as the sacred volume. In it we have recorded the earliest and the latest physical revolutions of our globe; the dispersion of the human race; the succession of monarchs in the surrounding countries, from the time of Sesostris, to the Syrian kings; the habits, manners, and languages of various nations; the great religious traditions of the human race; and the recital of many marvellous and miraculous events, not to be found in the annals of any other people." Add to this, that it is the work, not of one hand, but of many, between whom there could have been no collusion or design; and I appeal to the considerate reader, if there ever was a book which, if untrue, if an imposition, presented so many chances for detection and exposure. And yet its leaves were thrown fearlessly open, from two to three thousand years ago, to the investigation of philosophers and critics-to the scrutiny of friends and foes. Its leaves have lain unfolded from that time to the present, inviting discussion -inviting research; saying virtually, like its great author, Testify against me, if you can;' and it has passed the ordeal; it has stood the test. Its evidences, so far from being weakened by the labors of critics, the researches of philosophers, and the lapse of time, are becoming continually strengthened. Dark passages are brought out into light. Seeming discrepancies are reconciled. What were regarded as difficulties two hundred years ago are found such no longer. "Every science, every pursuit, as it makes a step in its own natural, onward progress, increases the mass of our confirmatory evidence." The very efforts of infidels are made to recoil on their own heads and are over-ruled for the establishment and advancement of the gospel. And shall Christians tremble now, for the safety of their precious ark? Shall they fear now, that the progress of any real science can shake the foundation of their hopes?

There are many Christians, it may be feared, who have no practical conception of the unmoveable security of that foundation on which it is their privilege to stand. They are easily terrified at appearances. The boastful pretensions of some infidel hypothesis, some misnamed science, alarms them. Or what is worse, they are drawn away, it may be, for a time, from the clear shining of the light of heaven, to follow in the glare of some meteor, or mock sun. The subject here discussed is calculated to impress upon all Christians the folly of such terrors— the guilt and danger of such aberrations. In the faith of the gospel, we have rock beneath our feet; and it is our own

fault if we leave it, and become lost and buried in the sands. "We have a sure word of prophecy, to which we do well to take heed, as to a light shining in a dark place;" and it is our own fault, if we turn from it, in the pursuit of wandering stars.

There will be dreams and visions, plausible theories and lying vanities, in days to come, as there have been in days past. There will be false pretenders to science, speaking great swelling words, and leading unwary souls astray. But let the Christian possess himself in perfect peace, as most assuredly he is in a situation of perfect security. The storm may rage around him for a season, but it will pass over. The lightnings may flash and the thunders roar, but they will ere long be hushed. And Christianity will come out of every new trial, as it has out of every previous one, strengthened in its evidences, and not weakened-victorious, and not vanquished.

But in speaking thus confidently of the truth of Christianity— of its eternal, inflexible truth, are those who profess it aware, in all cases, of what they affirm? What is Christianity? What does the sacred volume teach? Its conclusions, in many points, are coincident, as we have seen, with those of science; but in various other points, it discloses what no mere science ever taught, or ever can. It publishes truths-and this is the reason why it has been so violently assailed-truths, humbling to the pride of man, startling to his fears, wounding to his carnal peace, and fatal to his unfounded hopes. It tells of guilt-awful guilt; and of impending judgment-awful judgment. It tells of a Deliverer, who saves all that embrace and follow him, but who punishes all others with an aggravated condemnation. It tells, not only (like geology) of melting elements and burning worlds, but of a great white throne, and of him who is to sit upon it, before whom the earth and the heavens are to flee away. It shows us the rising dead, the assembled worlds, the opened books, the final awards. It shows us heaven-and it shows us hell. It calls us to look upward, and behold the unmingled joys and glories of the saved. It permits us to look downward, and listen to the wailings of the lost.

There are truths (and they are truths, if Christianity is true) which, for solemn interest and impression, cast all others into the shade. Here are truths, on the heights of which the Christian may plant himself, and look far down upon mere questions of science, as manhood looks upon the baubles of infancy, or as angels may be supposed to look upon the trifling pursuits of men.

Of the reader of these pages, may I be permitted to inquire, before we part, Do you believe the truths of the Bible? Dare you disbelieve them? Or perhaps I might better inquire, Dare you believe them? Dare you feel, and live, and act, in all your intercourse with the world, as though the Bible was the truth of God?

