capabilities, when justly estimated, are important and dignified enough to satisfy the largest heart. On the contrary, the willing recognition of it liberates the mind from an error that is injurious, as error always is; the error, in the present case, being that of a wrong aim and a wrong direction of the powers of mind and hand. It removes, likewise, the feeling of rivalry, ever an ungenerous one. Let her seek simply to do her work well, whatever it may be, according to the best judgment she can form of well-doing in any particular instance. Let her give full expression to the feminine nature within her; and not cramp her energies by aiming at that in which she can rarely excel, and then only by a proportionate loss in some graceful feminine attribute. With the right aim kept steadily before the mind, to do the best that is practicable with its peculiar gifts and endowments, she will be enlightened to see clearly the nature of the work to which she is adapted; and will feel no inclination to invade provinces that—with a special fitness-fall to the other sex. When certain professions and employments are excepted, for which the most obtuse common sense can discern that each sex is respectively disqualified, it may be difficult to determine the precise limits within which the activities of either should be confined. There are, probably, many vocations that both can follow with equal competency; though still with a difference. Much, too, will depend upon particular aptitude, or outward circumstances, which may occasionally supersede general rules, or natural distinctions. These remarks, however, are not directed to the nature of the work in which women should engage, but to the spirit in which it is executed. All honour to those ladies who are endeavouring to enlarge the range of remunerative female labour, or are pioneers in new professions; but let them not shrink from leaving on their work the impress of a feminine mind and hand. LIFE-FORMS. PROEM. "THE testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy," says the inspired apostle (Rev. xix. 10), "and this is the testimony or record (uaprúpia) that God hath given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son," or His humanity (1 John v. 11). The record of eternal life is the sum and substance of the Bible, now "showing itself through the lattice" (Song of Sol. ii. 9) of types, representatives, and significatives, and anon appear ing at the open window of the gospel, "whose prospect is towards the east." Eternal life is another name for the original blessedness of man: its loss constitued the fall-its restoration the atonement-its rise or first beginning in the soul, salvation; its progress, regeneration; its activity, good works (whose essential principle is charity); its consummation and full development, heaven. This life is in its essence, love, and in its form, wisdom; or, in other words, good and truth are its constituent principles. These, profoundly one in God, came to primeval man, inseparably united like heat and light in the vernal sun; but since the fall man "has gone far from his original righteousness," and these heavenly principles come separately, yet tending to a happy and endless union. To Adam in Paradise, love, descending from its perennial source in the bosom of God, entered the inmost of his being, and proceeding by an internal way, vivifying his will and affections, and thence continuing its joyous course outward, formed in his understanding 66 Thoughts whose source was hidden and high, Like streams that come from heavenward hills ;" finally ultimating itself in those actions which constituted his external life. But in the lapsed condition of humanity all this is changed. At first eternal life, both in its essence and form, was shut out from man; its way was stopped, its course obstructed, and the human race must have inevitably perished from off our planet, but for the glorious remedy provided in the atonement, commenced in a certain sense amidst the still unfaded bowers of Eden, by the blessed utterance of the first promise, and "finished" on the hill of Calvary. Then in a higher and most important sense, "that which letteth was taken out of the way" (2 Thess. ii. 7). The ground of condemnation, or that which barred eternal life, being thus taken away, that life flows once more freely to man-free as the sun that crowns, free as the air that fans, the brow of earth, and man has but to receive and enjoy that life, to appropriate and take his share of that life, as he does of the sunshine and the air, by recognising his property in it as the free gift of God in His Son (1 John v. 11).1 But alas! the fall extends still 1 Although this series of short essays is intended to be practical rather than dogmatic, their main relation being to the cultivation of the affections, particularly those of Divine love and charity (of which indeed all other religious affections are only modifications) rather than to doctrine; yet the truth enunciated above may be regarded as a great uuiversal thesis tending to reconcile the various theories which prevail in the Christian world, respecting "the way of salvation." further-man has become impervious to eternal life. He puts it away from him; he has no heart beating responsive to its love, no intellect receptive of its wisdom. And while the natural earth gives forth its "answer to the sun" in ten thousand substances of use and forms of beauty, and to the air in its multiform life and many-toned voices, the moral earth is "without form and void, and darkness is upon the face of the deep." Death in awful solitude usurps the places of life, and "all the daughters of music are brought low" (Eccles. xii. 4). But the same Divine love and wisdom which has provided by the atonement against all lets and hindrances to the access of eternal life unto man, has also provided for its rise and progress within him by the Holy Spirit, which moves "dove-like" on the waters, causing the earth of man's affections to bare its bosom to the light, and to teem with varied life. Metaphor, or rather symbol apart-the Spirit opens the mind to perceive the things that are freely given us of God; then it has all peace and joy, and abounds in hope (Rom. xv. 13). This is the rise or beginning of spiritual or eternal life in the soul, which, however feeble at first, is salvation. And the progress of this heavenly life through all the planes of the soul, imparting its beatific nature to their varied thoughts and affections, and thence to all resulting words and works, gently elevating man from earth to heaven, and the heaven of heavens. This is regeneration, or