verted into a mere gilded ornament, or removed, | as an indispensable piece of sacred lumber, to collect the dust in some corner of our libraries? And as an everlasting proof of the emptiness of many of our public encomiums, how often have we heard of pile being left to accumulate upon pile in some grand depository, a quiet and undisturbed prey for moths and insects,—instead of being scattered abroad, with an urgency proportionate to the necessities of man, to become food, substantial food, for multitudes of immortal spirits that are famishing for lack of knowledge?

And thus it is, that, notwithstanding all the hallowed teachings of youth, and all the vaunted professions of manhood, that best of books-the Bible, instead of reigning as the central sun in our intellectual and spiritual firmament, is too often allowed to fade away, and dwindle into a point that barely announces its own existence by a dim nebulous luminosity, or an occasional faint sparkle.

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attempting to bring the laws and principles thus unfolded, the powers and elements, whose properties are thus developed, under practical control, and thereby multiply the comforts, and contribute to the necessities, and augment, indefinitely, the earthly happiness of man.

And as the natural result of these ceaseless workings of the ever active mind, are there not enormous masses of recondite literature and science for the use of the learned ? Is there not an endless variety of works, of a more elementary description, for the less studious and profound? And, in the train of both, do there not follow innumerable shoals of daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly publications, in the shape of Journals, Magazines, Reviews, Cyclopædias, and Miscellanies, that find free admission into all the circles of society, crowd upon our tables, and form the staple of our popular libraries? Now, here lies the vital question: Have not these been too often allowed to engross more than a legitimate Now, the present is pre-eminently an age of share of the thoughts and meditations even of promotion, drifting with strange impetuosity along fessing Christians? Have they not been too the course of time, and quickening into mental often allowed to occupy, almost or altogether, the life the spirits of thousands and tens of thousands departments of private reading and conversation? that erewhile lay slumbering in wintry torpor. And if so, must not these, in such cases, instead of And if the Bible, which is the richest magazine being friends and allies, be accounted as the rude of ennobling truth, be so often practically despis- invaders of a sacred territory, that would drive the ed, or forgotten, how are the restless activities of Bible from its commanding station in the foreawakened intellect directed? To the accomplish-ground of our intellectual and spiritual landscape? ment of what worthy objects are they applied?these, the sacrilegious spoilers that would usurp On what engrossing themes are they expended? Let hoar antiquity, with its musty records and mutilated remains, and old nature, throughout all her provinces of heaven above, and earth beneath, and waters under the earth, furnish the reply.

Some spend their days and years in decyphering the ponderous records of ancient mythological lore; or in dragging from the rubbish of mouldering ruins hieroglyphical fragments to disclose the story of former ages; or in exposing to view, amid the caverns of earth and the ravines of everlasting hills, the mightier order of natural hieroglyphics that exhibit the progressive developments in the external organization of a globe. Others traverse the tempestuous ocean, and visit inhospitable climes, in quest of new facts to extend our knowledge of the animal and vegetable creations; or enlarge our views of the physical and moral, the social and political condition of man. Some lay the whole domain of nature tributary in supplying images to inspire their muse; or exhaust the powers of invention in fabricating incidents to illustrate a narrative or adorn a tale. Others labour to define the operations of the subtle agent within, and delineate its ever varying successions of state; or apply the arbitrary signs of intangible ideas to the tracing of the origin and identity of nations. Some strive to detect the internal changes and curious configurations of material substances; or unfold the laws that regulate their motions and reciprocal influences, whether on the teeming surface of earth or ocean, or aloft amid the glories of the circling heavens. Others toil, with reiterated efforts, in

the province of a book replete with the incense and redolent with the fragrance of heaven?—these, the cruel monopolizers of time and attention, that would feed immortal souls with the garbage of secular knowledge, and leave them to famish amid the plentiful supplies of the bread of life, and the water of life, fresh flowing from the fountains of paradise?

