profligates. With no more than the very slender income that a city missionary gets, he has habitually and for many years brought miserable creatures to his house, has filled his home with people of bad character, upon whose hearts he has been working, and who have said that they are willing to be honest. With his own hands he has cleansed and cured of skin diseases miserable youths, whom even their companions loathed to touch. To the utmost of his power he has kept such people out of harm's way, until, by immense efforts, he has found for them admission to some charity, or means of emigrating, or of earning in this country an honest living. Also, when he has touched the heart of some castaway girls or boys, he has not seldom discovered their first homes, and, by urgent letters and persuasion, reconciled them to offended parents. The truest pleadings of humanzing he carries day after day, night after night, to places from which good men naturally shrink, and he is ready to become, if he can, for this world as well as for the next, the friend of every outcast from society who will accept his friendship.

It appears that the work commenced in this way many years ago, and approved by all who heard of it, was seconded by some with money. The shelter offered by the missionary's home was enlarged by an enlargement of the means placed at his disposal. The kindness of some gentlemen who labor to do good-foremost among whom in this case, as in many similar cases, we find Lord Shaftesbury to standplaced a small fund at the disposal of this good Samaritan for the maintenance of his house as a refuge or an hospital, in which he himself, his wife, and all his children labor, without money reward, to heal both the diseases and the sorrows of those whom they attempt to

save.

In the little room at the house of which this gentleman has made so good a use-used to be No. 51 in Wellclose Square-the little room in which he received every day some twenty or thirty visits from poor wretehes who came to him in good faith for advice, though few of them take what advice he gives-we were once shown his books, and favored with a summary of the results of his work. From nearly fourteen hundred ruined young women, and upwards of two thousand ruined young men, beaten up during his rounds, he has received at his own home more than sixty thousand visits. This was the material he found to work upon, and out of it all what results had he produced?

Comparatively few. And yet is it a small thing for one man to be able to say that by visiting the haunts of vice, he has restored ninetythree children to the homes they had forsaken-procured for a hundred and fifty-five repentant vagabonds honest employment-sent more than a hundred to asylums, and enabled sixty-three to emigrate, besides persuading upwards of two hundred couples to submit to rites of marriage that they had foregone. Is it a small thing to receive many letters such as this?

"Dear Sir-I take up my pen to return you many sincere thanks (a mother feeling the blessings of God) for taking my dear boy out of the darkness that he had been led into, thank God for it, and your kindness. My prayers shall ever be for your welfare and your family, may it please God to assist you in putting those in the light they so much need. My blessing shall always attend you for the sake of my

child. I return God thanks for the great blessing he has given to me by reforming my child. Dear Sir, I conclude with my best thanks for the great services that you have done me and my family. May the Lord pour his great blessing on you as long as you live!"

Those are "best thanks," indeed. Again, let us repeat that this laborer (Mr. P. L. Jackson) has done his good work for its own sake; that it is his own house which he fills with miserable outcasts; that it is part of his own not very abundant bread with which he feeds them, till he finds how they can honestly earn food of their own. The contributions by which he is now aided do not amount to more than about fifty pounds a year. That is the endowment of his little hospital.

If one man can work thus-and we could tell other tales of singlehanded labour in the same great cause-if one can achieve so much, what cannot a nation do towards the reformation of offending children who lie in its bosom?

AN ADDRESS ON EDUCATION,

Delivered in Cincinnati, to a Literary Association, October, 1856.

THERE is not, in all the expanded area of human thought, any theme more important or more prolific of good or evil to man, temporal, spiritual or eternal, than is the theme of human education. It has commanded the attention, and more or less engrossed the thoughts, of the most gifted minds and the most philanthropic hearts that have adorned our common humanity. The capacity of man, the dignity of man, and the destiny of man, have been more or less popular themes in every age, and amongst all the civilized nations of the earth. The three most engrossing questions in every age, in every clime of earth, and in every tongue of man, are, were, and ever will be, What am I? Whence came 1? Whither do I go?

These are the loftiest, the most profound, and soul-engrossing themes, on which the mind of man can concentrate all its powers, and tax all its resources. It is conceded by the highest tribunals of human science and human learning, by the greatest and best of all philosophers, that the only object seen, contemplated, and admired by man, which the sun surveys or the earth contains-the only existence within the human horizon that will never cease to be,-is man. He of all earth's tenantry, had a beginning, bat will never, never, never have an end.

It is this view of man, and this view only, that magnifies and aggrandizes the theme of his education; and that, in every age of civilization, has, more than all other themes, engrossed the attention,

elicited the energies, and commanded the activities of every truly enlightened philanthropist.

But the proper philosophy of man, indicated in his origin, constitution and destiny, is an essential preliminary to a rational disposition and development of this theme. The first question, then, necessarily is, What is man? He is neither an angel nor an animal. He has a body, a soul, and a spirit. He has a trinity of natures in one personality. While Jehovah has a trinity of personalities in one nature, man has a trinity of natures in one personality. He has an animal nature, an intellectual nature, and a moral nature. Hence the prayer of the greatest apostle and ambassador of heaven was, "May God sanctify you wholly"-in body, soul and spirit. These are not two, but three entities, and these three are in every human being. Man has an animal body, an animal soul, and a rational spirit. Two of these are earthy and temporal-one is spiritual and erernal. He is, therefore, not improperly called a microcosm, a miniature embodiment of universal nature, or of the Divine creation.

