score of years, and is more beloved and admired by his people today than ever before: Time has neither withered his faculties of youth, nor the garland of affectionate esteem with which he has been crowned. It was only a few weeks ago .that an article appeared in a religious journal from his pen entitled "Notes from the Home Library ;" in which he discusses, to the delight of his readers, the books that lay as familiar companions on his table. These were the names of the authors: Dante, Michael Angelo, Shakespeare and Mendelssohn. Seeing them, we learn the secret of his prolonged popularity, or how time has not made him dull. We behold him here regaling himself in the fields of Poetry, Art and Music. These, by no means, mark the extent of his accomplishments. We have heard that he is one of the best Egyptologists in the land, and an eager student of all sorts of knowledge; and this, without neglecting in the least the just claims of his profession.

But, notwithstanding this fine example of what may be done in general literature by a professional man, many persons upon receiving the recommendation which we give, will answer that they have no time wherein to carry it into effect. Labors purely professional draw so heavily upon them, that they have room for nothing else. No doubt this plea would be sincerely offered on the part of some, and however glad they might be to refresh their minds with such studies, they are held back, as by a chain, by believing that they can find no time for them. What reply shall be given to these? Must they acquiesce in their fate, concluding that, in their case, sprightliness of mind and imaginative grace must perish, and there is no help for it? Let those who complain that they have not time for such pursuits, make time. There are two ways in which this wonder may be achieved.

One is, by using method in the adjustment of our work. Method bears the same relation to time, that good packing does to space. If a good packer can put twice as much, and in better shape, in any given room, as he can who crams his things in at hap-hazard, so a man, who works by method, will, as a rule, crowd into a day more labor, that shall be better done, than one who works with no system.

We all have had something like a verification of this in our

own experience. We occasionally come to days when we find it necessary to do double the work that we do on ordinary days. Being aware, beforehand, of the exigency, we calculate how it is to be met. A plan is formed, according to which the work is distributed. Every hour has so much allotted to it, which must be performed in it, without failure. By this methodical arrangement, we are kept from loitering. No time is lost. Our course through the day is rapid and skillful, and no matter how great the amount of work imposed, we accomplish it. By adopting such a methodical habit, we can probably do all the professional work we desire to do, if living without it, and have large room for those general studies, which have been recoinmended.

Again, we can make time for such studies by a careful husbandry of the fragments of time. A great deal may be accomplished by one who allows no waste of leisure, however small; who is diligent to fill it up by eager snatches at a book kept ready at hand for such opportunities.

Macaulay speaks of a beautiful painted window in Lincoln Cathedral, which was made by an apprentice, of the bits of colored glass that had been rejected by his master, and which is far superior to every other window in the building. There is no doubt but that a similar marvel might be wrought by many a man, if only more careful how he used the little bits of spare time which are heedlessly thrown away. Certainly, an acquaintance with literature could thus be formed, and culture be obtained, which would shed a rich, mellow light over professional labors, like that of a stained window upon the stony floor of a cathedral. We wrongly think, when a few moments of vacancy occur, that nothing can be done with intervals so small. If we go to our usual work we shall no sooner be seated to begin it, than we shall be called off from it. Therefore, the moments are idled away; whereas, were a book at hand, we might read a few lines of a poem, a page of an essay, or at least draw from some source, a thought which should both enrich the mind and refresh it when over-wearied by its regular toil.

This suggests another thing. A portion of that time which we think necessary for recreation, may be given to such pur

suits. It is not necessary to be idle in order to rest, or to cease from mental occupation to refresh the mind. Change of work is itself a rest. Especially, where the mind has become jaded with hard professional study, is it a rest to turn to these other studies. The truth of this is attested by many witnesses. We shall cite the testimony of but one, that of the late F. W. Robertson, who, whatever errors of religious speculation may be charged against him, was a man of remarkable mental vigor and freshness:

"I know what it is, to have had to toil when the brain was throbbing the mind incapable of originating a thought, and the body worn and sore with exhaustion, and I know what it is in such an hour to take down my Sophocles, or my Plato, my Goethe or my Dante, Shakespeare, Wordsworth or Tennyson, and then to feel the jar of nerve gradually cease, and the darkness in which all life had robed itself to the imagination, become light, discord pass into harmony, and physical exhaustion rise by degrees into a consciousness of power."

