churches that had reason to cherish the spirit of revivals, and to labor and pray for their promotion, they are the churches planted by our fathers. It is the baptism of their infancy, and they have grown up under their influence. Accessions have mostly come by means of these seasons of refreshing from the Lord; and only here and there is seen a sinner returning from the error of his ways, when no breath is moving on the valley of the slain. Our churches love revivals; but they must love and prize them more. In them, is the blessing of the Highest, and the fruit of redemption, sealed by the blood of the Saviour. In pure revivals, is the strength of the church, the hope of our country, and the salvation of the world.

Thus, we have spoken of things we must not do, and things we must do, if our religious blessings and our privileges are to be perpetuated. Our responsibility is great. With the Bible in our hands, with the book of God's providential dealings toward his people open for our perusal, with the past and the present brought under our eye, we are not in want of light for the understanding of our duty, or of motives for its faithful performance. We are warned in distinct and solemn accents, to bring forth the fruits of the kingdom in their season, righteousness, faith, joy, and peace in the Holy Ghost, and all is well. Shall we not take counsel from infinite wisdom, and profit by the facts we have been gathering from the past? Like causes will produce like results. The want of spirituality, conformity to the world, the putting of human wisdom in the place of the doctrines of the gospel, selfconfidence, divisions and animosities, and a religion of lifeless forms, have blotted out of existence many a once flourishing church, and left others with only a name to live. Are we in no danger? Can we stand where they have fallen? Has sin changed its nature; or God adopted any new principle into his moral government? If not, we are only safe in the path of duty. Here, nothing can harm us, for the protecting arm of God's everlasting covenant is around his obedient people, as their ample defence. Let Zion awake, put on strength, and be clothed with her beautiful garments, and she shall ride upon the high places of earth. "And the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High."

SCIENTIFIC MEETING AT CAMBRIDGE.

Ir is a cheering indication for our country, that men of science are prosecuting their appropriate work with as much ability as enthusiasm. Our circumstances, and perhaps our national temperament, incline us to be a people of action, rather than of reflection and investigation. But the history of the Smithsonian. Institute; the high character of Silliman's Journal; the reputation of the Cambridge observatory, and the recent endowment of the Scientific School in that place; the successful career of the observatories at Washington and Cincinnati; the cordial welcome, full appreciation, and ready adoption of learned foreigners, who have come to cast in their lot with us, and who have greatly contributed to our scientific progress; and many similar manifestations, are among the signs which give assurance that the nation is not to be swallowed up in a vortex of mere utilitarian knowledge, nor devoted entirely to the prosecution of gain.

The scientific meeting recently held in Cambridge, is to be regarded with lively interest, as giving proof of the progress of science; and as promising that man is going to possess and control our broad territory, its vast mineral treasures, and its varied resources, for the advancement of all the political and social interests of our country and our race.

These gentlemen have traversed a wide range of subjects, and discussed them with great ability. As religious observers, we have felt no small degree of interest in their deliberations and deliverances. "The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein." And truly these men have pleasure in them. They have found the varied and rich delight which rewards patient and skilful observers of the handiworks of Him, who is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working."

It is a healthful taste, that enjoys the beauty, grandeur, order, and power which his works exhibit. The intelligent love of nature is necessary to the highest development of the human soul. What God has condescended to make, man may well study. All this universe is a teacher. It is full of angel-voices, uttering to the soul of man lessons of wisdom. Nor are we reluctant to avow that the gratification of a slight degree of national pride has mingled with other feelings, in beholding our countrymen taking

such a position as, a few years ago, would have been pronounced, in some quarters, unattainable. If, as the Convention seemed to think, Kirkwood's discovery of the formula for the axis-rotation of the heavenly bodies, is well established, we know not why he will not as a discoverer, rank with Kepler. We are happy, too, to recognize in their labors, the impulse of a genuine and enlightened philanthropy. They see that the wants of society demand a growing mastery of mind over matter; and that such mastery begins in knowledge.

The day has forever past, when, on the one hand, Galileo need dread a bench of monkish inquisitors; and when, on the other, the devout believer in Christ need fear the investigations of science and their results. Nay, as for ourselves, we rather confess to a degree of impatience, that would hasten these investigations to their solid and permanent conclusions, so far as they affect the question of the infallibility of the Bible. We have confidence, that whatever is written on the deeply-buried monumental rocks of primeval periods, as well as what the comparatively recent inscriptions on the walls and columns of Egypt, and of Nineveh may declare, will be found to sustain and commend the records of Moses and the prophets. We are equally confident, that as true science advances, scepticism and sneering infidelity will disappear. Irreligious men, indeed, may still prosecute the sciences, and that too in a spirit of hostility to revelation; but we have passed the period when such men can exalt themselves in the public esteem, by tearing away these foundations of society, and these pledges of Divine love to our afflicted humanity. Nor are such men now goaded to acts of hostility by the jealousy of the church; since zeal for the Scriptures no longer involves such jealousy. Religion and science are, therefore, moving on, side by side, to the same great end of elevating man to the high places of excellence and happiness, for which he was at first created.

