tegrity; and the fairest dealing in their worldly trades and professions.' He says, that they encountered the contempt of the world with humility, meekness, and patience.' The more they were persecuted, the more they adhered to each other.' 'Even the infidels,' he says, "remarked their mutual charity, and unsuspecting confidence.' Even their faults and errors were derived from an excess of virtue.'

Such is the testimony which history bears to the moral effects of a revival of the faith of Abraham by those, who lived to see and to adopt it, as realised in the ministry and sacrifice of Christ Jesus our Lord. This testimony is recorded, in the words we have quoted, by one in whose estimation no religion could find favour but that of Pagan mythology and Mahometan sensuality. The historian of the "Decline and Fall, &c." attempts to disparage the credit of the Mosaic history by contrasting the obstinate bigotry of the later Jews, with the idolatry of those early Israelites, who are said to have witnessed the miraculous demonstrations of God Jehovah. The cotemporaries of Moses and Joshua, he says, had beheld, with the most careless indifference, the most amazing miracles.' In contradiction to every known principle of the human mind, that singular people have yielded a more ready assent to the traditions of their more remote ancestors, than to the evidence of their own senses.' This charge rests on the evi

dence of the Bible, for there is none other; and how is it borne out by the facts there narrated? How did the Israelites exhibit this careless indifference,' when in the presence of God's sensible manifestations of his power and glory? He, who appeals to the testimony of a record, must take it altogether. He cannot select a few passages which may suit his purpose, and discard the rest. Let us then see the description contained in the book of Exodus of this alleged 'careless indifference' of the Israelites when they "beheld the most amazing miracles."

"All the people saw the thunderings and lightnings and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking;" "and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off, and they said unto Moses, speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die." (Exod. xx. 18, 19.) Such was their "careless indifference." So in the chapter, xxiv. "Moses told the people all the words of the Lord, and all the judgments; and all the people answered with one voice, and said, all the words which the Lord hath said will we do." Despairing at the long absence of Moses in the mount; perhaps believing that he must have perished in the blaze of glory, which they thought no man could witness and live; they had formed a symbol after the manner of the Egyptians-they had molten a golden calf, to personate that power which had brought them out of the land of Egypt. "These be thy Gods, O Israel,

which brought thee out of the land of Egypt." (Ex. xxxii. 4.) (See Appendix, note D.) This was, perhaps, an act of idolatrous and symbolical worship, with which they had been imbued during their long sojourn in Egypt. But, possibly, even this may have been no proof of "careless indifference." Strange as it may appear to us in these days, though the Israelites either personated their God by this image, or even adopted for a moment an object of Egyptian worship, they did not the less believe in, and hold in awe, Jehovah's glorious majesty and power, when they "beheld his miracles." "When the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle," "when all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle-door, they rose up, and worshipped every man at his tent-door. (Ex. xxxiii. 10.)

Was this "careless indifference ?"

Was it "careless indifference," which induced them to tender their free-gifts and offerings for the tabernacle, in such profusion, that their liberality was obliged to be restrained. The overseer "spake unto Moses, saying, the people bring much more than enough for the service of the work, which the Lord commanded to make." (Ex. xxxvi. 5.)

Symbolical worship is not always a proof that faith is wanting as to a spiritual reality. We know that faith, even spiritual faith, can exist in connection with superstitious symbols, by the practices even of a Christian communion, of which Mr. Gibbon himself

was, at one period of his life, a member. In the church of Rome, we may still see worshippers falling down before a wooden image arrayed in tinsel. This is scarcely less an act of idolatry, than the altar, constructed by Aaron to the golden calf; and his proclamation of a feast to the Lord of burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, under this golden symbol. The imputation of “careless indifference,” to these ignorant and wilful Israelites, does not in any way describe the feelings and motives, under which they acted. They were awe-struck, superstitious, prone to the symbolical worship, which they had witnessed in the land of their bondage; but they were the very reverse of careless and indifferent to the power of their God.

It is satisfactory to perceive, how weak are the sneers of infidelity, when it can only attempt to pervert the truth. The sarcasms, even of so learned and able an author as Mr. Gibbon, have no point or force whatever. All his sceptical insinuations, including his favorite objection to "the darkness of the Passion," because it is not recorded by Seneca, or the elder Pliny, when opposed to the divine credentials of Christianity, are like a slender reed hurled against a tower of adamant. The missile may possess its own puny power; but who will say that the tower is not standing, or that such weapons can shake its foundation? What weight has all the flippant ridicule of such writers against this simple

fact that Paul, the Pharisee, preached the christianity of Abraham-that for the revival of this Faith, the persecutor voluntarily incurred persecution: knowing, "that, in every city, bonds and afflictions abided him "-and that he "counted not his life dear unto himself," so that he might "testify the gospel of the grace of God?" (Acts xx. 23, 24.)

"God hath shewn abundantly, unto the heirs of promise, the immutability of his counsel." (Heb. vi. 17.) Not by any power, or merit, or self-righteousness of his creatures; but, "by his own righthand, and by his holy arm, he hath gotten himself the victory," over sin and death. He hath declared no salvation which man can work out for himself; (for, "it is God that worketh both to will and to do of his good pleasure," 1 Phil. ii. 13. ;) nor any righteousness which can establish a claim of debt due from Him to his creatures. But" He hath declared Hi salvation; His righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the heathen." (Ps. xcviii. 1, 2.) This is the 66 common salvation;" the Faith once delivered unto the Saints." (Jude 3.) We may trace it from the beginning of the world, to the days in which we now live. It is one revelation,