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A moral impression which is made upon the child or the youth, may be transmitted from heart to heart, from character to character, to the latest generations. Even if Abel's name had not been written on the pages of the Bible, you and I might and would now be feeling the influence of that man to-day. He, being dead, would still be speaking.

It was the mind, the pen of Voltaire, that poisoned his nation, and maddened and convulsed all Europe. It cost him thirty-six quarto volumes to do it. But when that generation had passed away, those writings were dead. They will never again rouse the passions of men; while the influence of some poor shepherd, like Abel, will live, and influence men for good to the end of time. The great queen of Egypt, who had power to change the destiny of the Roman empire, will have no influence upon the world, while the influence of the captive child that waited on the wife of the Syrian general will never leave the earth. Bad men turn the waters into blood, and there they leave them; but the rod in the hands of the good, turns the blood into water again. Human footprints made in blood will soon be effaced from the earth; but beauty shall wait upon the footsteps of him who lives to do good. While the tramp of the Roman legions was shaking the earth, and there was no power known in the world but that of her soldiery, there was a little child living in the despised village of Nazareth, a single word from whose lips was to become a power mightier than that of all the armies of Rome. Some years after this, Rome was in flames. Public opinion pointed to Nero, the Emperor-a monster in human form-as the one who kindled the flames. "So far from quieting this rumor," says Tacitus-perhaps the shrewdest man of his generation-" so far from quieting this rumor, Nero judicially charged with the crime, and punished with the most studied severities, that class, hated for their general wickedness, whom the vulgar call Christians. The originator of that name was one Christ, who, in the reign of Tiberius, suffered death by sentence of the Procurator, Pontius Pilate. The baneful superstition, thereby repressed for a time, again broke out, not only in Judea, the native soil of that mischief, but in the city also, where, from every side, all atrocious and abominable things collect and flourish !"

What a trifling circumstance was this persecution of Christians in the life of such a great man as Nero! Hardly worth mentioning! And what a small affair was that "one Christ," thus to be incidentally named, and that with sneers! They all three have been numbered among the dead-Nero, and Tacitus, and Christbut which yet speaketh? While once in months, perhaps, Nero's name is mentioned, and that with detestation, the name of the Child of Nazareth is dwelt upon by millions of tongues, and the

hopes of uncounted numbers in every generation—the highest hopes which the soul can have are centered in him.

It is a beautiful circumstance, that in the arrangements of Divine Providence, too, it is not important whether the agent seems to do a great work at the time. He passes along, and goes out of sight, but his works come after him. Abel did but one single act-offered his lamb in faith; but that brought on the first deadly contest between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, and it will affect the world to the end of time. The man who wrote the four simple lines beginning with, "Now I lay me down to sleep," seemed to do a very small thing. He wrote four lines for his little child. His name has not come down to us, but he has done more for the good of his race than if he had commanded the victorious army at Waterloo. The little fires which the good man kindles here and there, on the shores of time, never go out; but ever and anon they flame up and throw a light upon the pilgrim's path. There is hardly any thing so fearful, to my mind, as the mind reaching down into the coming ages, and writing itself upon the minds of unborn generations. We know not whose hand held the pen that wrote the Arabian Nights; but what a book! How few are the children who have not sat spellbound at the feet of that enchanter !

Men who can throw themselves down into human character, by the pen or by the voice, have a high honor. One such oak is worth whole forests of gourds which come up in the night and wither in the morning. Noiseless as the wheels of the sun are such influences, and if flowing from a sanctified heart, will go into human character-will mold it for time and for eternity. The missionary, teaching a poor heathen child, is communicating impressions and influences that will be transmitted again and again, till at some time in their progress they fall upon the right spirit, and there comes out an Edwards, a Bunyan, or a Cowper. So that no man knows or can know at the time whether he is doing a great work or a small one. The unknown mind that wanted to contrive something to write on cheaper, and more abundant than parchment or the papyrus, and who finally discovered a way to make cheap paper, had no conception of what he was doing. This was just before John Faust invented types; and had Faust not done it, the paper being cheap, somebody else would. To that unknown mind the world owes the intelligence, the conveniences, and, very much, the religion which are filling the earth. There may be at this very hour, in some obscure, retired cottage, a mind that is at work over some one thought which is yet to become a power in the world, second only to the Christian religion. Very possibly, too, that mind will never be known in this world. Can any one tell who sowed the first handful of wheat? or who in

vented the first plow? Can any one tell who made the proverbs which are the concentrated wisdom of ages, and the common property of the world? Can you tell us which of the disciples it was who first conceived the idea of asking Christ to teach them to pray, and thus gave to the whole race the Lord's prayer? The whole human family are linked together, so that when you make an impression on one, you affect them all; the influence never dies. Of every one it is true: "He being dead, yet speaketh."

