make the sinner miserable. They have proclaimed a love infinitely superior to the mere dread of an individual's suffering, . and heralded that grace sublime which stands in all its richness and beauty upon the background of divine righteousness. Peter and Paul never obscured the justice of God in declaring his grace. The doctrine of justification by faith, developed with such vitality in the time of Luther, was all flaming with God's righteousness; and the preaching of the Baxters and Edwardses and Whitefields of the Church has been characterized by the same rigid element. It will probably be found by examination that a great majority of true converts have been awakened from insensibility by the terrors of divine justice. They have learned from the law their relations to the gospel, like the eunuch of Ethiopia who went to Jerusalem to attend a legal worship, but retired inquiring of whom the prophet spake when he said, He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities, and returned to his home rejoicing in the assurance of redeeming mercy.

It is related of Flavel that, after preaching a searching discourse from the words, If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be anathama maranatha, when he raised his hands to pronounce the benediction he suddenly paused; and, tears streaming down his cheeks, said with melting pathos, "How shall I bless this whole assembly, when every person in it who loveth not our Lord Jesus Christ is anathama maranatha." In that congregation was a youth of fifteen years, who afterwards emigrated to our own country, and became the founder of a college in a neighboring State.* Time passed on, age whitened his locks, and he was still unconverted. Eighty-five years after those words were spoken, and when he had lived for more than a hundred years in sin, while sitting by himself in the home of his adoption, the words of the pious Flavel recurred vividly to his mind, and became the instrument of his conversion.

Who does not perceive that the fidelity of that earnest preacher was characterized by wisdom and by love?

* Prof. E. A. Park's Introduction to Rev. H. C. Fish's Pulpit Eloquence of the Nineteenth Century.

ARTICLE VII.—THE CLAIMS OF THE HIGHER SEMINARIES OF LEARNING ON THE LIBERALITY OF THE WEALTHY.

It is a question which thoughtful minds contemplate not without anxiety, whether that democratic society, which is historically American-so necessarily and irresistibly American, that neither the arguments nor the contemptuous sarcasms of European aristocracy, nor the gigantic struggles of anarchic despotism among ourselves, will avail essentially to change its character for ages to come, whether this democratic society contains within itself the power of providing for the higher departments of mental culture; for giving to the national mind all that vast range of various development, of which it is capable, and which is so necessary to the beauty, the strength, the glory, and the perfection of a nation's civilization. It can no longer be denied, that it is better adapted than any other social state which has ever existed, to the attainment of a certain average culture, to the education of a whole people up to a certain average standard. But some thoughtful men, who have contemplated the working of our social institutions with no unfriendly bias, have thought they perceived a tendency to a common standard, alike to enlarge the small and dwarf the great, to exalt the lowly and to depress the most exalted, till all should meet on the dull monotonous level of mediocrity. They have expressed their fears, that the universal education which is our glory, is to be attained by the utter sacrifice of all high and various and generous culture. The mere suggestion of such a danger by a candid and enlightened observer, should lead to earnest thought and persevering endeavor to remedy any such possible defect in our political and social systems.

It must be admitted, that though the higher culture has not been entirely neglected, yet what has been achieved in that direction is not altogether satisfactory; it does not correspond

either with our universal system of popular education, or with the vastness of our population, our wealth, and our material civilization. Though in this respect we rank among the foremost nations of the world, the advantages which we have provided for the higher instruction of the most gifted and enterprising minds, are far inferior to those which are enjoyed under many of the second and even the third class monarchies of Europe. Many of our young men are obliged, every year, to cross the ocean for the purpose of enjoying advantages, which our own country does not afford them. This fact is a rather mortifying proof, that this part of our system of instruction greatly needs to be enlarged and improved. No nation has more need than we, not only of all the aids by which the most gifted minds may attain to the highest and most varied culture, but of all those encouragements by which they may be stimulated in the pursuit of it. It is not only important that such facilities should exist somewhere within our national domain, but that as far as possible they should be made ubiquitous, meeting the eye, arresting the attention, and stimulating the aspirations of our youth in all parts of our extended country.

