The first distinct and undeniable lesson of long experience is, that personal interest, his own individual profit, is the best basis of man's labor for himself, it is the spur under which he will do the most work; and that love, pity, sympathy-not compulsion-is the best motive of all his sacrifices for others, is the spur under which he will do the most good for others. We never do so well for others as we do for ourselves; and we do the highest good for others when we do it of our own free love, not because they have

claims upon us. How marvellously perfect, how transparently clear, on this and on all other subjects is Christian morality. We never can depart from that inspired law, even to a hand's breadth, without going wrong. 66 Every man shall bear his own burdens; that is his labor-his work-his toil-his daily occupation-his individual interest. "Bear ye one another's burdens; "that is our sympathy-our love for those who are toiling and suffering for themselves, as we are. We must obey the former injunction before we can heed the latter; we must work for ourselves before we can have to give to him that needeth.

Now take a fair representation of all classes of society, and bring them together in a community; let the labor of some make up for the indolence or the weakness of others, by the operation of a forced system, not as now by deeds of charity and by the punishment of laziness; give the system a trial-as opposed to our own present system; and mark the result. Can the result be other than this, that labor will fail, and love will die? The theory begins with bearing others' burdens instead of our own; and the practical operation of it will be, that some have been employed in heaping burdens upon others who have bowed to receive them, and forced labor has killed the ability for willing love. So says the trial of experience.

Again, experience has taught—and the Association theory scorns. this lesson too-that there is a certain degree of proximity to each other within which human beings may be brought with great advantage, but that if that just degree is exceeded dangers and annoyances of every sort will follow. It is best for each family of human beings to have a home of its own, and to meet with other families according to mutual assent as to terms and times. There are sacred privacies which must not be intruded upon. The build

ing of house-walls in place of tent-curtains marked the first stage in the virtues and joys of domestic life; to bring back the curtains again, will be the first step in a return to barbarism. An individual soul must have its lonely, musing hours, its place of refuge; and a family must have its castle, be it only of sun-dried mud.

One other thought will the application of the lessons of experience and wisdom to this Association theory suggest. The theory, so far as it is all practicable, is nothing more nor less than an application of Christian principles to the social system. That this system must be entirely changed from its present basis to admit of the application of those Christian principles, we do not believe. Christianity supposes and it allows-indeed it teaches solemn duties in express reference to the distinctions which exists in society, and such distinctions can never be done away. He that has much is likely to have more; he that has little is in danger of losing even that. Such distinctions are sanctioned in the Christian system. Such as the distinction between the rich and poor:-" The poor ye have always with you" "charge those that are rich in this world that they be not high-minded." Christianity recognizes a difference in capacities and talents, and consequently a difference in means and in advantages among men. Now in our existing social system all Christian duties and virtues are practicable, and so far as the projected theory is merely visionary and unsound, it will be difficult to apply to it Christian principles. There are charities and institutions and other means now in use by which to apply Christian principles to our present system; and difficult as it is to urge men as they are to apply them, it will be more difficult to overturn every thing, and then to apply them to a new system.

G. E. E.

TO THE MISSISSIPPI.

THE river begins now to assert its name- Father of Waters'. By its frequent bends and sweeps, it forms a series of noble lakes and seas. The woods of the distant shores rise majestically in terraces, formed by the successive underminings and sinkings of the

banks, which look over each other in silent and solemn grandeur down on the expanse of waters. They appear as smooth and regular as if trimmed by the hand of art. And so they were the art of the great Architect-the great Jardinier (if I may say so without irreverence) of the universe.

Extract from Ms. Journal.

Majestic stream! along thy banks,
In silent, stately, solemn ranks,
The forests stand, and seem with pride
To gaze upon thy mighty tide;

As when, in olden classic time,
Beneath a soft, blue Grecian clime,
Bent o'er the stage, in breathless awe,
Crowds thrilled and trembled, as they saw
Sweep by the pomp of human life,
The sounding flood of passion's strife,
And the great stream of history
Glide on before the musing eye.

