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take away any of my children, I pray Him that it may be my son Isaac.' His mother, however, had long patience. She sustained herself on the strength of Him, who has power to bring good out of evil. She persevered in parental care and systematic instruction, and gained a great reward. As he, who was pronounced so hopeless, grew up, he evinced a disposition which won all hearts, and made such progress in science, as to sustain with honor the mathematical chair, which Newton afterward filled. Among the most profound scholars his country could boast, he maintained the highest rank.”

LINES FOR A LADY'S ALBUM.

BY REV. E. PORTER DYER.

How fair are the beautiful pages,

To love, truth and friendship, here given.
May these names, through numberless ages,
Shine bright on the records of heaven;
Each early unrolled,

By the lofty I AM,

In letters of gold,

In the Book of the Lamb.

And long may these friendships be cherished,
Which virtue commences below;

And when the frail mortal hath perished,
With lustre unceasingly glow;

While, walking in white,

Where the angels have trod,

Sweet friends shall unite

In the praises of God.

Fair lady, wit, wisdom and beauty
Must fade like a vision away,
But she, who, intent upon duty,
Loves daily to watch and to pray,
Will find in the end

That the Saviour divine
Is the soul's TRUEST FRIEND.

May His friendship be thine.

THE PUPIL OF GAMALIEL.

BY REV. WM. WARREN.

THERE lived in a free town, allied to the Roman empire, a Jew, of the ancient, genuine stock. He was descended in the direct line

family of Benjamin.

from Abraham, through the Tarsus, where he dwelt, was a proud city, upon the heel of Asia Minor, touching the north-east extremity of the Great Sea. This man was a strict Pharisee, perhaps of some wealth and note. To him was born a son. No prodigies nor omens are mentioned as having marked his birth. It may not have awakened any peculiar interest among angels or men. The uneventful years of childhood being past, we find this youth at Jerusalem, some hundred miles south of Tarsus, the pupil of a learned doctor of the law. We may suppose he had gone through the whole circle of science and learning enjoyed in his native city, and he is now sitting at the honored feet, in company with earnest rivals, of one who ranked high among the learned of the Jewish Rabbins. Here the huge commentary of legendary writings and traditional books were slowly digested. Here, too, the Talmud, the depository of Jewish records and observances, was mastered. In this school of the doctor our student enjoys the very best advantages afforded in his time. Here he becomes an adept in all the logic and learning then in use; becomes expert in all the tactics, craft and drilling of Pharisaism. That gilded system of heartless form and faithless pretensions, glossed by the learning and backed by the authority of the highest ecclesiastical court, he had thoroughly acquired, so that he was now able to stand at the head of this most powerful sect of the age.

We may notice here the fact of his physical inferiority. A noble, commanding presence he did not possess. We may conjecture that a degree of awkwardness and deformity was added, in his case, to a diminutive and dwarfish figure. He seems, also, to have had an imperfection or impediment in his speech. His bodily presence was mean and his speech contemptible. The natural graces and an easy, eloquent utterance were not to be reckoned among the elements of his power.

Another fact deserves to be stated. In accordance with ancient

custom, he seems to have been early put to a trade. This was regarded, in those times, somewhat in the light of a patrimony, or estate, upon which a person might fall back, in future life, in the case of failure in other pursuits. "He that does not teach his son a trade, teaches him to become a thief," was an ancient maxim. This trade was regarded as an essential part of education. The song of the rich, the wise and the noble, were thus taught in some useful handicraft. The trade of the young Pharisee was that of tentmaker, a profitable one in those times, when armies were common, and the pastoral or migratory life customary. Thus reared, the youth ripens into manhood. He steps upon the stage of active life. Interested eyes follow him. He determines to distinguish himself. The force of his education, his religious prejudices, and the fiery spirit within him, had prepared him for a bold career. The associations of his whole life, added to the deep-seated opposition of his heart, lead him to abhor the principles of the new religion. A system which demands of its votaries self-renunciation, his sect must despise. Their religion was an ostentatious one. It led them to parade their charities before the world, to assume a righteousness and sanctity superior to what was possessed by other men, and to drive a business in morals and ceremonials, such as would give them great profit and personal consequence. But the Gospel laid its axe at the root of such pretensions. It crushed the aspiring hopes and presumptions of that whole sect. Its author had fallen a sacrifice to its maddened, persecuting zeal.