There is no position in which impressions that are to go down to future ages can so well and so surely be made, as the position of a minister of Jesus Christ. We don't expect to make new discoveries in theological science, to discover new truths, to mark out new fields for investigation; but the minister of Christ is a workman under him, a servant in his house, a messenger of his truth, linked in with his great plans, and laboring in a cause infinite in importance, and accompanied by the promises and the presence of Christ. When, therefore, he stands up in the pulpit, when he leads the devotions of God's people in prayer, when he speaks to the lambs of his flock, when he throws out a warm thought in the prayer-meeting, or when he whispers of the mercy of Christ in the sick-room, he is making impressions that reach beyond the present hour. The drooping faith of that child of God is made stronger-the heart and conscience of that sinner has received an arrow which none but the hand of Christ can extractthe soul of that little child has received impressions that will make him a minister of the Gospel, or a missionary of the Cross. That mother is going home to kneel down to-night with a fuller, warmer heart, as she brings her children to God in fervent prayer. His hand is upon the spring-waters, and he opens here and there a spring that will send forth its stream, and gather other waters, till it has created a river of mercy. And many a humble man, who at times has hung his head and mourned over the few sheaves that he hath gathered, who at times doubts whether he ought not to lay down his commission and retire from the field, is doing what will be felt the world over. He casts his bread upon the waters. It may be many days before it is found. But the seed will not be lost. It may come up on the shores of the Pacific-it may wave on the sides of great Lebanon in the East. He makes impressions for eternity on souls that are immortal, and they can not be lost. The teachings which Doddridge received from his mother as she taught him Bible history from the tiles of her chimney, can be seen in a succession of ministers-a chain indeed extending down to this day. And how many mothers have been led by that simple circumstance to be faithful to their children in the nursery; and how that incident has done much to lead to the beautiful pictures for children in religious books and papers of this day, the Great Day alone can reveal. It is by no means certain that the

little low post, less than a foot high, in the graveyard at Geneva, with simple J. C. on it, points out the spot where John Calvin sleeps; but no age or generation, to the end of the world, will fail to feel the impress of that heart and mind. He is not seen or heard of through the world; but these churches in New-England, the missionary stations among the heathen, are his monuments, and every free school that blesses the world was opened by the wand held by his mighty hand. "He being dead, yet speaketh."

On the far-off isle of the ocean, the old missionary lies down to die. He hath toiled there almost half a century. He has seen naked, wild savages changed into men-into Christian families. He has seen their language reduced to writing. He has brought the press there, and has printed Bibles and school-books for the people. He has filled the island with schools; he has gathered churches, and the church-bell has thrown its notes far out upon the still waters of the Pacific. And now, around his dying-bed stand weeping men. They are the native pastors of these churches, whom he has trained up. They have come to receive his last charge, and to take their farewell of that faithful servant of God. And the dying man is looking back over all his life, to review the way in which God has led him. He can't recall the hour of his conversion; he can't recall the name of the faithful Sabbath-school teacher who was the means of his being led to Christ; but he remembers his form or face, and he sees that all his life and usefulness have been shaped by that man whose very name has passed away out of his memory. And now, don't you see that this unknown teacher, who, perhaps, has wept that he could do nothing for Christ, is yet living, and teaching, and blessing that distant island, and will do so till every island shall flee away?

A poor woman saves her little gift, penny by penny, for missions. She mourns over her poverty, only because she can't aid to send the Gospel to the heathen! It becomes the burden of her life: "Oh! that I could do for the heathen!" When she comes to die, her pastor tells the simple story of her longings, and the little book is already published in eight different languages, and will perhaps do more for missions than any missionary since the days of Paul!

Were we to select the instrument and the field of labor for high, permanent, and ever-growing usefulness, we hardly know any examples superior to what we find in the ministry in NewEngland. And were we to select the circumstances and to form the character for this usefulness, we would draw our model as follows:

1st. We would have the child born of respectable, intelligent, and religious parents. We would have them belong to what we call the middling class-the very back-bone of New-England.

We would have the child made the subject of earnest prayer and dedication from his very birth. He should never be able to remember when he heard the first prayer, when he prayed himself, nor when he first went up to the house of God. He should be a devoted, dedicated thing from his creation.

2d. He should be poor in early life. This would compel him to work and strengthen the body, and give him that unspeakable blessing, a good constitution. It would give him habits of body that will enable him to endure hardships as a good soldier. It would give him habits of economy, and enable him to live on whatever God's providence should give him. It would give him sympathy with and for the poor, and make him feel that there may be great worth of character where there is no property. It would place him in the position where the rich could associate with him, because he stands on character alone--and where the poor feel that they can associate with him, and have his sympathy. I would have him work at manual labor, and work hard, too, in early life-because in no other way is it possible to lay up health that will carry him through the mental labors of life, even into old age. The tree must have hard exposures to become solid, strong, and enduring. Strength of mind must have the sub-base of physical strength.

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3d. We would have our instrument become pious in early life. This would prevent his going into wrong paths, forming wrong habits, tainting and soiling the soul by contact with gross sin, and causing him to look back upon the past with deep sorrow. would lead him to give the dew of his youth to Christ. This would give him to know by experience the temptations and trials of the young, and fit him to sympathize with them and counsel with them.

4th. We would have him consecrated to one object, and that is-to do good to the souls of men. He may cultivate his taste; he may come in contact with mind, living, and in books; he may know men and things; but he is not to live to enjoy himself, not to be a great and learned man, nor a deep, accurate scholar; not to have riches, or honors, or notice, or to seek for reputation; but to do good to the souls of men. This one great object is all that he is to live for.

5th. We would have his intellectual powers balanced and symmetrical. This is not so common or so easy to find as one might suppose. It is easy to find men very conservative or very radical, very desponding or very sanguine-men who want to creep with the mole or rise in the balloon. The father of Icarus charged him not to fly too high, because his wings were fastened on by wax, and it would melt if he went too near the sun, and if he went too low, and too near the sea, the moisture would destroy the power of the wax. A character that influences men rightly

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