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line between childhood and youth, and at which regular religious instruction and the study of the law were generally entered upon. For that reason his parents, who were accustomed to visit Jerusalem annually, at the time of the Passover, took him with them for the first time. When the feast was over, and they were setting out on their return, they missed their son; this, however, does not appear to have alarmed them, and perhaps he was accustomed to remain with certain kindred families or friends; indeed, we are told (Luke ii. 44) that they expected to find him "in the company" at the evening halt of the caravan. Disappointed in this expectation, they returned the next morning to Jerusalem, and on the following day found him in the synagogue of the temple among the priests, who had been led, by his questions, into a conversation on points of faith. His parents reproached him for the uneasiness he had caused them, and he replied, "Why did you seek me? Did you not know that I must be about my Father's business?" Now these words of Jesus contain no explanation, beyond his tender years, of the relations which he sustained to the Father; they manifest simply the consciousness of a child, a depth, to be sure, but yet only a depth of presentiment.

"We can draw various important inferences from this incident in the early life of Christ. At a tender age he studied the Old Testament, and obtained a better knowledge of its religious value by the light that was within him, than any human instruction could have imparted. Nor was this beaming forth of an immediate consciousness of Divine things in the mind of the child, in advance of the development of his powers of discursive reason at all alien to the character and progress of human nature, but entirely in harmony with it. Nor need we wonder that the infinite riches of the hidden spiritual life of the child first manifested themselves to his consciousness, as if suggested by his conversation with the doctors, and that his direct intuitions of Divine truth, the flashes of spiritual light that emanated from him, amazed the masters in Israel. It not unfrequently happens, in our human life, that the questions of others are thus suggestive to great minds, and, like steel upon the flint, draw forth their inner light, at the same time revealing to their own souls the unknown treasures that lay in their hid den depths. But they give more than they receive; the outward suggestion only excites to action their creative energy; and men of reflective and receptive, rather than creative minds,

by inciting the latter to know and develop their vast resources, may not only learn much from their utterance, but also diffuse the streams which gush with overflowing fulness from those abundant well-springs. And these remarks applying-in a sense in which they apply to no other-to that mind, lofty beyond all human comparison, whose creative thoughts are to fertilize the spiritual life of man through all ages, and whose creative power sprang from its mysterious union with that Divine Word which gave birth to all things, show us that His consciousness developed itself gradually, and in perfect accordance with the laws of human life, from that mysterious union which formed its ground.

"And further-without in the least attempting to do away with the peculiar form of the child's spiritual life--we can recognize in this incident a dawning sense of his Divine Mission in the mind of Jesus: a sense, however, not yet unfolded in the form in which the corruption of the world, objectively presented, alone could occasion its development. The child found congenial occupation in the things of God; in the temple he was at home. And, on the other hand, we see an opening consciousness of the peculiar relation in which he stood to the Father as the Son of God. We delight to find in the early lives of eminent men some glimpses of the future, some indications of their after greatness; so we gladly recognize, in the pregnant words of the child, a fore-shadowing of what is afterwards so fully revealed to us in the discourses of the completely manifested Christ, especially as they are given to us in John's gospel.

The history of rising worth has nothing to compare with that temple-scene. A youth appears "sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers." He comes into the assembly of venerable sages with a mild and pensive countenance, that seems haunted with earnest thought. He is no favorite of earthly fortune, no scion of aristocratic pride, no pet of exclusive schools, but the simple child of the unsophisticated people, steeped to the lips in suffering; and yet, mightier than the domes that bend above him, he is for the intellect and heart of man a glorious living temple, built with the choicest riches of unnumbered worlds. The first question he propounds startles the attention of all who hear him, and creates the greatest astonishment in the most

profound, for his words bear that charm of immaculate wisdom which can neither be defaced nor excelled. Question succeeds to question, and learning, in despair, grows more and more confused in this, the grandest gladiatorship of mind yet witnessed on earth. Sage after sage, swelling with wounded pride, is silenced before that youth appareled in the plain attire of peasant life, radiant with the celestial life that emanates from an aspiring heart, and bent on throwing wide open the gates of instruction to all. The whole park of artillery which power and craft have erected on their contracted citadels he has spiked, and like "a mailed angel on a battle day," he rejoices in his triumph, not for himself, but for the sake of the benighted multitudes around. Free thought and free discussion then and there were born!

ART. II.-INTELLECTUAL UNION.
MEN of mind! O, men of mind!
Ye who wield the mighty Pen,
Scanning souls with angel ken!
Ye who mould our human kind
In the matrix of your thought,-
Why have ye for ages wrought
Moral miracle and wonder,
Still asunder-still asunder?

