ledge, as to bring his powers to the test. The false independence of the home bred and conceited youth is visibly reduced by the wisdom of established plans, and the competition of rival minds. Now the Christian student ought to be free from many of these influences. From conscience, from experience, he ought to distrust his own judgment. As the servant of the Church, charged with this particular duty, and laid under an obligation to acquire certain mental furniture, he ought as scrupulously to comply with every requisition, as if it were the great business of his life-which, indeed, for the time being, it is.

The secret cause of this indisposition to certain parts of academical labour, is too often simple sloth. This it is the undoubted duty of the pious student to mortify. He should learn "to endure hardness" in mental, as well as bodily toils. "I find nothing," said David Brainerd, "more conducive to a life of Christianity, than a diligent, industrious, and faithful improvement of precious time. Let us then faithfully perform that business which is allotted to us by Divine Providence, to the utmost of our bodily strength, and bodily vigour." And it was remarked by Buchanan, in a letter to the venerable Newton, that although the mathematical studies of the university were little to his taste, and scarcely connected, by any link which he could perceive, with his future labours, yet he diligently pursued them, put a constraint on his natural predilections, and yielded himself to their absorbing abstractions as a part of his Christian self-denial. This is an example worthy of every Christian student. The "greatly beloved," Martyn was influenced by the same motives in those toils which caused him to be designated, while at Cambridge, as "the man who never lost an hour." It is with pleasure that we hold up the last mentioned servant of Christ, for the imita tion of Christian students. To our surprise, we find him treated by some American writers as a man of eminent piety and indefatigable diligence, but as being by no means distinguished for natural endowments and extraordinary genius. Here we must again dissent. It was something more than plodding assiduity which placed him at the head of hundreds in the university, both as a classic and a mathematician. This was no ordinary competition, and with no ordinary men. In all his subsequent labours, compositions, and controversies, we discern the evidences of genius, rare and eminent. We especially deprecate this derogation from his

native talents, because it countenances the cant of idlers in our public institutions, who are disposed to attribute all laborious study to the dull and toiling drudge, and to make diligence incompatible with genius.*

It is a rash judgment for any young man to pronounce any portion of his prescribed course of study to be useless: for no one can determine where his lot is to be cast. If a missionary, he may, at some future time, regret that he cannot,'as Martyn once did in the Persian court, defend the true system of the universe; or like our countryman, Mr. Poor in Ceylon, correct the errors of heathen astronomers. Viewed as disciplinary toils, all these pursuits are important, and "in all labour there is profit." It will be too late to regret these neglects, when such acquirements are proved by sad experience to be necessary; and it is plainly the safer course, to gain the knowledge, when the opportunity is afforded, rather than hazard the sorrow and mortification of future days.

The practical error to which we have adverted, in the case of those students who single out favourite subjects, to the neglect of their prescribed employments, is pregnant with evil consequences to themselves and others. The very habit of self-will and self-pleasing, which is thus fostered, is alien to the character of a disciple. It should be laid down as a principle of action by every candidate for the ministry, that his time and his talents are not his own, but belong to Christ and his Church; and in accordance with this, he should avail himself of all the light which shines in the results of long experience. These results are embodied in the ordinary literary and scientific arrangements of our colleges; and while many desire to see the academical curriculum extended, and enriched by the addition of new topics, no sound scholar will

How different is the judgment of one who knew him well-the Rev. C. J. Hoare. "Mr. Martyn," say he, "combined in himself certain valuable, but distinct qualities, seldom found together in the same individual. The easy triumphs of a rapid genius over first difficulties never left him satisfied with past attainments. His mind, which naturally ranged over a wide field of human knowledge, lost nothing of depth in its expansiveness. He was one of those few persons, whose reasoning faculty does not suffer from their imagination, nor their imagination from their reasoning faculty; both, in him, were fully exercised, and of a very high order. His mathematical acquisitions clearly left him without a rival of his own age; and yet, to have known only the employments of his more free and unfettered moments, would have led to the conclusion, that the classics and poetry were his predomi nant passion."

consent to curtail it in any of its dimensions. Every young man should labour, during his enjoyment of these privileges, to treasure up such knowledge, and form such habits, as the past experience of the Church has shown to be available towards the defence or propagation of religion. An erratic and imperfect course of study must always end in the same result-shameful ignorance of many things which every minister is expected to know; habits of soft indulgence and dread of mental labour; and a mind undisciplined and unsymmetrical in its actings and growth.

