FRIENDS' INTELLIGENCER.

"TAKE FAST HOLD OF INSTRUCTION; LET HER NOT GO; KEEP HER; FOR SHE IS THY LIFE."

COMMUNICATIONS MUST BE ADDRESSED AND PAYMENTS Thoughts, by Sarah IIunt..

At Publication Office, No. 144 North Seventh Street, The Charity that Covereth.....
Open from 9 A.M. until 5 P.M,

THE LIFE AND DISCOURSES OF | chance of remedy; but we have got doctrines

the thirty the water of life,-lead them to living fountains, and show them that the pure spirit of the Lord is in them," a well of water springing up unto eternal life."

Cheer up, then, ye desponding! Take courage ye that are disheartened; remember in days of old, when Israel was in a great strait, besieged by enemics on every hand, the Prophet prayed that the Lord would open their eyes to see the true state of things, and behold their surroundings were full of chariots and horses; more was with them than against them; all the hill country was full of strength. Now this metaphor we would do well to consider, and look up above the weaknesses of men to the power of God. Instead of dwelling upon desolations, let us arise and build every one over against his own house; then we would soon see the multitudes come up "like a flock of sheep from the washing, every one bearing twins, and none barren among them."

Such I believe is the power of the word of life when public expression is called for; such the burning of the fire kindled within, that the tongue must speak and tell what God has done. May all mind their calling, young and old, and encourage one another to love and to good works. SARAH HUNT.

SCRIPTURE ILLUSTRATED.

Not long since a man in India was accused of stealing a sheep. He was brought before the judge, and the supposed owner of the sheep was also present. Both claimed the sheep, and had witnesses to prove their respective claims, so that it was not easy for the judge to decide to which the sheep belonged.

to Him. Will not this blessed intercourse exclude the thought that you are forgotten or for| saken, or that he is dealing hardly with you?"

SECRET PRAYER.

There are conditions of mind entering into and promoted by secret prayer, which must ever commend it most strongly to every devout person. It removes in a large measure from the heart the temptation to ostentation in relig ion. That the profession of Christianity is a cause of trial to many, and, under some circum. stances, to all minds, is beyond doubt; but it cannot be denied that the outward confession may so far cease to be a cross as to become a means of self-glorying. In such case, it is a snare to the soul, a most pernicious one, superinducing self-righteousness and hypocrisy.

Every man possesses what may be termed a double consciousness-one for himself and anoth er for the world: with the one, he reads himself for himself, and with the other, he reads himself for others. Some minds seldom study the former, but almost exclusively the latter. To such the danger of performing their religious duties for the inspection of men is very great, and nothing is more important to them than to be put under the necessity of so far excluding themselves from the observation of the world as to temporarily free them from this exposure by making them feel that they are alone with the Searcher of hearts. Insensibly will the thought of another's opinion steal upon the best of men in their most honest public devotions, and in some degree, however slight, be an enticement to dissembling. To say nothing of the desire to make one's self appear good-too Knowing the customs of the shepherds, and easily excited in us all-the very uses of public the habits of the sheep, the judge ordered the worship to stir each other to increased piety in sheep to be brought into court, and sent one of some sort lay one under bonds, cither real or the two men into another room, while he told imaginary, to try to please. One would natuthe other to call the sheep, and see if it would rally wish to make an impression favorable to come to him. But the poor animal, not know-religion by exhibiting its excellence in one's ing the "voice of a stranger," would not go to him. In the meantime the other man, who was in an adjoining room, growing impatient, and probably suspecting what was going on, gave a kind of "cluck," upon which the sheep bounded away towards him at once. This "cluck" was the way in which he had been used to call the sheep, and it was at once decided that he was the real owner.

Thus we have a beautiful illustration of John x. 4, 5: "And the sheep follow him, for they know his voice: and a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him; for they know not the voice of strangers.-British Workman.

"Maintain confidence in God by looking out for instances of His love. They will not be wanting; and when you meet with them, let a word of grateful response rise from your heart

own exercises. This is a good; yet we must see how this line of commendable virtue runs

by a brink-the temptation to appear better than we really are. Now, the correction for this tendency is not abstinence from public worship, but frequent devotion under circumstances where it is impossible to be thus beset.

