tempter made use of these conceptions, to accomplish his infernal purposes.

9. The adaptation of these temptations to their object. That they were real, and that they were powerful, there can be no question. Think of a starving man able to satisfy his hunger by an act, wrong indeed, but by an act which has an innocent appearance, and for which he might readily excuse himself under the circumstances. How strong the inducement! what a nice sense of right and wrong, what wonderful conscientiousness, what decided virtue, what noble self-denial, does resistance imply! Think, again, of the position of the Saviour in reference to his countrymen. He was a different character from what the Jews had expected in the Messiah; he was of humble origin, a stranger, with no splendid claims on their notice. He would have to encounter their prejudices; the chances were more than a hundred to one that he would be rejected. Now, standing on the pinnacle of the temple, and looking down along the deep precipice on the edge of which the temple stood, he appears, in the presence of the people, at the height of between three and four hundred feet above the ground. Cast thyself down headlong, no injury will follow, the Scriptures encourage the act, promising that the angels shall bear thee up; the multitudes thronging round the temple will witness the astounding feat, and hail thee with shoutings and raptures as Messiah and King. The choice is thus offered him between a magnificent reception by his countrymen and a life of glorious royalty on the one hand, or contempt and rejection on the other. If we cannot fully sympathize with the trials of this temptation, it is only because we cannot enter into the circumstances. We forget that Christ was completely human. In the last temptation, it was made apparent to the Saviour that he could become prince of the world on the same conditions, on which many of the greatest potentates had received their power, viz. by a disregard to what is right, by casting off allegiance to God; or, what is the same thing, by bowing down to Satan. Alexander, Caesar, Tamerlane, Napoleon, so far as men can judge, obtained supremacy in this way. Instigated by ambition, they fought their way to the heights of worldly power and fame. They acted for self-aggrandizement and not for the glory of God, under the influence and patronage of the prince of this world, the prince of the power of the air, which ever worketh in the children of disobedience. To a mind

which had the least innate corruption, the least worldly ambition, this would have been a powerful temptation, probably an irresistible one. The aspirant for fame would not need, perhaps, to recognize the supremacy of Satan, in so many words or in forms. Only let him cast off the fear of God, and learn to call evil good under the blinding influence of specious pretences, and he becomes, of course, a high subject of man's arch tempter. Such a temptation, though like the others it found nothing in Christ corresponding to it, no inward corruption on which its fires could kindle, was the most powerful temptation which that peerless spirit of darkness could invent.

10. The representative character of these temptations. They represent three great classes of temptations by which mankind are apt to be assailed. The first is addressed to the physical appetites. It is an appeal to the susceptibilities and infirmities of sense. He who could maintain his integrity, under such circumstances as those in which Jesus was placed, must be considered as a man of impregnable virtue as respects his whole animal nature. The second is addressed to a love of admiration and applause, which is natural to men. Nothing is sweeter to the mass of mankind than that incense of praise which follows great achievements. Here, in this third department of human habilities, was Jesus vigorously assailed. Coming off victorious, he shows himself forever incapable of seduction, by any possible offer, from this source. The third was addressed to a mental susceptibility, nearly, if not quite, universal among men, the love of power and possession. He who could resist the offer of all the kingdoms of the world and all the splendors attending supremacy over them, must be acknowledged superior to every possible allurement of wealth, glory and power. Nor can any temptation be conceived of, under which a person would be likely to fall, who had triumphantly overcome the three in question. In the victory thus obtained, man has a captain of salvation, a perfect example of moral heroism, in maintaining allegiance to the right.

11. The manner in which Christ resisted the devil commends itself to imitation. He did it instantly, decidedly, and by the word of God. He did not suffer himself to be deceived by the specious arguments of the adversary, not even by quotations from the Scriptures. But having a clear sense of right, and a firm will, answering Scripture, wrongly applied, by plain affirma.

tions of truth, he triumphed for himself and for mankind. manity fell with the first Adam, under the power of the tempter, so was the way prepared for it to rise again through the victories of the second Adam in the wilderness. Whoever believes in Christ, and would resolutely follow him, in a course of instantaneous, decided resistance to evil, might soon rise, through grace, to an almost superhuman dignity, in the scale of being.

12. The rewards of temptation vanquished. "Then the angels came and ministered unto him." Full of blissful thoughts, and encouraged by these beauteous spirits, Christ went forth to toil and suffering, having the peace of God within him and his glory round about him. Let men also resist evil, fleeing to Christ for succor in the hour of temptation, and angels, who still minister unto the heirs of salvation, will come to them, and the joy of Jesus will fill their hearts.

