in the admission, that it is an honorable one; that to the generous and aspiring mind of youth there are in it many and great attractions; that it has given to the world multitudes of great and honored names; that it presents an arena for the acquisition of temporal honor and emolument inferior to no other; that it is required by the necessities of mankind in its present condition; that within its ranks have, in all ages, with a few well marked exceptions, been found the guardians of civil liberty and the most active and readiest assertors and vindicators of human rights; that "an honest lawyer is one of the noblest works of God." It is conceded that the study of the law presents one of the finest fields for the training and exercise of the intellect that ever emanated from the mind of man, for "the law is the perfection of human reason.' But"It is not all of life to live, or all of death to die." The soul of man, by the providence and design of its All-wise Author, is endowed with very high capacities, which are given to him as a talent not to be hid in a napkin and laid away idle. Greatest among these is not to scan and measure the vastness of the astronomic world, not to bring into knowledge and intellectual tangibility the microscopic wonders that lie teeming in the millioneth part of a drop of water, not to breathe almost miraculous life into the most intricate mechanism, not to eliminate deeply hidden truths in intellectual philosophy by the most subtle reasoning, but to do good and glorify God. It is the duty, therefore, of every young man to seek that field where this great faculty may find opportunity for its freest exercise. This is a well established rule of life, to come short in its fulfilment is to fail in the proper execution of that trust which has been reposed in us by the very conditions of our existence, and for which we must one day render an account at the bar of God. The man who is endowed with an active and educated intellect, is additionally accountable, and should not rest satisfied with the mere defence of innocence or the discovery and prosecution of guilt, the bringing of fraud to the light of day and within the sweep of the sword of justice, or with the administration of civil equity. These are laudable and highly necessary avocations, even when their exercise must be brought forth by inducements, pecuniary or otherwise selfish, as is generally the case with the legal practitioner. But, in another point of view, what are these vocations, so performed, if even the most brilliant or the most upright of men be the actors (which would be conceding much,) when placed in juxtaposition with the vocation of the Gospel minister! In true dignity and true glory, the latter exceed the former far, very far. What are the duties of a lawyer, responsible and honorable as they are, in comparison with the simple but solemn duties of preaching the gospel, visiting the sick and distressed, encouraging the believer, or of pointing the erring child of earth to the Lamb of God and the bright scenes and unfading glories of the New Jerusalem. Than this, there is no vocation more honorable among rightminded men and more exalted in character-no ambition more holy or more worthy, nor one that can soar nearer, in its upward flight, to the pure light that beams around the throne of the Eternal, I Am. What are the plaudits of the populace before the self-approving conscience of a Paul, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the 1858.] Should I Study Law or Divinity? 29 faith, henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give to me at that day;" the welcome which the Almighty himself pronounces to the good and faithful servant as he enters into the joys of the Lord. What is the knowledge, selfgratifying as it assuredly is, that you have compelled a dishonest man to disgorge what he robbed from the fatherless and the widow, or plucked from the grasp of fraud the honest property of another, or successfully defended innocence, or ferreted out crime, to the consciousness that by your pleadings at the throne of God, and by your instrumentality a soul hurrying to destruction was plucked almost from the burning that is everlasting; or that you have spoken the words of peace to a dying mortal, which have by the blessing of God enabled him or her to die a triumphant death. What are the proudest triumphs of the greatest lawyer that ever held a brief to the humblest and obscurest duties of the minister of peace, though they may be within the ken of no mortal vision, if rendered in the true service of Christ. The former bring no such peace to the soul as do the latter. I would sooner be the true servant of my Master than a TANEY upon the Supreme Bench. "The gifts and calling of God are without repentance." In them alone consists true glory and real dignity. But the young lawyer as he starts out in his professional career also encounters sad disappointments, perhaps more and greater than in any other, and which are very frequently fatal to his hopes. They crush the light out of many a bright eye and the life out of many a warm heart. The evil passions and love of glory which dwell in the bosom of mankind, afford a sure support to the military man, from the Sergeant to the Lieutenant-general or Field-marshal. So the Navy. The physician, if skilful and attentive, must advance in his profession, because disease, the means of his success, is always at hand. But no matter how honest or well read, or otherwise entitled to the confidence