excursions ;-who is there that has read the best of modern ballads, the most musical of metrical romances, and the most charming of naval biographies, without congratulating the bard who redeemed Dryden's laurel from disgrace, and made it a chaplet worthy of the brow of Wordsworth and Tennyson? or without confessing the good service to society of a scholar whose example has ennobled letters as much as his research has instructed mankind?

It is nearly a hundred years ago since a young man from Peterborough entered Christ's College, Cambridge. Equally noted for his clear head and his clumsy manners, he was at once the butt and the favourite of his fellows, and he squandered the long evenings in parties which were idle rather than outrageously immoral. At the commencement of his third year, however, he was arrested by an apparition at his bed-side. He had left his companions late at night, and now, at five in the morning, one of them stood before him, and said, "Paley, I have been thinking what a dreadful fool you are. I could do nothing, probably, were I to try, and I can afford the life I lead. You could do everything, and you cannot afford to live at this rate. I have had no sleep thinking about you, and I am come solemnly to inform you, that if you persist in your indolence I must renounce your society!" The singular admonition was not lost. Before he rose the startled sluggard had formed a new plan of life. He determined to get up every morning at five, and, except the time required for hall and chapel, he agreed to study every day till nine at night. He kept his resolution. He became a paragon of industry. One by one he distanced all competitors, and at last his under-graduate course reached its brilliant consummation in the senior wranglership. And instead of going down to the grave a mere card-playing, port-drinking placeman of the old régime, borne along by the impulse thus early acquired, Paley spent

INTELLECTUAL EPOCHS.

5

his life in the pursuit of knowledge; and in the "Hora Paulina" and its companion treatises, he has bequeathed to the Christian argument the most solid contributions ever made by correct information under the guidance of a strong and straightforward judgment.

So great an epoch in a man's history is this intellectual quickening, that many have regarded it as nothing less than a better birth. From the time that Schiller made the acquaintance of Shakspeare, and that Keats read the "Faery Queene;" from the day that James Edward Smith procured his first botanical lesson-book, and Joseph Banks fell in with Gerard's "Herbal;" from the visit which Haller paid to the physician at Bienne, and from the time when, fast as they appeared, Gibbon devoured the successive volumes of the "Universal History," each dated an inspiration so unique, and the commencement of enjoyments so exalted, that they felt as if it was only then that their real lives began. And to any reader it will be a beginning of days when he first acquires the taste for some ennobling pursuit, and when, in the study of history or theology, of mental or material science, he finds exercise for powers heretofore latent, and commences a higher style of his own existence.

Yet, after all, it is not knowledge but wisdom which is the principal thing. Spiritual health, or a right state of the affections, is the supreme attainment, and the only right estate of man; and till once he has reason to believe that he has a friend in the Most High, and that the best part of his own existence is to be its bright hereafter, a thoughtful man must often feel that his richest stores of erudition are only expensive trifles, and his intellectual feats no better than a misdirected industry.

That alone deserves the name of a better birth which, by restoring man to his Maker and to society, restores him to himself, and which sets him on the way to be again a

creature "very good:" such a change as transpired when the blaspheming tinker of Elstow became the Boanerges of many an awe-struck assembly, and the joyful prisoner of Jesus Christ;-such a change as took place when the captain of the slave-ship melted down into the penman of the "Olney Hymns," and the loving, tender-hearted pastor of St. Mary's ;-such a change as when the dancing meteor of the race-course and ball-room was drawn into the orbit of piety, and began to shed the light so benign and so beautiful which at last disappeared in the grave of Wilberforce;—such a change as, often with faint tokens and by slow degrees, takes place each time that, under the power of Christian truth, bad habits drop off, and self-denying tasks are done; when the Bible becomes the Word of the living God, and prayer an effectual means of procuring wished-for blessings; when inferiors or kindred roughly used are treated with systematic and thoughtful kindness; when business and the social board, personal conduct and family arrangements, are subjected to the Saviour's rules; and when the man who used to shun the communion-table is not ashamed to be counted Christ's disciple.

But whether it is a mental or a moral elevation, we may be very sure that it is in accordance with the will of God; and in labouring for it we are only carrying out our Creator's benevolent design. He has given us bodies fearfully and wonderfully made; and, in order to maintain or restore their vigour, we take food, and exercise, and medicine, and we ask God's blessing on such means. He gives that blessing, and our days pass painlessly; we are strong for Tabour; and if need be, the brave spirit can defend what the brawny arm has won. He has given us minds with stupendous powers, and we take the means to develope and improve them, humbly entreating the Father of Spirits for His help. He gives that help. The memory brightens, till

THE HIGH CALLING.

the main incidents of our human history are mapped before it, or till the best thoughts of great men-like exotics on the lawn-make glad the inward landscape. The habit of observation sharpens, till, in trodden fields, where the last gleaner could not find a single ear, a great sheaf fills his bosom. The judgment strengthens, till he not only guides his own affairs with discretion, but becomes so clear-sighted, so wary, so comprehensive, so rich in resources, that he is recognised as a master-spirit, and in conjunctures of danger or difficulty all men are eager to inquire at this oracle. And even so, God has given us souls with boundless capacities. It is our own fault if we have not a daily festival in the exercise of the benevolent affections ;-it is our own fault if we never share with the celestial citizens the joy of communion with God. But just as it is the Creator's will that we should take care of our bodies, and make the most of our minds; so it is His will that we should take care of our souls and turn to the best account the faculties and affections with which they are endowed. It is His will that we should quit the realms of rebellion, and pass over to the regions of peace and reconciliation. It is His will that we should cast ourselves on God's mercy, as that mercy is guaranteed in Christ Jesus. It is His will that, no longer turning the back, like the prodigal running away, nor looking at Him sideways and suspiciously, like the truant distrustful of pardon, should look at Him as in the Gospel He looks at us, and be won back to allegiance by the full-faced exhibition of Godlike compassion and more than fatherly forgiveness. It is His will that we should at once commence the life of filial obedience, and pass our days in His presence as His dutiful children. And when once we occupy this happy position, there is no height of personal excellence, there is no attainment of self-denying, world-bettering, God-glorifying zeal, to which He does not invite us to aspire.

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So much is this God's will that He has provided all the means. He has wrought out a great salvation. He has published the Gospel. He has given us a written declaration of his mind. And He promises the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him.

With this opening year, why should not the reader commence the career of a Christian? Why should he not enter on that blessed life which, giving him peace with God, will give him the fullest power to serve his fellows?

Or, if he has entered on it already, why should not he start anew? Why should not he, with the supplicated aid of God's Spirit, seek to add to his faith every excellence? Why should not he, with that noblest of aspirants, “forget the things which are behind," and "press forward?"

Even amongst Christians many are poor-spirited and lazy. Hoping, on the whole, that they are safe, they do not wish to have any further trouble; and it is to be feared that there is little faith in their orthodox assent, little feeling in their high-sounding phrases.

But, reader, be yours a holier ambition. God has called you to glory and virtue. Around you stretch boundless fields of knowledge; before you soars, till lost in the empyrean, the path to honour and immortality. It is better with you than once it was; but you have not yet attained. God has taken you from a fearful pit; but the mouth of the shaft, though bright compared with the depth of the mine, is neither such bracing air nor such a brilliant prospect as the sides of the mountain. Look upward, and press on.

As a means of wider usefulness, improve your mental powers. You may not possess the sturdy sense of Paley, or the flowing wealth of Southey; but, however neglected or unknown, you have your own intellectual affinities and aptitudes. Find them out, and ply them to the utmost; and you be an industrious trader, the solitary talent will soon

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