world by Christ Himself, who thus likens it to Himself as the luminary, in a secondary sense, from which the whole world is to be filled with light. In this renewed humanity the individual is not absorbed in the general effulgence of a grand galaxy, but each becomes a distinct, independent light, which shines brighter and brighter unto the perfect day. The righteous we are told shall shine as the stars of the firmament for ever and ever.

There is then a region of light here in this world, notwithstanding the mists, in which all may walk, grow and perfect themselves. It is the basis of all true culture, the life and spirit of all true education. It encompasses us as we sit down and as we rise up, and surrounds us from the cradle to the grave. It is the revelation of the great God through His Son, reflected from all His works and embodied in the progress of the world's history. Shall we walk in this light and be continually apprehended by it? The answer to this settles the question of the culture, progress and education of man. If he be a mere bauble out on the ocean of being, a mere animal that cannot pass beyond the limits of animal life, then it is a question of no great consequence whether attempts be made to elevate him or to permit him to remain in his wild and savage state; whether efforts be made to recall him from his wanderings in the forests to a life of refinement in the walks of civilization, or whether he had not better be left to himself? Most persons would say that in such circumstances, it would be best for him to enjoy his animal appetites to the extent of his capacity, rather than by educational influences to awaken in him aspirations for an imaginary state of bliss, which can never be realized. But if man is not an insect nor a god, but a being formed in the image of God, and susceptible of an indefinite progress, both here and hereafter, then it follows that he is a subject for culture, education and the highest degree of refinement. As a rude piece of marble just taken from the quarry he may be polished, and in the hands of a skilful artist be made to reflect permanently the light of the material world and the full glories of the heavenly state. But all here depends in our position with regard to the influences

which are brought to bear upon us from without in the educational process. The three factors mentioned as distinct lights. are one and inseparable. No person truly can enjoy the light of the one without the others. There is an education, which is an advance downward and not upward, that leads, not to the sources of all truths, but perverts them; an education that has no reverence, no faith, no humility, and no respect for the primary teachers in the great school of which we have spoken, but ignores them, and prefers its own phosphorescent light. From the evil negative influence of such kinds of culture, let us all beware. The light that is in them is darkness. Self-interest, or self, is the centre of the whole process, not God, who is the centre of all centres and the centre of the universe. True education, starting in faith, seeks the light and walks in that light. It regards the human mind as a garden, which must not only be freed from noxious weeds, but be open to receive the light of the sun, the dew of the morning, and the rain of vernal showers which come from beyond it and stimulate its plants and flowers to a healthy and normal growth. The fear of the Lord, we are told, is the beginning of wisdom; and who, upon mature reflection, will doubt that it is also the beginning of all true education, yes, such a beginning, or vital principle, as should underlie the whole process, control all special training in schools and academies, and result in rich fruit as its end? We plead here in this Christian land for a Christian nurture and a Christian training; one that has a spiritual foundation and a spiritual destiny. That we believe is what all true parents wish to see in their children. When they return from school they are not so much concerned about the amount of knowledge they have acquired, as about their moral habits, the purity of their feelings and lives, their reverence and respect, and their adaptednesss to become useful members of society. He or she who pursues faithfully the course of instruction in an institution, who has formed for himself the noblest character, and approaches the highest Christian ideal, is the student who, among those who know him best, irrespective of the action of the faculty, takes, in fact, the highest honor.

