fail to perceive them there. And observe well the accordance between that book and the book of avowed Inspiration. The first chapters of the Sacred Volume proclaim the divine revelations, for temporal objects, made to our primeval ancestors in the very morn of their being; the proclamation had been anticipated in nature's still earlier volume. The accordance between the Book of Scripture and the book of nature, establishes the truth of both. The preternatural communications recorded in nature's register, are the first link in that stupendous chain of revelations which terminated not until the close of the Apocalypse. Proof that the first link of the chain was wrought by heaven, is "confirmation strong" that the workmanship of its other links is also divine.

The sublunary wants of the world's master, so miraculously supplied, bore no greater proportion to what sin made his spiritual wants, than time bears to eternity. When God looked down from heaven on the early descendants of the original pair, he beheld them immerged in ignorance, crime and idolatry. Then came a deluge, of which earth will carry to her grave indelible marks. But all the waters of the flood could not wash from our sphere the pollutions of sin. In due time the ex

periment of civilization was tried. Science elevated the mind, but purified not the heart. Apostate man could not "by searching find out God." The fallen race were conscious, indeed, of hostility to their Creator; but, when asked to indicate the way of reconciliation, reason's boasted oracle was speechless. Man felt the divinity stirring within him; but whether his ethereal spirit was to perish with its sister clay, or survive "the wreck of matter and the crush of worlds," was a problem insolvable by humanity. No exertion of mortal intellect could bring "life and immortality to light."

*

For thousands of years the aching and bewildered soul was lifting up its piercing and frantic cries to heaven for illumination and help. The whole creation groaned and travailed in pain together. Yet did the fallen creature, in his lowest estate, bear marks, "like archangel ruined," of his pristine grandeur. That Jehovah should have provided by special revelation for his original physical wants, and yet make no provision for his subsequent spiritual necessities, intense as they were, is a supposition opposed to that reason which infidelity idolatrously worships as a goddess, and derogatory,

*Romans viii. 22.

we speak it with reverence, to the infinite goodness of Him who has arrayed the lilies of the field, and provided food for the young ravens. The primeval revelation from heaven registered in the book of nature, was the first act of a series; it was the sure precursor of more glorious revelations to come. The grand drama of God, exhibited to an astonished universe, would lose its completeness by subtracting, as uninspired, a single line from the Old Testament or the New. Man's miraculous preservation in his pristine state was the visible commencement of the divine drama; its sublime consummation was developed by the miracle of his redemption.

Nor must the general belief of the pagan world before the birth of Jesus Christ, that moral light was about to dawn from above, be passed over in silence. Socrates, sometimes called the almost christian, deplored in his dying hour his want of spiritual vision, and encouraged Plato and his other weeping disciples to expect in patience a revelation from heaven. The heathen Suetonius declares; "It was an ancient and constant opinion, and founded upon the knowledge of some divine decree, that a person or persons would appear in Judea, who should obtain the government of the world." Tacitus observes; "It was the persuasion of most an

cient persons, that the olden books of the priests contained passages which implied that the East would become powerful, and that there would arise in Judea those who should achieve universal empire." It is manifest that Virgil, in his fourth eclogue, had some glimpses of "the day's spring from on high." These cherished hopes might have been suggested by the inspired oracles of the Jews; but the suggestions found a ready and deep response from the smothered divinity breathed by the Almighty into the human breast.

CHAPTER IV.

THE THEOLOGY OF THE GOSPEL.

Works of God and of man distinguishable by inspection-Whether God or man made Gospel is determinable by its internal evidence-Moral attributes of God not discoverable by reason-Yet reason perceives divine truthfulness of their delineation in Gospel-Style of Bible-Atonement beyond mortal contrivanceYet when revealed, reason must recognize it the work of God— The Trinity-A mystery too profound and startling for impostors to have incorporated into work of fiction.

THERE is a contrast between the works of God and the works of man, which plainly distinguishes the divine from the human. Raise your meditation to the system above us, with its central sun, and wheeling orbs. How symmetrical! How simple! How majestic! How changeless! How adapted in all its variegated parts to the perfection of its stupendous whole! Then sink your contemplation to the proudest work of man. How diminutive! How imperfect! How indicative of the little shifts of artifice! How prone to derangement, to the vicissitudes of change, and to the decrepitude of age! Each aspect of the visible heavens bears on its face the impress of divinity.