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humbled and troubled brothers, his filial piety breaks out in that expressive interrogatory, "DOTH MY FATHER YET LIVE?",

But the example of one greater than all, shall be the last. Turn your eye backward on the track of time, until it rests on Calvary. See the victim on the cross. He is forsaken by his friends, betrayed by one disciple, and denied by another. He is crushed beneath the weight of a world's guilt, and even the Father hides his face. But, in that hour of dying agony, the sight of his mother, in her grief and desolation, affects his heart; and he consigns her, in the most tender and impressive manner, to the care of the beloved disciple, saying to the one, "Behold thy mother," and to the other, "Behold thy

son."

Follow these examples, and you will secure the respect of the good, the approbation of conscience, the blessings of parents, and the smiles of God.

CHRISTIANITY AN ELEMENT OF CIVILIZATION.

BY REV. HIRAM DUNN.

Looking at the world, we perceive a marked difference in the phases of human society. Whilst some in intelligence and culture are exalted; to heaven, others, in their ignorance and degradation, are scarcely above the "beasts that perish." Viewing man in these extreme states, we involuntarily enquire by what power is mind reached in its savage or barbarous condition, and raised to all the social and intellectual enjoyments of civilized and refined society? How does it break forth from its sordid selfishness and the control of brutal

lusts? If God made of one blood all the nations of the earth, why the vast difference now? We answer,

Christianity is the ingredient in life's cup, which restores and elevates mind to the highest point of civilization; whilst every false system is poisonous to the intellect, as well as to the moral and social relations, Whenever any individuals, from a barbarous or half civilized state, soar above the common herd, and exhibit anything like true greatness, they first virtually leave their system of false religion. Indeed, before they can plume their wings for their lofty flight, they must break the cords which bind to a system so groveling and sensual.

We find nothing in the various systems of religion, with one exception, that elevates the mind or civilizes the man. From the worship of the "Great Diana of the Ephesians" to the obscene rites of the "devil bush," there is not a system of idolatry but what lowers and degrades man, and enslaves the mind to the gross and sensual appetites of the flesh. We talk of the civilization of ancient Greece and Rome, the refinement and perfection of the fine arts, especially of Athens. There is much, to be sure, in the history of Greece and Rome, to admire, but their civilization was but com. parative. They were in advance of other nations, but their civilization was but painted barbarism, and the refinement of Athens would now be considered the grossest vulgarity.

When we turn from idol worship to the religion of Mohammed, we find a system that never did and never can civilize man. The fire and sword by which this system has been promoted, have left no traces of civilization behind them, and their proffer of a sensual heaven has had no tendency to improve man's morals here.

If we were to turn our attention to the different forms of government, we should find them suited to different states in human society, but almost powerless in creating that state. Hence, republican government can only exist in a civilized and enlightened community, and absolute monarchy is only suited to a savage or barbarous state.

How can man be taught moral science until he knows what distinguishes vice from virtue? How can he understand the stability of nature's laws without first knowing who formed those laws? And how can he account for the great phenomena of nature itself, unless he first knows who spake matter into existence? Finally, the power necessary to take the savage from his feast of human flesh, and clothe him in his right mind, and teach him to love his fellow man, is found no where but in the system of Christianty. That heartchanging, soul-purifying system, forms not only a necessary but indispensable element of civilization. Educa tion may follow the gospel of Christ, and be beneficial, but it can not go before it. Almost as well might you endeavor to point out the beauties of a landscape in midnight darkness, as to teach natural or moral science to the savage mind. First give them the light of God's revealed will. Let the sun of righteousness arise upon them; then it is an easy matter to educate. It was the power of the gospel that enabled a Brainard, with his Bible, to do more for the civilization of the Cherokees, in six months, than government, with a score of teachers and untold thousands of treasure, could accomplish in ten years. It was this power that found the cannibals of the Sandwich Islands feeding on worms and human flesh, and sunk apparently to the level of brutes, and, putting beneath them its mighty energies, raised them, as in a day, to be quiet, peaceful citizens, com

paring favorably with the most enlightened nations on earth. Instances might be multiplied. To what do we owe our own civilization, but to Christianity. Without this, we might have been at this hour in all the degrading barbarism of our ancestors, the ancient Gauls and Britons. Compare a Christian's home with an Indian's wigwam; a New England village with a Caffrarian kraal. Look at our civil rights, our religious and literary institutions, towering as they do, above all other nations in the universe, and then thank God for the Gospel of Christ.

Republicanism can not create civilization, and if established when such a state does not exist, it passes away like the morning dew. We can find no power in these various systems and forms, to take mind in its unquarried state, and give it the polish of civilization. From education, generally and universally diffused, the world have been inclined to expect more; indeed, so much dependence has been placed upon it, that worldly wisdom, or rather human folly, suggested the idea of "first sending to the heathen the school master, and afterwards the gospel minister." We do not say that education can render no assistance in civilizing a world, but we do say, that that alone would be a very slow process.

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IMPORTANCE OF AN ELEVATED AIM.

BY REV. HENRY L. STARKS, A. M.

Too many men live aimless. They sit not down to determine to what their tastes and talents are adapted. They rather leave it to chance or impulse, to direct their course, and give them the proper subject for reflection and pursuit. And even when these determine the point, they fix not their eye and heart upon it, nor energetically pursue it. Their efforts are spasms, their objects changing. Such conduct, in whatever department or profession of life, is almost necessarily attended with sinking below mediocrity, or entire failure.

The agriculturist, who is thus undecided or vacillating in seed time, like the sluggard, "shall beg in harvest and have nothing." The scholar, who is utterly aimless or undecided, whatever other circumstances may favor, must fail of being a marked man in the world. And yet nowhere is this evil so dangerous and destructive as in the department of piety. And nowhere is it more common. The soul's salvation may be the general desire, and the purpose to pursue the general path of piety, but unfortunately, a low state of religion seems to be all that is sought. And not a few are half their lives on their knees feeling for the line that divides the narrow road from the broad one. This is wrong, and as effectually prevents attaining excellence, and hinders usefulness, as any path that can be traveled.

Behold that young man! All about him is adverse.

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