Men of mind! O, men of mind!
Could the electric fire of soul
Fuse ye in one glowing whole.--
Could the immortal flame, enshrined
In each stranger heart and brain,
Flash from one tremendous fane,--
Then might all the world awaken-
Then might Earth with joy be shaken!

Men of mind! O, men of mind!

Ye are stewards of your Lord-
Ye are treasurers of his Word!

Whatsoe'er on earth ye bind,

Lo! it shall be bound in heaven:

What by you on earth is riven,

Shall in heaven be loosed and broken

Lo! the Eternal Voice has spoken!

Men of mind! O, men of mind!
Flash your million souls in one-
Let the stars become the Sun!

Be ye as your God designed!

Then shall Error withering fall-
Then shall perish Wrong and Thrall—
Then shall Freedom's song arise-
Earth's Eternal Sacrifice!

ART. III. THE LAND QUESTION.

Freedom of the Land the People's Right.

MONOPOLY prevails throughout society. On the right wing of humanity we see a monopoly of wealth by a few, while on the extreme left we behold a Monopoly of Poverty by another class; both of which are equally blameless for their condition, -because they have sinned through ignorance. On the one hand, those who monopolize the wealth are ignorant of the relations they sustain to their fellows, of the fact that all cannot be rich, and while some are so, others must be poor, and believe each has a perfect right to accumulate all to which his powers are adequate, regardless of the well-being of others.

Those who make money under this delusion, are no more blame-worthy than he who spends the last cent, which should buy bread for his children, in purchasing a white robe ornamented with gold, under the delusion that the "last great day" is at hand and the saints should prepare to ascend. Correctly viewed, both cases appear equally ridiculous; for the man accumulating wealth, as a general rule, does so at the expense of his moral and intellectual nature, as well as that of his children, who will be certain to distinguish their progress through the world by gilded trappings and a gorgeous display of expensive pageantry.

On the other hand, those who monopolize the poverty of the world are not culpable, because they are either inadequate in business tact and talent to cope with the other class, or they are too honest to resort to the usual means of getting wealth; or, finally, the chances in the great lottery of the business world have proved unfortunate for them.

This class of monopolists is most wretched in this life. They are the prey of all other classes who have reduced them to gaunt skeletons and ghostly shapes, which make them at once objects of contempt by those of better condition, and of startling affright to themselves. They look about them, and are amazed at their own existence. They see nothing to enjoy-nothing to live for -a dark mystery hangs over their existence, and they wonder

At

for what purpose they were brought into the world. They find their fate to be little better than that of slaves; one ceaseless round of unmitigated drudgery-one unceasing struggle with crushing toil, in order to get the scantiest means of subsistence. They rise at the early dawn, and swallowing a morsel, are lashed speedily to work by dire necessity, and it is through all the "live long day," work, work, work, even after every bone aches and every muscle groans under the o'ermastering task. nightfall they return to their dreary homes, and without a moment's time for pleasure or intellectual diversion, are driven to the slumbers of the night by a necessity for repose. My God! of what value is a life thus doomed! Talk of Slavery! Let there be slavery if the slaves are well fed, well clad and moderately worked, in preference to such a toilsome lot, aggravated by all the mental torments that can spring from a fear of starvation for themselves and children!

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We are told that Liberty is a jewel, and is "dearer than life,' but it is a jewel that is daily steeped in tears-a jewel that the worn-out with toil and the starving loathe and abhor. Liberty is called a "delightful sound;" but of what avail is it to utter the sound with a thousand trumpets in the ear of him who is steeped in intoxication, or who knows not, while exhausted with the labor of the day, whence will come the next meal, or how he can support his children so that they will not be absolute curses to themselves and to society! Ah! I fear this sound of Liberty is calculated more to cajole us into quietude, while our wealthy masters lash us on to our tasks and reap the profits of our labor.

We would not apologize for slavery in any form, but would be glad to strike the manacles from every slave, whether white or black. God grant that the time may soon come when good deeds may so increase, and benevolence become so familiar, that plenty shall abound with easy toil, and real Freedom be enjoyed by those who can only boast of it.

But this is not an overwrought picture. We know a Clergyman who finds it difficult to support himself and family, on a salary of $1,500 per annum! What, in the name of Heaven, does this Clergyman think the hard day-laborer can do for his family on the yearly earnings of $200? less than one-seventh of his salary! Is it not a fact, ye herald of Christian Love and Peace, that the laborer's son and the laborer's daughter need as much to support and educate them as your own? While,

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