But let us not be misunderstood. From what has now been said, let it not be insinuated that, like the wily priests and crafty churchmen of other days, we dread the searching scrutiny of inquisitive minds, and are hostile to the diffusion of useful knowledge. No such thing. We would utterly repudiate the insinuation, and pronounce it the basest calumny. Let men's minds be aroused from dull hebetude,-let all their faculties be expanded, let them be expanded boundlessly; we have themes in store that will far transcend the utmost height which their purified vision can reach. Let sound knowledge increase and abound,-let fresh accessions be made to its accumulating stores,

let new facts and principles he discovered without number or limit; we shall only be furnished with more varied arguments to defend, and more apposite topics to illustrate, and more signal evidences to constrain us to venerate the oracles of the Living God.

But, it is one thing to be pronounced good, and another to be extolled as best; one thing to be regarded with favour, as a friend, another to be treated with exclusive honours, as a substitute; one thing to be viewed as an object of importance,

another to be exalted to undisputed pre-eminence; one thing to be marked as worthy of admiration, and quite another to be enshrined as a divinity. While then, we cannot, in justice, nor would we, if we could, withhold our award of praise from the useful and the noble products of human intellect, we must still reduce their spurious first-rate magnitude into their real second-rate importance. We must lower their towering pretensions before the high claims of God's Word, to which alone the palm of royal pre-eminence is due. And admirable though they may be, and greatly promotive of the temporal wellbeing of man, we must ever hold them as subordinate in excellence, and subservient in utility to the wondrous records of divine, unfathomable, wisdom.

That these questions are not the offspring of a heated imagination, may be established by inde-" pendent evidence. Here is the testimony of a late celebrated layman-that prince of oriental scholars-Sir William Jones. "I have," wrote he on a blank leaf of his own Bible, "I have regularly and attentively read these holy Scriptures, and am of opinion that this volume, independently of its divine origin, contains more simplicity and beauty, more pure morality, more important history, and finer strains of poetry and eloquence, than can be collected from all other books, in whatever age or language they may have been composed."

This, it must be acknowledged, is an important testimony, and not more important than decisive, and not more decisive than true. Let us briefly advert to a few particulars.

We refer to theories respecting the origin, formation, and destiny of the globe which we inhabit. In the Bible, we distinctly behold it emerging out of nothing-existing for a season, for the accomplishment of the divine purposes, and finally wrapped in a universal conflagration.

We refer to descriptions of its varied surface. In the Bible, we have accounts of some of its fairer portions and products, and these are employed as emblems to adumbrate, though faintly, the scenery of that happy land, where "eternal spring abides, and never withering flowers."

We would not surely be understood to disparage the effect of the workman's skill, though we directed the attention of an idle gazer from the gilded exterior of a book to its edifying or spirit-stirring contents, nor to undervalue the light of a taper, in its proper season, though we advised some doating student to throw open his windows and let in the full blaze of the meridian sun,-nor to decry the admirable proportions of some stately edifice, with its rich tracery and fretted embellishments, though we exhorted the delighted spectator to cross the threshold, and join in those hallowing exercises that exhilarate the soul with the refreshment of heavenly delicacies. So neither can we, We refer to history, with its details of the rise in justice, be thought to treat, with unmerited con- and fall of empires, the counsels of kings, and the tempt, the glowing effusions of human genius, or the struggles of contending warriors. In the Bible, laboured productions of human learning, though we are introduced into the council-chamber of we attribute the highest place and assign the high-heaven, and made acquainted with the plans of est praise to that book, which is the progeny of the infinite mind,--that book, which, from the external covering of the volume of nature, directs to inward intimations of a superintending providence, -that book, which points to the natural sun in the firmament as only an approximating emblem of the Sun of Righteousness, that book, which grasps and appropriates all the beauties and excellencies of the magnificent temple of the material universe, and converts them into types and images for conveying some faint, undefined, etherial conceptions of the peerless splendour of these bright realms where the Eternal Deity is unveiled amid the floods of effulgent glory.

While, therefore, we would highly prize well chosen works in every department of really useful knowledge, we hold it to be a foul indignity that these should occupy the foremost place in our thoughts, absorb the greatest portion of our time, and constitute the most prominent theme of every discourse.

For, even if we take the very lowest view of the subject, and judge of it by the current test of this boastful age of intellectual prowess, we would still ask, What book, even "as a magazine of useful and interesting knowledge," is worthy of being compared with the Bible? What department of knowledge is not garnished in that wondrous volume? and what branch of knowledge is there left without a counterpart?

