in violation of God's law; by placing their lives alongside of its requirements and thus exhibiting the conflict between them. Now if a man's besetting and grossest sins are political villainies, they should be held up in all their blackness, and the severest judgment of God should be denounced against them. No man is a symmetrical Christian whose whole heart and life are not governed by the Divine law. The true Christian as already remarked, will make his business and his politics a part of his religion. But how shall he do this unless he understands the requirements of God's law on those subjects? And whose business is it to expound to him the claims of that law, if it is not the business of the minister of the gospel and the religious editor? The really religious journal will strive "to declare the whole counsel of God;" and those professedly religious journals which teach that it is no matter what a man does politically, if he only attends church and prays with fervency, are teaching the worst and most dangerous form of irreligion.

CHEAP NEWSPAPERS.

Low priced articles are usually the dearest that people can buy. A prudent dealer pays far more regard to the quality than to the price of his purchases. An article of the best quality is generally the cheapest, though it may cost twice as much as one of an inferior quality. While the price is only double the service will usually be fourfold. This will be found true as a general rule of articles of dress, agricultural and mechanical implements, and, in short, of everything of a material character.

Still more true and important is this rule when applied to that which pertains to our mental and moral interests. Here eminently quality is the one thing all-important. The price, with a wise man, will be altogether a secondary consideration. The books that he reads, the teachers that he employs for himself or his children, will be the best within his reach. When the formation of the character and even the eternal destiny of the soul may depend on the influences and agencies brought to bear upon us, surely it is the part of wisdom to see that they be pure and right, rather than cheap. And if this be true of books and teachers, it is equally and even more true and important of the newspaper, which in our day is one

of the African slave-trade, and the abolition of slavery by political action? Was Dr. Beecher any more out of his sphere, as a minister when he urged the suppression of liquorselling by law, than when he urged moral suasion against the traffic?

The truth is to the true Christian there is no act of his life that is exclusively secular or exclusively political. Whatsoever he does, he does for the glory of God. He buys and sells and votes for this end, just as much as he prays and preaches for it. His Bible teaches him not only that it is his duty so to do, but also instructs him how he may do it. But it is the business of the minister of the gospel and of the religious newspaper to explain the Bible, and therefore just as much in their proper province to show men how they may vote for God's glory as how to pray acceptably.

The idea that politics and religion should be kept entirely separate is practical atheism. God's law is the supreme rule of man's conduct everywhere. It is to be obeyed in all our actions; in those which are secular and political, as well as in those more distinctively religious. God has made no division of authority with human governments or political parties. He has not set over one part of the domain of human conduct to their exclusive control, and kept another part for himself. Civil government and political parties have but one proper function, and that is to execute the will of God. When they fail to do this they ought to be abolished. When they oppose their edicts to the law of God, the Christian must disobey and oppose them on peril of his soul's salvation. Hence it is indisputably the duty of the Christian minister and the religious journal to show men when the enactments of civil governments, and the measures of political parties are in conflict with God's law, and to warn them against obeying those enactments and supporting these measures. They should unceasingly urge the duty of obeying God rather than man, and they are false and faithless to their trust when they fail to do so.

To

We do not hold that political questions should occupy all, or even the greater part of the attention of religious teachers and journals. The great object of Christian labor in all departments is the conversion and sanctification of men. make mankind wise and good, and thus glorify God, is the one great end of all religious instrumentalities and efforts. But the first step toward making men good is to convince them of sin. This can be done only by showing that their conduct is

in violation of God's law; by placing their lives alongside of its requirements and thus exhibiting the conflict between them. Now if a man's besetting and grossest sins are political villainies, they should be held up in all their blackness, and the severest judgment of God should be denounced against them. No man is a symmetrical Christian whose whole heart and life are not governed by the Divine law. The true Christian as already remarked, will make his business and his politics a part of his religion. But how shall he do this unless he understands the requirements of God's law on those subjects? And whose business is it to expound to him the claims of that law, if it is not the business of the minister of the gospel and the religious editor? The really religious journal will strive "to declare the whole counsel of God; and those professedly religious journals which teach that it is no matter what a man does politically, if he only attends church and prays with fervency, are teaching the worst and most dangerous form of irreligion.

CHEAP NEWSPAPERS.

Low priced articles are usually the dearest that people can buy. A prudent dealer pays far more regard to the quality than to the price of his purchases. An article of the best quality is generally the cheapest, though it may cost twice as much as one of an inferior quality. While the price is only double the service will usually be fourfold. This will be found true as a general rule of articles of dress, agricultural and mechanical implements, and, in short, of everything of a material character.