I know there are some, who are very ready to profess their belief of the truth of Christianity, and then live as though there was no truth in it. But what good can such a belief of Christianity do? Must it not to those who persist in it, do immense hurt? Must it not deepen the stains of their guilt, and aggravate their final condemnation ?

I know, too, that there are some, who would receive Christianity in the gross, while they reject it piece-meal. They would have the credit of receiving it, while they are bent upon explaining away its solemn truths. But what good, I ask again, can such a reception of Christianity do us? What good can the mere covers of the Bible do us-although they be gilded covers-when its precious contents are all torn out? What good can the chapters and verses, the words and the letters of the Bible do us, when their solemn meaning is discarded?

Assuredly there is but one course which those who have the Bible, and who profess to believe it, can with propriety pursue. Let them henceforth live as though it were true. Let them shape their faith and form their characters according to it. Consistency requires as much as this of them; and the God of the Bible requires no more. A character consistently formed on the basis of the Scriptures is a christian character and entitles its possessor to the Christian's reward.

ARTICLE II.

THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH, HEAD OVER ALL THINGS; ILLUSTRATED BY Analogies between Nature, Providence, AND GRACE.

By W.S. Tyler, Prof. of Languages, Amherst College. [Concluded from Vol. XI. p. 363.]

8. The order of proceeding in nature, providence and grace alike is gradual. The processes are never hurried, often exceedingly slow. The growth of the plant, the animal, the man is by almost imperceptible gradations. Human character and condition are formed and decided by steps equally gradual. And the same is true of the christian character and state.

Look at the same law of order on a larger scale. The work of creation occupied six natural days according to the common understanding of the sacred record. According to the interpretation of many philologists, and the records of geology, many thousand years were occupied in preparing the earth to be a suitable habitation for man.

How slow is the process of civilization, and the progress of society. All Europe was overrun with savage tribes from its first peopling till the supremacy of the Roman empire, and the larger part of it remained in a savage state till after the refor mation. It was only within a century, that government began to be administered for the good of the people; and according to the analogy of past history, many and many a year must roll away, before this will become the end of all government.

We need not be surprised then at the slow progress of revelation and spiritual renovation. The human race lived 2000 years without any written revelation, and 2000 years more had elapsed, before the canon of Scripture was completed. A third period of 2000 years has almost passed away, and not one fourth of the human race bear so much as the christian name. Not one fourth of these have the Bible in their own tongue and are able to read it; and of these again, not one fourth probably are real and spiritual Christians. Yet the process has been ever going on and is destined to go on, till the world is converted.

There is the increasing twilight, the gradual dawn, and the slowly advancing day alike in nature, providence and grace.

Everywhere, in every thing in our world, infancy, childhood, youth, manhood succeed each other by almost inperceptible stages.

9. This law of order is not only gradual but progressive. There is a gradual process of improvement or advancement alike in nature, providence and grace. "First the blade, then the ear, then the full-corn in the ear." "The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." These similes rest on the analogy between the natural and the spiritual worlds, of which I am speaking; and exhibit the order of every thing, which we see under the divine government. If "order is heaven's first law," progression is its second, and no less universal, than the first. Particular illustrations without number will be suggested from the similes of the Bible and from every reader's own observations and reflections. We will confine our attention to the following of a more general nature.

According to the first chapter of Genesis, the order of creation was as follows: first inorganic matter, then successively grass, the herb yielding seed, the fruit tree yielding fruit, reptiles, the monsters of the deep, the fowls of the air, the beasts of the field, the cattle after their kind, and man in the image of God. There is obviously a constant progress from good to better, from less perfect to more perfect forms of organization and modes and ranks of existence. Now whether geology presents us with a record of this same creation, as some maintain, or as others hold, carries us back to an earlier series of creative acts succeeding each other at long intervals, all agree, that it exhibits the same general law of progression from the rudest mineral up through successive stages to the most perfect animal-from mere chrystalization to vegetation, from improving vegetation to dawning sensation, from advancing sensation to commencing sagacity or intelligence, and from rising intelligence to reason and moral sense, where the progression ceases to be transferred from one species to another, but will go on in the same species through the countless stages of improvement, to which man is destined during an endless existence.*

"Geology shows us, that organic beings became more and more perfect from the commencement of life on the earth to the time of man's appearance."-M. Rozet.

See also Buckland, chap. 12. Says Kirby (Bridgewater Treatise