warm heart. An artless eye and open countenance belie the fancied monster of the private study; personal presence insures personal courtesy ; minor differences are forgotten; and the zealous adversaries become loving brothers, struggling against each other for the surer disinthrallment of truth. Few better illustrations of this subject are on record than those of the late Missionary discussion at Albany, and the Tract Society Debate at New York. Deeply interested in the question pending-possibly prejudiced upon it-by previous written disputation, here meet hand to hand the ultra Reformer and the staunch Conservative. At first reserved and distrustful, they come to know and confide in each other, and to part as brethren-each sensibly nearer the golden mean of their formerly extreme positions. Here the ardor of youth is chastened by the wisdom of age; the overrigid predilections of personal experiences yield something to the wider inductions of general observation, and even to the late-born theories of youthful zeal. Deep-rooted antipathies are uprooted; misapprehensions are corrected; while the grasp upon principle is tightened, the " elbow of preference" is rendered more supple; self and party are forgotten in the general search for truth; the result gives joy, because hope, to the Christian world. In our admiration of the instrument we would not disparage the agent in these great enterprises; but Christianity itself could have attained such an end only by a skillful adaptation of the best means, and that means was Oral Debate. The direst evil that curses our groaning world is but the greatest good, perverted. The instrument of truth we have indicated can be prostituted. Can be! The cheek of the American patriot mantles with shame as fancy pictures in the Council Chamber of the "model Republic" the brightest "spiritual weapon" of a free Senator forcibly matched with the black bludgeon of a passion-enslaved Tyrant! Noble power of Christian principle!—that can use and not abuse the highest gift-we turn in hope to thee! Thy timely example shall live. On the page of history, over against the dark tracings of our nation's deepest disgrace shall shine thy bright record for the encouragement of other times, and the lasting honor of the American Church! A prominent object of the College Literary Society is improvement in oral discussion; an object to the ordinary importance of which, the peculiar and urgent demands of the present time add special weight. The success and consequent satisfaction of its individual members are, 5 and must be, measured by the clearness with which they apprehend its real object, and the earnestness with which they pursue it. College has well been styled "the liberalizer of educated men." The Literary Society is a liberalizer of College. If it brings lesser community interests into temporary collision, it is but to teach betimes and impressively that, "party is the madness of the many for the good of the few." If it contravenes personal preferences and selfish schemes, it is but to give with emphasis the exhortation "Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's, Thy God's and truth's; then, if thou fall'st Thou fall'st a blessed martyr." The recognition by the student of such ends, and an earnest effort to attain them in the often feigned, sometimes real contests of the Debating Society, go far toward qualifying him to respond to the mandate that soon bids him be, and do, and perchance suffer, on practical life's rough battle-field; be, that he may successfully do-be and do, that, if duty calls, he may be reckoned worthy of that more trying, higher, God-like prerogative to suffer for the truth. HONOR. WHILE the good citizen guides his conduct by the law of the land, and the Christian by the law of God, there is a law of honor whose influence is felt by both these classes, and by others which civil and religious law fail to reach. Its code is unwritten, for it is various as the varying circumstances of human life,-fitful as the tide of human feeling. It is simply, in the case of any individual, the moral sentiment of the community, or of that class of the community to which he himself belongs. This influence is especially powerful in a homo geneous community. A morbid sensibility to personal affront, for instance, has always characterized the gentleman of the sword. Many a patient has slipped into eternity, while the doctor was agitating a point of professional etiquette. Many a student has braved the utmost indignation of College authorities, and the severest penalty of College law, while shrinking from the suspicion of meanness in the estimation of his fellow students. And, last but not least, experience has proved that there is such a thing as "honor among thieves." How far this public sentiment is a correct guide, may perhaps be a debatable question. It certainly cannot be trusted in all cases, else it would lead us into all the extravagances of Knight-errantry at one time, and the barbarous practices of the duellist at another. There are few vices which have not, at some period, been stamped