If now it should strangely happen that these directions for making time were to fail, and no space could be secured, notwithstanding, for those studies of rejuvenating influence, that have been commended, we should give as a final direction, "Take the time." We must remember that unless we can obtain the ears of men and interest them in our teachings, our professional acquirements are vain. Better is it, therefore, to pursue a course of study that shall give us ready listeners, though not so deeply read in professional lore, as were otherwise desirable, than to be in all points perfectly read at the expense of such advantage. Let us not be understood as disparaging in the least professional learning, and least of all, the importance of theological learning to the minister of the Gospel. We certainly owe this debt to our profession, that we should be willing to devote to the study of its literature, the best part of our time and energies. We are only pleading for as much of these reserved to other and more general studies, as shall make our professional knowledge of avail to us. We would have the channel of communication cared for though the fountain be not so full, rather than have the fountain full, and that channel destroyed.

80,

But who believes that the fountain will run low in consequence of occasional attention given to general literature, in the case of a conscientious man! Take the Christian pastor. Will any one pretend that he can not become well read in the literature of his profession without an entire and exclusive engagement with it; or that every hour, diverted from it, is sure to make a flaw in the completeness of his acquaintance with it? If any man thinks he reckons as essential what is unessential, and places an undue value upon things of little moment. It is by no means a man's duty to master every thing, in the shape of discussion and formal treatise, that has ever been written upon theological questions. If we thought so, we should be appalled by the mighty labor. It would weigh upon us like Etna upon Enceladus, and we could not begin to stir it. It is important, for example, to be acquainted with the historical development of religious doctrines. But why need we consider it indispensable, to read every controversy that has arisen in the course of that development; to look into every theological tilt that has ever happened and add our voices to those, which in his generation, proclaimed the triumph of the victor? We can fit ourselves to become able teachers of the truth without it, and pursue studies that shall do incomparably more for us in the way of enriching the mind and quickening thought. This is reason sufficient, for leaving the dry bones of the past undisturbed in their burial-places, and busying ourselves with truths that are always young and forever living.

ARTICLE III.

THE RESERVED FORCE IN THE SCRIPTURES AND A PLEA FOR THEIR STUDY.

THE age in which we live is practical. The hearts of men are eagerly set upon results. The days of dreamy speculation, of poetic or religious contemplation, seem to have passed by. To act, rather than to think; to act with reference to an end soon and certainly attainable; rather than to strive after ab

stract and shadowy ideas of truth or perfection, this is the rule of life everywhere. And, in immediate connection with this pervading sentiment, great and beneficent changes have been accomplished, and the world has grown, in a certain sense, wider and happier. More room is being made in it, all the time, for the poor and the oppressed, while the comforts and conveniences of life are placed within the reach of a far larger number of the earth's inhabitants than ever before. How many of the great forces of nature have lately been tamed and made serviceable! How many long understood, but long neglected principles of science have been made to receive some useful application! How much of the long waste of material resources, that has been going on for ages, has at length ceased! It is as though humanity had shut up its books and were putting to the proof, in good earnest, the maxims of wisdom stored up in the progress of so many centuries; just as the individual, after his season of preparation in the school or the college, steps forth into active life, and brings his painfully acquired learning to the test of a daily experience in the practice of some useful profession.

It is not strange that, in such an age, there should be a tendency to undervalue books and study. And yet in this tendency there lies a great danger. It still continues to be true, in the words of the great founder of modern practical science that "knowledge is power." And if there did not lie, back of the mighty energies put forth today, that vast sum of accumulated wisdom descending to us from the past, by which they are vitalized and controlled, all would be wasted and lost, for want of a certain direction. Rather they had never been put forth at all, for the inspiration which called them into exercise had been lacking. There is, indeed, little danger that the material sciences will suffer neglect from any mistake here, for men are comparatively wise where their material interests are concerned. It is in the department of our higher needs that we are most apt to be bewildered and run astray, because, in most men, their presence is less sensibly felt, and their demands are more easily granted. The interest in them, even in those who are very earnest, is less simple and entire, and the liability to deception is, therefore, much greater.