We do not, then, wonder, standing on the pinnacle of this temple, that there was a Divine interposition in behalf of humanity in its ruins, and none for the angels who kept not their first estate. And this, indeed, is no ordinary attestation of the dignity of man.

Hence the institution of a remedial system, to elevate, dignify, and beatify man, was introduced by the Creator himself, and consummated by the incarnation of the Divinity in our humanity. This is the proper stand-point whence to survey the special providence and the special grace vouchsafed to man as he now is, in his lapsed and ruined condition.

Hence the true and enduring sub-basis of a rational and adequate education of a human being, is a just and true conception of man, not as he was, but as he is now, and as he must forever be. Any system not based on these conceptions, cannot possibly meet the demands of our nature, nor develop and perfect a human being to act well his part in the great drama of human life. The only text-book for such a system, and such a study, and such a full-orbed development of man, is that inestimable volume, vouchsafed by God himself, in progress of completion some 1600 years. It develops his nature, his origin, his destiny, and counsels his course in life with special reference to his full development and preparation for the highest honors, pleasures, and enjoyments, of which he is capable. It adapts itself to his highest reason, to the strongest and most enduring cravings of his nature, and reveals to him the only pathway to true glory, honor and immor. tality. Hence we conclude that this volume should be a standing

and a daily text-book in every primary school, academy and college, in Christendom.

But this is not all;-the true philosophy of man demands that a rational and systematic course of instruction should be instituted and prosecuted with a special reference to the conscience, the heart, and the spirit of man, as to the understanding or intellectual powers, the taste and the imagination of the pupil or the student. The whole world within him, as well as the whole world without him, should not only be defined and developed, but cultivated, matured and perfected, in full harmony with his origin and destiny, not only as far as appertains to the present world, but also as relates to the future and the eternal world.

Man was not created for this earth as his whole patrimony. He was destined to be a cosmopolite, not of our planet only, or of our solar system, but to have intercourse, free and cordial, with the tenantry of all worlds, and to be a peer of the highest circles of the highest sphere of God's universe. He is, in fact, through the interposition of the second Adam, made a peer of the highest realms in creation, and a joint heir with Adam the Second, who is himself heir of all things. May we not, then, with still more emphasis and earnest. ness, inquire, What, should his education be?

What, then, is the meaning of the word education, inquires the sparkling eyes around me? It is a Roman word, of etymological composition. It is tantamount to development-full orbed development. It enlarges, invigorates, beautifies, adorns, and beatifies the soul and spirit of man. King Solomon endorses this theory in affirming that "a man's wisdom makes his face to shine;" that its "merchandize is better than silver, its increase than that of fine gold." "It is more precious than pearls, and all the objects of desire are not equal to wisdom." He affirms that "its ways are ways of pleasantness; that all its paths are paths of peace;" that "it is a tree of life to those who possess it, and that happy is he who retains it."

But there is knowiedge without wisdom; and there may be, at a certain angle, wisdom without much knowledge. We have occasionally met with persons of much knowledge possessing little wisdom, and with some possessing much wisdom with little knowledge. Education, however, imparts knowledge rather than wisdom, while wisdom uses knowledge with discretion, applying and appropriating it to high and holy purposes. Wisdom and knowledge are of the same paternity, but not of the same maternity. They are, however, eagerly to be sought after; and he that seeketh them with all his heart, shall attain to wise counsels. They are the richest gifts of God to mortal man.

SERIES IV.-VOL. VI.

54

Education, we repeat, is the development of what is in man, and according to Webster, "it comprehends all that series of instruction and discipline which is intended to enlighten the understanding, correct the temper, and form the manners and habits of youth, and fit them for usefulness in their future stations." It is, therefore, physical, literary, moral and religious. No irreligious man is, therefore, a well educated man. His head may be large and crowded with ideas; but his heart is dwarfed and cold to God and man. His conscience is callous, if not seared with guilt; and his moral sensibilities morbid, if not paralyzed to death. When we affirm the conviction, that every well educated person must be a genuine Christian, we would not be understood as holding or expressing the idea that a Christian is the mere fruit of a good literary, moral or religious education. Still, without education, in some measure of it, no man can be a Christian. He must understand in some degree, or in some measure, the Oracles of God. Since the Bible contains the Oracles of God, and since these Oracles are written in human language, that language, whatever it may be as a mother tongue, must be the vehicle of all intercommunication between heaven and earth, between God and man. Now, if that langnage be not understood by any particular person, he cannot come to the knowledge of his God or of himself, so far as God has spoken to man, either of himself or of man; or so far as the most enlightened man can develop, in words, the being of God, the provi dence of God, the moral government of God, or the general salvation which he has provided for man in his moral ruins.

Education is, therefore, essential to the salvation of any man into whose hand God, in his moral government or overruling providence, has placed a Bible. This measure of education, essential to a man's confidence of himself, his origin, responsibilities, and destiny, and to his appreciation of a revelation from God concerning a remedial sys. tem, and man's present lapsed and ruined circumstances, is as indispensable to his immortal spirit and happy destiny, as atmosphere and lungs to his animal life and health. We merely assert these positions, because they are conceded by every man of sound judgment and selfdisposing memory. And, therefore, a certain amount of education is absolutely necessary to give to every man the means of possessing and enjoying the life that now is, or that future and everlasting life to come.

For this end, there is in every child an innate craving after knowledge, as constant and as insatiate as the craving for congenial food. This appetite for knowledge in the human family, is as universal as the appetite for food. There are, indeed, degrees of it discernable in all children; and as a general rule, in the exact ratio of the cravings for knowledge, is the power or faculty of acquiring it.