dispositions and tempers of the world around are manifested, men will attribute to such Christians nothing but the form and shell of Christianity. Let but the flush of fretfulness or anger redden upon the cheek, or murmur in the voice of the occupant of the pulpit, at causes that should only occasion him grief, and furnish him an opportunity for the exercise of forbearance, and that man's preaching is vain. Let it be seen that anger burns as violently in the bosom of the professing and the praying, and breaks forth as readily, when it is appealed to, and the sinner will silently ask himself, "How dwelleth the love of God in that man?" Let but the pride of opinion, a mere egotism, a spirit of spite, keep one from acknowledging his errors, when he has been clearly proven in the wrong, whether these be errors of the intellect, or errors of conduct, and it is hard to believe that man's body a temple of the Holy Ghost. Let the man who would buy, and sell, and get gain, decrease in liberality as he increases in goods, and exhibit, as he improves by practice, an admirable skill at driving a bargain, and then smile triumphantly over the advantage of questionable honor which he had gained, and it will not be easy to attribute to that man a very high degree of spirituality.

Let polemic ecclesiastics practice sophistry for the sake of their cause, play upon words, and commit diversions by sarcastic quibbles, and practice proving their points by illegitimate syllogisms and false analogies; such men will soon be suspected of being destitute of the spirit of truth, as they certainly will be suspected of being destitute of the spirit of religion. We repeat it, the heart of man can be read more readily in his tempers than in his actions. These tempers are loopholes through wooded landscapes, that exhibit the sterile background; the heavens angry with storms, or open upon flowery lawns or fruitful fields, over which bends the sky in the deep blue of its repose and purity. Such are the relations of man's tempers and actions. And it is truly remarkable, that among the largest enumeration of the fruits of the Spirit, found in the New Testament, tempers, rather than actions, are enumerated as evidences of the spirituality of the Christian's character: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's, have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit."

CHAPTER XVII.

INTELLIGENCE AS AN ELEMENT OF PIETY.

WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE-DEFINITION OF TRUTH-WHEN KNOWLEDGE BECOMES POWER DIFFERENCE BETWEEN KNOWLEDGE AND WISDOM - THE KIND OF KNOWLEDGE THE CHRISTIAN SHOULD SEEK THE BIBLE-READING CHRISTIAN-SECURITY AGAINST APOSTASY-THE BIBLE AND POPULAR LITERATURETHE NEWSPAPER AN INTERPRETER OF THE BIBLE- CHRISTIANS AND THE PROMISES.

"I WILL give you pastors according to my heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding." "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." "In everything ye are enriched by him in all knowledge." "Wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of thy salvation."

In offering some thoughts under this caption in the last chapter, we spoke principally of the spirituality of piety, and promised to resume this subject by offering some thoughts upon intelligence as an element of power, in piety, upon motives and individuality.

Of the importance of cultivating the intellect as well as the heart, in a life of piety, the Scriptures

just quoted treat most conclusively. These texts are but a brief selection from a very large class. But what is knowledge? And what the principal branches that Christians generally in private life should pursue? When one knows a thing, the simple meaning of that is, he conceives of a thing as it exists. And as truth is no more than the condition of things as they exist, such a man, as far as he goes, has a knowledge of the truth. But this truth may do him no good if he fail to appropriate it, or attempt to appropriate it wrongly, or neglect it altogether. Knowledge only becomes power by a proper use. The man who makes the running stream turn the wheel of his mill, or the wind fill the sails of his ship, must first know the laws of gravity and the course of the winds. The more skillfully thi knowledge be applied to the great practical pur poses of life, the more wisely are they applied Here, then, is the general difference between the meaning of the word knowledge and wisdom as employed in the Scriptures. The one is an acquisition of truth, the other relates to the manner in which that truth is employed for the benefit of ourselves and others. A man of knowledge is not always a wise man, and the man who may be called truly wise may some

times be very limited in knowledge. "Great men are not always wise," and the wise man is very apt to be better off than the great man; hence "with all your getting get wisdom."

But of the knowledge which the pious man should study constantly to acquire, we would not disparage a knowledge of the sciences; a knowledge of nature's great laws, which will reveal to the student so much of God, of his wisdom and his goodness. But it falls to the lot of but few Christians to be students in the technical sense of that word: far the larger mass of good people will be quite limited in scholastic attainments. It is the few only who will devote their lives to the majestic mysteries of astronomy, the wonders of chemistry, or the hidden beauties of philology. As the miner reveals the hidden treasures of earth for the rest of mankind, so these devotees of hard study constitute the few that work for the world in matters of science. All honor to them. Yet is there a common ground, which every Christian can occupy for the purpose of adding to his faith not merely virtue, that is, virtuous dispositions, holy desires, and the like, but knowledge. And in a hasty specification of the branches of knowledge which every Christian should pursue, we would first