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pleted there.

The most eminent teacher that can be selected for him is engaged as his instructor, and so Paul becomes a disciple of the great Gamaliel. Under the training of this august teacher, Paul became a very apt and complete scholar in all that pertained to Jewish history, philosophy, or ethics. With respect to Gamaliel, we may judge of his position and popularityfirst, from the fact that he was president of the National Council; and second, from a statement in Acts v. 34"Then stood there up one in the council, a pharisee named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, had in reputation among all the people." It was then, under the care and instruction of this great man, that Paul's education as a Jew was completed.

The circumstances now reviewed, bring before us very clearly the truth that Providence was by successive steps preparing Paul in these his early days for his future great work. He is born a Jew of Tarsus, born to the citizenship of the Roman empire; his education is carefully attended to, and is completed at Jerusalem under the wise and eminent Gamaliel. Meanwhile he has learnt a useful and remunerative occupation; and in all these things I think the hand of God is manifested, raising up and preparing this remarkable man for his subsequent work.

We conclude this sketch of Paul's early life with two quotations from the apostle himself, they are these:-"I am a man which am a Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city;" and again, "I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God as ye all are this day." W. M. B.

(To be continued.)

THE SUNDAY EXCURSION.

"We have a project for next Sunday, Mr. Wexpect you to join in it."

and we

Of course I shall be happy to take a part in any project with which you are connected."

Light promise, carelessly given; O, how much did it involve !

Samuel W- was a young man of exemplary life, respectable and respected. His childhood and youth had been spent under the roof of pious parents, where all undeviatingly walked by the straight rule of Gospel requirement. He was thus educated to the observance of each

moral and religious duty. But he was far from the parental home now. No longer under the influence of its precepts and examples, its mild but firm control, he was his own master,- -a man. And what was the course he was pursu ing? To what did it tend? We shall see.

Those who choose their associates from among the wise and good, can walk as correctly in the crowded metropolis as in the quietest valleys of our land. Samuel W proved it so. When he entered the city, where he had received an appointment in one of the Government offices, he carried with him letters of introduction to a few good men. He was thus brought into a choice religious circle; and, for several months, he lived as far apart from the ungodly as though he were still under his mother's eye. And it might have been so to the end, had he not seen, and become interested in, the sister of one of his fellow-clerks. Lured by this magnet, he was led into gay and fashiorable scenes, where scrupulous adherence to the Divine law was not the ruling principle.

The young lady was of good character and the society in which she mingled fastidiously respectable. When, therefore, she laughed at the quaint old notions Samuel had brought from home, playfully ridiculed his educational prejudices, or, with pretty seriousness, entreated him to use his reason in the uprooting of puritanical severity from his mind, he failed to convince himself that she was all wrong. He gradually found his views and opinions coinciding with those of the fair temptress, in whose giddy lead he was blindly following. And so in what the world calls pleasure, the young man's leisure hours were spent ; for, wherever Miss B. was seen, in the dance or at the theatre, Mr. Wwas surely by her side.

Still, Samuel regularly attended a place of worship, and paid decent, outward respect to the Sabbath. Indeed, he did not suppose that the breaking of this venerable rule was included in the project to a share in which he so gallantly pledged himself; yet, when it was all explained, and he had learned from her smiling lips that the arrangement for the following Sabbath was no other than a Sunday pleasure party, he betrayed no righteous indignation, and expressed no desire to withdraw his hasty promise. But, willingly endorsing the young lady's argument, that gentlemen who were confined to business all the week, required Sunday for air and recreation, he entered with heart and spirit into the scheme.

The church-bells, summoning the worshippers to the house of God, were chiming sweetly on the breeze, when

the carriages containing the party dashed through the streets, over the long bridge, and out into the free countryair. That Samuel felt no compunction, that calm soft morning, as he turned his back on the time-honoured services of the sanctuary, is not very probable. But, seated in the light earriage, drawn by a spirited horse, with the fascinating Miss B-by his side, the gentle voice of conscience was unheeded, and every good impulse drowned, in the gay excitement of the hour.