as current money in the world of fashion,-and many a wondrous revolution in the general estimate of right and wrong would be evident to our old-fogy fathers, if they could have a temporary resurrection. Still, there seems to be something common to all ages, in their estimate of honor, though we cannot define it with much precision. Circumstances alter cases, but circumstances do not alter principles,—and we may often be disposed to approve the spirit in which a thing is done, while we condemn the action. The same regard for the fair sex exists now as prompted the gallant deeds of the age of chivalry ;--and the feeling that prefers "death before dishonor," is surely not extinct because duelling has gone somewhat out of fashion. There is as much need of caution and moderation in judging of conduct by our own peculiar standard of honor, as in deciding on any one of the infinitely various forms of animal or vegetable existence which we have never seen before. There are sordid souls, indeed, incapable of recognizing the lineaments of true honor, who deny its very existence as a vital principle of action. Just so there are those who deny the reality of spiritual religion. The inconsistencies of those who profess to be governed by these two principles, is the assumed ground of disbelief. But they stand or fall together. Reason, and Honor, and Virtue, these are the three legitimate handmaids of Religion, and any separation of them is unnatural, and injurious to all. The infidels of France sought to revolutionize their moral, as they had their political world, and set Reason on the throne of Religion, but they had no conception of the deity they professed to adore. She lived only in the smile of her dethroned mistress, while Folly was the idol which they worshipped. Equally inseparable is true honor from true religion. In so far as the one is professed without the other, it may with reason be suspected. And that large class of men who profess to be guided by the principles of honor as distinguished from those of religion, do nothing more nor less, if they fulfill their pretensions, than obey that voice of society which, so far as it is correct, is only the echo of the voice of God. True honor, then, is divine in its origin, and universal in its application. It provides a principle to which every item of human conduct may be referred, a standard by which it may be tried, and in this respect fills a place unoccupied by civil law. The principles of the divine government are in accordance with those of true honor, and their manifestation was complete in the life of one who has been styled "the only perfect gentleman." Pythagoras, being asked how man could best resemble the Divinity, replied, " in beneficence and truth." Thus then is man in the image of his Maker, as he is actuated by the principles of true honor. And while the cynic points to one and another character whose conduct belies his profession, and sneeringly asks "are they not all honorable men?" it is truly refreshing, in the midst of this world's selfishness and meanness, to meet with one who in all his principles and actions vindicates his claim to the title a man of "honor." There are a few such, who seem to be made of a different clay from other men,-deposits of precious metal in the baser soil of earth. Look at the honorable man! His brow is clear and open, unused to expressions of concealment,-for his thoughts and purposes are such as need no covering. Benevolence and contentment are written in the lines of his features, deepened by advancing age. His gait is manly and erect, he fears not the face of man, and walks, the true lord of creation and vicegerent of God. He has within him no consciousness of anything mean or despicable, either in the memory of the past or the principles of the present, to poison the springs of his happiness. He is a center of pleasing and elevating influences, and no jar on his part disturbs the harmony of friendly intercourse. His character extorts the homage of meaner men. He is invulnerable by the sting of detraction,-in him, as in a polished mirror, malice sees her own deformity, and blushes at her odious self. Always qualified for the purest earthly happiness, he is prepared, likewise, for the untainted atmosphere of heaven. Such is the honorable man. He is not honorable because he is honored, but honored because he is honorable. The Romans dedicated a temple to Honor, the entrance to which lay through the temple of Virtue. Significant arrangement! Honors sit well only on the truly honorable man, and their bestowal or withholding is neither an advantage nor a disadvantage mainly to him, but to the world which bestows or withholds. A strict adherence to the principles of true honor, whether appreciated by others or not, is infallibly productive of individual benefit. Whose whispering shades shall pensive mourners throng, And hear again loved voices borne along The passing breeze. VI. Yes-we'll adorn the sod, Whose verdure emblems evermore our love, And with our God. VII. "Tis not for them alone Our sunny burial-grounds we honor thus ; |