the badness of their hearts, and attribute thereto much that is properly the result of defective moral education, or of inattention to natural laws.1

a physician as well as a divine, together with the help of a good, prudent, and withal modestly cheerful friend, must be made use of."-(Spiritual Perfection.) "Carelessness in the discipline of the body is, perhaps, the real cause of the miserably ignoble life of many Christian men.' -(R. W. DALE.) "Many a man has considered himself spiritually lost, whilst under the mental depression caused by a long continued hepatic and gastric derangement; and instances occur of persons imagining themselves to be condemned to everlasting punishment, subjects of Satanic presence, and to hold personal converse with our Saviour, owing to the existence of visceral disease, and a congested condition of some one of the great vascular or nervous centres."-(Dr. FORBES WINSLOW.) "Satan does take advantage from the ill-humours and diseases which are in the bodies of men greatly to molest their spirits; and when bodily diseases are removed by the use of natural means, the matter upon which the Evil Spirit was wont to operate being gone, he does no more disturb and disquiet the minds of men as before he did."-(Dr. MATHER: Special Providences.) "Of all employments," says Jeremy Taylor, "bodily labour is most useful and of the greatest benefit for driving away the devil."

1 "The persons that are troubled with these black thoughts are nowise consenting to them; but they rise in their minds perfectly against their wills, and without any approbation of theirs; and in this case.

I hope, yea, and verily believe, they are no sins at all, but the mere effects of a bodily distemper, and no more imputed to us than the wild and idle ravings of a man in a frenzy or a fever."-(TILLOTSON.) "If they find a disorder and coldness in their thoughts, and a deadness in their affections, which may flow from very innocent causes, they are not deeply to afflict

themselves for that."-(Spiritual Perfection.) "As for what some good

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people are often terrified about-the wicked imaginations that come into their minds, and the expressions that come out of their mouths at times, almost whether they will or not; in proportion as they are involuntary, they are not criminal in themselves, be they ever so bad."-(Archbishop SECKER.) "A state or act that has not its origin in the will may be calamity, deformity, disease, or mischief, but sin it cannot be."— (Š. T. COLERIDGE.) Every sin is voluntary, and either hath the consent of the mind, or follows upon the neglect of the mind."-(Dr. WHICHCOTE.) "No action can be designated as right or wrong, unless a previous volition have been of influence to call it into being."- (Dr. CHALMERS.) "All sin lies in the will, and all will implies choice. The mind is passive in receiving its notices of things, whether pure or impure (suggestion), but it is active in its determination whether to harbour or discard them. As far as it is passive, it is certainly innocent; as far as it is active it is accountable."-(BAXTER: Saints' Rest.) 'I laugh when I read the old legends of St. Francis, and various other saints, of various names, who, after they had violated every conceivable canon of health for the sake of sanctity, were at last, as it was supposed, tempted of the devil in this way, and that way, and the other way. When they had violated bone and muscle, and nerve, and brain, and body, they thought the fantasies which were the natural results of such violations of natural laws to be the devil." (H. W. BEECHER.) "Once," said the late Professor Duncan, "when I was assistant to Mr. Clark, of Duke Street, Glasgow, as I came

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With a correct understanding of his own physical and mental nature, its laws and conditions, the Christian will be able to trace evil to its proper source.1 He will see it afar off, and be able to grapple with and overcome it before it has acquired strength, yea even to put it to flight before it has assumed a visible form.2 He will not be dis

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out of the vestry to go into the pulpit, the devil assaulted me with this: 'What, if it is all lies, and you are deceiving the people?' I went back into a closet to pray, but the beadle came after me, and I had to come out. I went up to the pulpit, and gave out a psalm, pale and trepidenough-looking, I dare say. But during the singing of the psalm, I said to myself, Well, I have had proof of it before, that satisfied me, and I'll preach it till I get as good proof against it.' So I got up to pray, and before the prayer was half done, the temptation was gone." (Life of, by Dr. D. Brown.) "I should like to have the 'Diaries' which record the spiritual experience of certain excellent persons illustrated with notes by wise physicians who had known them intimately. Periods of spiritual desertion, when the light of God's countenance' was hidden from them, apparently without any reason, might receive a very instructive explanation."-(Rev. R. W. DALE.)

