cut off legislation, are questions that the people should consider; and they will be carefully reviewed in this work.

The Constitution of the United States has also ceased to be a sacred instrument, and needs some new consecration. The people must swear again to support the organic law of the Nation, and to do so with a grace, they must reconstruct it. The portions that need amending are the veto clause, the regulations concerning the elections, providing the apportionment of representatives, and many other clauses not established in the people's love, should be discussed, and if thought practicable, amended. All these questions, the Western Quarterly Review will not be afraid to grapple with such ability as it may be able to command.

Neither the Rights of Persons nor the Rights of Things are established. We find one individual holding it the right of one man to accumulate all the property, both real and personal, that his ability will enable him, regardless of others, while another denies this right and contends that great accumulations are a violation of other's rights to adequate support. One denies the right of property in the soil, except for the supply of immediate necessities, while another says this right is necessary to stimulate industry. What is the truth on this subject? These questions lie at the basis of all that is just among men; and what the truth is, it is important to know.

The subject of Free Soil will be considered, both in respect to free homes for the people and freedom from the curse of chattel slavery. Nothing can better conserve public morals and domestic happiness than to throw a sacredness around the endearments of home, and make its sanctuary inviolable. By what right, except the right of might, as represented in the Statute law, one individual can say to another, this field you have cleared and tilled under the encouragement of Hopethis house you have built after many years of unceasing and arduous toil-these trees you have planted and these flowers you have cultivated-all these comfortable situations you have been so solicitous in making, and which have almost become a part of your nature, must be vacated by yourself and your family in order that my claim may be satisfied. This language is that of heartlessness as well as of absolute disregard of the rights of a family to the roof under which they were born, and to the locality where their affections have centered. Exempt the Homstead; free the Soil to actual settlers, and limit the

Quantity which one man may hold, will be the demand of this Journal; although any one opposing its propositions can be heard through its pages.

After speaking thus of Free Soil, it need not be stated that the Western Quarterly Review will oppose the extension of slavery, and also discuss those questions which involve both chattel and wages slavery. The world is slowly but surely moving on toward that Freedom which is real, and looks to the abolition of all institutions that give advantage to some at the expense of others, and of all individual conduct which is not consistent with the highest good of every human being.

The call for Reform has gone abroad and has summoned to battle many active and fearless spirits. This call cannot be disregarded with impunity, for it appeals to the hearts of the Good and the True that will beat a deep response to the notes of Love they hear.

The trumpet note of Reform has been sounded by the most illustrious personages who have thrown light upon the darkness of the world. The Prophets and Seers of the olden ages looked forward to the time of Human Regeneration, when the Purity and Greatness they felt in their own spirits should be actualized in Humanity at large. The Forerunner in the wilderness, across whose soul flitted the "shadow of coming events," lifted up a voice as of a descended spirit, and startled the fallen ranks of the people by the cry of "Reform! for the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand!" That Kingdom of Heaven he saw about to descend in gentleness and love in the person of the Divine Man, Jesus Christ, whose Radicalism, as portrayed in the Sermon on the Mount, and indeed in all His teachings, we cannot hope faithfully to imitate.

Through all the ages that have trod the Earth, destroying on the one hand and upbuilding on the other, faithful sentinels have been found on the towers of progress to point the people to something higher and purer than they enjoy. Sir Thomas More, in his UTOPIA, pictured mankind in a state of elevation full of the happiness that is in waiting for all, and which is just being hoped for after the lapse of three hundred years. Sir Thomas has been called a dreamer, and the name he gave his happy island has been adopted as a reproach for the visionary: but he was a true Priest and Prophet. St. Pierre, in his ARCADIA, breathed also the inspiration of one looking forward to that BETTER TIME when plenty and peace shall abound for all, and

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Universal Humanity, as one Mighty Spirit, enjoy the beatitude of Brotherly Love. Harrington, in his OCEANA, imagined his beloved England reconstructed as a happy Republic, in which all the people were politically equal.

But these, to say nothing of Fenelon, Owen, Fourier, and a shining host of others, who, whatever may have been the errors they entertained, possessed that which typifies the Future of Society, and is a foundation for an animating Hopefulness in the most desponding. Let not, therefore, the sound of REFORM be unheeded as an idle wind, for it has called out the most illustrious of the race, and is summoning the old and the false to judgment.

But to close this introduction, we will call the reader's attention to only one more characteristic of our periodical. Its most uninteresting feature shall not be its Review department. Next to a healthful atmosphere, we are in want of a healthful Literature. It is the province of the Critic to superintend the issues of the Press, and see that nothing shall pass unworthy of the age, nor prejudicial to the public morals.