Still more true and important is this rule when applied to that which pertains to our mental and moral interests. Here eminently quality is the one thing all-important. The price, with a wise man, will be altogether a secondary consideration. The books that he reads, the teachers that he employs for himself or his children, will be the best within his reach. When the formation of the character and even the eternal destiny of the soul may depend on the influences and agencies brought to bear upon us, surely it is the part of wisdom to see that they be pure and right, rather than cheap. And if this be true of books and teachers, it is equally and even more true and important of the newspaper, which in our day is one

of the most powerful of all agencies for the formation of character, and molding of heart and life.

But many people strangely lose sight of this obvious truth when books, and especially newspapers, are in question. With them a book is a book and a newspaper is a newspaper; and the size of each is the great consideration. The more printed matter these persons can buy for a given sum, the better off they think themselves. The more news they get in their paper the more they think they have gained. Quantity and cheapness are everything, quality is next to nothing.

But no idea can be more false and pernicious than this. If ever close and accurate discrimination is required it is in regard to what we read. Especially is this true in this age when the press is groaning with the issues of "cheap literature." (Dog cheap it generally is in price, though often costing in the end the loss of the priceless jewels of virtue and purity.) He who would guard his own mind and the minds of his children from moral poison, must beware of the cheap periodicals, and other issues of the press at the present day.

Now the cheap mammoth weeklies of the large cities are no exception to this remark. The best of them all, the New York Tribune, may be had by clubs, for a dollar a year. It is the strongest paper in the world, and, in some respects among the best. And yet, even the Tribune publishes huge masses of matter which no pure minded parent would think of putting in the hands of his children. For instance, New York city was convulsed with excitement during the past winter, over the murder of Dr. Burdell (a murder, in regard to which we have published nothing, because we deemed the details unfit for our columns). Much of the testimony taken before the coroner's jury was of the filthiest character. The coroner himself is a Dogberry of the Dogberries, and his examination of witnesses abounds in excrutiating attempts at wit, and in the most obscene and blackguard illusions. And yet of this mass of essential nastiness, of which murder, fornication, adultery, etc., form the seasoning, the New York Tribune published, by its own statement, no less than one hundred and fifty columns! And naively remarked, in view of that fact, that "it could have been filled with nothing so satisfactory to its readers!" Nor is this a solitary case, but rather a sample of what occurs daily. Very much of the police reports, and of the reports of the trials in the criminal courts of the cities, is of the most abominable character. The details of crime are spread out with a disgusting minuteness which can

gratify nothing but an itching and prurient curiosity, and which can foster nothing but a most depraved and vicious taste. Surely the man who buys large masses of such trash, though it costs him only a dollar a year, is paying dearly for his whistle.

But morality out of the question, there is a deal of hum bug in this matter of cheap newspapers. The quantity of matter in the mammoth dollar weeklies of the cities which is of any use to persons of almost all occupations in country or village, compared with the whole contents of the paper, is as "two grains of wheat to two bushels of chaff." To get the items he needs, the farmer, or mechanic, or country merchant, must often wade through solid columns of stuff that is of no moment whatever to him. Now the man who will sift out the wheat from the chaff, selecting what is valuable and rejecting what is worthless, and presenting the information that is really useful in condensed form, is surely doing a good service for his readers. This is an important part of the work of country journals of limited circulation. And it is cheaper for the farmer and mechanic to pay three dollars for one of these papers, which presents him just the matters in which he needs to be posted, than to buy a mammoth weekly for one dollar, and glean from the mass of irrelevant matter the items he needs for himself.

But the moral aspect of the case is vastly the most important. The newspaper has become a power of the age. It is doing a mighty work in molding public sentiment, and in shaping the destinies of men and nations. A weekly journal of elevated literary, moral and religious tone, presenting truth with all the variety and freshness necessary in such a medium, and adapted to form a chaste and cultivated taste in its readers, is an instrumentality of unspeakable importance in a family. The worth of such an educational agency is above rubies.

LECTURE OF RALPH WALDO EMERSON.

This gentleman lectured before a large congregation of citizens and students, in the College Chapel, on Thursday evening last. Mr. Emerson is tall and slender in person; viewed by lamp-light he is not handsome. In lecturing he has an upturning eye that is particularly unpleasant. He is awk