EDITORIAL SEED-THOUGHTS. "GATHER UP THE FRAGMENTS THAT REMAIN, THAT NOTHING BE LOST." ECONOMY. Economy is a virtue which all should cultivate. It is especially to be commended to the young. But in practising economy we ought always to be sure to deny ourselves only of that which we can best do without, and the want of which will do us no injury. Some begin to economize by ceasing to buy books, and by stopping their papers, while they continue to buy their little luxuries and vanieties, which at the end of the year amount to much more than all their books and papers. They deny themselves the sources of their higher enjoyments, and retain what ministers only to that which is lower and transient. This is what the old homely proverb calls: "Saving at the spiggot and wasting at the bung-hole!" Young man, you can get along better without a new watch-chain, than you can without the Guardian. PRESENTS. An old gentleman, who is now dead, was in the habit of making a present of the Guardian to each of his sons as long as he lived. Thus he spoke to them through his gift, not only once, but every month of the year. Is not this a good hint to fathers and mothers? You have children away from home. Send us the dollar, and give us their address, and we will distribute your gift to them each month. Brothers may send it to sisters, or sisters to brothers. Or perhaps some of our young friends "Have a nearer one Still, and a dearer one!" Make that one a present each month during the year in the shape of the Guardian. "THE WORLD OWES ME A LIVING." It does? Glad to hear that you have something to rely on. But pray how did the world get into your debt? Did any inheritance from your father pass into its hands which it has not yet handed over? I thought all that came directly to you, and that you had long ago spent it in fast living. Did you per haps lend some funds to the world for which it owes you principal and interest? If so, I fear you will never get it, unless you dig and ply the world very hard; because there are so many who hold a like claim against her, or at least say they do. Even if it is able, eventually, to pay all, the constant cry, I fear, "the world owes me a living," will greatly tend to spoil its credit and hasten it on to an assignment. Your only hope of getting your claim paid, is, I fear, to dig it out of its vast mineral stores, or make it from its uncultivated lands. Perhaps the world owes you for work done? But this cannot be, for the world pays all her workers by the shares; and when any one does work for it he gets his share of the proceeds, and always the largest share. The world never bargains for a salary, but always on the shares. This is fair enough, for those that work best are best paid. This is also in fact a cash business; and I see not how it is possible for the world to get in debt to any one. The world owes you a living! No such thing. Away with such claims, you lazy drone! The world would be a pretty dunce to have such as you are in her employ-paying you for doing nothing. In that case, instead of a world, it would be a miserable poor house. Instead of a house of industry, it would be a resort of idle paupers! Did the world employ you to ride store-boxes, to lounge on tavern benches, to roast yourself at the bar-room stove, to drink whisky, and lager, and to thrust your bloated face and pickled body into every decent person's way? The world owes you a living! I tell you it has already paid you a thousand fold more than you have ever deserved; and there are not whips enough on all its broad bosom to scourge your lazy back for your folly, and your slander of a good world. The world owes you a living! Let not that lying sentence ever again escope your lips. Listen to that young man! He has heard this sentence from others, and he repeats it himself. He is foolish enough to believe it true as gospel. He cares not to learn a trade. He does not pursue any study and regular calling. What he earns by irregular snatches of work, he spends on luxuries, follies and vanities. He is even bare of clothes. He has nothing provided against coming want. He lives from hand to mouth; and his youth-his best years-pass without seeing him lay the foundation for future usefulness, and an honorable support. Amid all this, he winds his way on to rags, disgrace, and the jail, to the tune of that old song: "The world owes me a living!" Here is a better song from a wiser source: Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways' and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a littls sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: So shall thy poverty come as one that traveleth, and thy want as an armed man. NOTES ON NEW BOOKS. CANTATE DOMINO: A Collection of Church Hymns and Tunes, adapted to Church Just the thing. Every new book ought to meet and fill out a want. Especially is this the case with Hymn and Tune Books, else they merely aid in making confusion worse confounded. The book before us is the true exponent of a widely growing feeling toward the OLD in church music. It is beginning to be felt that devotion is not like the spirit of modern fashion, which needs a new dress every day. The church is growing tired of musical originalities, and says that the old is better. The new is too much like