We do not deem it necessary, on an occasion like the present, to defend female education, or even to urge its importance. It has become an old and a somewhat hackneyed subject. The exercises of the day and of this evening hour speak for themselves, and furnish the best argument for female culture in seminaries of learning. Woman has the same high destiny, and the same responsibility as man, and is entitled to the same advantages in perfecting herself for her mission in life. Only let her education be, as all education should be, Christian in the proper sense of the term. In such a land as ours, and in communities where female seminaries are usually located, it is difficult to conceive that it should be otherwise, although too often this element in the general training of the school is overlooked or not sufficiently emphasized. There is more danger, no doubt, of infidelity creeping into institutions for young men than for those intended for young ladies. But, if that is so, it is fortunate that we have female education as one of the best correctives of such a growing skeptical tendency; because, if unbelief manifests itself among young men or even old men, well-educated ladies will be best prepared to meet and resist it. In conclusion permit us to say that it affords us great pleasure to be present, and to be permitted to enjoy the festivities of this day. A school like this, established on a true Christian basis, with a broad and liberal platform of instruction, with an experienced and competent head, and an able faculty, is an ornament to this place, to this part of the state, and to good old Westmoreland county. It deserves the sympathies and support of an intelligent and discriminating community, and we fervently wish and hope to see it prosper more and more each year, and long continue to be a power for good in our noble Keystone State. Semper vivat et floreat Academia Greensburgensis.*

* This article embraces the substance of an address, here somewhat enlarged, which was delivered at the commencement of the Greensburg Female Seminary, at Greensburgh, Pa., on the 22d of June last. This school, under the care of the Rev. Lucian Cort, A. M., is pursuing a highly useful career in promoting female education in the western part of this state.

ART. VIII-NEGATIVE PREPARATION FOR THE REFORMATION.

BY REV. S. R. BRIDENBAUGH, A. M., BERLIN, PA.

To speak of a preparation for such an event as the Reformation of the sixteenth century implies at once a conception of it different from that very commonly entertained. For, whilst it is true that in recent times a decided advance has been made in the correctness of the views maintained of this great movement, yet, even now, it is not an unusual thing to hear it spoken of as an isolated event, sustaining no connection with the historic past. Many, even in this age, write and speak of the Protestant movement as altogether preternatural, one that burst upon the world suddenly, without a previous preparation reaching back through centuries. Some of them regard it as drawn directly from the Bible. Martin Luther discovered a Bible in the library of the University of Erfurth, and in this they find the whole cause of the Reformation, notwithstanding the fact that the Church had the Bible all through the Middle Ages.

Other theories and explanations have been given of the rise of Protestantism, which, to any thoughtful mind, we think, must appear no less unreasonable than that already suggested. Writers for instance, so opposite in their views and spirit as Bossuet and Voltaire, account for the whole movement by looking upon it as having its origin in a "squabble of the

*In the preparation of this article I have consulted and derived aid from "Dr. Dorner's History of Protestant Theology," "Milman's History of Latin Christianity," "Ullmann's Reformers before the Reformation," and the Lectures on Medieval Church History by Dr. Thos. G. Apple in the Seminary at Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

monks "—a quarrel that afforded an opportunity for a participation by all the seditious spirits of the age. Another class find the cause of the Reformation in the ambition of sovereignsin their rivalry with the ecclesiastical authority-and hence call it merely a continuation, in a new phase, of the conflict which the popes had long been waging with the Hohenstaufen Emperors. And Guizot in his "General History of Civilization in Europe" expresses the judgment that it was a sudden effort to achieve for human reason freedom from the bonds of authority" an insurrection of the human mind against the absolute power of the spiritual order." Nor are there wanting, on the one hand, Roman Catholics and, on the other hand, Rationalists themselves, who make the Reformation a transitional era, opening the way for untrammelled freedom of thought and unbelief.

There is a Protestant view of the Reformation no less onesided and narrow than that generally entertained by the Romanist. That Protestant conception, for instance, is narrow which views this great movement as an isolated event, a new light "flashing, as it were, directly from the clouds," which fails to see and acknowledge what was natural, and, relatively at least, even necessary in the onward progress and historical development of Roman Catholicism during the Middle Ages. Such a view, disregarding the fact that it had its roots far back in the past, that it sprang from the ecclesiastical development of the Medieval period, and was of slow, gradual growth, leaves the great epoch of the Reformation without any historical explanation.

Equally one-sided and narrow is that Roman Catholic conception which utterly ignores the historical necessity of the Reformation, under values the importance and deep, far-reaching significance of it for the Church of Christ, and for humanity, and which regards the Medieval Church, in every particular, with the Papal hierarchy and its whole system of government as divinely constituted and of binding force for all time. According to this, the Reformation cannot possibly be justified,