But the Critic should be judicious. There is no province more obnoxious to humbug than his; for who shall stand up as the model spirit of the age, and say that nothing is good which finds not in him an approving response? There is no established standard of taste in Literature and Art. The most perfect man is alone entitled to the most deference in respect to taste but who shall say that this or that man is the most perfect? We judge only from within ourselves, and our judgment will be erroneous in degree as we are imperfect. But some things are settled as the landmarks of Criticism, and the aim of all should be to advance nearer to the Good and the True. A goodly degree of modesty should, therefore, attend all the efforts of the Critic, remembering that though he may not be able to appreciate the glowing of another's spirit, it may, nevertheless, breathe a higher and purer atmosphere, and reach farther forward toward that which is to be.

The Western Quarterly Review will not, at first sight, appear to be of the generic character of the pure Review. It will be seen to partake both of the character of the Review and the Journal, which in reality is that of the principal Quarterlies of the age. Such as it is, it goes before the country to "bide its time."

ART. I. THE YOUTH OF CHRIST.

IN HIS YOUTH, OCCUPIED IN TOIL SUCH AS THE GREAT MAJORITY

OF MEN PURSUE.

JESUS CHRIST came into this world to redeem it, to fill it with needful instruction and saving grace. There is not only infinite efficacy in the power of his blood to cleanse from sin,—there is also light in his life adapted to every age, force in his example vouchsafed to sustain the aspiring every where, and fortify the weak. The period of early youth, his preliminary training, is less amply portrayed in the gospels than his public ministry; but the stupendous achievements of his maturity bear an intimate relation to his juvenile career, rendering it desirable that we should contemplate the entire life of the great Redeemer as an unit, his teachings and actions as they are connected throughout, so as to derive the greatest profit from the harmonious view.

In this discussion, we will consider two general points. In his youth, Christ was occupied in toil such as the great majority of men pursue. That toil was prosecuted under circumstances adapted to develop his powers, and prepare him for the perfect accomplishment of his divine mission on earth.

In the first place, Christ, in his youthful condition on earth, was occupied in toil such as the great majority of men pursue. The Roman domination embraced nearly all the known world, when the Redeemer was born at the precise moment and in the exact locality where the sacred oracles had predicted that he should appear. Springing from a race of kings, and in his extreme indigence, deprived even of the humblest asylum upon the earth he came to save, he represented in this double state, the entire race of man. All the unfortunate who bear the burdens of toil and of pain, exiled patriotism, banished merit, wandering tribes, and outraged benefactors of every degree, may turn to the babe of Bethlehem; and recognize a brother in "HIM through whom Jehovah bestows salvation," who was cradled into suffering by both power and want, and was from the onset violently pursued by the tyranny he came to overthrow. Several of the first years of our Lord's temporal life were passed in almost entire obscurity, wherein he accomplished the destiny of man, eating the bread which he gained in the sweat

of his brow. Submissive to every filial obligation, it is recorded that he obeyed Joseph and Mary with perfect docility; he accomplished with them the precepts of the law, and it was thus that he grew in wisdom, in age and in favor before God and men. As the deliverer of man condemned, the ennobler of man degraded, it was necessary that Jesus should at every step be the model of man in perfection, the source of all the graces by which we can, in following his precepts, and imitating his examples, reestablish in ourselves the image of God which sin has defaced. No period of his progress, no incident in his life, is unworthy of our profoundest study. We should strive to penetrate the thoughts of eternal wisdom, and contemplate his ways in the marvelous work of our redemption.

Infinite wisdom has not seen fit to grant us copious and minute details of our Saviour's early life, but enough are transmitted to us to excite interesting thoughts and impart the most profitable lessons. The events of his maturity command our attention by their grandeur; but they are not the only ones worthy of our observation. On the contrary, we should study the growth of this divine being-"seek for the bud which concealed the seed, and the powers that conspired to unfold it."

No other child was ever harrassed by adversity and subject to the necessity of exhausting toil like Jesus Christ. It began in the manger and ended only on the cross. A divine messenger came to Joseph, and directed him to fly with the child and his mother to Egypt. Think of the length of the journey required; the ignorance of the parents with respect to the way they were to pursue ; the youth and feebleness of Mary, and the trembling age of Joseph; the delicate condition of the infant they were to transport so far, over so rough a way; and especially think how utterly unprovided they were with means of supporting themselves in a foreign land. Groups of the lonely, sojourning in poverty far away from natal soil, behold your prototype and consolation in Christ! How did that family procure food by the way, a shelter from the sun, and a covert from the storm? Think of the tasks and sorrows that encompassed the child Jesus, in the dawning of his first consciousness, and the exercise of his first strength!

At length the angel of the Lord again appears unto Joseph, saying, "Take the boy and his mother and go into the land of Israel; for they are dead who sought the life of the boy." Josephus has told us who the tyrant was who had driven the young