There, row on row, the gazers rise;
Above, look down the arching skies;
O'er all those gathered multitudes
Such deep and voiceful silence broods,
Methinks one mighty heart I hear

Beat high with hope, or quake with fear:—
E'en so yon groves and forests seem
Spectators of this rushing stream.
In sweeping, circling ranks they rise,
Beneath the blue, o'er-arching skies;
They crowd around and forward lean,
As eager to behold the scene.

Aye, these, to see, 'neath heaven's blue dome,
Great nature's spectacle, have come,

To see, proud river! sparkling wide,
The long procession of thy tide,

To stand and gaze, and feel with thee
All thy unuttered ecstasy.

It seems as if a heart did thrill
Within yon forests, deep and still,
So soft and ghost-like is the sound
That stirs their solitudes profound.

C. T. B.

CHRISTMAS DAY.

ONE of the great festivals of the Christian Church is celebrated towards the close of this month. All Christendom then joins together, in its different nations, with its different creeds and forms, to honor the anniversary of the birth of the common Saviour. There is something grateful to the imagination, in finding such a point of union between ourselves and the remotest believers; in knowing that we are engaged with fellow-worshippers all over the earth, in commemorating the same auspicious event. With what various ceremonies is the same meaning expressed! In what various languages is the same praise repeated! Before the altars of the Romish and the Greek Communion, and from the liturgies of the Reformed, in some of the plain churches of the Puritans, and in the cathedrals of that proud Hierarchy which drove them beyond the seas, the angelic song at the nativity is remembered with equal gratitude,-" peace on earth, good will to men, glory to God in the highest!" Under roofs that can be decked but with evergreens, the spoil from leafless woods, the only remains of nature's beauty abroad at this wintry season, and under the skies of softer climates, where is perpetual verdure, the coming is announced of "that true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world."

We have thought it would not be uninteresting, nor useless, to offer an historical account of the observance of Christmas day. The mind naturally takes pleasure in going back to the origin of sacred and venerable usages. We shall endeavor to show how and when the practice of celebrating the birthday of our Lord was introduced into the Church; and to disclose afterwards the grounds on which the twenty-fifth of December came to be designated as that day.

First, how and when was the practice of celebrating the birthday of our Lord introduced into the Church? There were in the beginning but two festivals, the Passover and Pentecost. The earliest Christians, who were converted from among the Jews, observed these annually, not only in memory of those events on which they had been instituted among their countrymen, but because Jesus Christ had as it were consecrated them anew; the

first by his resurrection from the dead, and the second by the sending down of the holy spirit on his disciples. The converts from among the Gentiles observed them also, but only for the latter of these reasons.

With respect to the birth of the Saviour, as they did not know precisely the day, or the month, or even the year of that event, they set apart no season for its commemoration. It seems probable that the Evangelists themselves were unacquainted with these dates, for they do not specify what they were in either case; and Luke can only say, that Jesus was "about thirty years of age" at the time of his baptism. At the end of the second and the beginning of the third century, there was no information on the point in question; at least no sure way of ascertaining it. For one of the most eminent and learned Fathers* of that period tells us, that they who had endeavored by curious research to fix the day of the Nativity had arrived at different conclusions; that some referred it to the 19th of April, and others to the 20th of May. He himself adopts neither of them, but leaves the subject as involved in hopeless uncertainty. In Egypt and in the East the festival of the Nativity was celebrated very early, though it is not known exactly how early; it was however on the 6th of January, and long continued to be so, although it is impossible for us to determine on what grounds. There is no certain evidence that it was celebrated at Rome on the day of our present anniversary before the middle of the fourth century. Julius I., who was at that time Pope, determined it to the 25th of December. This, however, was only for his own Church at first and for the western churches. Those of the East retained their own customs for about twenty-five years longer, when the Roman method acquired the preference, and was introduced successively at Antioch and Constantinople, partly through the influence of an eloquent Bishop,† who presided over each of those great dioceses in turn.

In the fourth century, then, of our era, we are to place the first introduction of this anniversary and its triumphant establishment in most parts of the Christian world. In most parts, is all that we can affirm, for it was probably not adopted at Jerusalem till about seventy years after the death of the Pontiff who appointed it; and

Clemens Alex. Strom. I. 340. + Chrysostom.