To the work of extermination this ardent disciple of Gamaliel gave himself. His elevated genius, commanding intellect and influence, his large attainments and impetuous purposes, were all devoted to the destruction of Christianity. Those qualities which, when sanctified, contributed to make him the chief of the apostles, when perverted, served only to make him the chief of persecutors.

We see him first abetting in the murder of Stephen. His salient, daring spirit breaks loose from all restraint. Such sentiments as the humble deacon was uttering set his furious spirit on fire. His words fell like sparks into a magazine of explosive elements. He gave his consent and countenance to a deed which he had not yet quite the hardihood to perpetrate. He holds the clothes of them who cast the stones at the dying man. But the murder was in his heart. The sentence of death was there passed. A deed is done by

the passionate desire, or in the secret wish. God takes the will for the deed in moral acts, and reckons the man guilty who inwardly applauds iniquity. Blind youth! He verily thought that to murder that good man would stop the truth, and silence the hated sect. So would the winds calm the ocean, or quench the burning of a city! The storm which had commenced, increased apace, and relentless persecutions followed everywhere. Havoc was made of the church at Jerusalem, and, as the hungry wolf falls upon the inoffensive flock, this young, infuriated Pharisee broke into houses, and seized the helpless and the delicate, and inhumanly dragged them forth to dungeons and to death.

Not content with his success at Jerusalem, he obtains a commission and writs of the high priest to carry the work of persecution to a distant city. He is now on his way to Damascus. That famous city is full in view. As its spires and its splendor met the fiery eyes of this ambitious band of persecutors, we may fancy the spirit of Saul to have been kindled to a fiercer flame. But in a moment, the twinkling of an eye, the heavens were opened. A brightness, surpassing the splendor of many suns, enveloped him. He fell to the earth. The dazzling brightness had taken from him sight, strength and power. A world of cutting reflections passed through his thoughts in a moment. His Saviour had met him. His bloody purpose forsook him, and he yielded himself a willing captive to that Christ whom he had persecuted. He was led forward to Damascus to become an inquirer at the feet of those terrified saints whom he had gone thither to persecute and destroy. He began his youthful career the scholar; the scholar became the Pharisee, the Pharisee the persecutor, the persecutor the Christian, and the Christian the greatest of apostles. He preached the Gospel in two continents. The whole world has felt his influence, which neither time nor eternity will ever be able sufficiently to estimate. We learn from this,

1. That great influence and success do not necessarily depend on personal graces and accomplishments. He who had the least of these has probably exerted a greater influence than any other mere

man.

2. We see how much may depend on the ruling motive of one's life. With the same talents and accomplishments one may become the bane and terror of the world, or the benefactor and saviour of his fellow-men.

3. We see the danger of a misguided zeal and perverted knowledge. Knowledge and zeal are power, but without principle they are power only to do evil.

4. We see to what lengths of wickedness men may unconsciously go. One step in guilt prepares for another. Every step of fall gives momentum to the downward progress.

5. We see that persons are responsible for their opinions. Paul reproached himself for acting according to a depraved conscience. He was guilty for the opinions and principles which governed him.

6. We see how easily God can reverse our purposes and fears. He gave the anxious disciples at Jerusalem and Damascus beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness. He reverses the fears of some by reversing the purposes of others.

SWEET THOUGHT.

WHENEVER we find our temper ruffled towards a parent in the family circle, a sister, or brother, we should pause and think, that in some few months or years they will be in the spirit-land, watching over us, or perhaps we shall be there, watching over them. The intercourse of life, during a season on earth, should be like that between guardian angels. As the poet Hunt sings:

"How sweet it were, if without feeble fright,
Or dying of the dreadful beauteous sight,
An angel came to us, and we could bear

To see him issue from the silent air

At evening in our room, and bend on ours

His eyes divine, and bring us from his bowers,
News of dear friends and children who have never

Been dead indeed, as we shall know forever.

Alas! we think not what we daily see
About our hearths, angels that are to be,
Or may be if they will, and we prepare
Their souls and ours to meet in happy air,
A child, a friend, a wife whose soft heart sings
In unison with ours, breeding its future wings."

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