ctive, as its necessary results, of misfortune and disaster.
There is a shrewd lesson here to the class who doubt and cavil simply
to show their parts. In the second place, infidelity, on the principle
of Bacon, is a weak, tottering thing, unbuttressed by that support
which gives to poor human nature half its strength and all its
dignity. But, above all, in the third and last place, the humble
infidel, unballasted by right principle, sets out on the perilous
voyage of life without chart or compass, and, drifting from off the
safe course, gets among rocks and breakers, and there perishes. But we
must not trespass on your time. With regard to the conduct of your
studies, we simply say, Strive to be catholic in your tastes. Some of
you will have a leaning to science; some to literature. To the one
class we would say, Your literature will be all the more solid if you
can get a vein of true science to run through it; and to the other,
Your science will be all the more fascinating if you temper and
garnish it with literature. In truth, almost all the greater subjects
of man's contemplation belong to both fields. Of subjects such as
astronomy and geology, for instance, the poetry is as sublime as the
science is profound. As a pretty general rule, you will perhaps find
literature most engaging in youth, and science as you grow in years.
But faculties for both have been given you by the great Taskmaster,
and it is your bounden duty that these be exercised aright. And so let
us urge you, in conclusion, in the words of Coleridge:

"Therefore to go and join head, heart, and hand,
Active and firm to fight the bloodless fight
Of science, freedom, and the truth in Christ."

DISRUPTION PRINCIPLES.

One of the many dangers to which the members of a disestablished
Church just escaped from State control and the turmoil of an exciting
struggle are liable, is the danger of getting just a little wild on
minute semi-metaphysical points, and of either quarrelling regarding
them with their neighbours, or of falling out among themselves. Great
controversies, involving broad principles, have in the history of the
Church not unfrequently broken into small controversies, involving
narrow principles; just as in the history of the world mighty empires
like that of Alexander the Great have broken up into petty provinces,
headed by mere satraps and captains, when the master-mind that formed
their uniting bond has been removed.