man. THOUGHTS ON JOHN iv. 36. 157 patriotism may animate the soul of the lowly-that the public good may be as much an object of deepest interest to the men who reap our corn-fields as to those who debate in our senate. It is a practical illustration of the great law of Christianity, “Honour all men." No matter what the man does, if redeemed from selfishness, he is a noble "Tis only noble to be good." We rejoice to know that among our hardy sons of toil, there are thousands of such men, the salt of the earth. Grace, mercy and peace be with them. If the considerate reaper is a public benefactor, how much more the useful Christian. He gathereth fruit unto life eternal. How many are the Christian incentives to usefulness; at one time the believer is urged to entire consecration by the mercies of God. "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable sacrifice." Rom. xii. 1. Then the love of Christ is exhibited as the grand impelling motive. Now we are reminded of the design of our vocation. "Ye are the light of the world." "He that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal." One would think, such are the present privileges and the prospective blessedness of the Christian, that his prevailing enquiry would be, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" That the life of such would only illustrate the poet's words. "A heart that God with holy thoughts hath flooded, With lustral water for the stained world; Dares not dole out in niggard drop the wealth- Now certainly there is a needs be for usefulness. We have only to think of the many in our families unsaved, the numbers in our congregations unconverted, the many thoughtless neighbours which surround us, to say nothing of the region beyond, to feel "O there is much for thee to do." And blessed be God, never were there so many facilities for usefulness as at the present period. "There is a post for every man." The sunday school, the sick visiting society, village preaching, tract distribution, the pulpit and the press, afford opportunities for every kind of talent. If the people have a mind to work, there is no need for any to stand all the day idle. The wheat is ready for the sickle, it will spoil if not gathered in. The harvest truly is plenteous, the labourers also are few. And yet he that reapeth receiveth wages. The term here used, "reapeth," may suggest to us that the Christian who resolves to be useful, must expect to work hard. Reaping is confessedly hard work. The time of the year at which it is done, the fact that this kind of labour is done in the open air, when sometimes the heat is intense, the number of hours in which the labourer is employed from early morn to dewy eve, render reaping and other kinds of harvest operations very laborious. The useful minister must be a hard-working man. On his part, there must be much study, much prayer, much toil, much anxiety. He must be instant in season and out of season. Brethren, pray for us, we trust we have a good conscience in all things, willing to live honestly. So the Christian in other departments of duty, if he would be succesful, must sow in tears, sow beside all waters, in the morning and evening he must alike sow, he must not be weary in well-doing,—should be wise to do good. To retrace on the mind of man the lost image of his Maker, is a work of toil. But shall we be less zealous to save, than Satan to destroy human souls? See the immortal dreamer in 158 THOUGHTS ON JOHN JV. 36. prayer. “It was,” he said, “as if Satan stood at my elbow, and said, you are very hot for mercy, but I will cool you, what care I, if I be seven years in chilling your heart if I can but do it at last." It is well to be taught by an enemy. But if our work be hard, the wages are first-rate. The considerate farmer pays, we imagine, no money more willingly than his harvest wages, and the reaper receives with equal delight, some eighteen or nineteen shillings weekly, instead of eight or nine. Our gracious employer is pre-eminently generous. Never was there a more atrocious libel uttered than that of the slothful servant. "I knew thee that thou art an hard man." Christians, you know that this is a deliberate falsehood. "He that reapeth receiveth wages," souls for their hire. What a compensation for the parent for all her toils-her sleepless hours-her midnight vigils-her unceasing prayer-is the conversion of her beloved child. Does she not indeed reap in joy? And does not the village preacher forget all his toilsome journeys, all his bitter disappointments, all his harassing temptations, when he heareth that there will be at least one soul saved instrumentally by his labours of love. When too it pleaseth Almighty God to give his ministers souls for their hire. It seemeth often to much for us to receive. Who are we or what is our father's house, is our grateful language, that Thou shouldst bless us after this fashion. It should be remembered, that all workers whether sowers or reapers, are graciously rewarded. Them that honour Him God will honour. It is something to have the testimony of conscience that we please God. It is not a trifle to anticipate the plaudit of our Lord; "Well done, good and faithful servant." something to be free from self-reproach; for surely, the loiterer, if a Christian at all, must have an accusing conscience. Is this thy kindness to thy friend;—must often be as a dagger to his soul,-such men live unhonoured, and die unlamented,― -are saved as by fire. While, they that have given all diligence to make their calling and election sure, set As sets the morning star, Which melts away into the light of heaven. It is "And I longed for a congregated world, to behold that dying saint. As the aloe is green and well liking, till the last best summer of its age, and then hangeth out in golden bells, to mingle glory with corruption; such was the end of the righteous; his death was the sun at his setting." "He he One word on the pregnant saying, (instinct with genius and full of God.) gathereth fruit unto life eternal." Let him know that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way, shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins. For that soul's salvation Deity was made flesh, and dwelt among us; it shall be a gem in his mediatorial crown. The angels in heaven rejoice at its penitence. Its conversion is the starting point of a new and endless life. The salvation of hundreds, yea, thousands, may stand connected with its salvation. But whether the sinner converted be one who shall pursue the noiseless tenor of his way, unnoticed and unknown except to God and the holy angels, or whether like a Luther, a Baxter, a Whitfield, a Wesley, leaves his footprints on the world's history; "On either supposition an event has occurred, the issues of which must ever baffle and elude all finite comprehensions, by concealing themselves in the depth of that abyss-of that eternity, where there is sufficient space for the destiny of each to develope itself; and without interference or confusion, to sustain and carry forward its separate infinity of interest.