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The Life of Christ a Pattern.— Watts.
1. "My dear Redeemer, and my Lord,
I read my duty in thy word;
But in thy life the law appears
Drawn out in living characters.

2. "Such was thy truth, and such thy zeal,
Such deference to thy Father's will,
Such love, and meekness so divine,
I would transcribe and make them mine.

3. "Cold mountains and the midnight air
Witnessed the fervor of thy prayer:
The desert thy temptations knew,
Thy conflict, and thy victory too.

4. "Be thou my pattern,—make me bear
More of thy gracious image here;

Then God, the Judge, shall own my name
Among the followers of the Lamb."

Confidence in God. — Addison.

1. "How are thy servants blest! O Lord,
How sure is their defence!
Eternal wisdom is their guide,
Their help, omnipotence.

2. "In foreign realms, and lands remote,
Supported by thy care,

Through burning climes they pass unhurt,
And breathe in tainted air.

3. "When, by the dreadful tempest, borne
High on the broken wave,

They know thou art not slow to hear,
Nor impotent to save.

4. "The storm is laid- the winds retire,
Obedient to thy will;,

The sea, that roars at thy command,
At thy command is still.

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PRINCIPLES OF GESTURE.

MAN, as a communicative and expressive being, naturally imparts his states of thought and feeling by visible as well as audible language. His corporeal organization is adapted to this, among the other ends of his constitu

All vivid and powerful emotions of the human breast, become legible, and are transmitted, by their ef fects on the features of the countenance, the attitude of the body, and the actions of the arm and hand. This fact is universally exhibited in the unconscious habits of childhood, and, with no less certainty, in those of manhood, when under the influence of earnest feeling. We read each other's inmost hearts in a glance of the eye, a quiver of the features, a change of hue in the countenance, a posture or a movement of the body, or a wave of the hand, more surely than in any tone or expression of the voice. It is but a superficial and narrow philosophy which leads to the neglect of that ordination of Divine wisdom, by which the law of language is written on man's exterior frame, as distinctly as on his organs of speech; and few among the numerous deficiencies of existing modes of education, are greater, or more unfavorable to the free and full development of the human being, than the general omission of such culture and training as might yield to every youth, and especially to those who are destined to the sacred profession, the unspeakable advantages resulting from a perfect command over all those natural and appropriate aids to expressive utterance, which arise from the cultivation of the eloquence of action.

Man expresses himself most naturally and most effec

tively when he obeys the law of his constitution which leads him to use his whole bodily frame as an organ of communication. He becomes impressively eloquent when the breathing thoughts come "beaming from the eye," as well as "speaking on the tongue," and "urge the whole man onward."

Our conventional modes of life, which quench or suppress expression, by withholding corporeal action, the natural accompaniment of speech, are as faulty, in point of true taste, as they are false to nature. The very condition of eloquence in address, is, that we become sufficiently exalted by thought and emotion, to rise above such habits, and to give sentiment an expression and a character to the eye, as well as to the ear. Undisciplined habit may, it is true, carry this, as any other mode of expression, to excess. But the theory which founds on this fact a sweeping objection to the use of action in speaking, is not at all more rational than would be that which should enjoin abstinence from aliment, on the ground of the tendency of ungoverned appetite to excess in eating and drinking.

Genuine culture would prescribe in this, as in other departments of expression, a strict guard against faults of excess, no less anxiously than it would solicit and cherish the power and the beauty of appropriate and proportioned action.

Another current error on this subject of gesture, is, that it is a thing not capable of being reduced to study or systematic practice, that it is a pure result of unconscious impulse, and beyond the search of the understanding. So was musical sound thought to be, till man had the patience to observe it attentively, and trace its relations and its principles. Faithful observation of phenomena and effects, was the condition on which the beautiful, the profound science of music was constructed, and in consequence of which it became a definite and intelligible art, involving processes of systematic execution.

All expressive arts have a common groundwork of principles. Patient application discovers and defines these, and embodies them in rules. Study and practice follow, in due order; and the result is a recognized form of beauty or of power. Depth, breadth, force, truth, and grace, are each the same thing, in whatever art; be it architecture, sculpture, painting, music, poetry, or oratory. The mind which submits to the requisite conditions of patient and skillful investigation, will succeed in finding, and naming, and exemplifying them.

The great impediment to effective speaking, so far as depends on action, lies in the defective character of early education. The child is originally a model and a study for the sculptor and the painter, in the spontaneous perfection of attitude and gesture. Education, as generally conducted, does nothing to secure this natural excellence; but, on the contrary, allows it to die out of use, and even displaces it by a defective routine of mechanical habit. The awkwardness of the schoolboy, and the stiffness of the student, are proverbial. The minister in the pulpit, naturally, we might almost say necessarily, -exhibits the habitual faults of the student, to their fullest extent. His modes of life, if not counteracted by express care and due self-cultivation, lead him to a cold, reserved, ineffective, inexpressive style of action. So much so, that nothing is more frequently or more generally a subject of popular remark, than the coldness and the lifelessness of the style of speaking usually exemplified in the pulpit. In too many cases, the sacred precincts seem to be occupied by an automaton or a statue, endowed with nothing beyond the power of a mechanical articulation.

The opposite faults of excessive, redundant, or over vehement action, and of labored or fanciful gesticulation, instead of a just and manly style of gesture, arc the unavoidable results of an injudicious reaction against the effects of early neglect. Judgment and taste must discharge their salutary office here as elsewhere; and for

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