Brother, a noble work is thine, In this old Earth, which still is young; God grant us but a zealous tongue! They fear us, brother, and they hate; Priests hate us, and their hate is deep. "Priestcraft," the Ages seem to say, EDWARD YOUL. A WORD OR TWO ON CONFIDENCE. ONE of the most valuable, powerful, yet at the same time fragile bonds which connect together men's interests and actions, is confidence. It is an innate principle in the early-dawning mind of every individual; an inherent and active propensity in the hearts of all who are as yet happily unsuspicious and ignorant of the world's deteriorating influences. It is a great part of the charm which children exercise over us, and possesses, under whatever aspect it appears, an attraction which the most hardened cannot fully resist. The value of confidence may be ascertained both by its possession and its loss. Have you ever, dear reader, felt the full satisfaction, the deep serenity, the rich resource in troublous times, which result from the consciousness of the inmost feelings and interests of the heart resting in the sacred keeping of one we implicitly trust? If you have not, you are as yet unacquainted Ilave you ever felt the bitter eme with the worth of confidence. tions of amazement, grief, indignation, and struggling love arising from the discovery of misplaced trust ?-have you ever felt the weary blank, the cynical incredulity, the disposition to question the truth of everything around you ?-do you know the feeling of the heart-sick attempts to repair that which is irreparable? If you do not, you cannot yet estimate the preciousness of confidence. Perhaps you may have been the recipient of fond and unsuspecting faith-you may have enjoyed the self-respect, the high and gratefull thought arising from that worth of heart and mind which is implied by the trust reposed in you; if so, you then have a clearer conception of what confidence is-and if it should have been your pitiable condition to have forfeited the future trust of your onceconfiding friend, your remorseful heart will have learned too late the full value of that slighted treasure. It would be difficult to say which, in such a case, suffers most-the trust-breaker or the trust-loser-it depends on circumstances; but in most instances the latter perhaps bears the heaviest weight and the longest duration of grief. Oh! the agony of that heart, that cannot break the strong ties which bind it to the frail object of its trust that still clings, albeit despairingly, to the broken reed which has pierced it-where love survives the wreck of faith-where pity and forgiveness linger around the fallen prop, vainly trying to rebuild the repository of affections, hopes, joys and sorrows, which must now lie unshared, unappreciated, and unknown, in the silent depths of an injured, and perhaps corroding heart. Lost health may be restored; lost property may be recovered; lost friendship and affection may even occasionally be regained; but who will undertake to say that lost confidence is ever fully and perfectly restored? A breach of trust may be followed, by him who has committed it, with the bitter tears of self-reproach-there may be a strong desire, on his part, to be once more tried and trusted— and many earnest (and perhaps truthful) protestations of future sincerity; but you feel, that in giving him an opportunity of retrieving his lost name, you are merely trying an experimentyou cannot quite rid your heart of its misgivings. "Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble, is like a broken tooth and a foot out of joint." Suppose a mother promises a reward to her child, for something it has done, or is expected to do, and afterwards neglects to fulfil her word, will she ever enjoy that child's confidence again; will he ever forget that she once deceived him ?-Perhaps not. She has broken a jewel she can never repair; she has snapped the golden cord by which God had bound him to her heart; she has taught his little mind to question, to doubt, to disbelieve; she has made him a precocious sceptic; she has prematurely quickened his intellect at the expense of his ingenuouness of heart; and, for aught she may know, the evil seed sown by her own hand may swell and grow till it ends in an avowed disbelief and rejection of God's own Word of Truth. Credulity and incredulity, in either of their extremes, are incompatible with the perfect balance of a sound mind and the workings of a healthy heart. If choice, however, must be made between the two, the former is perhaps preferable. The credulous man may be the object of ridicule and contempt-he may have (and undoubtedly has) a weak mind, but with all this, is he not happier than the man who carries about with him the gloom of misanthropy or the callousness of unbelief? Credulity may be a soft soil, but it may nevertheless nourish many good qualities; there is nothing in its character obstructive of the growth of principles which may endear the possessor to many, and win for him the esteem of a wide circle, indebted to him for many acts of true kindness; but can any generous impulse, any devotedness of heart, any nobility of soul, be expected to thrive in the blighting atmosphere of habitual mistrust? Some people are unreasonable enough to expect the bestowal of confidence without yielding any in return; this must imply either a meanness of disposition which wishes to profit by the trust reposed in it, or unacquaintance with the true nature of its principles. Confidence cannot stand independent of support-its root may lie in one heart, but its tendrils must cling to another. When God saw that it was "not good for man