existence. All who tread the courts of heaven, making its temple of purity echo with their songs, beholding and adoring the unveiled glories of our God, bathing in everlasting ecstasy, rejoicing in unfailing love, feel that no limited duration can suffice to fulfil the purpose of their creation-the glory of God; for,

"Oh, eternity's too short
To utter all His praise.'

Lost spirits, too, writhe as they remember they have sinned against an infinitely holy God, whose infinite justice can be satisfied only by an eternity of woe.

Matter, in all its forms, is eternal too. Though the heavens, being on fire, may be dissolved, and the elements melt with fervent heat, not a monad will be annihilated, no law repealed.

Man is immortal. His mind is no morning cloud, no early dew. His glorified spirit has Time for its starting post, Eternity for its race-course, Infinite Perfection for its goal. ETERNITY! Unmeaning word! "It is higher than heaven, what canst thou know? deeper than hell, what canst thou do?" Ages, numerous as the drops of the ocean, increased by the sands over which they roll, form not the meanest decimal of man's duration. Multiply these by every ray issuing from the sun, reflected by his planets, and darted from more distant spheres, nor stop till you have multiplied these by all the atoms of the spheres that strew the Milky Way, and let the sum be cycles. How much of eternity has flown? The minutest fraction is not yet attained.

Profitable as it may be to look at the link which thus unites to Divinity, let a fact less often considered now occupy your attention. EVERY IMPRESSION

PRODUCED ON

MIND BY MIND IS IMMORTAL TOO.* No act or property of mind can be circumscribed by Time. "I paint for eternity," said an ancient artist; and though no stroke of his pencil can be discovered among the ruins and rubbish of his native city, his paintings still remain. And where? His favourite pursuit moulded his mind; and, dipped in the cold waters of Jordan, no power can change its figure. It is fixed for ETERNITY. Perhaps, there was some young man amid the crowd of admirers that surrounded his favourite piece, whose mind was impelled, by the sight of the artist's skill, to devote himself to the same profession. Thus his mind was formed, and it, again, stamped its own image on unnumbered spirits that received it for EVER. Impressions were produced by the man who painted for eternity, which the river of bliss will but purify, the smoke of hell bring out more darkly. The painter has his wish-his productions are now invested with immortality.

Matter and mind are governed by unalterable laws. Man is not, therefore, irresponsible, since these laws are those to which he himself consents, to which he at no time makes any opposition. In fact, the law of his nature is to carry out all the inherent propensities of that nature; and since corrupt nature in its spirit is in all men the same, and, in its particular manifestations, not so very much diversified, we say, that mind is governed by fixed laws. And as well might we question the freedom of a brute, because hunger compels him to eat, as question the freedom of a mind because its own nature compels it to love one being and hate another.

* See Appendix.

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Satan cannot love, and is thus governed by the law of hatred to God and all his creatures. Jehovah cannot lie, and thus the Omnipotent bows before the sceptre of truth. But is either robbed of what we usually called freedom? Commands, with annexed penalties, may restrain the manifestations of any particular feeling, but cannot in their nature control the mind itself. The real law of any intelligent being is its own nature," whether that nature be corrupt or pure. Adam, before his fall, needed no moral table; for his own desires and delights, which to attain was and must be the prevailing principle in every breast, guided him only in the paths of heavenly wisdom. He was not robbed of freedom. So depraved mind, though governed by laws as unalterable and certain as those that control the motions of the spheres, is FREE, and, therefore, not irresponsible for the impressions it receives or produces. I have been rather prolix on this point, but its importance will excuse me; the existence of these laws is indissolubly connected with man's responsibility for his influence on society. If responsibility exists, there is a code by which the mental universe is ruled: for, how could we be judged for producing ill effects if the random strokes of folly might be as useful as the best aimed efforts of wisdom?

We are oftentimes told, that sin has reduced the intellectual and moral universe to a state of anarchy; and that every century is but "confusion worse confounded." We have been led to the examination of the material universe, and its harmony has been dwelt upon with oratorical and poetic fervour. Having been told that every orb obeys the law of the great Creator, and having listened to the music of the spheres, the mind of man has been exhibited as

governed by no regulations, ruled by no fixed principles. Thus have we been taught that hell has really. repealed what Pope has termed "Heaven's first law." A mighty victory, in truth, for the creature of hell to gain over the King of Heaven?

I grant that the corrupt soul exalts itself against God, and thus isolates itself from His other creatures; but among the thousands of spirits thus afar from God, no disorder obtains. The rebellion of man was organised by the prince of darkness, and he leads on his hosts in person. By careful, habitual observation, and patient, untiring reflection, we shall be able to discover those principles on which individual and collective minds universally act. Thus may we ascertain the causes necessary to produce any mental result as accurately as the force required to overcome any physical resistance,

PERSONAL INFLUENCE.

THE amount of power possessed by any particular mind over others depends on their relative condition.

External circumstances give a force to many minds that they would never derive from any real excellence. Whatever we may assert concerning its propriety or impropriety, the fact that WEALTH gives power remains the same. He that can boast of his broad acres and noble mansions, or show his name on railway committees, and talk of his interest in the funds, has a power perfectly distinct from that which he may exert by the employment of his property. Any one at all conversant with human nature, must have observed that the actions and words of such a one are carefully noted, his opinions treated with respect,-in short, all in connexion with him seems, by the possession of the sordid dust, to be changed into solid gold, and worshipped accordingly. If to wealth is added RANK, a fresh amount of influence is gained. The baronet and the marquis, the earl and the duke, have satisfactorily answered the query, "What's in a name?" Mankind have been so long accustomed to aristocratical swaythe ghost of feudal tyranny, with all its terror, but none of its graces-that nobility seems to possess the