13. A single remark on the discrepancy in the order of these temptations, as recorded by the evangelists, will finish what we designed to say on the subject. According to Matthew, the second temptation is that whose scene of action is the pinnacle of the temple, while the third has reference to the kingdoms of the world. In Luke, the order is reversed. Matthew, by the use of the particle zote, with which he introduces the fifth verse, and naher, which stands at the beginning of the eighth, shows clearly that he intends to designate the exact order in which the several events occurred, while the general and free manner employed by the other evangelists shows with equal clearness, that he meant simply to present the facts without regard to the order of occurrences.

ARTICLE IX.

THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF MICHIGAN.1

By James R. Boise, M. A., Professor in the University of Michigan.

MICHIGAN was admitted to the Union as a State in the year 1835. Since that period, its career has been rapid and brilliant in many respects. The increase of its population, the development of its agricultural and mineral wealth, and the decided steps which it has taken in many of the leading reforms of the day, give it a rank and position seldom attained in the brief period of eighteen years. Should an intelligent man from the heart of New England be suddenly and unconsciously transported to one of the towns of Michigan, though he might not at first be able to define his position, he would not, at all events, be conscious of any change of longitude. Pleasant mansions, cultivated gardens, an active and intelligent looking people, would still surround him. Such a civilization could not have grown up on the spot in so brief a period. It has been transplanted, and retains essentially the same characteristics with the more easterly region from which it came. But as the new land to be occupied was better than the old which had been left, it was natural that men of enterprise and experience should make attempts at improvements in some things. The system which our New England fathers adopted for extending the advantages of education to all classes of the people, has been long and justly praised; but, excellent as that system unquestionably is, the founders of the State of Michigan, in adopting its leading provisions, ventured

1 Popular Education: for the use of Parents and Teachers, and for young persons of both sexes. Prepared and published in accordance with a resolution of the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Michigan. By Ira Mayhew, A. M., late Superintendent of Public Instruction. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1850.

System of Public Instruction and Primary School Law of Michigan. Prepared by Francis W. Shearman, Superintendent of Public Instruction. Lansing, Mich. 1852.

A Discourse delivered by Henry P. Tappan, D. D., at Ann Arbor, Mich., on the occasion of his Inauguration as Chancellor of the University of Michigan, December 21, 1852.

to introduce into it some changes which are claimed to be improvements. To examine some of these points, with a view to determine whether any improvements of this kind have already been made, or, more especially, can still be made, is our present object.

Before, however, proceeding to this examination, it may be well to refer, for a moment, to the publications named at the head of our Article. These may be considered the offspring, as well as the representatives, of the educational movement in Michigan; and from them we draw a considerable portion of our information on this subject.

The work of Mr. Superintendent Mayhew contains a series of well-written essays on a variety of topics relating to practical and general education. It is a book for the people, and cannot fail to exert a healthful and elevating influence. That feature of it which appears to us the most striking of all, is the decidedly religious tone which everywhere pervades it. The following paragraph is of so much importance in itself, and presents, also, so clearly the general character and scope of the whole work, that we cannot refrain from giving it entire.

"In the next place, the idea that man is a being destined to an immortal existence, is almost, if not altogether, overlooked. Volumes have been written on the best methods of training men for the profession of a soldier, of a naval officer, of a merchant, of a physician, of a lawyer, of a clergyman, and of a statesman; but I know of no treatise on this subject, which, in connection with other subordinate aims, has for its grand object, to develop that train of instruction which is most appropriate for man, considered as a candidate for immortality. This is the more unaccountable, since, in the works alluded to, the eternal destiny of human beings is not called in question, and is sometimes referred to as a general position which cannot be denied; yet the means of instruction requisite to guide them in safety to their final destination, and to prepare them for the employments of their everlasting abode, are either overlooked, or referred to in general terms, as if they were unworthy of particular consideration. To admit the doctrine of the immortality of the human soul, and yet to leave out the consideration of it, in a system of mental instruction, is both impious and preposter ous, and inconsistent with the principle on which we generally act in other cases, which requires that affairs of the greatest moment should occupy our chief attention. If man is only a transitory inhabitant of this lower world; if he is journey. ing to another and more important scene of action and enjoyment; if his abode in this higher scene is to be permanent and eternal; and if the course of instruc tion through which he now passes has an important bearing on his happiness in that state, and his preparation for its enjoyments if all this be true, then surely every system of education must be glaringly defective, which either overlooks or throws into the shade the immortal destination of human beings."