employed in working out his carthly salvation. It is a fearful power to possess. "Merc power may be used for any purpose, noble or ignoble. Gunpowder may blast a path for the rail car, or send death into the heart of a defenceless city. Steam may propel to our shores the friendly vessel of commerce, or the hostile naval armament." The rising wind may swell the floating canvass, and bear the voyager delighted to the port, or, lashing the sea into fury, dash his bark, all shattered, upon a rock-bound coast. In like manner this power, with which God has invested every human being, may prove a blessing or a curse -an instrument to be wielded for error or the truth.

At this point it would be a profitable application of the subject, to analyze the personal history of such men as Byron, Napoleon, and Robespierre, and trace the operation of the laws cnumerated in the formation of their characters. The subject also, suggests expansive themes relative to the understanding of this mental and moral philosophy in the training of children and youth, and the points of danger and encouragement in every young man's career. But, for want of space, all this must be passed in silence.

It is clear that the formation of character is no hap-hazard work. There is no chance-game to be played in working out our earthly destiny. There is no being born under lucky stars; that belongs to heathenism a relic of Hindoo astrology. Philosophy is "a jack at all trades," yet in none more active and skilful than in the formation of character.

Such is the Philosophy of Character very imperfectly presented. Yet, superficial as our view has been, we have seen enough to show that its faithful fashioning is as truly an art as that which guided the chisel of Praxiteles, or the brush of Raphael. As we ponder the mystic machinery with which the curious workmanship is wrought, we are more than ever impressed with the pithy lesson of Solon-one of the seven

wise men of Greece-"gnothi scauton," know thyselfa rare attainment even by those who have soared to the loftiest heights, and descended to the profoundest depths of knowledge. He who has made the acquisition is more than Bachelor of Arts; he is MASTER OF ARTS.

The soul is a harp of a thousand strings, and few are they who can make music on them all. A slight neglect may destroy the blissful harmonics. You have listened with wrapt attention to the strains of melody bursting from a full and practised orchestra. Note swells and blends with note in enchanting sweetness. Voice soars and mingles with voice in volumes of richest sound. And wave after wave of the sacred song pours upon the listening spirit to captivate and charm. But one little jar-one discordant note—will dissolve the melody, and waste the music on the air. So the laws of God, mental, moral, and material, are so many chords strung to a universal anthem; and he who dares resist the philosophy of his being, in the violation of the simplest of these laws, sunders a chord, and withdraws a note from the harmonies of creation.

THE first chapter closed with a view of the frail and uncertain tenure which marks the family relation. The union, at best, is brief-its dissolution inevitable. But death docs not sever the bond forever. If it did, sad, indeed, would be the earthly fellowship of kindred. If no hope of reunion were offered to the faithful, how many would exclaim at the goal of life, overwhelmed at the thought of an eternal parting, would that I had never been born!

Thanks for the precious Gospel which comes to restore the severed tics-to reunite the broken families-to renew the fellowship of kindred! The family on earth may become the whole family in Heaven! Though scattered over the face of the carth, and dying in different lands, its memders may meet again, to renew their intercourse on Mount Zion above, where

"Those long parted meet again."

They, who have sat at the same table, may sit together at the marriage supper of the Lamb. They who have bowed. at the same family altar with the beginning and close of day, may unite their devotions before the "great white throne." They who have walked in company to the earthly temple of

God, may sit together in the " temple not made with hands." They, who have loved in the earthly mansion, than which no other spot is dearer, may rejoice together in a "mansion in the skies"

"In my father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." Beautiful and precious words are these to fall upon the heart of sorrow! Here the thoughts are borne upward to the "many mansions," where the heavenly family commune together, after the sad reverses and separations of a trial-land, in the sweeter, purer, better intercourse of an eternal home. That is a precious sentiment, "I go to prepare a place for you." The figure is drawn from a company of travellers, one of whom precedes his associates to provide a place for their entertainment and rest. So Christ has gone to prepare a residence for his saints in their " father's house." Here they have “no continuing city." They are "sojourners," "strangers," "pilgrims." They seek "a better country "-a permanent abode. They are "children" of God, absent upon the "journey of life." They will soon reach their “father's house"-their everlasting HOME.

Thus the Scriptures describe the future abode of the saints by allusion to an earthly home-that retreat of loving hearts, where social endearments exist even in the face of poverty and wo―that garden of delight where hopes and loves cxpand in the sunshine of a parent's smile. As this homeresidence commands the affections of the heart wherever man sojourns, so does the christian's view of heaven allure his heart. In his wearisome pilgrimage, it rises before him as the consummation of his hopes, and he anticipates a welcome from its family of kindred spirits, and joy in a father's smile.

My theme is, that the whole family may be gathered there, known and loved by each other.

The first part of this proposition-the whole family may be gathered in heaven-demands no proof. It is the universal sentiment of all believers in the Christian religion. It is presented simply as a delightful view of the abode of the sainted dead-that which magnifics the sacredness and loveliness of the family relation. The latter part-that they will be known and loved by cach other-admits of discussion; and yet, unless this latter portion is true, the particular pleasure, which the former doctrine is calculated to impart, is wholly sacrificed. It will be joy exceeding great to know that our friends are safe in glory, even though we may not recognize them. But how much greater that joy if we are able to identify them amid the countless throng. This is the basis of the pleasing view of heaven which we shall attempt to unfold. Will kindred recognize each other there? It is the first, yea, the only question to be answered, in order to establish that alluring view of heaven which is dear to the christian heart. Heaven will be far more blissful, if the whole family, admitted there, are known to cach other.

A proof of heavenly recognition is found in the fact, that it appears to be the universal sentiment of mankind. It is not the belief of a single sect. It belongs not to a single age. It is not the dogma of a particular school. Men of all creeds and no creeds, of all sects and no sects, of true picty and no picty, alike believe and defend this doctrine. Even the benighted pagan, far off in some dark corner of the earth, believes in a bright clysium, where he will be reunited to his departed kindred. He makes the blissful land the abode of all that can delight the senses and captivate the heart, in order to heighten the conception of friendships there renewed. The fields teem with buds and blossoms of uncarthly beauty. The valleys sparkle with crystal streams, and the hills wave with forests more beautiful than the firs