to some of the statements of the word of God: the more widely extended is our acquaintance with the works of the Creator, the more eagerly can we echo its declaration, that He doth "wonders without number." The amazing phenomena, the striking changes and convulsions which have marked the progress of civilization, have tended to the wider diffusion of Christianity: moral earthquakes have, indeed, shaken the world, but they have not shattered the foundation on which the Christian's hope is built. And what is it that those individuals, who in their fondness for metaphysical speculations would fain remodel orthodox Christianity, wish to substitute for the ancient system? Do they desire a different scheme of redemption? Would they have another Saviour? A new Messiah? Do they expect that amidst the many philosophical theories of modern times a more perfect method of cleansing the heart, a more effective safeguard against sin, a surer evidence of immortality will be found than are afforded by those old Gospel doctrines which have directed the lives and cheered the deaths of believers hitherto? Gratefully do we receive the labours of men of genius, and thankful are we for their sublime disquisitions on the immortality of the soul and the beauty of virtue; but when our heart is warmed by their fervid descriptions, when they cause some beautiful idea to flash across the mind, radiant, as it were, with the sunshine of Paradise, when the glowing landscapes which they call up before us wear so rich a colouring to the mental eye, that the dark paths of life are illumined by the reflection and sparkle with a thousand hues, let us not for a moment forget, that the prompter of their descriptions and ideas, the sun that gilds their prospects is the very truth revealed in the Gospel. Do they talk to us of immortality? Its voucher is there. Do they prove to us the being and paternal character of God?

The

august truth is written there, in golden characters. Do they speak of the charms of the social affections? They are inculcated and enforced there.

Do they set forth the rapture of a calm conscience? Oh, where shall we find a balm for the heart's wounds but there? Wisely, then, may we follow them so long as they lead us to the threshold of Christianity, but let us not listen to irreverent comments on the mysteries within. Into the sanctuary an Almighty hand must guide-One who is no respecter of persons, and who out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hath perfected praise.

When we compare the agonizing uncertainty of metaphysical speculations carried on in a proud defiance of revelation, with the calm confidence of the Christian who declares, "I know in whom I have believed;" we find a cogent reason for holding fast by the simplicity of the Gospel. Lost in speculations transcending human powers, the inquirer is hurried beyond the bounds of life to regions where all is cold, breathless, stillwhere shadowy abstractions brood amidst formless infinity-and he returns to the scenes of active life filled with apathy or horror, as though he had gazed on some Medusa-like petrifying object, or had lifted the veil of some awful image whose aspect still haunted him with terrible recollections. How different is the assurance of the believer, who does not feel himself lost in illimitable space, who knows he has in heaven a Father, a Redeemer, a Sanctifier, whose omnipotence protects, and whose omniscience guides him, and who can seek rest from the perplexities of intellectual doubt by leaning on the arm of One who loved him and washed him from his sins in His own blood. This cheering confidence may not, indeed, at all times be enjoyed:

it may be long sighed for in vain, but let it never be ridiculed or looked on as the mark of an inferior mind.

And so also as to politics: there are some great truths which may be considered as established. The general rules of law and government remain unchanged: the details may alter, the machinery be differently arranged, but the principle is the same. The end of government is protection and order: the defence of the weak from

the oppression of the strong, and the security of the lives and the property of all. Law, if perfect, would be an earthly Providence: unseen and unfelt by the peaceable and orderly, it would seize the offender with an arm of iron: unruffled either by vindictiveness or weakness, it would mete out to every criminal his just punishment. To raise the laws, so far as may be, to this perfect state, is the aim of the true patriot. Considering the laws of his country as an imperfect development of ideal justice, he endeavours gradually to improve what is defective, by removing those parts which the alteration of manners has rendered obsolete, and introducing changes adapted to the new necessities of the times. Thus the veneration due to law remains unbroken: the antique fabric of government is seen still existing, stately and sublime, and gaining additional respect by the amendments it receives. But when by some ebulition of popular fury, or by the vile arts of factious demagogues, the government is overturned, when the sacred form of law lies prostrate amid the ruins of the throne, how difficult, how herculean the task to bring to life the extinct form, to rear again the shattered fabric, to revive that spirit of reverence towards the executive power, without which it can scarcely be expected to act effectively!