The soul, shut away from outward incitements, is led to turn in upon itself, and so a deeper, juster insight of its own condition is insured. Thus withdrawn from the eyes of men, it reads itself for itself-not asking what will men think What do I think of it of this or that act, but for myself?" "Does it do for me?" "Does it answer the ideal of truth and purity which I have formed for myself, and so command my own respect, which is of infinitely grea er mɔment to me than the judgments of others?" The heart can see much of itself as reflect: 1 in

"How beautiful the thatch looks!" cried an other.

"Ah!" cried the old thatch, "rather let them say how beautiful is the loving moss, that spends itself in covering all my faults, keeping the knowledge of them all to herself, and by her own grace making my age and poverty wear the garb of youth and luxuriance."

the opinions of others; but the lesson will be' straightway forgotten unless it carry these teachings into its own solitudes and ponder them. The sun paints his pictures in the dark, and the operator must hurry away his delicate tracery to the little dark room to fix it. The outside surface man, comparing himself with men around him, estimating himself by the average of mankind, makes no advancement; while he who seeks retirement with God, bringing with him the results of his observations, finds a higher standard of comparison for his character. A clearer light than the dim, confused opinions of men shines upon his soul, even that which streams forth from the perfection of the Almighty. He and God are alone, and in God there is no darkness at all. All is made manifest by this light, and as the soul can bear it, every motive and act stands out in full propor-ly the same purport, says St. Hillaire, an emi

tion.

MAN AN ORIGINAL CREATION, NOT A DEVELOP

MENT.

From an article under this head in the Theological Eclectic, for July and August, by Worthington Hooker, M. D., Professor in Yale College, we extract as follows:

"How does man differ mentally from animals? It has sometimes been said that man is governed by reason and animals by instinct. To near

nent French naturalist, the plant lives, the aniThere is, moreover, absolute need of the mal lives and feels, man lives, feels, and thinks.' broader freedom which the soul can have only The truth is, that both man and the animal in closet prayer. Secret devotion may restrain have instinct, thought, and reason. That comfrom pride, from dissimulation, but it also af- mon animals think, I need not stop to prove. fords the opportunity for, and the encourage- It is obvious, also, that they reason, if we call ment to the utmost directness and thoroughness the making of inferences reasoning. If you hit in one's approaches to God. Every thought a dog with a stone, and he afterward sees you can be expressed; sins which are hardly conceived may be confessed; troubles which no human breast could appreciate can be told into an Ear that never wearies of listening and a loving Heart that never wearics of feeling; emotions of joy and sorrow can have their full gush of expression without fear of annoyance to one's highest friend. However much all hearts may need the aid which contact with other hearts imparts, there are times when every heart absolutely requires the unrestrained liberty of privacy. Two are infinitely too many; one and God are enough. Then will the soul open all its secrets, and from a deep sense of its bitterness and helplessness, pour out itself into an urgent waiting and pleading before Him who seeth in secret and rewardeth openly. Happy for us if, when such seasons of want and anguish come, we have already learned the uses of secret prayer?- The Methodist.

THE CHARITY THAT COVERETH.

"Dear moss" said the old thatch, "I am so worn, so patched, so ragged; really, I am quite unsightly. I wish you would come and cheer me up a little; you will hide all my infirmities and defects, and, through your loving sympathy, no finger of contempt or dislike will be pointed at me.'

"I come!" said the moss; and it crept up and around, and in and out, till every flaw was hidden, and all was smooth aud fair. Presently the sun shone out, and the old thatch looked gloriously in the golden rays.

"How beautiful the thatch looks!" cried one.

take up another stone, he infers that he had
better get out of the reach of that stone if he
can. This inferring, or reasoning, is through
the mere association of ideas, and differs from
a higher kind of reasoning, soon to be spoken
of as belonging exclusively to man. Sometimes
this reasoning by association is more complex
than in the case just cited. I will give a few
examples. A bird built its nest in a quarry,
where it was liable to disturbance from the blast-
ings. It soon, however, learned to fly off when
it heard the bell ring to warn the laborers pre-
vious to a blast. They sometimes rung the bell
when there was to be no blast, for the sake of
amusement in seeing the bird start off when
there was no need of it; but it did not allow
itself to be many times deceived in this way,
for it soon added another mental association to
the first one from which its inference was made,
and did not quit its best till it saw the men
run. Some horses in a field were supplied with
water in a trough occasionally filled by a pump.
One of the horses, more sagacious than the rest,
if he found the trough empty, would take the
pump-handle in his teeth, and pump into the
trough. The other horses seeing this, would,
whenever they found no water in the trough,
tease the horse that knew how to pump by biting
and kicking him, till he would fill the trough
for them. In this case, the horse that did the
pumping associated in his mind the motion of
the pump handle in the hands of his master
with the supply of water, and he inferred that
his mouth could do as well as his master's hand.
And while they associated this supply with his

pumping, he inferred what their teasing him | ly endowed of the brute creation. This intromeant from associating it with their motions duces him into a sphere of thought, and conseabout the trough, indicating so plainly that they wanted some water.

