glory that the writings of Moses were silent, or furnished no satisfactory materials for a judgment on this important topic. While therefore the Saviour draws His argument from the writings of Moses, He has fully met and answered the objection of modern divines and infidels, that the doctrine of a future state of existence, is not taught in the Pentateuch, and most forcibly proved that there is an immaterial and imperishable soul in man.

There are a few reflections which the above discussion suggests and which the reader will excuse us for submitting here. Who does not see, that however philosophy, falsely so called, may assert and endeavor to maintain positions. at war with the declarations of the scriptures, the common sense of mankind will be ever found in accordance with them? The prevalent impression is, that man has a soul, which is capable of distinct and independent existence. Occasionally indeed we meet with those that have darkened their minds by their own vain reasonings, or that have indulged their sensual appetites and passions to such a brutalizing and stupifying excess as to deny that they had souls; but the multitude is differently impressed. Will it said that it is a vague, or superstitious notion, engendered by the Bible, then is it admitted, that the Bible teaches the fact, so that its testimony will not be wrested from our hands.

But however we appreciate and extol the gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, as that which has brought life and immortality to light, we are not prepared to admit it as fact, that the idea of spirit is confined to those who have enjoyed the light of revelation. The aborigines of

1 A striking example of this we have in the Comte de Cayhes, whose remark, suggested by the concern for his soul evinced by his relations previous to his death, the Baron de Guimen has preserved. "I see perfectly that you wish to converse with me on the state of my soul," said he addres sing them, "I am very sorry, however, to be obliged to inform you, that ↓ actually have none."

this country, not to mention others, when first visited by our adventurous forefathers, were found to indulge a belief in "the Great Spirit," and in the existence of man after his body had died. Now we must admit from this fact, that either they originally derived the idea of spirit from traditionary knowledge, or that the human mind is so constituted, as to infer the existence of some spiritual being from what it beholds in the works of nature, and, though incapable of any direct and accurate knowledge of it, to conceive of that being by means of symbolic or analogous representations, drawn from material things made in its own excogitations. It is a matter of perfect indifference to us which our opponent prefers. That they had the idea of spirit is certain, and it is for the materialist to say whence they came by it. If he says, that God first conveyed to the mind of man the idea of spirit, revealing Himself in some way adapted to his conceptions as originally performing the operations of thought by means of material organs, we are satisfied. For the idea having been once fairly communicated, could be imparted by man to his fellow, and be transmitted and preserved through all successive generations. But if God communicated the idea in the first

instance, it must be true. If the other supposition is preferred, that the mind naturally proceeds by the process above described, to form for itself the idea of spirit, then is God who has created that mind, and ordained all its functions, as responsible for the truth in this case, as if he had directly communicated it.

It will be perceived that we do not speak of those excogitations, which are peculiar to individuals, and fearfully delusive and absolutely false, but only of those which the mind of man universally, and, if we may so speak, instinctively apprehends. This general and unvarying and unerring judgment of men, we denominate common sense, the simple apprehension of matters of fact. It is the mind

of man still struggling into truth, notwithstanding all the shocks it receives, and imbecility which is induced by corrupting passions. And that judgment is not everted by philosophy. Infidelity and Atheism have reared high their blood-stained banners, and proclaimed emancipation for the human mind, and prophesied in terms well known to Zion's ear, that the time of deliverance was nigh. But those banners have been struck, and those predictions have been lies, and the very apostles of error have themselves bowed to the majesty of truth.

The passions of men may be excited, and philosophy, or rather the vain wisdom of men of carnal minds, may be employed to sustain and justify such excitement, and while the effervescences of passion continue, there may be, and have been, the embracing of falsehood, and delusion, but soon the minds of men recover their balance. Passions ere long will subside, and in the cool and sober exercise of their judgment, men will embrace the truth, however it may have been vituperated or ridiculed. These sober and settled convictions, which operate efficiently through the mass of men, and at which the mind arrives as it were by a short, and almost instinctive process, will not be found at war with the revelations of the Bible. It cannot be, that God, though He has exhibited in the scriptures things new and marvellous, and inconceivable by man, should find it necessary to violate the constitution He originally ordained. He has adapted, to the ordinary and natural mode of the mind's perception, the communications He has made in that "sure word of prophecy" which has been transmitted to us. It will bear the most rigid scrutiny.

Nor shall we, for one moment, concede that the deductions of sound philosophy, drawn from a faithful examination of nature, will ever disprove Revelations. The best interpreter of scripture, under the guidance of the blessed

Spirit, is common sense. Let us have the Bible, and the minds of men so far cultivated and improved, as to be able to think and judge dispassionately, to come to the consideration of the truth, void of prejudice and corrupting and debasing passions, and we fear not the result. The hosts of infidelity and Atheism, will all be vanquished, and their mad boastings of wisdom and philosophy, will prove vain and momentary, as the howling tempest that agitates, but cannot prostrate "the mighty forest." "Forthe weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God, to the pulling down of strong holds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." The very energies of that immortal mind whose existence is denied, as they are directed and nerved by the Spirit of God, shall accomplish the overthrow of all the vain reasonings of a false philosophy.

These remarks naturally lead us to another. What a noble and exalted being must man have been as originally created! What traces of wisdom and grandeur do we still find in him, though like the mighty ruins he lies fallen and broken! When we see the achievements of science, the richness and vastness of human knowledge, and contemplate the untiring energy of thought, though now it is so obvious that man is an enfeebled and corrupt creature, in whom the power of perceiving truth has been greatly impaired, by the influence and prevalence of a depraved state of heart, who is not ready to exclaim, what must he have been when he first sprung from the plastic hand of his Creator?

"Man all immortal hail!"

Who can gauge the full and overflowing mind of the first parent of our race, as enriched and stored with know

1. 2 Cor. x. 4, 5.

ledge which God himself hath put into it? No darkness brooded over it. No disease of heart deranged the medium of its perceptions. With sensibilities attuned to the lofty pitch of heavenly devotion, and nature sparkling in all the glory of her Creator, how must man have gamboled over all her beauties, and searched into her wonders, and been. refreshed with the traces of her maker God! If we are now surprised at the attainments of a Newton or Bacon or La Place, who, by severe process of study and research, have unfolded the volume of nature, and deciphered its characters, so illegible to multitudes, what should be our wonder, when we contemplate man-bright and orient in the very beams of the divinity-throwing the lustre of his own illumined mind upon the objects around, and at the first glance discerning their uses and value! The whole treasury of nature lay open before him, and from the inciden tal account which the Spirit of God has given of his nam ing the beasts of the earth, and an examination of the names which he at first imposed, we are led to the belief, that originally his knowledge was as extensive as the objects which God had so bountifully scattered round him. He was created in knowledge--not merely with the capacities for it, but with knowledge in actual possession.

But if we are filled with admiration of the resources of man, and the elevation of his being, as we look back to the great exemplar and parent of our race, how much more should we be as we look forward and discern the new world, and its thickening wonders which God in the method of redemption especially, has unfolded to us? Whatever knowledge, innocent man may have had of the glories of the Divine Being, as displayed in nature, they fall far short of those sublime mysteries, into which the minds of redeemed sinners are conducted by the blessed Spirit of God. Who is not filled with amazement, wher he thinks of the immense capacities of man, and that he,