thought it rather a sorry affair. At midnight, I was aroused from sleep by a tremendous uproar in the street, occasioned by the light-headed "Greys" after supper, etc.

The poor also in cities frequent the theatre, circus, balls, musical concerts, dancing parties, drinking shops, gambling houses, and all sorts of amusements, shows, frolics,-of fun, folly, vice and ruin. Our cities are filled with European paupers-and the New York papers abound in descriptions of suffering, wretchedness, destitution and beggary, without a parallel hitherto in our country. The city is threatened with violence by the starving poor, etc. It is now midwinter, (Jan. 11, 1855,) and the dread of riots, tumults, mobs, etc. is daily increasing.

Among the plans of aiding the suffering poor, are balls, concerts, fairs, etc.-the net proceeds to be appropriated to their relief. This is bad, mischievous, unchristian. It is holding out a premium to folly, mirth, expensive extravagance and dissipation, under the garb and plea of charity, benevolence, philanthropy, etc. But small sums are raised in this way at best, compared with the amount actually expended in getting up such fashionable amusements. Why not give the whole and dispense with amusement altogether? Our good church-going people seem to think that, in this case at least, the end will sanctify or justify the means. Or that it is lawful to do evil that good may come, etc.

Poverty is nowhere represented in Scripture as a desirable state. But like sickness, blindness, deafness,

persecution it is regarded and treated as a misfortune or a punishment.

That some men may be providentially called to labour without any visible means of support, is most true:-as were the apostles, evangelists, and many of the primitive Christians: and as are not a few of the ministers and missionaries of our own times. All such have a right to trust in God for their daily bread and for the supply of their daily wants. It is both their duty and their privilege. They live by faith, etc.

But even in the days of Christ and the Apostles, men were not condemned merely because they were rich or powerful—as in the case of Herod, Agrippa, Festus, Felix, etc. Nor were the rich required to become poor when they became converts to the Christian faith-as witness Cornelius.

Even Ananias and Sapphira were doomed to death, not for possessing wealth, but for lying to the Holy Ghost, etc.

The instance of the rich young ruler, as given by Mark, (chap. x. 17 to 21,) and by Luke, (chap. xviii. 18 to 23,) is no exception to the general rule or fact or doctrine. The above young man appealed to Jesus for direction, as to one whose authority he fully acknowledged, and whose instructions or commands he was therefore bound to obey. And Jesus, knowing the deceitfulness of his heart, and the vanity of all his pretensions to a legal righteousness, imposed a trial or test which would clearly demonstrate his real character, etc. None but He, or those inspired by His Spirit,

could do this, or be justified in the attempt to do it. A most important truth or principle, of universal application, is undoubtedly inculcated by the divine Master: namely, the danger of riches or of trusting in riches; and the duty of instantly relinquishing wealth and every earthly distinction when in conflict with our obedience to God.

On the subject of educating the poor-of providing for their wants-and of ameliorating their condition— many seasonable and sensible remarks may be found in Chalmers. See Chapter 14,-"On a compulsory provision for the indigent" and Chapter 15,-"On the Christian education of the people"-of the "Political Economy" of Thomas Chalmers, D.D.

See a good article in Hall's Journal of Health for Dec., 1854, on "Health, Wealth and Religion."

"So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple," Luke xiv. 33. "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." Luke xiv. 26.

Of course, whenever the alternative or choice lies between Christ and the world-its wealth, honours, domestic relations or life itself-we must abandon all for Christ.

THE WHISTLE.*

[This and the next eleven articles, as indicated by a note in the author's manuscript, "form but a few of many scores of light essays” which he occasionally furnished the newspapers in Nashville, over various signatures and upon all sorts of topics. Indeed, in his high estimate of the press as a vehicle of instruction, he was in the habit of reproducing his longer discourses in a series of short essays in the newspapers.]

"DISTANCE lends enchantment to the view," is not a mere poetical fancy-it is a serious practical fallacy, which is constantly imposing on our good people in sundry forms and ways. We rarely value what is at home and within everybody's reach. Our own substantial manufactures-our native literature-our domestic customs, fashions and institutions-all are comparatively worthless, insipid, ungenteel or vulgar. We look abroad -across the ocean-or to the far East-for whatever is beautiful, classical, ingenious or tasteful. Is a youth to be educated in grand style? He must, forsooth, be sent on a pilgrimage to some celebrated Athens beyond the Great Mountains-there to renown as a Southern, with plenty of cash and credit, half a dozen years, until he shall be proclaimed moribus inculpatus, literisque humanioribus imbutus by the grave, veracious and most disinterested Senatus Academicus of the said metropolitan Headquarters of Minerva and the Muses.

*Printed in the Nashville Herald, December 8, 1831, over the signature of F. G. F.

It is not to be presumed that a young gentleman can be accomplished in Greek or philosophy this side of the Potomac, or at a less cost than a thousand dollars per year. Parents and the public generally, are prone to estimate intellectual furniture, as they do all other things, by the price paid for the commodity. Thus, two thousand dollars' worth of learning must, of course, be tenfold greater in amount and value than two hundred dollars' worth. The latter may be easily attained here in the backwoods-but then it is not a thing to talk about and to boast of-it is an every-day affair-it confers no eclat-creates no sensation-makes nobody stare -attracts no particular notice-and commands no admiration.

Men, as well as children, often pay dear for their whistles. There are, at this time, at least five hundred Southern and Western youth at Eastern Seminarieswhere they expend annually half a million of dollars to encourage and sustain a foreign monopoly of education; while our patriotic and economical sages never dream of adopting any measures to retain this vast amount of wealth within their own States. Nor do they seem to have suspected that the money thus squandered abroad, during every ten years, would amply endow as many first-rate colleges at home as would meet the wants of all their fellow-citizens for a century to come. The Southern funds lavished upon Cambridge and New Haven alone, in a single year, would create a university equal to Harvard or Yale in any part of our Southern or Western wilderness. Whether colleges are de