We shall not go through a detail of that day's pleasure: we have sketched its commencement, we shall endeavour to give a picture of its close.

was

Rapidly, but in silence and gloom, the light chat and gay laughter of the party changed to horror and grief,the same carriages crossed the long bridge on the return. But the company arrangements were not as they had been. For, in a barouche, amongst three others, Miss Bseated. The carriage, in which she had ridden in the morning, was driven by her brother alone; while in it, lay bleeding, and pulseless, and cold, the form which had so lately contained the bright and joyous spirit of Samuel W

A melancholy accident! So said the Monday papers when announcing the sad affair; so said the kind friend who undertook to write the terrible news to the bereaved parents; and so said the twelve men composing the coroner's jury. But was it an accident that seduced the young man from the "path of life" and led him out upon Satan's highway? Was it an accident that had pressed the intoxicating glass upon him, and mocked his abstemious habits? Was it an accident that now, when he forgot the bounds of sobriety, he partook of the stimulating draught so freely that reason was overthrown, and he was no longer under its command? And, was it an accident that, irritated by the desertion of his lady-friend, (for Miss B- thought too much of her precious life to suffer herself to be driven by a drunken man) he lashed his horse into a fury, until the animal, bounding forward with headlong speed, jerked the flying vehicle from side to side, and dashed the poor inebriate against the stones? Was this all the result of mere accident? Ah, ye Delilahs! answer conscientiously. Miss B was wont to accompany her parents to the house of God. And she is still a member of respectable society, and an occasional frequenter of a fashionable church! O the drink! O Sabbath-breaking!

I MUST STUDY.

SIMPLE reading will not do. I must study. I must think regularly and consecutively. The mind is expanded and strengthened by this exercise. The heavy hammer of the blacksmith enlarges and strengthens his right arm: study affects the mind. It lays the foundation for capacity and vigour. Where there is no strong working thought, there is little capacity and much weakness.

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A world of common every-day reading may pass through my mind like water through a waste pipe, and if it furnish no capital for future use, no food for earnest study, I am no better than a waste pipe. I just furnish a channel for other people's thoughts to pass through, without receiving any benefit myself.

I must study to furnish myself with mental supplies. I have no business to let other people do my thinking. If I write or speak, I must provide myself with matter for these things by earnest study. Matter thus accumulated may not be all original, need not be, cannot be; but it must be mine, stamped with my own individuality_of thought, mind, and heart, before I pass it to others. The mint man, by re-melting, changes the English, French, and German into American coin; so, by study, I may make other people's best thoughts my own. Pass those coins without re-melting and re-stamping, and everybody knows they are foreign, and not American. Melt and restamp, and none can tell whether they were made from old coin or new ore.

I must have the new coin for circulation. I must have capital for business. I must have something to communicate. It must be my own, I cannot live on borrowed capital. I must make capital, then I shall know how to use it. If it is inherited or borrowed, I may soon expend it, without knowing how to get more. Self-acquired knowledge has a double price; I know better how to use it, and how to get more.

Study, study. Don't be a vein for the thoughts of others. Stir up yourself for this work. Away with your idle, listless house, your foolish gossips, and your overstock of news reading, even in these perilous times, and apply yourself to study. You cannot be a man, nor remain a man without it. Your conversation and teaching will otherwise all become parrot talk, destitute of interest or power.

Expand, brother. Grow, be strong; live to purpose. Study. Put away weakness and shame. Be a man-a

workman.-Christian Journal.

MONICA AND HER SON.

ABOUT the year 350 of the Christian era, there lived at Tagasta, in Africa, a woman who bore the name of Monica. She possessed that meek and quiet spirit, which is of great price in the sight of the Lord. While yet very young, she had embraced the Christian faith; and over her disposition, naturally gentle, the religion of Jesus had exerted its holy influence, thus making her a Mary who delighted to sit at the feet of the heavenly Master.

;

In the providence of God, she became the wife of Patricius Augustine, who was precisely her opposite in disposition. He was extremely irascible, and almost demoniacal in temper. She, however, meekly endured his harshness and, in the arms of her faith, bore him to the throne of grace. The unbelieving husband," though born and nurtured a heathen, was sanctified by the believing wife." When at length his earthly career was closed, her eye of faith followed his departing spirit, and saw him take his place at the right hand of the adorable Redeemer.

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One child-a son-followed, by the mother's side, the father to the grave. O! how did the mother pray that Aurelius might be a comfort to her in her widowhood. But, alas! he was "vile." He had passions whose strength was equalled only by their corruptness. Stimulated to evil conduct by temptations without, which appealed, not in vain, to strong passions within, he wandered into ways which were offensive to God, and a great grief to his mother. After acquiring an education such as his native place afforded, he went to Carthage, and thence to Rome, and thence to Milan, where he spent many years in teaching oratory. Here he became grossly profligate, and lived in open violation of all God's commandments.

Meanwhile the mother, Monica, prayed with great earnestness. For more than thirty years, she hoped against hope, and maintained confidence in God, when everything but his naked promises prompted to despair. Filled with anxiety which none but a mother can feel, who believes that "sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death," as she contemplated the sinful career of her wayward son, she could not rest in Africa, while he was away from her. She longed to look upon him with her eyes, and fold him to her aching heart, and to breathe into his ear words of affectionate entreaty. She left her home, and found her way to her son.

A little previous to this, Ambrose, who was the governor,

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