* Standing on this noble elevation, where ever and anon, glimpses of a glorious eternity are discerned by the piercing_eye of faith, shall we not with this thought fresh upon our spirits, feel the grandeur of our position - -our glorious destiny, and reverently heed the voice of conscience; and when the trumpet blast of duty does summon us to effort, shall we not say, Arouse thee soul! As shakes the lark the dewdrop from its wing; One truth thine offering to mind's altar bring. Arouse thee soul! What a solemn thought, some of my readers are seeking to destroy souls-ungodly fathers-unconverted mothers—such are you. Repent of the wickedness, and pray God that so you may save yourselves and those allied to you. Amen. * Hall In seeking in woman herself for the causes of her want of beneficial influence on mankind, two appear so prominently as to seem in themselves sufficient to account for the evil. These are a defective education,, and afterwards an inactive existence. The one of these wastes the powers of the mind in early youth, and the other rivets the habit of frivolity or insipid indolence in latter years. As a rule, her youth is spent in acquiring mere show-knowledge, and her life after marriage, except when immersed in the cares of the nursery, in a vacant and aimless inactivity. In speaking of the education of women as defective, we allude rather to its whole scope and purpose than to the neglect of any particuar studies. Almost any study pursued with good method, and for its own sake, is beneficial: while a great number, even of those which are most calculated to improve the mind and morals, if pursued in a desultory manner, or industriously but merely for display, serve only to kill time, and to lower the moral being of the student. It is to be doubted whether any real good as yet been affected by the wider range lately in female education. Very little is really deeply learned, and that little serves only to foster pride and vanity; whereas formerly the difficulties in the way of learning were so great, that those only who were endued with a real love of knowledge for its own sake had energy to overcome them; and such as were contented with the ordinary portion of instruction allotted to them were at least humble, and conscious of their ignorance. Women of the present time, however, are inexcusable, both for their pride and their ignorance. Knowledge is open to them-they may freely inquire into topics of high interest; but the modern practice teaches to hide incapacity, and pretends to extend the bounds of knowledge, while, in truth, doing little more than widen the sphere of frivolity. Woman must remember that though her influence always has been, and ever will be, mainly moral, the moral power itself must, CAUSES OF WOMAN'S DEFECTIVE POSITION. 161 If she rests contented in these days, be accompanied with intellectual vigour. in the mental inactivity of flower-painting and crotchet-work, how can she hope to make moral impressions on her husband, who recives every day the great education of active life among men? The woman should seek to compensate for the want of that activity by increased mental exertion, a wedding, or a ball, a child's first tooth, or a few visits to the poor, should no longer be her highest excitements. Defective as is the early education of woman, her mode of life afterwards is still worse. In the former there has at least been some method or ostensible aim, while in the latter all is ruled by the whim of the moment. The girl who at twelve years is punished for reading Miss Edgeworth's stories instead of Rollin's history, when she is eighteen reads nothing but novels, or at best some gossiping biography, and this with the cognizance, and perhaps the advice, of her parents. Even when a girl has a desire for better things, she is laughed at as eccentric or gloomy for refusing to join a perpetual round of gaieties; and parents will make any sacrifice to procure dress or new music for a daughter, whose petition for a good book, or for leisure to study, would be peremptorily refused. The evil of idleness, active or inactive, is fully acknowledged in the training of men; but with regard to women, it is wholly overlooked, and surely for no better reason than in the former alone industry secures wealth. It is never taken into consideration that there is a mental as well as a bodily torpor, and that, by mental inaction, a woman dooms herself to the life-long weariness of a barren and ill-guided mind. When we consider that the time which men pass in actual college life, or in studying elsewhere for a profession, is frittered away by women in dressing for balls and matching wools, we only feel astonished that there should be so much companionship as there is between the sexes, and that the pernicious effects of bad training should not be more perceptible. The evil is, perhaps, partly counterbalanced by the strictly domestic life of the English, and the inevitable moral training of woman's subordinate position. If men were suffered to pass those years which precede active life in the same idleness or unprofitable business, society would soon fall into chaos. The chief cause of the defective education and subsequent frivolous life of woman is to be found in a low and narrow view of life itself, making worldly advancement its great aim, separating religion from secular life, and limiting its obligations to certain forms and a few moral precepts. Marriage, being the only means of securing worldly advancement, is held out as the great goal of their endeavours; they are taught to regard it as absolutely necessary to their happiness and, if not to their self-respect, certainly to obtaining the respect of others. This fundamental error perhaps lies at the root of all the evil of which we have to complain in the training of woman. Marriage being considered as indispensable, all education is conducted with the view of forwarding it. Showy accomplishments take the lead; and where more solid learning is required, it is merely with a view to its market-value. Were men to choose their wives more wisely, and seek such as would prove the best companions, and most judicious conductors of a household, women would perhaps aim at higher attainments; but, unfortunately, most men are dazzled by false accomplishments, and mothers, of course, train their daughters to their perverted tastes. "Fortunately, however, when men are destitute of moral principle themselves, they rarely dislike to find a difference in this respect in the woman they would marry; had it been otherwise had morals seemed in their eyes as ungraceful and as unfeminine as knowledge-where would our present system have led us? It is a startling question, and almost too painful for sarcasm.' |