let me advise you, in the solitude of your apartment, to ask yourself,-How have I spent the preceding day or week? How have I fulfilled my duty-my engagements-the plan of the Institution in which the Head of the Church has placed me? Have I violated any rule, either in its letter or spirit? Have I been diligent in study-punctual, to a moment, in my attendance on every prescribed task-and duly attentive to the feelings of all my brethren? And if you occupy a room in company with another student, let these inquiries be made an object of joint attention. You may, by adopting this plan, be the means of refreshing each other's memory, and stimulating each other's conscience; and thus doubling the benefit, both to yourselves, and the Institution of which you are members.

LETTER VIII.

GIVE ATTENDANCE TO READING.

HABITS IN THE STUDY.

1 Tim. iv. 13.

MY DEAR YOUng Friend,

WHEN a young man enters a Theological Seminary, he may be supposed to be already familiar with study. He must necessarily have made some decent acquisitions in the Greek and Latin languages, and in the branches of physical and moral science commonly taught in our colleges. Of course he may be presumed to have some acquaintance with mental exertion and discipline. Yet many, in these circumstances, have been so imperfectly directed, or so negligent of direction, in the earlier parts of their course, that they need to be put on a new track; and all, perhaps, may be benefited by an occasional suggestion and stimulus in their future efforts.

The following counsels, you may rest assured, whatever may have been hitherto your habits, are worthy of your serious consideration.

1. One of the most indispensable preliminaries to your engaging in profitable study, is that you cherish a deep sense of the GREAT EXTent, and the INFI.

No

NITE IMPORTANCE OF THEOLOGICAL SCIENCE. man will summon his whole strength to any work, and put in requisition all his diligence and zeal in pursuing it, unless he act under the deep impression that it is both arduous, and worthy of his best powers. That it will require his utmost efforts to accomplish what he ought to aim at; and that the advantages of making the attainment will be richly worthy of the labour. Accordingly, I have no doubt that one principal reason why so many candidates for the ministry pursue the study of theology in a languid, perfunctory manner, is that they take narrow and altogether inadequate views of the compass, depth, and value, of this branch of knowledge. They hastily adopt the degrading notion, that a careful perusal of the Bible, together with some approved system of divinity, and twenty or thirty other volumes, will be sufficient to prepare them for the pulpit. No wonder that, with this sentiment, their studies are lazy and superficial upon principle. No wonder that they study but little, and that to that little they bring scarcely any real intellectual effort. It is impossible seriously to undertake the correction of such an unworthy and childish etimate of the subject as this. He who can, with any intelligence, glance over the list of studies prescribed for the regular course in this Seminary; or he who can peruse such a book as Calvin's Institutes, Edwards on the Will, Butler's Analogy, Warburton's Divine Legation of Moses, or Magee on Atonement and Sacrifice, without receiving a deep impression

⚫ that such a knowledge of Theology, in its various departments and relations, as will qualify a man, in any tolerable degree, to be a teacher of thousands, requires profound, patient, and laborious study; must have either a very weak, or a very perverted understanding. To gain knowledge enough to be what some call, "a pretty preacher," (a hateful and degrading epithet for an ambassador of Christ) is not difficult; but to be a sound, thorough Divine, you may rest assured, is neither a common, nor an easy attainment.

Sit down, then, to your studies, every day, under the deep impression that what you have to do, demands your best powers, and your utmost diligence. Take large views of Theology and the auxiliary branches of knowledge. Cherish an ardent thirst for knowledge. Aim high; not on the scale of honour; but in the attainment of furniture with which to serve your Master. Resolve, if Providence permit, to be "a workman that shall not need to be ashamed." Account no labour too great that may be necessary for gaining your object. Then, and only then, can you hope to study to much purpose.

2. You will never study Theology to advantage,

UNLESS YOU CHERISH A PECULIAR AND DEVOTED ATTACHMENT TO THE OFFICE WHICH YOU SEEK. You

profess to have chosen the profession of a minister of the gospel, because you deliberately prefer it to every other. And in this profession I hope you are sincere. But this is not enough. You ought not only deliberately to prefer it; but to cultivate for it, ha

bitually, an ardent love; a ruling passion; an attachment of the fondest and most heartfelt kind. If there be a profession in the world which is worthy of drawing forth, every hour, all the strongest and most elevated affections of the soul, the ministry of reconciliation is surely that profession. On this subject I cannot forbear to transcribe a short passage from a sermon by the most able and eloquent Preacher now in England. "How high and awful a function is that which proposes to establish in the soul an interior dominion; to illuminate its powers by a celestial light; and introduce it to an intimate, ineffable and unchanging alliance with the Father of Spirits!-The moment we permit ourselves to think lightly of the Christian Ministry, our right arm is withered; nothing but imbecility and relaxation remaius. For no man ever excelled in a profession to which he did not feel an attachment bordering on enthusiasm: though what in other professions is enthusiasm, is, in ours, the dictate of sobriety and truth."*

If you have not learned, my young friend, the precious art of pursuing your professional studies, not only with a deep sense of their importance; but, as the Italians say, con amore: if they do not form the pursuit in which your heart delights, for its own sake, and more especially for the sake of its blessed end; your attainments will be tardy and imperfect. Be it your care, then, daily to nurture in your soul this attach

Rev. ROBERT HALL.-Sermon on the Discouragements and Supports of the Christian Ministry.