In exercising, then, the right of free inquiry in political matters,what calm, what caution are requisite ! Surely they are not a subject which every thoughtless declaimer ought to choose as an exercise of his literary skill and yet now-a-days how many, unable probably to conduct their own petty affairs with discretion, fancy themselves competent to frame a constitution or to regenerate a state! In this, as in other things, "fools rush in, where angels fear to tread." May the height which political frenzy has reached in France be a warning to ourselves! Alas for the speculations of philosophers, who fancied that with the increase of intellectual light, cruelty and bigotry would flee away, and pure reason be the arbiter in states! We find that

in our own day conspiracy and massacre are chosen as the means of propagating opinions: the final appeal is to the sword: and the quiet, though earnest, voice of the friend of peace and moral conviction, is lost in the din of arms. Amidst the exaggerations of popular vehemence common sense disappears. "To exaggerate every expression," says Emile de Girardin, speaking of his countrymen, “is all we can do. It is thus we exaggerate the word, Equality. It is thus we spell, without knowing how to put it together, the word Liberty. It is thus we repeat with emphasis, without knowing how to give it any appropriate meaning, that sublime word, Fraternity!—that word which, were it properly understood, would comprise in itself alone all social science, all the modern economy, all the politics of the future."* Undoubtedly it would; but the meaning of that sublime word true Christianity only can teach. So intricate is the machinery of government that the wise man fears to lay on it a heedless hand so concealed are the causes, so unexpected the catastrophes of public affairs that the philosopher is lost in astonishment, and feels that some power other than human is at work. To Tacitus, the more he considered many of the occurrences in ancient times, the more did all human affairs seem to be a mockery on man; and Niebuhr declares that "circumstances, which are called accidental, combine in such a wonderful way with others to produce certain results, that men evidently cannot do what they please." Let us learn hence humility and sobriety, to form our judgments with care and after due examination, and, even while attempting to check the progress of error, to treat with tenderness those whom we oppose.

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It becomes every one, especially in the present day, to endeavour to possess his soul in patience. The ancient belief linked together moral and physical disorders, to which idea the occasional coincidence of violent tem

*Journal d'un Journaliste au secret. P. 65. (July, 1848.)

pests, earthquakes and other natural convulsions with seasons of popular tumult or distress, gave some countenance: but, at all events, it is clear that enthusiasm is a moral epidemic, and that we are often apt to be affected violently merely because our neighbour is so. Against this it becomes us to be on our guard; to look more at truth in itself, as gathered from the Book of Inspiration and the history of the world, and less at the declamation of the moment or the assertions of hireling writers who minister to the tastes of the day.

In exercising our right of free inquiry in politics, as it is not meet, on the one hand, that we should lean too strongly on our own private opinion, or desire to bring into operation

every novel notion that may suddenly spring up in our minds, so, on the other hand, we ought to be on our guard against the sentiments of the multitude, and not suffer ourselves to be borne away by any torrent of public fanaticism. In the former case, the individual should bear in mind that he is a member of a social body which is liable to be acted on by a thousand secret causes which his eye cannot reach, and in the latter case, he ought to consider himself as a being of independent judgment, responsible for his own opinions, and whose errors cannot be justified by the fact that they are shared by many. M. N.

London.

WE are not ashamed to own that we feel a growing interest in the Temperance Movement; and by that expression we mean not the cause of temperance generally, in which all will readily concur with us, but the progress of popular measures for the advancement of temperance.

In proportion to the importance of an object in view, a man may well be willing to incur the charge of enthusiasm; and, where the vital and extensive interests of our fellow-creatures are at stake, we had rather seem to be the aiders and abettors of what may be deemed Utopian and visionary projects, than yield to a sceptical and desponding spirit, which fails to attempt any thing. But, thank God,

the temperance movement is no visionary and doubtful speculation. Those stubborn things called facts abundantly evince what may be done; and what has already been accomplished beyond the shadow of a doubt, only makes us the more impatient to see all the proceedings of morality and religion conspire together in one common bond of benevolent sympathy to carry out as extensively as possible the principles of temper

ance.

We have said that we take a growing interest in this cause; and we will give our reasons:

1. And, in the first place, we are more and more persuaded that the objections to it are unfounded and

Is

futile. Granted that the system may be abused: who for a moment questions it? What blessing is not abused, in nature or religion? Is not the Bible abused? Was it not predicted that it would be so? not the preached Gospel abused, becoming unto many a savour of death unto death? Is the abuse of a thing any argument against the use of it? With all the perversions and abuses that may occur, (and who can pretend to prevent them altogether?) are the failures to be compared for a moment with the success? The grand objection, and the most serious one, perhaps, is that men are induced to put temperance in the room of the entire of religion, and that becoming temperate, they halt and go no further. We have taken some pains to gather facts on this point, and we do not hesitate to say that the evidence we have collected is of the most satisfactory nature. We travelled sometime ago with the intelligent superintendent of some of the most extensive mines in Wales, and we put the question to him, "You give wonderful accounts of the prevalence of total abstinence amongst your quarrymen: but don't you find that they in general rest satisfied with the profession of temperance, resolving into it the whole of duty and religion?" "So far from this being the case," he replied, "they have not only got their houses furnished, and their bodies clothed since they took the pledge, but they have got Bibles also; and the places of worship are so full to overflowing that we are obliged to build more." The following is the testimony of the Rev. H. G. Graham, vicar of Ludgvan, in Cornwall:

walls on the Sabbath. But, by the formation of this (the total abstinence) society, how has the scene been changed within a few months! Now there is scarcely a drunken man to be seen. The church is crowded with attentive and well-clad hearers. I find that I have the AFFECTIONS of my parishioners; and I should refuse to exchange my situation for the GREATEST PREFERMENT that could be bestowed on me!"

