Considered as a whole this Ritual is the most important of the texts as regards the variety of information that it gives. The Deities referred to, are either Solar or Infernal. Like all oriental writings its mysteries are conveyed in allegorical language, the principal persons being alluded to by epithets or qualifications. The style is concise and straightforward, without metrical flow, for the most part.

From its pages, we copy one or two things that strike us as we turn them over.

"I am Yesterday, the Morning, the Light at its birth the second time, the Mystery of the Soul, made by the Gods." "I am the Inundator. Great Listener is thy name." (The words also stand for the Nile and Egypt.) "I am the Lord of Life. I have come forth from the great gate. I have rejoined the eye." "He does all that he chooses, like the Gods there, in garments of truth, forever," (or "millions of times.")" He will go to the Gods who belong to the Sun, for he has stood at the boat of the Sun in the course of every day." "When this is done, his Soul lives forever, he does not die again in Hades. He is not annihilated when words are weighed. His word is good against his enemies, his food is off the table of -the Sun."

Osiris is as well-spoken (i. e., speaks as well?) on earth as in Hades. Humanity is so essential that there are twenty-one "Gates of the Meek Hearted!" The name of one Doorkeeper is "Upsetter of Forms!" Greatly must it have rejoiced the heart of the ancient Egyptian to know it. The name of another was Stopper of the verbose!" Bores then were of ancient institution! Many passages recall to us formulæ in the Psalms of David.

In the inscriptions the scribe Mentusa says, "I never repeated an evil word!" Long be his name remembered. Another says, "I injured no child, I oppressed no widow. There was no beggar in my days, I made the widow like the woman with an husband." The text of Ramses II, about the Hebrews, says, "I have heard the message which my Lord sent saying, Give corn to the men, and soldiers, and Hebrews, who are drawing the stone to fortify the place of Ramses, the living, delivered to the general of militia Ameneman. I have given them their corn every month according to the instruction of my Lord." Apiuruiun is the word for Hebrews.

In examining the great work of Lepsius, one is struck by great resemblances to remains in Central Asia. The gold crosses on the priest's dresses identify them. A lion sits beside the king, whose throne name shows that he is only a vicegerent. P. H. Ra, Pharaoh

or the Sun! A Hawk to prophecy dicate the Royal Banners. The Pri his Palanquin: a peculiar lock of ha ordinate position. To the sacred a tive was forbidden, reminding one shalt not make unto thee any likene above, or in the earth beneath, &c. " which of course their priests consum tongues, ears, and phalli, of the c Glue is used in every age. The san color are carefully protected from th where the stones of the roof unite, a in, with broad projecting eaves.

UPWA

IMMORTAL FORCE- Servant Works forward, never backwa Of Nature's pyramidal base i Upward in transmutations gl Tracing the thought of God. No loss upon the march. Th In past completions, are its I For loftier beginnings. Inwa That flame at Nature's heart. Of all material method, the a The terrible abyss, the tempe The beauty of the blossom a The glory of the rainbow and The music of the bird, and b The harmony of things, the r And mystery of the changing All are refined, transmuted, a And wrought into the foetal a The human organism perishes To aid the wondrous alchemy And Force, sublimed to phos Mounts upon pinions of celes Sphering the germ-spark of a And burning upward to the

MY DEAR

TO A DIVINITY STUDENT.

: Your letter is before me, but the questions you ask in it about what it will be best for you to do when you are through the school are easier I think to ask than to answer and so I cannot venture to do more than cast a ray of light on two that I consider of prime importance.

or three things

1. And my first word to you is in the line of what little philosophy I know anything about, that in the Man, rather than in what he wants to do lies the law of his success. In the man's own manhood

is the way and the truth and the life. The kingdom of God is within you, and so whatever can be done in the ministry depends directly on the man, as the man again depends directly on God for the inspiration of his doing. Then because the man depends on God, and has to say as sincerely as it was ever said, "The Words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself, but the Father which sent me He doeth the Work," he must dare to be true to his own revelations of the truth, and not to be less than that at any time, he must not at his peril adopt the ugly and jesuitical doctrine of reserve, in which a man tells only as much of the truth as is expedient-which generally means only so much as will not clash with vested interests · for then he will descend from the mast-head upon the helm of the discovery, ship to the rope of a ferry-boat, and that I think you would not like. He must pour out his whole conviction, revelation, whatever you call it. All he has from heaven he must give, and must not say, "other things I have but ye cannot bear them now," unless he is quite sure in his own mind that that was well said the first time.