But we must likewise have some respect to the influence of such neglects upon the whole literary community of a college. No where is the youthful believer more like a city set upon a hill, than in our great institutions. No where is he watched with a more lynx-eyed scrutiny, by irreligious companions. Every line of Christian example here rises to importance, and the pious student is bound to be a pattern of regularity, attention, obedience, and diligence, as well as of private piety. When we consider the motives which conspire to urge such an one forward, we might well expect that Christian students should be, as a class, the most distinguished scholars in every college. And were this the case-were it seen that in study, as in all things else, the pious youth is influenced by considerations higher than mere ambition-what a lustre would thereby be reflected upon the profession of godliness, and how greatly would the standard of piety be elevated among the rising generation!

In a number of instances which have come under our observation, candidates for the ministry have neglected certain important branches of learning, under the pretext that they wished to dedicate the time thus gained to the study of theology, or to active labours of religious benevolence. We are constrained to say, that the conscience which approves such a course is strangely unreasonable and unenlightened. Festina lente should be sounded in the ears of such precipitate theologians. In a certain sense, the study of theology should employ the whole life of every Christian: that is, he should be engaged in the daily study of the Scriptures, and of instructive and practical works. But the application to the science, ex professo, has its proper place at a later period. The wisdom of the Church has decided, that, as a general rule, the two parts of preparation for the ministry should be kept distinct. The college and the theological seminary are not to encroach upon

one another. Such are the arrangements of our colleges, that nothing becomes a subject of instruction which is not necessary; and the aggregate of these subjects is great enough to shut the door, in the case of every conscientious student, against all other employments, except in the brief intervals of leisure, which are little enough to be conceded to devotion, excrcise, and recreation. In a well ordered institution, there are no hours left for extraneous pursuits. And if we have already succeeded in showing that no department of science. can be neglected without serious loss, it follows that the pretext of studying theology is idle and insufficient.

The time must indeed seem long to many an ardent candidate, before he can enter upon the peculiar and sacred path of his future work. Yet it is never to be forgotten, that we serve our Master as truly by due preparation, as by faithful execution. Our duty is always that which is due to day. Labours, like sufferings, are allotted to us day by day; and sufficient to every hour is its own proper employment. Even if, like David, the pious student should never actually begin to build the temple of the Lord, but be cut off by death before he has finished his preparations, he will not fail of his reward; he will be accepted as one who has "had it in his heart" to devote himself to God.

There is no possible advantage in thus anticipating a study which will soon arise in its proper place. In order to pursue it now, much of present duty must be neglected; it must be conducted in the most hasty manner, and under great disadvantages. The greater the interest of the student in these irregular employments, the more flagrant will be his irregu larities with regard to college obligations. And, what is most unfortunate, the under-graduate who is betrayed into this path, is apt to make this passing glance at a vast and important subject, a pretext for neglect of it in his subsequent course. If the motive be a wish to proceed more rapidly than the prescribed term of preparation, he is deceived by a fallacy, which has already introduced scores of unfurnished men into the ministry. This haste is inordinate and most injurious. Great as are the necessities of the Church, she asks for those who are thoroughly furnished." It may be seriously questioned, whether the cause of religion would not gain more by the addition of one or two years to the preparatory course of each individual, than she would lose by this delay in their entrance. She would gain, in the strength, maturity, learn

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ing and wisdom of well disciplined and experienced minds; just as an army would gain by taking recruits from adult men, able to bear fatigue, rather than from beardless youth, whose feebleness might sink under the first labours of the campaign. At the invaluable period of youth, within which a collegiate course falls, one year may be said to be worth any two years of subsequent life, with reference to these particular attainments. The sciences which come under review during this period, if they are now neglected, will be, in all probability, neglected for ever. Let the pious student hearken to the experience of those who have gone before him, and remembering that the duties of the theological student are distinct, and severally important, let him reject every temptation to abridge his present opportunities. The same specious reasoning which leads the under-graduate to employ himself about studies not comprised in the college course, will be sufficient to hurry him through the theological seminary, and perhaps, after a twelvemonth of direct preparation, into the ministry. It is painful to observe the readiness of so many candidates, to content themselves with a bare smattering of science, and to hasten through their appropriate trials, as if they were the merest formalities.

All these remarks apply with full force to the case of those who neglect certain branches of their studies in college, upon the pretext that they are employed in active labours of an evangelical kind. Every thing is beautiful in its season; and this is the season for patient and conscientious preparation. "There is a time to every purpose under heaven: a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;" and we regard the premature engagements of pious students, in teaching and exhortation, to be unseasonable and unrequired, just so far as they detract from the completeness of their academical pursuits. To a certain extent, it may be desirable, for under-grauates in our colleges to employ themselves in Sabbath schools, and other religious efforts; but we have known some who have so far exceeded the limits of duty and propriety, as to make these their principal engagements, and thus to exhibit a deleterious example of irregularity and unscholarlike carelessness.

The ingenuous and conscientious student, may gather from what has been said, the following plain conclusions. First, that providence, by placing him among the privileges of a college, has made it his duty to task his utmost vigour in the ac