"Correct and clear views of the objects to be attained, knowledge of the means by which they are to be compassed, with wise, faithful, consistent, affectionate appliance of those means to the ends which they are to effect, have the warrant of Jehovah for happy issue."-(The Parent's High Commission.) "Were we to keep a vigilant watch over the causes which influence the bodily system so as powerfully to affect the mind, we should often trace to its true source the origin of actual sin, as well as the grounds of religious despondency."- (Rev. E. C. TOPHAM.) "He who knows the various tempers, humours, and dispositions of men, who can find out their turn of thought, and penetrate into the secret springs and principles of their actings, will not be at a loss to find out proper means for compassing his aims, will easily preserve himself from snares, and either evite or overcome difficulties."-(Dr. WIGHTMAN.) "Every one knows. how much the temper, the sensibilities, the floating impulses and notions, nay, the very talents and opinions of mankind, and through them their whole character, is determined by their bodily temperament." (Dr. M'Cosн.) "I have long been convinced that sufficient weight has not always been attached to the influence of natural temperament and disposition in forming and directing the religious character."(Dean RAMSAY: Christian Life.) "The affections and interests do, themselves, sometimes cloud and darken the understanding, and make it less capable and receptive of such representations as are made to it. Hence it is that the more prudent of heathen philosophers have proposed it as the best preparative to the studying and search of truth to have men's affections and appetites well regulated, first by assuetude and virtuous custom, by inartificial and sober education, &c., moderating and tempering their passions and bringing them to live orthodoxly, lest having their reason disturbed by passions, they be not able to pass an exact judgment of things."-(Dr. HAMMOND: Practical Catechism.)

2 We must .. be particularly upon our guard against the first assaults, for the enemy will be more easily subdued if he is resisted in his approaches, and not suffered to enter the portals of our hearts."

couraged by the "day of small things," neither will his spirit be broken by fruitless attempts at labours beyond his strength.1 As a babe he will refrain from strong meat, as

(T. À KEMPIS.) "The great wisdom and security of the soul in dealing with indwelling sin, is to put a violent stop unto its beginnings, its first motions and actings; venture all on the first attempt, die rather than yield one step unto it."-(Dr. JOHN OWEN.) "In their sleeping embryo state, the giants of vice, the great anarchs of crime and confusion, are to be laid hands on and bound in chains of good order."--(EDWARD IRVING.) "Evil is counteracted not only in its commencement, but even before it appears, by guarding against dispositions and practices which, though not wrong in themselves, are dangerous from their natural alliance to those which are so.”—(S. R. HALL.) "By this conduct we shall have the peculiar advantage not only of repelling the enemies of our peace before they have obtained firm hold on our affections, but of beginning the conquest of the passions while the temptations of the world are yet distant.”—(Rev. JAS. FAWCETT: Sermons.)

1 "The mind, by being engaged in a task beyond its strength, like the body strained by lifting at a weight too heavy, has often its force broken, and thereby gets an inaptness or an aversion to any vigorous attempt ever after.... Though the faculties of the mind are improved by exercise, yet they must not be put to a stress beyond their strength. . . . The understanding should be brought to the difficult and knotty parts of knowledge that try the strength of thought, and a full bent of mind, by insensible degrees, and in such a gradual proceeding nothing is too hard for it." (LOCKE.) "To insist upon getting from off a certain soil a richer kind of crop than it can support, is the sure way both to fail in this and to lose the humbler crop, which might have been got." And so there are people who persist "in the face of all experience in the expectation of a given line of conduct from a person whose whole character renders such conduct as sheer an impossibility as it is for a bramble to produce grapes, or for a thistle to bring forth figs."—(ANON.) "He that would be and do more than he can be or do, or he who would be and do all at once what he is ouly able to become and to perform by small degrees, generally is and does nothing, or, at any rate, much less than, according to his capacities and circumstances, he might be and do. It is thus in nature, and thus also in moral concerns."-(Manual of Conduct.) "It is a certain and general truth that there is a progress in the spiritual as well as in the natural life."-- (Spiritual Life.) “Every man that has cultivated fruit knows that no tree can bear very rich the first year. So it is with Christians and Christian graces. You cannot bear high spiritual fruit until the spirit of Christ has dwelt with you, so as to form the very wood and fibre of your life. It is not until you have borne the fruits of Christian life and conduct, year after year, that you can bring them forth in their highest state of perfection." "No one should be discouraged because, at the beginning, he does not have full vision and facility of vision of Christ. When a boy goes inside the door of a school, is he changed because he has become a scholar? He has begun a course of education, and he has to go on day after day, little by little. . . . You are called not to a consummation. . . . You are to begin with the alphabet, and you are to learn to spell the smallest spiritual words, and you are to go from step to step, and from strength to strength, till you come to a perfect manhood in Christ Jesus."--(H. W. BEECHER.) "Though some degree of the Spirit be pre

a man he will naturally crave for it and will thus proceed from strength to strength in the Divine life.1

It is ever in union that there is strength. It is as the one comes to the assistance and support of the other, that they are mutually improved and strengthened." To the Educator, religion is as a light showing him the way in

sently given to every believer, it is usually but a spark at first; and there are further means and conditions appointed us for the increase, and actual helps from day to day; and he that will not wait on the Spirit in the use of those means doth forfeit his help according to his neglect."-(RICHARD BAXTER.) One of the rules laid down by John Howe, as conducting to the blessedness of the righteous,” is, that when we find ourselves in any disposition towards this blessedness, we endeavour a gradual improvement therein, to get the habitual temper of our spirits made daily more suitable to it."