Again, it is stated that in America, "Benevolent institutions have found their funds to double, entirely in consequence of the spread of temperance principles; and in various parts of Wales the same has taken place: "Teetotalism has done wonders. It has more than DOUBLY increased the income of all the religious institutions of this country,' says a Welsh agent of the Bible Society."

"Thousands and tens of thousands of the most degraded characters that ever trod God's earth have been reclaimed-brought under the sound of the everlasting Gospel; and multitudes of them have, we believe, been saved from present and eternal ruin. The work has been carried on by the feeblest agency, by the poor and despised ones of this world, yet these results have demonstrated that our work was from above, not from beneath, and that the Divine blessing did signally rest upon it; that though, as an eminent clergyman remarks, law, physic, and divinity were against us, yet the fishermen of Galilee and their Master too were with us, and that therefore we should succeed."

2. In the second place, we are satisfied that we are not half awake to the enormous amount of mischief arising from intemperate habits, not only as it concerns its direct and palpable consequences, but as incapacitating its victims for better influences. We cannot turn a deaf ear to the following representation:

"That a land of unparalleled wealth-a land of Bibles, churches, chapels, schools, and benevolent institutions-a land with tens of thousands of ministers, with large num

bers of schoolmasters, of Sabbathschool teachers, tract distributors, district visitors, and town missionaries that a land which, in these advantages, stands first among the nations of the earth, should yet present the appalling condition of pauperism, irreligion, ignorance, immorality and crime, exhibited by Great Britain in this, the nineteenth century, must strike every reflecting mind as an extraordinary phenome

non.

"Whence this fearful state of things? whence the occasion for our pauper-houses, our penitentiaries, our criminal establishments, &c., &c.? Why is England studded with these institutions? Why do these monuments of our shame tower forth wherever any number of our people congregate? And what good will these vast and expensive establishments effect? Do their unfortunate inmates grow wiser and better? On the contrary, the testimony of those superintending such establishments proves that the victims who once enter such places, almost invariably return again and again after their liberation.

"Now what, we ask, is the origin of the numerous evils which are telling with such terrific effect upon our people? What is the disease which is so insidiously preying upon the vitals of our people and sapping their very life blood?

"The testimony borne by our most distinguished judges and physicians, as well as the evidence afforded by various statistical returns, proves that the origin of these numerous and mighty evils is found in the artificial drinking usages of society.

"The Bishop of London has, in the House of Lords, expressed his opinion, that the efforts made for the religious and moral instruction of the people would be ineffectual, unless their physical condition were improved.

"But, can this physical improvement be accomplished while the use of intoxicating drink is so general? Let the following particulars furnish the answer.

"The Sheriff of Glasgow (Mr.

Alison, the distinguished historian of Europe,) states, that the people of that city spend annually £1,200,000 in intoxicating drink, and that every Saturday night and the greater part of the Sabbath, there are in that city at least 30,000 persons in a state of intoxication.

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This, alas! is but a specimen of the whole nation. The people of this country spend sixty-five millions every year on this article, and it is supposed to cost us indirectly another forty millions thus raising the entire cost to upwards of one hundred millions annually! Now, while the source of all these evils remains untouched, can we expect to effect any moral or physical reformation?

"If, then, the opinion expressed by the Bishop of London be correct, and if improvement in the physical condition of our population be hopeless while their drinking habits continue, must we not coincide in the sentiment of another prelate, that it is on efforts for the entire abolition of these drinking cnstoms that the fulcrum might be rested on which to raise the British nation to what it ought to be?

"Is it not probable that if the drinking usages of society were effectually discouraged in our parishes, as much good might be accomplished in one year as we now see produced in ten? It is certainly worth while making the experiment, and the public mind is rapidly opening to the importance and necessity of some such efforts."

"How sad to meet such an example as the following, recorded in a late number of the Times newspaper. It appears that 214 British officers were, some time back, examined before the Commander-in-Chief, respecting the intemperance of the army, and which intemperance, it was admitted, was the parent of the disorder, insubordination, and consequent punishment so frequent among the soldiery. Upon these officers being asked to suggest some meaus for eradicating this intemperance, 210 out of the 214 could suggest nothing better than punishment-the lash or the guard-room!