, 1844, iv, 208.) Hence the peculiar import and significance of the term "henpecked." Cf. Swift's "Cudgel'd husband:" "Tom fought with three men, thrice ventur'd his life, Then went home, and was cudgel'd again by his wife." Eng. Notes & Queries.

WHAT WE OWE TO CHRISTIANITY.-The most eminent statesmen have been eloquent in their acknowledgment of our indebtedness to Christianity. Rarely, however, has more beautiful expression been given to this sentiment than by the late eminent Judge, Sir Allen Park, at a public meeting in London:

We live in the midst of blessings till we are insensible of their greatness and of the source from whence they flow. We speak of our civilization, our arts, our freedom, our laws, and forget entirely how large a share is due to Christianity. Put Christianity out of the pages of man's history, and what would his laws have been? what his civilization? Christianity is mixed up with our very being and our daily life; there is not a familiar object around us that does not wear a different aspect because the light of Christian love is on it-not a law which does not owe its truth and gentleness to Christianity-not a custom which can not be traced in all its holy, healthful parts of the Gospel.

THE RELIGION OF PAYING DEBTS.-Failures in business and subsequent neglect to pay their honest debts when they have again become able to do so, on the part of those professing to be Christian men, has always been a cause of stumbling to many. And well it may be. We doubt whether the following remarks on the subject, from a religious paper, are one whit too strong:

Men may sophisticate as they please. They can never make it right, and all the bankrupt laws in the universe can not make it right for them not to pay their debts. There is a sin in neglect as clear and deserving of Church discipline as in stealing or false swearing. He who violates his promise to pay or withholds the payment of a debt when it is in his power to meet his engagement, ought to be made to feel that in the sight of all honest men he is a swindler. Religion may be a very comfortable cloak under which to hide; but if religion does not make a man deal justly, it is not worth having."

THE RULING PASSION STRONG IN DEATH.-A laughable story is told of an old miser, who, being at the point of death, resolved to give all his money to a nephew. We will not vouch for its authenticity, though it is another striking illustration of "the ruling passion strong in death:"

"Sam," said he-for that was his nephew's name-" Sam, I am about to leave the world, and to leave you all my money. You will then have two hundred thousand dollars!-only think! Yes, I feel weaker and weaker; I think I shall die in two hours. O yes, Sam, I'm going! give me two per cent. and you may take the money now!"

PRESENTIMENT.-Presentiment, warning us of the future, is one of the most mysterious subjects in our mental history. The following beautiful passage touching upon this occurs in the Life of John Hunt, "the apostle of the grace of God to the Fijians." It relates to a period of partial convalescence, from which he soon relapsed, ending his eventful life amid the scenes of his missionary trials and triumphs:

He looked out on the familiar scenes with a new feeling, not weakening but accompanying the old. His heart yearned as strongly as ever for the success of the work committed to

him; but he had just trodden the dim path which lies along the mysterious confines of the two worlds. The light of the eternal and unchangeable had broken up the shadows of that border-land of darkness and storm, causing him to see things as he never had before; and a still, small voice, which the stooping ear of loving watchers could not catch, had told him that he must die. "I know not how it is," he said, "but something within me tells me that my work is done."

DANCING AND THE CHURCH.-We commend the following extract to Christians, and especially Christian parents, who give countenance to this social vice. It was taken from the Parish Visitor, an excellent little monthly paper issued by the Evangelical Knowledge Society of the Episcopal Church:

The more moral portion of pagan Rome repudiated dancing as disreputable. We have an oration of Cicero, in which he defends Murena, the Consul elect, whom Cato endeavored to restrain from the office, partly on the ground that he had been guilty of indulging in this effeminate amusement. Hear Cicero repel the charge: "Cato calls Murena a dancer. If this reproach be true, it is a weighty accusation; if false, it is an outrageous calumny. Wherefore, Cato, as your authority carries so much influence with it, you ought never to snatch a charge from the mouths of the rabble, and rashly call the Consul of the Roman people a dancer, but to consider how many other vices a man must needs be guilty of before that of dancing can be truly objected to him; for no one ever dances, even in solitude, or in a private meeting of his friends, who is not either drunk or mad. Dancing is always the last act of riotous banquets, gay places, and profane pleasures." With us it may be the first act, instead of the last, in these "places of gayety and of profane pleasures," and it is shocking to hear a Christian apologizing for that which has never yet been separated from the most dangerous associations; for the proof of the demoralizing tendency of balls, whether held in public or private houses, is not to be resisted.

That learned skeptic, Peter Bayle, had the moral perception to discover the merits of so plain a case. "The reformed Churches," he says, "which forbid dancing, can not be sufficiently praised for it. The manner of it-and it does not appear that the indecency of waltzing was then practiced-occasioned a thousand disorders; and in the very room where the ball was held, it made impressions dangerous to virtue."

MY CHILDREN NO LONGER CARE FOR ME.-Many years ago, when a pastor, we were called to visit an old and decrepit man, destitute, lonely, dying. Once he had been a man of property; but when he became infirm had given it to his children, expecting them to provide for him. "Where are your children?" we inquired. With a sorrowful expression the old man replied, "My children no longer care for me." It was even so. The old man died in want-a striking illustration of that story related by Luther, and which we will now repeat for the benefit of our readers, parents and children:

There was once a father who gave up every thing to his children-his house, his fields, and goods-and expected that for this his children would support him. But after he had been some time with his son, the latter grew tired of him, and said to him, "Father, I have had a son born to me this night, and there, where your arm-chair stands, the cradle must come; will you not perhaps go to my brother, who has a large room?"

After he had been some time with the second son, he also