which he writes, in these words: "Ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls:" and then adds, "Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into." But in St. John's vision we are told that "in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four living creatures full of eyes before and behind." This position represents them as living in close communion with God, and agrees with what the apostle says in his first General Epistle, chap. i. verse 3: "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ." We cannot be faithful and efficient pastors, unless, to a certain extent at least, we understand and enjoy the blessings of the gospel which we preach but it is obvious that if Ezekiel's vision symbolize the ministration of the Spirit by the prophets, it symbolizes exclusively that ministration by true prophets; so it as manifestly follows that the four living creatures in St. John's vision symbolize that ministration only by truly spiritual pastors. If we be "ministers of the Spirit of life," we must be partakers of that life; and as our blessed Saviour himself saith, "This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent;" and as we find an additional emblem of the Crucified Reedemer "in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures," these four living creatures evidently enjoyed the supreme felicity of being intimately acquainted with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. Again, in Ezekiel's vision we discover nothing of the temple, or of its furniture; but in St. John's vision, the seven lamps of fire resemble the golden candlestick with its seven branches, and the sea of glass the brazen sea: this difference is peculiarly appropriate and significant, if the hypothesis which we are endeavouring to establish is founded in truth. The ministrations of the temple were not heavenly or spiritual ministrations; they were only "shadows of heavenly things," or of "good things to come." In Galatians iv. 3, they are called "the elements of the world:" in Hebrews ix., where this matter is fully explained, they are called "the patterns of things in the heavens;" and the dispensation of the Gospel of which they were patterns, is denominated "the heavenly things themselves." From these considerations, it necessarily follows that Ezekiel's vision could not possibly be connected with any thing belonging to the temple service, if it were designed only to symbolize the ministration of the Spirit by the prophets. On the other hand, it as manifestly and necessarily follows, that the four living creatures in St. John's vision must be connected, more or less, with the furniture of the temple, if they were intended to symbolize the ministration of the Spirit by the faithful pastors of Christ; for the Christian sanctuary contains the heavenly things of which the Jewish was a shadow, and it is in this sanctuary that Christ's truly spiritual pastors are engaged in carrying on that ministration. The farther we proceed in the investigation of these visions, the greater is the probability that the above is the true interpretation of Ezekiel's vision, and of the four living creatures in St. John's vision; and the evidence which appears to me to establish the truth of this interpretation, continues to accumulate as we become more intimately acquainted with the Apocalyptic symbols. That these four living creatures are not emblems of glorified spirits, is evident, both from the consideration that we have no scriptural authority for assuming that such spirits intercede for us in heaven; as also from the consideration that ministers and elders on earth have scriptural authority for interceding in behalf of their congregations; and in this benevolent work of intercession these living creatures and elders are obviously engaged. They are also in a state of oppression and bondage, anticipating a happy release, which is not the condition of departed spirits; for "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord; even so saith the Spirit, for they rest from their labours." The four faces of these living creatures, seem to be emblems of invincible courage, of patient endurance, of superior intelligence, and of heavenly mindedness; that is, of a mind which soars to heaven, and looks down with contempt or indifference on the world beneath; and those qualities were manifestly necessary to enable the prophets to accomplish the work that was assigned them; (and it is as manifest to those who are acquainted with the history of the Christian Church, that the same qualities have been equally necessary to ensure the faithful ministration of the blessed Gospel of Christ :) but I am not now prepared to assign the reason why each of the living creatures in Ezekiel has these four faces, and why these faces are distributed among the four living creatures in the vision of St. John; since the reasons are to be found in the right interpretation of the 6th chapter of the Apocalypse, and would require another paper. I will, therefore, close this paper with observing, that the vision of Saint John, in the fourth and fifth chapters of the Apocalypse, with the additional circumstance of an immense multitude, clothed with white robes, with palms in their hands, mentioned in the seventh chapter, forcibly reminds us of what is said of the condition and privileges of those who are Christians indeed : "We are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly of the church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel." CHINESE PROVERBS. