THE IDEAL OF CHARACTER.

A DISCOURSE.

1 COR. xiii. 31. "Covet earnestly the best gifts."

OURS is a covetous Age.. To acquire and to hoard has become a passion and a necessity. The calculating mind and the active hand, are the proper expressions of the times. We are like a world just roused from slumber by a trumpet-blast from the hills of God, and allured into labor by the foreshadowing of some grand Festival. Activity throbs through every grade of Business-Trade chaffers on its crowded marts, and Enterprize girds the globe with its giddy schemes. Plodding Toil and Inspired Invention, each with his own method, and in his own degree,

ardently wrestle with the Mystery of Nature; and equally from the Ware-house Drudge and the Priest of Learning, go forth longings after some ideal Treasure, shrouded in the distance of Time.

Acquisitiveness is not necessarily a vice or a fault. The object to which it is directed, determines its character. It may become our friend or our foe-according as it is effected by our tastes and wishes. Directed aright, it will enrich us with imperishable wealth; but if wrong, it will curse us with the worst form of poverty-that which comes in the guise of plenty, mocking us with mere phantoms of the glory and contentment we crave. I would not restrain this quality of our Being: the Universe is for Man to study and interpret, to analyze and unfold. Let him possess its treasures and fathom its wonders. With material power, let him delve the mines and explore the continents, war with the wilderness and conquer the seas ;—with immaterial vision, let him trace the electric currents of Thought, mark the lineaments of Progress moulded on the face of the Globe,

and read the mystic lore stereotyped on the Firmament. Amid the infinite variety of endowments which the human will may appropriate, let him covet earnestly the best gifts of God-diffused through the multiplied agencies of this munificent Universe.

But what are the best gifts? is the momentous question that strikes deep into the interests of Life. What attainments ought we most to covet?-what guard and preserve with most jealous vigilance? I look around me over an infinite sea of human Effort, whose vast depths are stirred by a thousand purposes, and whose achievements, like headstrong billows, roll across the world with a cadence of thundering power. I see all the places in which Life gathers its elements, thronged with diversity of Character, and shaken with the eagerness of Desire. And yet, beneath that diversity of Character lives the primitive nature that was formed for the same great duties; and, from that breathless impetuosity of Desire, rises one supreme petition for happiness and repose. "Give us rest, give us peace, give us contentment!" is

the universal prayer, born of the agony of all hearts, and forming the grand chorus of human aspiration. "Enrich us, O God! with Wealth that never corrupts, with Beauty that never fades, and with Excellence that never dies!"-is the devout supplication of the noblest minds, and the latent desire of the guiltiest. And these petitions shall be answered in us all, and for the glory and blessedness of us all, when we shall have appropriated that wasteless wealth and deathless grace which form the perfection of Christian Character.

Ere I proceed to indicate the great element which is essential to the formation of such a character, permit me to observe that I vindicate the worth of Christian Excellence-not for the sake of any Traditionary Sanctity which may have accumulated around the name, nor for the sake of any prejudice or affection, grounded in mere Professional Usage or Interest-but for the inherent, positive glory, which such Excellence enfolds. For the Cant of the Puritan and the Prayer

of the Hypocrite, I have as little respect or sympathy as most men. I am willing to admit that men should be judged and esteemed -not according to their professions or their offices-but according to the spirit they manifest, and the deeds they accomplish. In speaking on a topic like this, every true pleader would wish that all superficial considerations respecting himself might be forgotten in the single thought of his Manhood, and of his Humanity. I address those having like wants, hopes, and sympathies with myself;-we have a Community of Experience and a Community of Interest: our Brotherhood is the Teacher's highest sanction, as it is the mightiest bond of the World.

With this explanation, I proceed directly to the work proposed as the leading theme ofthe Discourse.

The prime element of Christian Character -that which gives nourishment and tone to every virtue-may be termed Consciousness

a realization of the dignity of Life, of its capacities, of the education it demands, and of