Instinct is a very different thing from this reasoning by association. It makes no inferences. It is unreasoning and blind. The hen will sit on pieces of chalk, shaped like eggs, as readily as on real eggs. The flesh-fly often lays its eggs in the carrion-flower, the odor of which so resembles that of tainted meat as to deceive the insect. An amusing example of the blind disregard of circumstances in obeying instinct is furnished by an English gentleman Mr. Broderip, in an account of a beaver, which he caught when very young. He gives a circumstantial narration of his operations in a room in which he placed him, where there were also placed materials in great variety-rush baskets, handbrushes, sticks, books, boots, clothes, turf, coal, hay, etc. He went to work busily constructing out of these a dam and a nest, very much as he would if he were on the banks of a stream. Now, if his instinct were at all rational, it would not have impelled him to make a dam and a dwelling in a common room. Reason would have dictated the construction of a nest, and nothing more.

Instinct operates in many wonderful ways, but these we cannot stop to notice.

Reasoning by association is more prominent in some animals than in others, but in none is it so much so as in man. It is with him a very abundant source of knowledge.

quently of feeling, in which he moves in common with angels, and, we may add, in common with the Deity-the only difference being that God knows all principles without the tedious processes of thought and reasoning which must be gone through with by man. It is plainly this which is signified when it is said of the creation of man, In the image of God created he him.'

Let us see now what results come from the possession of this power.

First, it is only by a recognition of principles that man infers from nature the existence of a Creator, or can teach this inference to others. And he can teach this to no brute, simply because it has no power of admitting into its mind the simplest principle.

Again, as the distinction between right and wrong is founded on principles, it is obvious that no animal but man can know this distinction; and so no animal but man can act in obedience to conscience. Sometimes this knowledge is loosely and inconsiderately attributed to brutes of the higher orders. It has been said by some one, that man is the god of the dog; but it is irreverent trifling thus to compare the regard of the dog for his master to that which man should bear to the Creator. We usually recognize the distinction between men and animals in respect to the existence of a conscience in the very language we use. We are not apt to speak of punishing a dog, for the word implies a moral fault as the reason for the infliction. We whip him simply to associate in his mind pain with the act done, to prevent him from doing it again; or, perhaps, to vent our ill feeling for the harm done upon the innocent cause of it.

It is the power of abstract reasoning that is the source of language in man. This is manifest if we consider what is the nature of What we ordinarily term language

But there is a higher kind of reasoning, which belongs to man alone-a reasoning by which he arrives at principles-abstract reasoning, as it may be termed. I will illustrate, in a very simple way, the difference between this reasoning and that which is common to man and the brutes. Newton had a favorite dog, Diamond. We will suppose that, happening to be under an apple-tree with his master, he was hit by a fall-language. ing apple. He would infer, if he saw other is made up of vocal signs of an arbitrary charapples falling, that it was best to keep out of the acter, with corresponding written signs. As way of them. This would be the extent of his general principles are recognized in the construcreasoning. But how was it with his master? tion and arrangement of these signs, we see at It is said that the seeing of an apple fall, led once the reason that brutes have no artificial him to such thoughts and reasonings on falling language-that is, no signs that are agreed upon and moving bodies that he at length discovered as expressive of ideas. They do indeed have a the great fact or principle of gravitation. natural language, made up of natural signs, Here we have disclosed to us the grand dis- cries, and motions, which vary in different tinction -the impassable chasm'-between tribes of animals; but artificial, that is, constructman and other animals. No animal, however ed language, is a wholly different thing, alextensive may be its mental associations, and though it may incorporate into itself features inferences from them, can ever evolve a princi- from natural language. The parrot is indeed ple, or receive one into its mind by instruction. said to talk, but it is sheer imitation; and he This is not a difference of degree merely, but of never originates any language. It is not the kind. Man is not merely a wiser being than mere possession of talking organs that gives to any other animal, but the main source of his man the power of talking; the presence of the wisdom is a faculty or power which is not pos- mind of man is essential for this use of those sessed in the smallest degree by the most high-lorgans. The talk of Balaam's ass was a miracle

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