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. PROVERBS are the concentrated wisdom of nations; by which assertion I do not mean that all proverbs are wise, for all nations are not so; but they indicate what is the standard of wisdom among those who make and use them; and so far as they are local they characterise the habits of thought and feeling which prevail in that locality. In reading the striking Sechuana aphorisms lately inserted in your pages, in your interesting notices of the "Philological Labours of Missionaries in South Africa," (Appendix for 1842) we become better acquainted with the turn of mind, the pursuits, the moral estimates, the intellectual powers, and the idiom of the language of the people among whom they are current, than we could do by many pages of descriptive statement. A people which employs such energetic and philosophical proverbs, though in a state of the grossest barbarism, must possess elements of mind, and be amenable to suggestions of conscience, which, by the blessing of God upon the instruction of his servants who are labouring among them as missionaries, may be turned to excellent account. The following brief specimen of the proverbs of a nation with which we are likely to come into intimate relations-the Chinese-forms a singular counterpart to the wisdom of South Africa. The Chinese are a somewhat metaphysical nation; and even their most absurd discourses have a touch of philosophy in them; with a constant appeal to "the moral sense." The man of first-rate excellence is virtuous independently of instruction; he of the middling class is so after instruction; the lowest order of men are vicious in spite of instruction. The spontaneous gifts of heaven are of high value; but the strength of perseverance gains the prize. The heart of a worthless man is as unfixed and changeable as a mountain stream. In the days of affluence always think of poverty; do not let want come upon you, and make you remember with sorrow the time of plenty. The same tree may produce sour and sweet fruit; the same mother may have a virtuous and vicious progeny. It is equally criminal to the governor and the governed to violate the laws. Meeting with difficulties, we think of our relations on the brink of danger, we rely on our friends. In learning, age and youth go for nothing; the best informed takes the precedence. Do not love idleness and hate labour; do not be diligent in the beginning, and in the end lazy. The world's unfavourable views of conduct and character are but as the floating clouds, from which the brightest day is not free. Wine and good dinners make abundance of friends; but, in the time of adversity, not one is to be found. Let every man sweep the snow from before his own doors, and not trouble himself about the frost on his neighbour's tiles. Worldly reputation and pleasure are destructive to virtue; anxious thoughts and apprehensions are injurious to the body. Better to be upright with poverty, than depraved with an abundance. He, whose virtue exceeds his talents, is the good man: he, whose talents exceed his virtue, is the mean one. SANCHO. ON THE SEPARATION OF BOYS AND GIRLS IN SCHOOLS. For the Christian Observer. Ir may not be known to all our readers, that among the innovations which have of late been strongly urged in the usual system of education in England, one is that of training boys and girls together in one common school and one common play-ground. We are reminded of the subject by a paper which Mr. Stow, the Honorary Secretary of the Glasgow Educational Society, and author of "Moral Training," and other works, has inclosed to us in his letter inserted in a former page our present Number. The conductors of the Glasgow Educational Society strongly object to "the separation of the sexes in education;" a large phrase, which includes, and is meant to include, not mere chil of dren, but young persons up to the age of manhood and womanhood. Had the plan been advocated only by a few theorists, without much effort to carry it into practice, we should not have thought it necessary to advert to the subject; but it is being taken up with ardour, and brought into operation under the auspices of the Glasgow Educational Society, the influence of which is very considerable, as may be gathered from the fact that as long ago as 1840 the Society had sent out from its Normal Seminary nearly six hundred teachers, ("trainers," they are called) and that the Glasgow system of training has been introduced not only into many towns and villages of Scotland, but also of England, Ireland, and some of the colonies. Mr. Stow stated in 1840, that from England and Ireland the Society had received demands for four or five times the number of trainers which it had been able to supply; sixteen had gone out to Australia, twenty-four to the West Indies; and the demands were rapidly increasing. From the minutes of the Committee of Council on Education for 1841, 1842, we learn that the Committee has granted the Glasgow Educational Society £4500 towards the very large outlay which it has incurred for its Normal Seminary. Upon the Glasgow system of teaching, as compared with rival systems, we feel incompetent to pronounce any decisive judgment. We have come pretty much to the opinion that in many cases that which is best administered is best; and the Glasgow system has not only many excellent characteristics, but it has been ably and zealously administered; so that it deservedly stands in good estimation, especially in regard to what Mr. Stow calls "Bible Training." But the proposition for uniting Boys schools and Girls schools, except in the case of schools for little children, appears to us unadvised and fraught with evil. It is retrograde reform; adopting from choice what is only to be submitted to when unavoidable. In Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, the practice, where it exists, has arisen chiefly from inability to keep up two schools,-the neighbourhood being poor or the popula tion scattered; but in England it has always been discountenanced; and we are not convinced by the Glasgow arguments in its favour. We will however, in all fairness, allow our readers to judge of those arguments for themselves, as they are ably laid down in the paper with which Mr. Stow has obliged us. There is one part of moral training which is too important to be overlooked, viz., the separation of the sexes in school education. "We are all aware of the softening and humanising effect which female society has upon the male creation. It influences the fireside, the social circle, and the public meeting. It restrains rudeness and impropriety of every kind; and while the men are thus improved, the females are not less benefited in their intellectual and moral character. Deprive man of female society, and he would soon approach to, if not actually sink into, barbarism; and exclude females from the society of the