this age, and it rattles too much like this rattling age. We want the calm to fall back upon in our devotions for the rest of our hearts from the weariness of bustle and hurry and business. On almost every page of this book the old looks out on us with a composed and venerable face. Even the form of the book is after the fashion of the old-for it is not one of those note books broader than long, like the book of blank notes which the money changers use; but a book like a book. Also, after the fashion of the old, the notes are given above, and the whole hymn below-so that you have the tune before you while you sing the hymn. It is in fact a Hymn Book as well as a note book; and a fine selection of hymns it is. It embodies translations of the finest old Latin and German hymns-more than we have ever before seen brought together in one hymn book. It contains a large number of chants set to Psalms after the common version of the Bible. Besides there are many canticles composed of scripture passages arranged to chants. Then the old devotional forms, such as the Creeds, the Te Deum, the Gloria Patria, the Gloria in Excelsis, the Seraphic Hymn, &c., &c., are all set to music. Not only are many of the Hymns from the old sources, but also the tunes. A great number of the German choral tunes are set to translations of the Hymns. Indeed this Book is a phenomenon. Just think of it, the book is published in Boston, and New England will sing the old German chorals! "That is an idea," as Neander would say. What is better, our Yankee brethren are willing to sing them. Indeed they have done more of late years to bring out translations of the old German choral hymns than we, the children of fatherland ancestors. Let us be ashamed of this, and mend our ways. Still we are proud to say that the authors of the book are of Teutonic blood and piety. Dr. Steiner and Mr. Schwing have done a noble work, which, if we are not greatly mistaken, the church will gratefully acknowledge. The authors have done their work well, and the publisher has gotten up the book in the very best style. THE INDEPENDENT: Published weekly for the proprietors at No. 5 Beekman-st., N. Y. Terms $2, in advance. This is a large religious paper, edited with much ability. Among its special contributors are Dr. Cheever, Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and the Poet Whittier. It has correspondents in different sections of the Union, and in all the prominent European countries. THE relation which you sustain to the Church is very solemn and interesting. It ought to be well understood, and carefully borne in mind. To be careless and indifferent in regard to this matter is to show that you are not truly in earnest on the subject of religion. True piety and indifference to the church can never go together. We may as well pretend that a child can love father and mother and yet care nothing for the family, as to suppose that a person can love Christ and be indifferent to the Church which is His family-a family of which every member of the Church is a part. We cannot honor Him, as the Bridegroom, while we disrespect His church, which is His Bride. Look around you and see whether earnest piety and love to the Church do not always go together. Are not all those whose piety is most deep intelligent and steady, diligent as members of the Church? As certainly as apples grow and ripen on the trees, so surely do good Christians grow and ripen in the Church. The degree of our devotion to the Church, when it is sincere, may safely be taken as the measure of our piety. The relation between the church and its members is, in an important sense, mutual. The Church sustains Christians, but Christians must also sustain the Church. The family supports the children, but the children also sustain the family. To be sustained by the Church is a great privilege; to sustain the Church is a most solemn duty. Both these sides of the relation are set forth in the holy Scriptures. The Church sustains us-as a mother her children—as a vineyard, field, or garden, the things which grow in them-as a vine its branchs-as a body its members-as a kingdom its subjects. To be thus sustained, what a great privilege! Then, too, we sustain the church. "Seek that ye excel to the edifying of the Church." We sustain it by our labors. We honor it by our piety. We extend it by our zeal. Its interests are in many ways solemnly committed to us. We are called upon to build it up-to pray for its peace to prepare its way-to edify its members-to advance its interests and its honor. To sustain it thus, what a solemn duty! As you have vowed, by the grace of God, to be a true Christian, resolve also by His help to live and labor as a good member of the church. We will now point out to you some matters which claim your serious attention as a Church member. THE OUTWARD CONCERNS OF THE CHURCH. We begin with the least, or the most outward, of your duties-that which pertains to the house in which you worship. It is your duty to aid in keeping all that pertains to it in convenient and respectable order. If you are an earnest Christian and a good Church member, you will have an eye on the outward condition of the church. You will desire to worship in a decent and respectable sanctuary. Anything unfinished, neglected, out