All the proceedings of this convention are marked with that urbanity and mutual respect that become a congress of well-bred men, met for any purpose. Nor, even when the heat-enkindling topic of the glaciers was introduced, could it elicit any thing warmer than a few electric sparks. To us, who are uninitiated, the remarks of Professor Hall in the conclusion of that debate, appeared peculiarly just and well-timed, although they must have been rather reproving to some of the anti-glacial theorists. He

remarked, that "We ought to be ashamed in this country, to speak with confidence, after so little research, when there had been so much, abroad. He considered the evidence conclusive, that the phenomena of the Alps could only have arisen from the action of ice."

The true state of the case in this controversy, may perhaps be, that Professors Agassiz and Guyot have applied the principles which they have established, on the most careful and skilful examination of the Alps, to regions of the earth which they have not so examined, and where other causes have been at work. As to their conclusions regarding the Alps, it must be strong testimony that can overthrow the opinions of two such men, who have spent the summers of ten years in examining, in a scientific manner, the nature and action of the glaciers. During those ten years, three thousand points have been barometrically observed.

We take it to be indicative of the tendencies of modern science, that an address like that of Professor Agassiz on animal morphology, or, as we should say, on natural theology, was so delivered, and so received; for it is the only one which we have noticed as being received with open marks of approbation. It was an oral communication on animal morphology, which may be interpreted, the science of the forms of animals, and of their changes. He has made a new and brilliant addition to the great argument of Derham, Ray, and Paley, for establishing the doctrines of natural theology.

He introduced his statement by describing the objects of the investigations of zoologists up to the present time; which have been, to discover the various relations of animals, whether structural, physiological, or geological. But the results of these investigations have led only to classifications and theories. "I think," he says, "there is a higher aim in science than mere classification, than mere theory, however wide may be the conclusions derived from those investigations. It is my opinion that we are to seek the recognition of the plan according to which animals have been created; to inquire whether there is really in nature a plan, which does not result merely from our contrivances to illustrate the subject before us, but which is inherent in nature; in a word, which is a Thought of the Supreme Intelligence, manifested in material reality. That is the view I take of the animal kingdom, a view which greatly differs from that generally adopted."

The question he discusses, is thus stated; "Do the relations which exist in nature, shew satisfactorily that all classes of animals, and all individual animals are partial expressions of a general thought, and manifestations of immaterial reality, of a plan laid out by a Supreme Intelligence?"

To establish the affirmative of this question, he presents two considerations, first, the various types of animals are not evolved from one another; yet, secondly, they are the consecutive stages in one plan. All animals, therefore, are separated into classes which can have no common material origin; yet they belong to one plan, and point to a common issue of their series.

It is manifest, that, if facts substantiate these positions, a new and glorious demonstration of an intelligent First Cause is added. to the former instructions of natural theology. Without the aid of diagrams, we cannot well present the learned professor's illus trations. After shewing that there are four types of animal existence, inseparably distinct, Radiata, Mollusca, Articulata and Vertebrata, he approaches his conclusion by asking, "Whether there is an intellectual connection between these types thus materially separate and incommunicable, shewing that they are the connection of a preconceived, and hence intelligent and intended plan, laid out before their creation, and carried out in reality, in a succession of types? If I succeed in shewing that there is such an intelligent connection between these plans, then, I think, I shall have shewn, on scientific grounds alone, that we are to bow before a Supreme Intelligence, and acknowledge in science, what we so deeply feel in our bosoms."

"In

His argument is thus beautifully and impressively closed. the succession of organized beings, we find such a progress, that tracing all these relations, we arrive at man at the last. He is, by his structure, the highest. He is, in the order of succession, the last. And as we have traced all these different connections with reference to the plan laid out at the beginning, at what conclusion do we arrive in the most direct manner? It is, that the creation of man was the aim of the plan from the beginning. And in a higher view, and without any reference to utilitarian considerations, we may say that this world has been made for man; for man was the object which the Creator had in view, when he framed the plan for the development of this globe. And if this be the case, let us never forget what a responsibility it throws upon us,