of men, the lawyer has no guarantee of success in these qualifications. For, is it not a painful truth that the brazen and unscrupulous pettifogger will often, and generally does, outstrip the honest, conscientious and courteous lawyer, and leave him far in the rear, briefless and disappointed? In the profession of the law, more than in any other, is this the case. How many struggle for years bravely, and after all their efforts are compelled to relax their grasp and fall back into the dark waters of oblivion! how many are compelled to seek refuge in some other promising and profitable pursuit from the pinchings of poverty and want. Every station in life, from the boot-black or hack-driver of Australia or California, to the gospel ministry, numbers its quota of disappointed lawyers. Not to speak of the thousands who have been driven from the ranks of the profession by adverse circumstance, how many of the 300,000 whose names appear in the Legal Directory, and whose "signs" blaze on a thousand windows and doors, in every city, town and hamlet throughout the country, will realize a tithe of their expectations? How many will make fortunes or even acquire competences-or fill seats in the Legislative halls of the country-or attain distinction or renown, or even be known, professionally, beyond their own courts--or win the judicial ermine or the curule chair? Yet there are very few of them who, when first they took a chair in their preceptor's office, Blackstone in hand, before whose Did mental vision did not fit a gaudy phantasmagoria of all these. not, many times, the mirror in their private chambers behold the austere dignity of a Marshall, the forensic displays of a Wirt or a Pinckney, the wrapt figure of a Preston or a Clay, or even the cavernous eyes or Jovelike brow of a Webster? But where are the realizations? Go, ask of the pale and careworn figure seated, anxious and expectant in some office, whose last quarter's rent is earnestly looked for in the tramp of every approaching foot passenger. Ask him whose office is neglected, his books covered with dust, and whose career, hopeful and bright in its morn, at last sets among dogs and in dissipation, horses or hilarity, gambling and gin! Or ask those young men and middle-aged too, seated briefless, numerous, and chewers of fine cut tobacco, within the bars of all our county court houses. Instead of being surrounded by daily crowds of clients showering golden fees upon him, or ranking at the head of the bar of his county, or of being elevated to a counsellorship in the Supreme Court of his State or of the Nation, the young practitioner frequently earns his bread by attending to an occasional $5 audit, or by fighting through some assault and battery or surety of the peace case, the amusement of the vulgar and the annoyance of the bench, or by collecting claims on the principle of "so much if you gain, nothing if you lose," which, thus too often, after much trouble, vexation, time lost, and money spent, vanish into "thin air" in his hands. Thus a great number of promising and even talented young men, who otherwise might become useful men, fade from view almost as completely as if they were laid in their graves. And, perhaps, many go down, in darkness, with the doom sounding in their ears: they had far better never been born. They are withdrawn from useful service in life, and so, negatively, much good is prevented. Yea, more; their influence and mode of life, which they subsequently exert and pursue, is productive of much evil. Had but a tithe of them entered tho service of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, how much good might not have resulted! Many spiritual waste might have bloomed as a garden and the desolate places of the earth made vocal and glad. Though they would perhaps not have laid up treasures upon earth, their reward would be in the consciousness of a well-spent life and the approval of their divine Master. Young man, if you would win a good conscience and solid happiness, reject the beggarly elements of this world. Pass by, with lofty virtue stamped on your brow, the gaudy, glittering, fascinating but deceitful allurements of life! And, although you may not have houses and lands here upon earth, yet "when the earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolved you shall have a building of God, a dwelling not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." THE CHRISTMAS-TREE. PARENTS, Would you please your children, That will please them-only try it. 1858.] Poor Boys and Great Men. 31 POOR BOYS AND GREAT MEN. A HUNDRED years ago there lived a poor boy in the city of Oxford, England, whose business was to clean the boots of students in the University. He was compelled to resort to this menial employment to obtain the necessaries of life. He was an active, energetic, bright, generous lad, and he soon won the confidence of the students. Some of them proposed to instruct him a short time, every day, which proposition he accepted with delight. He surprised his teachers by his rapid progress. He lost not a moment, but gave himself so diligently and perseveringly to his studies, as to excite the admiration of all. Of course he was eminently successful. Every youth with the same excellent qualities will succeed in any laudable undertaking. This lad became the eloquent GEORGE WHITEFIELD, who preached the gospel to thousands upon thousands in the open fields. The favor of the students would have availed him nothing without his energy, industry, and