to be alone," He created a being perfectly adapted to share, fully and worthily, the heart of our first father, longing in his solitude for something he could not define; that something was, the development of confidence-the exercise of mutual trust and sympathy-principles which were in embryo, unexplained and but partially understood, till the sweet and instructive influences of his confiding, loving, leaning helpmate lighted up the mystery with the electric flash of Nature's truth. We frequently make the remark! "What a different world this would be, if men had entire confidence in each other!” but it would be almost impossible to follow, in our imaginations, the progress of such an unexpected traveller through its highways and bye-ways. Great changes are always accompanied by events which had pre viously eluded the penetration of the most far-sighted; nor could we perhaps, even with the most powerful mental telescope, trace the course of such a principle through all its ramifications, up to its remotest limits. The influence it would have upon commerce -what effect it would produce on the artificial distinctions of state, rank, and wealth-how it would bear on the usages of societyhow many, and what class of people would be "thrown out of employ," by such an innovation-how it would affect the physical condition of mankind-what difference would exist in the statistics of crime and mortality—these and many other similar propositions must be left to the ingenuity of those speculative minds which love to inhabit the theoretical edifices of their own building. One thing, however, may be safely asserted-that a principle so pure, so Heaven-born and Heaven-sent, could not possibly work amissthat all its rays must be concentrated into the one bright focus of Universal Good. There is an old maxim which advises us to "suspect all men ; it is a pity that such a jaundiced, one-eyed, cynical old adage did not die in its early infancy. The world doubtless abounds with characters justly calculated to excite our mistrust, but we have the privilege of knowing that it also abounds with those who are worthy of our deepest confidence and attachment-those who possess high honour, warm hearts, rich intellects, and who are imbued with the true spirit of Christianity-those for whose sake, it may be, God spares and blesses a guilty land, as He was willing to have done in olden time, with the City of the Plain. Nor can we help feeling a presentiment, as we look with prophetic eye into the vista of the future, that brighter days are near-that energies are working, and events combining together for the ultimate production of glorious results. Frequency of intercourse and communication will soften prejudices, allay animosities, quench the spirit of selfishness, violence, and war, and will give men a more perfect knowledge, and a more just appreciation of each other, which will be the basis of a more widely extended trust. Yes: steam-engines are puffing, printing-presses are groaning, pens, laden with rich and fruitful thoughts, are speeding to communicate their treasures, and ships are dividing the waters of every clime; all, directly or indirectly, assisting in the accomplishment of the same great design. There is another kind of confidence, which may be regarded as an off-set of the great principle-it is self-confidence, the over redundancy of which has laid many in the dust, and the deficiency of which has prevented many from ever rising out of it. It is, when justly founded on accurate self-knowledge, the main-spring of our energies, and the principal cause of success in undertakings which have appeared hopeless in the eyes of the timid and doubtful. But when it exceeds its just limits, and swells into conceit, its virtue ceases, and it becomes one of the most disagreeable qualities which a man can perhaps possess; it deprives the most brilliant talents of their greatest charm, and when we hear it said of a man, "he is very clever, and he knows it," we are disposed to think that his mental gifts are exercised more for the sake of exacting praise, than conferring delight and instruction. "Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit, there is more hope of a fool than of him." He may have amassed much knowledge, he may be deeply imbued with scientific lore, he may have read a multitude of books, but he has neglected the study of the most interesting, wonderful, and important book of all-Himself! A just confidence in our own resources is valuable—the reciprocal faith of tried and true friends is sweet and encouraging—but confidence in the Truth of God is the grand summit of its highest powers. The structure that may be reared from such a foundation, surpasses conception. The teachings and miracles of our Divine Saviour all tended to the one design of eliciting man's belief. Our right and title to better hopes and richer expectations, is only secure when held in the strong grasp of confidence; and the charter of the Heavenly inheritance is expressed in the words -Believe and Live. A. J. GLANCES AT FAMILIAR BIOGRAPHY.-DON'T CARE. DON'T CARE was born in London, somewhere beneath the shadow of St. Paul's. I have not been particular in searching for the exact spot, nor have I examined any parish register, for the purpose of ascertaining the precise date, of his first appearance in the world. From his cradle he was froward and resolute in having his own way, notwithstanding the inconvenience he occasioned to others. He was always considered a promising child, however; and many were the speculations of his near kindred touching his future career, and the part he was No. XXVIII.-VOL. V. |