We cannot look with much hope to our government, either state or national, to supply this want. Government with us is so entirely democratic in its character, that it must always be expected to reflect the opinions and wishes of the masses. And while we do not undervalue the judgment and good sense of the people, it is hardly to be expected that the million will fairly appreciate the necessity of costly provisions for that higher instruction, of which the few only are directly to enjoy the benefits. For reasons, also, to which we alluded in our remarks on denominational colleges, in a former number of this Journal, it may be doubtful whether, as our political bodies are constituted, they are well adapted to the control and management of funds devoted to education. They are too unstable, too liable to the agitations and revolutions of political party, to be the trustworthy guardians of the peace

*New Englander, Vol. XVIII, page 68.

ful halls and tranquil walks of learning. At least if it is true that political bodies can manage institutions devoted to learning, as wisely and efficiently as corporations instituted for that very purpose, it is a truth which remains yet to be proved.

We must, therefore, for the most part, lay aside our reliance on government to make the necessary provisions for the higher culture, and look to private munificence. For the support and management of such a system of education, as we can reasonably expect to render universal, we can safely rely on State treasuries and the votes of the people. No political system. was ever better adapted to the end. But for that higher instruction of which few can enjoy the direct benefits, while the nation and the world enjoy them indirectly, we must fall back upon our truly American voluntary system. And let us not regret this: there is nothing American which is more truly respectable than our voluntary system: by it we have raised an army of six hundred thousand men in less than six months, and there is no reason why at this time we should distrust it. American democracy has far more reason to glory in what it has permitted the people to do for themselves, than in what it has directly done for them through the government. By far the greater part of all which has been achieved thus far for the higher instruction, has been accomplished through this same voluntary system; and there is no reason why we should not implicitly rely on it, for still greater and better results in the future.

But if this interest is ever provided for in a manner at all corresponding to the wants of a great nation, it must be by the liberal contributions of the wealthy. This is the thought to which we wish to invite the special attention of our readers in these remarks. It seems to us that there are considerations relating to this subject, which are of great weight, which have been too little thought of by the wealthy, in determining what disposition to make of their estates. The following are some of them.

There are no valid economical objections to bestowing any reasonable amount of capital on institutions of learning. Some have thought they saw danger, that in this way too

much capital would be withdrawn from active production. But this is certainly a groundless apprehension. Institutions of learning want capital for three classes of objects-buildings— books and other instruments of instruction-and endowments yielding income in the form of interest to aid in defraying annual expenses.

In so far as capital is to be employed in the erection of buildings, the leading educators of the nation are now too enlightened, to be in much danger of making any other than a wise use of it. The time has gone by when any intelligent Board of Trust would be likely to employ it in erecting long and unsightly barracks, where young men may live isolated from the world, and for the most part even from their teachers. It is understood at last, that the buildings needed are only such edifices for the purposes of instruction, as shall combine convenience, durability, and beauty; edifices which will cultivate the taste of the young, and attach them through life to their Alma Mater by an intenser sentiment of veneration. We think there can be little danger, that a people so calculating, so intensely money-loving and money-getting as we are, will withdraw more than a reasonable share of their capital from active business, for the erection of such edifices-especially to be devoted to education-consecrated to the sacred cause of learning. It seems to us that no nobler or wiser appropriation could be made by any wealthy man of a portion of his estate, than to employ it in erecting for some one of those institutions, which by the wisdom and liberality of their management have deserved and acquired the confidence of the community, an edifice, which should be the admiration of the present generation, and descend to posterity, as a beautiful monument of the architectural taste, the generous liberality, and the love of learning of the founder, and of the generation in which he lived. Such monuments our country stands in more urgent need of, than of any increase of her business capital and her commercial facilities. Such structures, consecrated to such a purpose, have great influence in giving strength and permanency to the love of learning and the love