Eternal Wisdom. Here, we have a history of the rise, fall, and future destiny of man, without the knowledge of which, all other history would only be a confused mass of anomalies an inexplicable riddle-a dark and intricate labyrinth without a clew. Here, too, we have a vivid glimpse of a mighty warfare, that is now carried on between the potentates of heaven and the powers and principalities of darkness,-compared with which, the shock of armies in the battle field, is but as the tinkling of a cymbal to the loud thunder's

roar.

We refer to studies that elucidate the jurispru dence and economy of nations. In the Bible, the court-rolls of heaven are thrown open to us. Here are the everlasting decrees, which, unlike the imperfect edicts of earthly princes, are not to be modified by the lapse of time, the change of place, or the revolution of circumstances. Here, are the laws for regulating the conduct of man, without distinction of age, or sex, or climate,of man, whether high or low, rich or poor,-of man universally, whether "saint, or savage, or sage."

We refer to writings which exhibit the forecasting skill and sagacity of captains and statesmen, that have figured on the stage of time. In the Bible, we behold the servants of the living God, standing, as it were, on the lofty summits of remote antiquity, and thence surveying the am

still cast it into the shade, and confound it with the dross of perishable vanities, Oh! how can we expect to escape the merited condemnation? Will not the poor blinded idolaters, on the plains of Hindustan, rise up in judgment and condemn us? saying, "Are you also become weak as we?' you, who had free access to the storehouse of divine knowledge-you, who, from earliest infancy, had the revealed Word of God to be a light to your feet, and a lamp to your paths?' Verily, we are without excuse, as conscience now bitterly upbraids us for not having walked up to the light which we enjoyed; but never, never did it cost us such a struggle to lose our souls, as it must have cost you you, who despised God's Word, who rejected his counsels, who slighted his invitations, and who set at nought all his re

ple domains of futurity. And as they depart,
they drop some seed of promise, which gradually
springs up, containing the germs of other revela-
tions; and these, of others still, in onward pro-
gression;-till, at length, the original seed becomes
a majestic tree, which spreads on every side, and
shoots its branches into all time, and embraces in
its mighty expansion the events of all ages; termi-
nating only with the "restitution of all things!"
We refer to writings which regale the fancy and
gratify the taste. In the Bible, what a perpetual
feast for the most refined imagination and the
most tender feelings! Such choice selection of
imagery! such brilliancy of metaphor! such vi-
vidness of description!-What chord of the heart
has it left untouched?-What songs of noble tri-
umph! what strains of plaintive melody! what
bold and rapid transitions! what strokes of ten-proofs."
derness! what resistless appeals! what rousing
bursts of eloquence!

We refer to works of science, which unfold the boundless diversity of skill and contrivance in the mechanism of the material universe. In the Bible, we have a still higher order of divine skill and contrivance; for therein is manifested "the manifold wisdom of God," in planning, and conducting, and consummating the scheme of man's redemption. And in its progress and development, a thousand varied agencies, and a thousand varied events, apparently the most contingent, are moulded into the most exquisite and admirable adaptations for ultimately realizing the grand design. But when, by the aid of this noblest of all sciences, we are at length conducted to that point where the eternal Son of God sinks prostrate beneath the accumulated load of a world's transgression,-it only leaves us to fall prostrate too, and, lost in wondering admiration, to exclaim:-— "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!"

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And what shall we say more? For time would fail us to speak of the thousandth part of the transcendant claims of "the Word of God," that blessed book-the Bible! If we had "the tongues of men and of angels" we could not do it the thousandth part of the justice which it so eminently deserves! For, how could we ever sufficiently pourtray its glory, as "the mighty power of God," "the hammer that breaketh in pieces" the rocky heart, and openeth a chasm in the soul, deep as the bottomless abyss; and openeth it only to be replenished out of the fulness of the Godhead? How could we ever adequately set forth this-its surpassing excellency, as the sole instrument, wielded by the omnipotency of the Spirit, in effecting the conversion of lost sinners? Here, beyond all debate, it moves in an orbit peculiarly its own an orbit, in which it is placed as far at a distance from comparison with the loftiest productions of human intellect, as the sun, moon, or stars from the clods of the valley!

