The Creator and Master of the Universe.

Since the instruction embraced in our course of language will endeavour to awaken our pupils to the beauties, the wonders, and the grandeur of the universe, it will not do this by halves; it will not point to the work without making allusion to the Author of it. On the contrary, it will here again take care to act in unison with the first teacher of language, and it will complete what she has begun.

The mother, educated in the Christian faith, and feeling its sublime and beneficent truths most deeply when she beholds her children around her, constantly bears in mind that first article of the Belief, "I believe in God the Father Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth;" and it is this belief that she endeavours, little by little, and in the best manner that she can, to instil into her young pupils when she points to the sun which gives us light, to the pleasant fruit, to the beautiful flowers which we could not make for ourselves, and to the various animals allowed for our use. Now, we shall also ever keep in view this same text; but our commentary will be fuller, because our knowledge is more extensive, and we shall therefore convey a more exalted idea of our Creator and Father.

Nothing is more natural to a child than to trace back effects to their causes. Do we not hear him say perpetually, "How did this happen?" "Who did this?" And if you assign a cause which appears to him inadequate, he will either laugh or feel offended. It is nature, human nature, which speaks in him; nor will it be unmoved when you call his attention to the wonderful works of creation. There will be no need of long and learned arguments after the manner of our schools, in order to lead him to God; as each new wonder is unfolded to him, he will say within himself, "Behold His handy work!"

Our statues and paintings, and still more our figurative expressions, which speak of the hand and the eye of God, might perhaps lead children to believe that He also has organs similar to ours; but it will be easy to make them

understand that a spirit confined within such narrow limits could not create a world. The idea of one world and one God cannot be separated; and the ancients, who admitted a great many deities, still placed one supreme God above them all.

But to them this supreme God was not the Creator; He was only the great Governor of heaven and earth. Creation is a work so far above human weakness, that it appears incredible. And yet each of us carries within himself the proof of it: he has but to go back to the origin of his thoughts, his affections, his will, and his acts, that is to say, of his whole life as a spirit, and he will see that this life is of recent date, and that a creative power must have called it forth. Neither are organized bodies formed bit by bit, like the works of our hands. Matter and form are infused into them all at once; so these bodies also attest a creative power.

From hence there is but one step farther to the creation of the universe, which is also but one great unity. Thus will one truth lead on to others; and the time will come when our pupils will be able to embrace all with full conviction.

Truly the vast universe points, as it were, to His omnipotence and omniscience, for He who has made must also know all things, and have unlimited power over them*; consequently, all depend on Him, and He on none. All have need of Him, and He has need of nonet. He has made us of His own free mercy and goodness, and He is our Father; but who among His creatures may be compared to Him? for they are soon weary and angry, but He daily makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good. Moreover, He gives to us far beyond what we are able to comprehend; and the lowliest blade of grass may read us this lesson. Eternal love is also eternal holiness, or the eternal love of order. Behold the perfect order which He has established throughout the whole universe. Look also into your own soul, on which He has engraven His law, the law of harmony and order.

* Rom. v. 20.

Acts xvii. 25.

Matt. v. 45.

And is it not to man as a moral being, that He has given dominion over all the living creatures of the air, of the earth, and of the waters? God is holy, because He is good; and there is no true and lasting happiness for man, but in the love and practice of what is good. This is a rough sketch of the manner in which the universe proclaims to us its Author; and we shall include this natural theology in our instruction whilst dwelling largely on the wonders of Nature. Indeed it will complete, and will hallow our teaching. It will represent the father and mother in each family as the guardian angels of youth; it will dignify men with the noble appellation of children of God; it will speak of the whole human race as His family on earth. It will place society under His protection as Lord of the Universe, a sanction which it ever needs; for who does not remember how those infuriate demagogues who tyrannized over France, were obliged, at last, for the sake of their own safety, to give a direct public certificate of the existence of God, and of the immortality of the soul?

The Life of Man beyond the Grave.

