in his likeness, let out our good will toward men as far as we may judge expedient and profitable, and there shut down the gate. But if he "maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain upon the just and the unjust," then must we too, if we would be like him, be good to the unthankful and the evil, and recognise humanitythe image of God in the flesh-as everywhere and in all conditions entitled to our sympathy and care.

Lift up thine eyes, O my brother, and see how glorious is the prospect! The universe is before thee. The silent forces of nature stir in the dark bosom of the earth, and fat juices mount in each tiny root and giant stem, through cell and duct, to weave kernel and fruit, gay fluttering leaf and massy solid tuber, the delightful rose of June and sturdy heart of oak. Innumerable forms of animate existence, from the microscopic atom to the bulky children of the forest and the field, swarm in their various habitations, and work out their allotted tasks. Old ocean spreads around continent and isle, busied with his ceaseless currents, dashed in storm and heaving in repose; torrid skies suck up his constant exhalation, and the untiring winds bear them in chariots of cloud to distant mountain tops and thirsty plains, that the rains of heaven and the courses of great rivers may refresh the air and fertilize the earth. And the round earth itself, thy transient habitation, swings through its ordered path, whirling without jar or pause, that suns may rise and seasons be renewed. Satellite and planet fulfil their appointed courses, the central sun rolls on his glowing axle, and bearing all his splendid retinue through unmeasured ether, sweeps along the circle of some unguessed orbit girt by the milky zone of heaven, itself a little nebula spread out in some corner of the universe.

And all this at the beck of love, that the heavens may declare the glory of God and the firmament show his handiwork, who, serene and infinitely good, presides over all these whirling orbs and nicely-balanced forces, stirs every pulse and rounds the outline of the forest leaf, decks the lily and upholds the sparrow, numbers the hairs of thy head and guides all the issues of thy life, toiling without pause or rest to work out love's designs. The universe is toiling. The hum of busy life goes up from flower and bird, alike as from the surging ocean and the uneasy heaving of the cen

tral fires: goes up through all the busy spaces of creation, where suns and satellites have never weariness or leisure, up to the toiling God, who, dwelling in eternity, can spare no point of space or time from the great labors of his love. For love has ordained this stupendous scene of toil, love is its end and motive; blessed issues, stretching on through infinite duration, hang on the fulfilment of each separate task. Evil is the shadowy exception, the little cone of darkness projected amid the universal light, a momentary eclipse, for us who dwell amid it, of the glorious and eternal light of love.

Thou seest thus busy worlds and systems toiling for blessed ends; thou knowest all are made to work out good in some degree; thine eye looks up to the infinite Father, whose unresting hand moves and directs the whole, and art thou not ashamed, O Universalist, to be alone idle and unfruitful, alone at leisure in this toiling universe? Up and be doing! Bring forth fruits meet for thy blessed faith. Prove in the ceaseless ministry of good works and a bright example, that thou hast entered into life; that the precious seed has fallen on no unfruitful ground; that thy broad faith is indeed the power of God unto salvation.

This is the Universalist's private duty. But he has another, especially if he stand in the preacher's place. Build the walls of Zion, rear this great temple of the Lord's house in the tops of the mountains, and invite all nations in.

And here the Universalist needs carefully to consider how his faith, as it is held to-day, stands related to pure Christianity, to the blessed word of Christ as it appears, not to any generation of men, but to the all-seeing God. Let no man think he sees as God sees. Let any Universalist observe, over his open Bible, how many passages gleam beneath his eye with most precious light which is all unsuspected to so many of our race; and with this measure of the progress God has granted him, let him observe how many words and sentences are still dark and fathomless, and he may then be filled with some dim foreboding of the hidden treasures which await the keener vision and the wider view of future generations. Or look into the relations of social life, try to find the true measure and manner for applying the great principle of our faith, and see how much they who follow us have yet to test and to discover. The perfect end,

then, is yet far off. But at the van of all the progress which the world has ever made in understanding the counsels of God and the duties of man, stands Universalism as it is held to-day.