salvation continued and unfolded. True, "much tribulation" attends and oft o'ershadows its luminous course "fightings without, fears within ;" but anon "the shadows will flee away," the tempests cease, and the light shine brighter and more genial, till it terminates in everlasting day. So the lark caught in the snare of the fowler, and thrown into slumber by soporific drugs,2 bound to earth and shut out from upper air; its enemy will soon arrive, and it continues a hopeless captive. But let "the snare" be "broken," and thus its connection with its congenial element restored; at first it is wholly insensible to its freedom, and it might remain for ever as if the cruel meshes still held it down, did not a life-giving and refreshing breath from the restored atmosphere pass into the apparently lifeless bird; it then slowly and feebly begins to recognise its enfranchisement to view the wide fields of earth, and the wider fields of 1 "Whoever," says Swedenborg, "procures to himself anything spiritual—be it ever so small--is saved." It was customary with those who snared birds in ancient times to impregnate the snare or net with soporific drugs, so that if it happened to be broken the bird could not escape, unless he "recovered" himself before the return of the fowler. There is supposed to be an allusion to this in 2 Tim. ii. 26. See also Ps. cxxiv. 7. sky; it stirs its wings and tunes its voice, and, as the vital current circulating through its frame increases, it mounts upwards-at first with faintly moving pinion and fluttering heart, scared by every cloud and beaten-down by every gale; but it soon completely "recovers itself,” it rises on bolder wing, and with louder song, high into serene and cloudless ether, ascending and continuing its joyous descant to the golden gates of the morning "Till its form like a speck with the airiness blending, And fading in music is lost on the view." There is at once a remarkable identity and difference in the accession of eternal life to man since, and anterior to, the fall. To both it was and is the free gift of God; man was never here a creator, but always a receiver. Primeval man saw and felt more fully than the most spiritually enlightened of his posterity, that for this life he was every moment dependent on God, "the Everflowing Spring;" as dependent as the rill on the fountain; and to lapsed man-the barriers being removed by the atonement-the gracious permission, "Of every tree in the garden thou mayest freely eat," belongs as much as to unfallen Adam. But in other respects, how different the Divine procedure ! To unfallen humanity, eternal life, as already observed, came by an interior way, and, remaining one, as in its almighty and unchanging source, proceeded first to his affections, and thence outward to his thoughts, words, and deeds. To man, since the fall, the heavenly largess comes, remaining one as to contact, but in progression its constituent elements separate: good proceeds from within, truth enters from without, as doctrine from the written or revealed Word, and when spiritually apprehended, it unites with good and forms one life in the conscience. Primeval man received his life by breathing empyreal air on the celestial mount, and thence, through the medium of its clear and genial atmosphere, surveyed the plain of truth, which was a continuation of its sunny slopes. Man, since the fall, first surveys the plain of truth, and, perceiving the everlasting hills at the termination of its perspective, begins to inhale their balmy air and to ascend their ethereal heights. Finally, to unfallen man, eternal life came unobstructed, both in its contact and its progress; unrestrained it flowed forth from the fountain; unrestrained it flowed on in the stream. To man, in his lapsed condition, it comes unrestricted indeed, in the contact, but fearfully restricted in its progress, owing to "manifold temptations," arising from the pressure of a triple enemy-the world, the flesh, and the devil. He is like the stream in winter, not cut off indeed, from the fountain (for then it must cease to exist), but obstructed by rocks which it cannot surmount, bound and imprisoned by the icy doors of winter, and its waters rendered impure and bitter. But when the mind of fallen man is opened by the Spirit, "the Divine breath," to discern "the gift of righteousness" (Rom. v. 17); even the new state brought in by Christ, a state wherein there is no condemnation, and wherein "all things are given us richly to enjoy," into which all are invited immediately to enter (Isa. lv. 1-3; Rev. xxii. 17): the joy of the Lord, with which he is filled, becomes his strength: he rises with Christ in newness of life (Rom. vi. 4), is enabled to combat against the enemy from this new provision of life, and in process of time to "overcome the wicked one," and is become conqueror-nay, more than conqueror-through Him that loved us (Rom. viii. 37): and having the glorious hope of seeing the Lord as He is, and so being like Him, he purifies himself even as He is pure (1 John iii. 1 3), and according to the measure of faith is able to comprehend with all saints the height and depth, and length and breadth, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that he might be filled with all the fulness of God (Eph. iii. 14, 19). Oh, happy state! the true perfection and dignity of human naturehow imperfectly realized here; whose full realization will take an eternity hereafter. So (to continue our parallel similitude) the wintry stream, when spring breathes over the world, is strengthened in its contact with the fountain-acquires new life, surmounts all barriers -its icy chains dissolve away-its impure waters are thrown off-and it "flows on, rejoices, makes music-bright living stream set free;" "the beloved of balmy winds and golden eves," reflecting in its limpid current "the image of all glorious things."1 In the words of the prophet, "I have used similitudes," illustrative of this heavenly theme, and shall in the further treatment of it. The "gift of eternal life," is like a precious stone in the hands of him that hath it; "whithersoever it turneth it prospereth" (Prov. xvii. 8). This may refer to the different phanim or eiduv, phases or forms which the gem assumes as it is turned in the light. So the gift of God takes various and splendid forms in the light of the Word, which wonderfully unfold its infinite nature, "ever varying, yet still the same," which we propose, under the divine auspices, to consider and dilate on in future. J. B. W. 1See Mrs Hemans' beautiful poem, "The Stream set Free." This similitude has its ground in Ps. cxxvi. 4. |