2. Then he must reject utterly all the nonsense about adopting this calling, following this profession, and that whole brood of vile phrases. For I tell you if any young man adopt this calling of the preacher instead of its adopting him, if he makes this his profession instead of its making him its possessor; if he has had no blinding sense of its glory as he went down to his Damascus, no revelation of its mercy when he went out and wept bitterly, no personal relation to it that will make him blurt out with John, "Whoso denieth this is the Christ is a liar," no conviction like thrusting his hand into the side of its living proof, and so no awful and intolerable burden on his heart to be a preacher, or be damned, he had better not ask any more questions. He is not in the apostolic succession, he is sure to fail outwardly, or inwardly, or both. Indeed, to me, this is the fatal weakness of our time. The minister studies for the cure of souls in

some such spirit as the doctor studies for the cure of bodies, has a professional pride of the same sort; but the balance of self-denial, hard labor, and generous sacrifice is on the whole with the M. D.

The consequence is that when a young man comes out of Meadville or Cambridge, he seeks a good opening in which to pursue his profession, and as the East offers better openings than the West, he generally goes or stays East, gets a comfortable settlement, a cultivated circle, and a chance to go to Europe right off, while in the West he may only get long watching, hard scratching, trowsers patching, and a general mismatching. With only this difference, that while in the West he can mould things, in the East things mould him. In the West he has Peter's earlier experience, in the East his later. (John xxi 18.) In the East he ministers, as it were, to the grandfather, but in the West to the grand child.

I know I can say this to you without offence. And I have such confidence in you, feeling you are entirely in earnest, that I know you will take whatever you feel to be true in this to your heart and consider it well.

Chicago, Feb. 7, 1867.

Always yours,

ROBERT COLLYER.

W

THE MINSTRELS OF OLD.

HERE now the minstrel of the large renown,
Rapturing with living words the heark'ning throng;
Charming the Man to Heaven, and earthward down
Charming the God, who wing'd the soul with song?
Yet lives the minstrel, not the deeds; - the lyre
Of old demands ears that of old believed it-
Bards of bless'd time-how flew your living fire
From lip to lip! how race from race received it!
As if a God, men hallow'd with devotion

-

What GENIUS, speaking, shaping, wrought below,
The glow of song inflamed the ear's emotion,

The ear's emotion gave the song the glow;

--

Each nurturing each back on his soul—its tone
Whole nations echoed with a rapture-peal;

Then all around the heavenly splendor shone

Which now the heart, and scarce the heart can feel.

- Schiller.

A LETTER TO JOSEPH MAY.

DEAR SIR :- The Editor of the Radical, in an introductory note to your "Letter" in the October number, declines endeavoring to explain certain expressions which seemed to you objectionable, saying that in so doing he should probably "make the case no whit

clearer."

Without any conference with him upon the point, I will attempt to not only reconcile our friend's strong and startling words with that grateful and really reverent spirit which we believe him to possess, but show that they are expressive of a most important truth.

You have read the story of one of the old masters, who, having finished a picture of "The Christ," on which he had labored long and successfully to cause the manliness and the truthfulness, the humility and the benevolence, which he considered to have been the grand distinguishing traits of his character, to be manifestly visible in his countenance, remarked that many visitors to his studio, while they did not fail altogether to observe the noble and beautiful expression of the features before them, were yet attracted from their closer study and more faithful analysis, by the exquisite manner in which he had painted certain external adornments of the portrait. Noting this, we are told, he seized his brush and hastily removed these adornments, declaring that they should no longer seduce the eyes of the superficial, from the great lessons of intellectual worth and spiritual beauty, which the picture was intended to convey.

Now the sentiment and feeling which led him to this act, was the very same, it seems to me, which led our brother to declare — “Jesus is made a stumbling-block to the generation. As such, he impedes progress and must be removed." It was the same spirit, I think, which led Paul to the remarkable avowal "Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth, know we him no more."

The general principle is this: At whatever cost or sacrifice, the superiority of the internal over the external, of the spiritual over the material, of the idea itself over the mere form of its expression or manifestation, must be, shall be preserved.

Among the great fundamental principles which go, in every age and nation, to form the characters and fashion the courses of men, I am sure you will agree with me, none is more absolutely essential than this. Now Jesus was not the truth itself, nor the source of truth; he was but a channel, medium, messenger, through whom