of order about it, will distress you. You will labor to have everything in order, neat, and convenient. The finish and the furniture of the church you will wish to have chaste, neat, tasty, appropriate, and solemn, and you will do your part to have it so. Even a good house-keeper feels uncomfortable when the affairs of the house are out of place. A good mechanic is distressed when his place of work is out of order. A good farmer is uneasy while any derangement of affairs exist on his farm, and about his buildings. Much more will a good church member be restless and unhappy, while neglect and disorder reign around the church where he worships. Let not such outward matters be regarded as small and unimportant. The outward affairs of the church are what the body is to the man. A sound and clean soul, demands a sound and cleanly body. Say not that the soul need not care for a sore hand, a lame foot, a bleared eye, a crooked, crippled, bruised and blemished body. In like manner say not that a pious congregation need not be distressed about broken fences and gates, an unpainted church, a leaking roof, a rickety steeple, broken window panes, a dusty floor, worn-out altar carpets and pulpit cushions, soiled Bible and Hymn book. Outward things are important in their place, and they do affect a congregation-for good if kept in order, for evil if neglected. The more you reflect on it the more clearly will you see, that the interests of religion are crippled and hindered by disorder and neglect in the outward concerns of a church. These defects may seem small matters, and wholly dissociated from what is inward and spiritual, but the earnest church member will easily see that these are evils which, for the honor of religion, he ought not willingly permit to exist. He will always be ready to do his part toward keeping the church in which he worships in pleasant order, to make it a place to be desired, and a suitable abode for the high and lofty One who condescends to dwell among men in an earthly sanctuary. ATTENDANCE ON THE ORDINANCES OF THE CHURCH. From these outward matters we pass to the more inward. It is the duty of a member of the church to honor the ordinances and services of the church. You will, of course, attend upon the services of the sanctuary as far as in you lies; for, if you are possessed of the right spirit you will be attracted by them, and find in them your life, strength and joy. As the child to the mother, so cling to the ordinances of the church. As the bird in the twig, so rest in them. As the plant in the soil, so grow in them. As the members in the body, so live, act, and be strong in them. Learn to regard the ordinances of God's house as truly means of grace helps for growth in the Christian life with which you cannot dispense. As natural food is necessary to sustain the temporal life, so is the food of the sanctuary necessary to the growth of spiritual life. The means of grace in the church are not merely conveniences which may be used, but they are necessities which must be used. The use of them is not merely a way to grow in grace, but it is the way-the way divinely appointed; and only those who obey have a right to hope for the blessing which God is pleased to convey in the use of them. Resolve in your own mind by the help of God, to attend regularly. As it is necessary to the enjoyment of health and strength to eat regularly, to sleep regularly, and to be regular in all our habits, so it is necessary to a regular, healthy growth in the Christian life, to enjoy regularly the means of grace. The person who loses his appetite for food is not well, so the one who loses his taste for the ordinances of God's house is not spiritually in good health. Remember that the way of neglect is from bad to worse. When you miss once without an adequate cause, it will be easier for you to fail again. The soldier who has once retreated can never rally again with the same courage, so if you fail once through neglect you are weaker than you were before. The downward way is easiest, and your speed increases as you go. Ask backsliders, and they will tell you that they began their backward way by becoming irregular in their duties. You must never find out that it is possible for you to fail in a single instance in this duty. You must not think of it. You must resolutely treat it as something which cannot be. O, let me entreat you, never learn the dreadful secret that you can disobey and be unfaithful to your solemn vows. Be hardy. Do not too much fear bad weather. How pleasant to you will be the warm sanctuary when you have passed through the cold storm. How refreshing to you will be the cool sanctuary when you have reached it through the hot sun. Besides the benefit you will derive from the services, how delightful will be the after reflection of duty well and faithfully done. The pastor, who has often farther to come, and who is perhaps less inured to the cold or the heat than yourself, will be there, why cannot you be there to cheer his heart, and to encourage him for his self-denial and exposure. Moreover, think weather you are not often out on worldly business in worse whether. If you can endure hardness for perishable and earthly things, can you not do it for that which is unperishable and heavenly? |