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1" Such is the great difficulty of self-examination that it were well if, instead of attempting at first the more arduous, the Christian disciple should begin with the more elementary of its exercises."-(Dr.CHALMERS.) "As beginnings are always difficult, especially to ardent spirits, such spirits would do well, particularly at their entrance on a more correct course, to select for themselves some single task of painful exertion, which, by bringing their mental vigour into full play, shall afford them so sensible an evidence of the conquest they have obtained as will more than repay the labour of the conflict." (HANNAH MORE: Practical Piety.) "Be not surprised that I recommend to you but one particular virtue for every day of the week. It is certain we ought daily to practise all virtues according to those opportunities and circumstances which the providence of God presents to us for the exercise of them. But my design, in this method, is to make you acquainted by degrees thoroughly with each considerable Christian virtue, and with the way and manner of practising it."-(R. NELSON: True Devotion.) "It is of more importance to set such modes of conduct in operation as can be carried on through a series of years, and as will produce a sum of ultimately good though it may be remote effects, than to aim at accomplishing only speedy and great results."-(Manual of Conduct.)

2"Culture proposes as its end the carrying of man's nature to its highest perfection, the developing to the full all the capacities of our humanity;.. that is, culture must embrace religion and end in it. Again, to start from the side or point of view of religion," this "must embrace culture: first, because it is itself the culture of the highest capacity of our being; and secondly, because, if not partial and blind, it must acknowledge all the other capacities of man's nature, as gifts which God has given, and given that man may cultivate them to the utmost, and elevate them by connecting them with the thought of the Giver and the purpose for which He gave them."-(Prof. SHAIRP: Culture and Religion.) "I believe that Christianity, so far from being hostile to the highest and most perfect development of our secular life, is eminently favourable to it; that the recovery of the whole world from idolatry, from vice, from atheism, from unbelief, will be accompanied with a condition of material prosperity, of intellectual culture, of social and political freedom unexampled in human history."-(Rev. R. W. DALE.) "I believe that a revival of what have always been regarded as the loftiest forms of litera

which he ought to walk-the pole-star from which he is to take all his bearings: while by education, the Christian is instructed how to put the lofty principles of his faith into active practice.2 The one is the necessary complement of the other, education as a part of religion, religion as a part of education. The two must grow together and work

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ture, and a re-awakening of original genius, will be one of the causes and one of the effects of a healthier and more vigorous religious life."(Ditto.) "Let all the sciences truly so called, and the philosophies that are sincere and thoughtful, and the arts that have principles and health in them, and all taste and culture and refinement, come to the cross, not to be rebuked and humiliated, but to stand there in the confraternity of universal truth, and to breathe as they can do nowhere else the spirit of everlasting law."—(Rev. Dr. RALEIGH: Religion and Modern Progress.)

1 Christians" have one ultimate end to which they tend, which guides and governs them, the true polar star by which they steer their heavenly course."-(Rev. J. SMITH.) "In all situations of human life, piety is the duty and interest of mankind, .. as affording the best and noblest school in which the mind may be trained to whatever is great and good in human nature.”—(Rev. A. ALISON: Sermons.) "The Christian religion is, in a variety of ways, eminently conducive to civilisation from the purity of its precepts, the intellectual nature of its instructions, the high tone of its morals, and the noble and sublime nature of its schemes, as a whole. Eminently, indeed, as has been observed by distinguished writers on this subject (Arnold, Guizot, Neander, &c.), was Christianity adapted to complete what the enlightened influence of Greece and Rome had commenced in the career of civilisation."-(GEORGE HARRIS: Civilisation.) "In Christianity we have the only real genius of civilisation, because we have there the only true principles of morality and religion." "Love to God and love to man comprehend all just law, all right, all liberty, all morality, all religion. Love to God of necessity inspires love to man; he who feels it must worship God and must do good to his neighbour.' "To teach this law of love was the design of the Scripture; to illustrate it and satisfy its demands was the grand object of the life and atonement of the Saviour; and to write it on the heart the Holy Ghost is promised." --(Rev. B. PARSONS.)

2 Many persons "when once they know the nature and excellency of the duties of the law, account nothing wanting but diligent performance, and they rush blindly upon immediate practice, making more haste than good speed."-(MARSHALL: On Sanctification.) "Our outward works and actions depend upon a train of powers within us, which as springs and causes of them, order and effect them. For our passions excite them; our understandings consider of them, and direct them; our wills command and choose them; and then afterwards in pursuance of all these our bodily powers execute and exert them. The actions of a man flow from all the ingredients of the human nature, each principle contributes its share and bears a part towards it."-(Rev. J. KETTLEWELL: Christian Obedience.) Education "is carrying into effect the very laws which the Creator has established for the moral renovation and perfection of the species." (A. R. CRAIG: Philosophy of Training.)

3 "Culture and religion are not, when rightly regarded, two opposite powers, but they are as it were one line with two opposite poles. Start