perseverance. Indeed, it was these qualities in the boy, in connection with others, which first attracted the attention of the students. Eighty years ago a boy was born in Salem, Massachusetts, of obscure parentage, and in very lowly circumstances. His mother died when he was ten years of age, though she lived long enough to impress his heart with the love of truth. His father was so poor that he could afford his boy but limited advantages to acquire an education. On account of his poverty this lad wore his summer clothes to school one winter, and became the laughing stock of the scholars. When only eleven or twelve years of age, he was apprenticed to a shoemaker, who kept him in the shop, though he allowed him a slate and pencil on his bench. boy improved every opportunity, and without teachers advanced daily in knowledge, and finally became the renowned mathematician, NATHANIEL BOWDITCH. Yet this Patrick Henry was the son of a poor man in Virginia. In early life he struggled hard with poverty, and gave little promise of distinction in any pursuit. But he finally devoted himself with energy and perseverance to his studies, and became the most gifted orator of his age. Benjamin Franklin was the son of a tallow-chandler in Boston. He was the youngest but two of seventeen children, and, leaving a poor father, penury was his lot. At ten years of age he was taken from school, and placed in his father's work-shop. Of course his early ad vantages were few, but he triumphed over every obstacle, by his own exertions, and placed himself in the front rank of philosophers. Here, then, is a divine, a mathematician, a statesman, a philosopher, each of whom distinguished himself without any of those worldly advantages to which you often attach so much importance. The above may be taken as a few illustrations of a large part of honored men in the various departments of human effort. We may add, in a word, that Vigil's father was a potter. Luther was the son of a poor miner, and Zwinglius of a shepherd. Bunyan's father was a traveling tinker. Columbus was the son of a weaver, and Milton of a scrivener. Bloomfield, Gibbon, Glifford, Linnæus, Dr. Carey, and Roger Sherman, were shoemakers. Cowley was the son of a grocer, Pope of a linen draper, Collins of a hatter, Beattie and Butler of farmers, and Akenside and Henry Kirk White of butchers. Jeremy Taylor was the son of a barber, John Hunter of a carpenter, and Scott, the commentator, of a glazier. The father of John Opie, the great English portrait painter, was a carpenter, and Opie was raised from the bottom of a saw-pit, where he was employed in cutting wood, to the professorship of painting in the Royal Academy. BOOK NOTICES. A LITURGY; OR, ORDER OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. Prepared and published by the direction and for the use of the German Reformed Church in the United States of America. Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston. 1858. This work is designed as a directory and help to public and private worship; and is the result of several years' earnest and prayerful labor. This labor, however, was not devoted to the composition of original forms, so much as to the digesting and reproduction of liturgical forms and services already at hand, both ancient and modern, with such modifications in the mode of expression and other minor details, as a change of time and of circumstances seemed to demand. Whilst the book, therefore, will be found redolent of the sweetest liturgical devotions of earlier times, it will also be found savory of the freshness of an original production. The spirit which has predominated in its preparation, is that of filial regard for everything good and true in past ages, joined to the spirit of genuine Christian liberty. In all cases in which older forms are used, the original Greek or Latin sources were consulted and followed. This Liturgy has been prepared with primary reference to the Reformed Church in this country. At the same time, a mere glance at its contents will show that the book is wholly free from anything strictly denominational. Even the name of the Church uuder whose auspices it is published, occurs only on the title-page and in the advertisement; no other denominational allusions are found except in the few forms in which the doctrinal standard of the Reformed Church, the Heidelberg Catechism, had to be named. In this view, therefore, the new Liturgy commends itself to general favor and use. Any Christian clergyman, not hostile to all such forms, will find it offering to his hand helps of which he may most profitably avail himself. And in Christian families it is calculated to serve as a book of social and private devotions, suited to all the ordinary seasons and services of the Christian year. It contains twenty eight family prayers, covering morning and evening service for two weeks. It contains also 104 of the choicest of Hymns. The work is beautifully gotten up. The typography is faultless, and the binding is substantial black leather. Price in plain binding $1 per copy or $8 per dozen. THE FATHERS OF THE GERMAN REFORMED CHURCH IN EUROPE AND AMERICA. Vol. II. By Rev. H. Harbaugh. Lancaster: Sprenger & Westhaeffer. pp. 400. The first volume of this work is already before the church. The second volume is now ready. The price is the same as the first volume-$1, retail. The usual deduction is made to such as buy wholesale. The size and style of getting up is uniform with the first volume. Address the publishers. |