The preceding articles contain all that is necessary to prepare our pupils for a truth which is incapable of ocular demonstration, and is based on faith, which is the evidence of things not seen. Our instructions concerning the nature of man will establish, as we have already shewn, the vast difference between the mind and the bodily organs. The latter wear away by use, and by external influences. Their services are necessary to the stranger spirit which bursts all at once into life. They are of the greatest use to it at first; but afterwards they become a clog to its progress and activity. All this may be made intelligible to young minds, and thus may they be prepared to believe in the immortality of the soul.

On the other hand, the instruction which we propose speaks of those swarms of living creatures which the naked eye cannot discern, and which it only discovers by means of the microscope. It speaks also of those agents which only manifest themselves by their effects, and which penetrate and pervade the whole visible world. Lastly, it

speaks of the Author of all things, of the Great Spirit, whose power is everywhere present, and who is ever hidden from our eyes. Such are the antecedents which dispose the young mind to reject the testimony of the senses as the criterion of truth; and, thus prepared, it would scorn the insinuations of those who would say, “We cannot see the soul after death, therefore it must have ceased to live."

When we speak directly on this lofty subject, we shall appeal to the heart of our pupils, to their conscience, their reason. I say to the heart; for it is in the nature of man to love life, and, unless the consciousness of sin makes him shrink from the punishment that must await him hereafter, he desires and believes in a future life. The history of the human race proves that this belief is almost universal, and that it is yet more strongly defined than belief in the Author of the universe. The human heart clings to immortality from other feelings besides the mere love of life. Friends mutually desire for each other a happiness which shall not end with this transitory scene; and when one falls a prey to death, the survivors desire to follow him. The mother longs to go to her child, the orphan to return to his mother, and then to part no more. Thus the human heart declares itself in favour of immortality, and we shall invoke its aid.

Conscience also will add its testimony. It insists on justice, and that all should receive according to their deserts. It threatens, promises, prophesies. We may turn a deaf ear to its voice, but we cannot deny its truth. Justice cannot be carried out in this short life of trial; first, because merit must precede either reward or punishment; and secondly, because retribution would be incompatible with probation, which requires free scope to the will. Thus, by directing the conscience of our pupils to the future, we make it, what it ought to be, a pledge of immortality.

And by whom is this pledge given? By the Creator and Father, who has called us into being, who has graven his law on our hearts, who commands us to obey it, and who will fulfil the promises and the threats by which He

has enforced it. He will be just because He is good, for justice is but goodness and wisdom combined. There is no peace to the wicked. The Father who willeth not the death of sinners calls upon them to repent, that they may live; and live they must, but they will reap as they have sown. Such are the serious thoughts which we shall at every seasonable opportunity seek to awaken in our pupils.

The Saviour of Men.

This is a subject which modern teachers have wished to explode, whilst proclaiming that age of reason, which however has never yet arrived; and thus they have sought to extinguish the torch of faith which had lighted and guarded their own cradles. With a little more reflection and gratitude, or rather with a little more knowledge and modesty, they would have brought little children to Him who loves them, that He might bless them. He is still among us; for He is present in His Church, His word is preached to us, His example is set before us, and His gifts are bestowed even on those who know Him not, or who reject Him.

It is vain for infidelity to attempt to rear its head against Him, for it cannot explain away facts, which are as incontrovertible as they are miraculous. Certain it is that Europe, in spite of its arts and sciences, was idolatrous and essentially corrupt, until the blessed light of the Gospel shone upon it. Certain it is that Christ is a character unparalleled in the history of the world, whether we consider the sublimity of His thoughts, the depth of His wisdom, the purity of His life, or the tenderness of His feelings; whether we contemplate the magnitude and nature of the work to which He devoted Himself, with unexampled patience and courage; or His certainty of its success when, to all outward appearance, it seemed literally to be buried for ever in the dust of His grave. Certain it is, that since the publication of the Gospel, whenever human reason has discarded evangelical teaching, it has fallen into the most extravagant errors, or lost itself in the dreary labyrinth of scepticism. Such are the facts