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III. And this, because the motive, to educate a human soul is, that it may be fit for God. EDUCATION IS A DIVINE THING: not only as it is from God, and must be through God: but, as it should be for God. The motives which are used, to further education, among men, are many and various. For personal elevation; for the pleasure of it; to appear well in society; for the gratification of friends; to serve the country. All, in their way, good; to their extent. But all, far short of the whole truth. This is the true motive to education: to restore to God, as near as may be, that, which, at the Fall, was lost. Little as he may think it, man is a trustee to his Maker, of the image, which He made him in. Restored, by the redemption of the Cross, to the capacity of its renewal, and furnished through its purchase, with the means, he lies under the most solemn obligation, to improve the one, so as to ensure the other. All other motives are but partial, temporary, ineffectual. This, only, rises to the height of the "great argument," of human obligation. And, as water never rises higher than its source; and only the mountain springs can reach the upper stories, in a house; so, this, alone, can animate and prosecute the enterprise, by which, the gracious purpose of the Cross can, surely, realize its

purposes.

"Mere human energy shall faint,

And youthful vigor cease;
But those, who wait upon the Lord,
In strength, shall still increase.

"They, with unwearied step shall tread

The path of life divine:

With growing ardor, onward move;
With growing brightness, shine.

"On eagles' wings they mount, they soar,
On wings of faith and love;

Till, past the sphere of earth and sin,
They rise to heaven, above."

My Children, you have received the honours of the Institution. You are, now, to prove, that you had earned them. There will be much expected of you. See to it, that it be not disappointed. You step upon the stage of outdoor life, at an eventful moment, in the drama. Great movements are in progress, everywhere. The end, no man can see. Nor, are we answerable, for that. It rests, and it is safe, with God. You are not, now, to learn your great responsibilities; as men, as freemen, and as Christians. They have been truly set before you, day by day, through all your academic life. You are now, to turn the precepts of your Alma Mater into practice and to realize her lofty aims, in your high course, of duty and of honour. Remember life is short. Remember, being is eternal.

VI.

THE BACCALAUREATE ADDRESS,

AT THE

* SIXTH ANNUAL COMMENCEMENT OF BURLINGTON COLLEGE.

THE CHILD IS FATHER OF THE MAN.

THERE are no accidents. Nothing, in nature, or in life, that is not by a plan. A providential law perrades the universe. And, yet, with universal freedom. A sparrow does not fall, without our Father. Nor, a hair is black or white, but as He wills. Yet, Liebig will reveal to you the glands, by which the colouring matter is distributed, to each particular hair. And the blithe sparrow chirps and chatters, as he springs from spray to in the full consciousness of perfect liberty. As the scale of the creation rises, towards the Creator, this freedom, with a law, becomes, at once, more manifest and more magnificent. It is the majesty of moral natures. Angels exult in it. It is the unconscious charm of childhood. It links our life, through all its stages, into

one.

spray,

And its electric chain takes in eternity. A great

*St. Michael and All Angels, A. D. 1855.

philosopher has said, of men, who disconnect the present and the future, from the past that," they exist, in fragments." And he most happily illustrates his meaning, and sets forth the law of continuity, in moral natures, with the words of another great philosopher; like him, a poet, too:

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The child is father of the man ;

And I would wish my days to be

Bound, each to each, by natural piety."

And the poet of the Christian Year, worthy to be named with Coleridge, and with Wordsworth, has caught the same conclusion, and developed the same law, under another, scarcely, a different, illustration.

"Our path of glory,

By many a cloud, is darken'd and unblest:

And, daily, as we downward glide

Life's ebbing stream, on either side,

Shows, at each turn, some mouldering hope or joy;
The man seems following, still, the funeral of the boy."*

"THE CHILD IS FATHER OF THE MAN.

What does this mean?

What does it teach?

I. WHAT DOES IT MEAN, to say, "the child is father

*First Sunday after Trinity.

of the man?" What does it mean, to say, the oak is in the acorn? What does it mean, to say, the fleet is in the forest? It is one of those primal truths, which are latent, in all minds. The electric spark of a great thought flashes them, into form. And we wonder, why we never hit upon them. Nothing was easier than to make the egg stand up, when Columbus had shown how. Go to the Patent Office, at Washington. Look into the department of agriculture. See, with what care, those grains and seeds, of every kind, from every quarter of the world, are sorted and distinguished; are folded up; are tied; are labelled; are laid in different drawers, or upon different shelves. Then, let a chance cucumberseed drop, by your choicest melon-bed; and the distor tion of your disappointment, when you taste the first, that ripens, on those cherished vines, will tell you, why such care is exercised, as language cannot tell it. How anxiously the blood is cared for, in the breeds of cattle! How completely Devon, and Durham, and Alderney, have become "household words," among our farmers! And, how could Welsh or Spanish pedigree be noted, with more scrupulous accuracy, than that of the winning horse at Epsom, or the Derby? It is far surer to be true, that "the child is father of the man." He owned it, who saw, in the boy Cæsar, many Syllas. St. Paul felt more assured of Timothy, when he remembered, that, "from a boy," he had "known the Holy Scriptures." And it is the lesson of the Holy Ghost, by Solomon, "Train up a child, in the way he should go; and, when he is old, he will not depart from it."

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