Christ's spirit never abandoned the world, like the Astræa of the heathen, for all its foulness; but has always dwelt among men, in one age by one name, in another by some different title-veiled diversely, but always the very spirit of the Lord. Now, in this age, is the veil a little lifted, and our eyes may look a little nearer at the unchanging but better comprehended truth; and this truth stands to-day least hidden from human sight, in the grand faith of Universalists. All unworthily do we hold it, but it is nowise unworthy; it is the hope of the world, the gradually unfolding plan of the "Mountain of the Lord's house." Shall we shrink from avowing that we have found it, and where? If others grope lower down the hill-side, shall we leave the free mountain top to ask their company? Or shall we tear away these growing aisles and buttresses of the everlasting temple, and proclaims that God dwells everywhere alike, on lofty summits and in hidden chasms? True, true; but come up, my brother, out of the darkness into the clear air of this highest mountain, stand in the shelter of these growing walls of truth, and shout aloud to the nations not that here alone dwells God, but that here he may be seen. God needs no church narrow or broad; but man must attain to intercourse with his Maker, to a view of eternal truth, through conditions and appliances suited to humanity. The divine Spirit dwells largely in all forms of sincere faith in Christ, no doubt; but in Universalism it is laid most clearly in view, its purposes and methods traced the farthest. And just for this reason it becomes all Universalists, especially those who teach, boldly to avow that name; not, we repeat, as fully synonymous with the immutable truth of Christianity, but as ranking thus far highest on the scale of human progress in discerning and expressing that truth.

This should the Universalist teacher boldly avow, but not rest in the avowal. The world as yet but dimly discerns the God-given impulse which is bearing it toward the knowledge of his truth. The Universalist believes himself to have discovered the great central principle of the divine government, and it becomes his duty, therefore, both to

proclaim his better tidings, and to investigate and demonstrate the application of the great law to all the interests of men. If the whole body of believers felt this vast responsibility, and lived lives in accordance with their faith, there would go out from their example a mighty voice which would shake the errors of the world. Hence the great duty of Universalists is to be what they profess. But still, man needs the spoken word. And when once this great principle is fairly placed, it suggests new social codes, new systems of ethics, new principles for human law. All these applications of the everlasting truth have Universalist teachers to make and teach the world. But always with perpetual recurrence to that truth -as the constant earth, revolving and oscillating amid varying forces, the scene of innumerable mutations, yet swings unfaltering and undelayed around her central sun. The teacher of Universalism may not lose himself amid these speculations, nor launch off into new schemes of philosophy or ethics, trusting to his own keen discernment to bring him to some happy end; but he must begin from the law of love, and to this he must come back at last, the nature, the glory of the great Creator-" For of him, and through him, and to him are all things."

Therefore, call up the nations! By the way which has received this name they must come up, though they should call it by some other name. Only through the broad faith that God rules all things in absolute, uncompromising love, can any soul ascend along the toilsome passes to his house in the top of the mountains, and when we shall have all come up, when the long procession, which stretches from the miry sloughs of sin to the glorious summit, shall have wound through all its turnings, and be gathered in the ample walls of the mountain of the Lord's house, then for the first time needing no more names or denominations, we shall see with vision cleared by that upper air, that God indeed is love, and his love is universal.

D.

ART. XXVII.

Study and Health.

New Gymnastics for Men, Women and Children. By Dio Lewis, M.D. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 1862.

THE appearance of a new work on new gymnastics gives occasion for further discussion of the much-mooted subject of Study and Health. We do not propose any review of Dr. Lewis' book, nor to discuss the subject we have announced with very special reference to it. We desire, however, to say of the "New Gymnastics" this brief word: It is the production of a practical gymnast. Its theory is the fruit of the author's personal experience; and of this theory the central principle, the "new idea," is that physical health requires that kind of exercise which shall employ all the muscles, and preserve something like equilibrium in their development; and which shall combine grace and strength, quickness and power in the general result-repudiating monstrosities in all directions. Sincerely trusting that the reader will go to the book itself for all the details and illustrations, and promising him ample reward if he does so, we proceed to offer a few hints on Study and Health.

Parents infallibly discover in their offspring the indications of remarkable talents. In the unintelligible prattle of the babe, they can discern the workings of a mighty intellect, while his grimaces and lusty cries betray the eccentricities of genius. His introduction to the school-room fills them with apprehension lest he should fall a victim to his irrepressible yearnings for knowledge. Inadequate ventilation accomplishes its fatal work. The child sickens and dies; and parental vanity attributes the result to an overwrought brain. Excessive study kills but few.

Young children have not a fondness for work (we are not speaking, friend, of your child, who, we all admit, is certainly an exception to all ordinary rules.) They prefer spinning tops and flying kites, rolling in the grass, wading through mud-puddles, and chasing butterflies, to all the treasures of the great library at Cambridge; though Au