other sex-the history of nunneries will unfold the consequences. What is morally and intellectually true in regard to grown persons, is equally so in respect of the young; and if men and women ought to act properly towards each other when they meet, aud meet they must, then children cannot be too early trained to practise this virtue. "Every one is satisfied that boys are improved by the presence of girls-a wholesome restraint is obviously experienced. It is not so apparent, however, that girls are improved by the presence of boys. We believe it is perfectly mutual, although not so obvious. The girls are also under restraint, less visible, it is true, because they are less boisterous, but equally valuable in elevating and strengthening the real character, by preventing the evercise of tittle-tattle, evil speaking, &c., &c., and substituting things ennobling, which females are perfectly capable of attaining. Let each approach the other nearly half-way, and then each in manner and real character will be certainy and equally improved. "The consideration of the separation of the sexes in education is exceedingly important; for if it forms a part of moral training, no parent who calmly considers the good of his children can treat the subject with indifference or neglect. It is a subject that cannot be too often repeated, and therefore we would again ask and answer, as on a recent occasion, the question: "Ought boys and girls to be educated separately or together? The youth of both sexes of our Scottish peasantry have been educated together, and as a whole, the Scots are the most moral people on the face of the globe. Education in England is given separately, and we have never heard from practical men that any benefit has arisen from this arrangement. Some influential individuals there, mourn over the popular prejudice on this point. In Dublin a larger number of girls turn out badly who have been educatedalone till they attain the age of maturity, than of those who have been otherwise brought up-the separation of the sexes has been found to be positively injurious. In France the separation of the sexes in youth is productive of fearful evils. It is stated on the best authority, that of those girls educated in the schools in convents, apart from boys, the large majority go wrong within a month of their being let loose on society, and meeting the other sex. They cannot, it is said, resist the slightest compliment or flattery from the other sex. The separation is intended to keep them strictly moral, but this unnatural seclusion actually generates the very principles desired to be avoided. "We may repeat that it is impossible to raise girls intellectually as high without boys as with them, and it is impossible to raise boys morally as high without the presence of girls. The girls morally elevate the boys, and the boys intellectually elevate the girls. But more than this, girls themselves are morally elevated by the presence of boys, and boys are intellectually elevated by the presence of girls. Girls brought up with boys are more positively moral, and boys brought up in school with girls are more positively intellectual, by the softening influence of the female character. The impetuosity and pertness of a boys' school are by no means favourable, even to intellectual improvement; and the excessive smoothness of female school discipline does not strengthen or fortify the girl for her entrance into real life, when she must meet the buffets and rudeness of the other sex. Neither sex has participated in the improvement intended by Providence by boys and girls being born and brought up in the same family. Family training is said to be the best standard for school training; and if the schoolmaster, for a portion of each day, is to take the place of the parent, the separation of the sexes in elementary schools must be a deviation from this lofty standard. "Much may be said on this highly important subject. We would solicit tho se benevolent ladies who sigh for the establishment of girls' schools, to the exclusion of the other sex, to examine carefully and prayerfully whether the exercise of such tender benevolent feelings may not actually prove injurious to society as a whole. It is very pretty, and truly sentimental, to witness the uniform dress and still demeanour of a female school; but we tremble at the results. Most certainly moral training wants one of its most important ingredients when the sexes are not trained together to act properly towards each other. The English are beginning to feel the evils of separation in school; and the opposite course, in many cases, is beginning to be pursued; and, but from popular prejudice, would, ere long, be universal. In Scotland, unfortunately, the practice of separation and defective moral training is beginning to be introduced among all classes of the community. "A number of the schools established of late years in the towns of Scotland, even where the system pursued has been modern, have been, we are sorry to say, for boys alone, or for girls alone-the projectors acting as if they trembled at a shadow or a phantom of their own imagination. Man, whether male or female, is, no doubt, a sinful creature; and sin and folly are to be avoided and checked on their first development. "Under twelve or thirteen years of age, nearly all lessons may be given to boys and girls in the same class with mutual advantage. Beyond that age, the branches useful to each in the sphere in which Providence intends they should be placed, although in some points the same, yet they naturally and gradually diverge. Absolute separation, however, we conceive to be positively injurious. "In the Normal Seminary of Glasgow, the most beneficial effects have resulted from the more natural course. Boys and girls, from the age of two or three years, to fourteen or fifteen, have been trained in the same class-rooms, galleries, and play-grounds, without impropriety and they are never separated except at needlework. Nay, during the last fifteen years, between seven and eight hundred students, chiefly between the ages of eighteen and thirty, have been trained in that institution, three-fourths generally being males, and one-fourth females-and : |