And if we, in this Christian land, who are privileged to possess a treasure so inestimable,

Oh let us, then, awake and bestir ourselves, ere we be summoned to take our station among the spirits of the reprobate! Let us arise and shake off the lethargy of slothful indifference, which, like the deadly night-shade, is so apt to infuse its venomous influence into all the faculties. Let us, like spirits disenthralled, expatiate at large in the hallowed fields of revelation, and crop the golden fruits of celestial truth, and thus nourish our souls for the climes of immortality. And let us now, with one spontaneous and universal impulse, exclaim, "Come, O house of Jacob, come and let us henceforth walk in the light of the Lord!”

ALL CHRISTIANS ARE NOT ALIKE.
BY THE REV. DUNCAN MACFARLAN,
Minister of Renfrew.

SECTION III.

PERSONAL RELIGION UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF
DIFFERENT BODILY DISTEMPERS.

Ir will not be denied that the state of our bodily
health affects all our ordinary feelings and pursuits.
Every derangement of the bodily system must, to a
greater or less extent, influence the condition of the
feelings and apprehensions, produced by different com-
mind. And, perhaps, even greater is the diversity of
plaints of opposite tendencies. So intimate is the con-
nection between the mind and the body, or rather such
is the extraordinary effect of physical causes on mental
phenomena, that the inspiration of certain gases has
been found, by experiment, to produce such a train of
the most brilliant and interesting visions of thought, as
to seem almost supernatural. And it is well known
that particular fevers have a similar effect. In some
other diseases the patient is thrown into a state of un-
natural and convulsive joy, while, in many more, great
depression of spirits, and inability to think, are usual
symptoms. And in not a few a timid and sensitive ap-
prehension, particularly of death, is well known as a
purely physical effect. Now, what is personal reli-
gion but an altered state of man's moral and spiritual
condition? It is not something apart from man, which
may remain untouched, although he is affected, to the
interruption or even deprivation of all his faculties.
But instead of this, it is simply man, viewed with re-
gard to religion. Personal religion is the religion of a
man's person; it is a part of his moral being; it shares
with him in all that he shares; it is tried by all that is
trying to him; it is, throughout the whole period of

our imperfect state, like the lights carried by Gideon's | soldiers, while the pitchers remained unbroken; it is dimmed by the infirmities of our fallen nature, and will shine forth in the fulness of its own light, only when these clay tenements shall be broken in pieces, and that which is imperfect be done away.

We remarked in a former paper, that examples drawn from life ought not to be regarded as simple experiments. In all the works of God many causes meet, and all that we are warranted to say, respecting any one, is that it may be traced among the leading features of the example adduced. The influence of sickness is entitled to the full benefit of this remark. Even when long continued, it is only an accidental and modifying circumstance, and ought not to be understood as giving any original or constitutional bias, but merely as affecting, for a time, the external medium of communication, and those feelings and apprehensions which are dependent on bodily causes. And with this explanation, we shall now proceed to detail a few cases, first of Christians suffering under complaints, whose general tendency is rather to elevate than depress the spirits:

this time, and threw all the other members of the family into a state of utter dejection and helplessness, yet she, who was at this very time labouring under various severe ailments, rose like some light substance floating on the swell of the deep. Amidst the chafing of severe affliction, and when all around were bathed in tears, or dying away in faints, she seemed more active than at other times, and with an address superior to herself, she discharged the duties of the family, and was the comforter of the rest. Her strength, however, rapidly gave way, particularly after sustaining the bereavement now referred to. The time of her departure drew nigh, and she entered the swellings of Jordan without fear.-We shall add only one other instance of a like tendency: The young man, of whose sickness we propose to give some account, was naturally of an active and sanguine temperament, had received a liberal education, and seen a good deal of the world. He was understood to have long known the truth, and had done much to promote the interests of religion. When first taken ill, his medical advisers felt themselves unable to speak with certainty of his A young woman, who had been religiously brought up, complaint. He daily lost strength, but felt no pain, and who had known the truth as a matter of expe- and was perfectly at his ease, and uniformly cheerful. rience for probably four or five years, was seized with His complaint at length discovered itself to be an a spitting of blood, gradually lost strength, and at last ulcerous affection of the lungs. When the issue had died of pulmonary consumption. She was naturally thus become morally certain, he hastened to disengage of a calm and placid temper, but without any mixture himself from all worldly matters, and to give himself of melancholy. From the time that she first knew the wholly to the things of eternity. Each day he seemed truth as a ground of peace, her progress in knowledge eager to gain a step of advancement in his progress heawas remarkably equable and steady; and very much, venward, and especially by prayerfully studying the in the same proportion, was the progress of her faith, Word of God. One day in particular, when a clerical and of other Christian attainments. She said herself, friend was expounding to him a portion of the 10th that she had scarcely ever known what it was to be chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, he was led to downcast or disquieted in divine things; and that nei- see more clearly the way of access to the Father, ther had she experienced any remarkable enlargement through a finished atonement. His mind became filled of heart, but that she always enjoyed a calm and de- to overflowing with active joy. The unwonted tears lightful sense of the divine favour, which was to her burst from his eyes; and it seemed to him as if he had soul as a continual feast; and in this state she con- found a great treasure. His mind was fully occupied tinued with little interruption till death. As the hour with this subject for several days, and each day witapproached, she was left for a little, to look at her nessed his increasing ardour in devising means for the coming change, with the feeling of being alone. A advancement of the Redeemer's kingdom. When the momentary darkness spread over her soul, but it was time of his departure at last came, he bade all around only as the passing of a cloud. She again saw Him in him farewell! with a cheerful and even gladdened counwhom she had believed. A fresh tide of joy flowed in tenance; and, turning towards her by whom he was upon her soul, and she soon after departed.-Another, supported, where he lay, he exclaimed as in joyful and, in some respects, more remarkable instance, we triumph, "All's well! M- All's well! M shall now subjoin. A young woman, of perhaps about the same age, but of a weak and sickly body, and with a mind neither acute nor forcible, became serious, perhaps two or three years before her death. Like many others, she had been accustomed to hear the Gospel, as if respectful hearing were all that was required. But she was led, in providence, to sit under a different ministry, and it pleased God to open her heart, like that of Lydia, to attend to the things which were spoken. The first change of which she was conscious, was the apprehension of what she called "a meaning in preaching." Her mind gradually opened, and although she was still rather inapt, yet such was her extraordinary application and unwearied attendance on all the means of grace within her reach, that she made sensible and steady progress. Besides her attendance in the house of God, and on various classes, she often remained sleepless during a great part of the night, either poring over her Bible, or musing in painful solitude on difficulties which stood in her way. Her health, otherwise bad, was, no doubt, injured by so much anxiety and application. Various complaints grew upon her, and, among others, she was frequently visited with spitting of blood. Yet so far was she from being either alarmed, or deterred from eagerly pursuing what had now become to her even better than life, that she grew in ardour, and scarcely abated in application. A painful and overwhelming affliction occurred about

and repeated several passages of Scripture such as, "I know that my Redeemer liveth.' They who looked upon him scarcely observed the change till it had taken place. Amidst this burst of holy triumph, his soul took its flight, leaving impressed on his features the very image of its own joy. The smile remained fully expressed on every feature of his countenance when his body was laid in the coffin.

It will not be supposed that these facts are adduced to prove that disease itself is the cause of such holy triumph. It is enough for our purpose that, under certain complaints, such as those described, religion is less fettered and depressed than in other circumstances; that it is not their nature to press on the spirits, or to fill the mind with foreboding fears, but rather to produce a certain degree of excitement, which, however weakening, gives for the time a feeling of buoyancy and hope. On the other hand, there are not a few disorders which as naturally depress, and are ever intruding upon the mind melancholy apprehensions. Like Job, the patient is, in such circumstances, surrounded with a perpetual gloom, and is, in consequence of his physical ailments, made to look upon his spiritual condition as if equally hopeless. The diversity of effects, in these circumstances, is very great. In some cases settled melancholy, proceeding from purely physical causes, is but little different from actual insanity. In other cases there is such a continued doubting and hesitation, as to