of their acceptance and salvation. This state of mind in relation to God and his moral government, to themselves as sinners, to their duties and obligations, to their duties and ill-desert, may have been precisely similar to that of the Christian in the age of the apostles, except that in the latter the full revelation which he has of the New Testament method of pardoning sin, is better adapted to excite higher admiration and gratitude in view of God's wonderful love and mercy.

Perhaps, in the progressive revelations which God has made respecting his purpose to pardon and save sinners, the full development of the plan and meritorious ground on which pardon could be safely granted, was not made so much because a knowledge and belief of that were indispensable, as the decisive act of faith, to the salvation of the sinner, as because of the power which this transcendent exhibition of the Divine mercy has to arrest this attention, give him better views of God's character, and of his own deep guilt and helpless ruin, and to awaken in him godly sorrow for sin and love and confidence towards his injured Sovereign and Benefactor. If so, then the truths relating to the sufferings, death, and atonement of Christ are to be believed in the same manner as all other truths relating to the goodness and mercy of God are; and, as mere objects of belief, operate, as to securing the sinner's salvation, no otherwise than other divinely revealed truths, except as they are adapted to affect the heart more powerfully. This seems well to accord with the view given Rom. 10: 13-15.

As has been already intimated, and perhaps with sufficient explicitness, it must not be inferred from the foregoing discussion and conclusions, that sinners of the human family, of any race, Jewish or gentile; of any age, preceding or subsequent to the advent of Christ; under any dispensation, that of purely natural religion, the Mosaic, or the Christian, have been and are pardoned and saved on any other ground than the propitiatory death of Christ. On this point the New Testament is decisive and plain. "Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under

heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved, Acts 4: 12. Christ is the "Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world," John 1: 29. "He is the propitiation. for our sins, and not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world," 1 John 2: 2. Paul's reasoning in the first five chapters of the epistle to the Romans, is designed to show that a gratuitous justification, through the atonement of Christ is, in regard to every one of the human family, indispensable to salvation. The doxologies of the whole redeemed company in heaven, as given in the Revelation, proceed on the ground that they have all, individually, been delivered from sin and hell, and raised to the blessedness of heaven, by the blood of Christ alone, "saying, Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation, Rev. 5: 9-13. In God's view, Christ was the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." No course of good works, as constituting personal merit; no system of sacrifices or penances, as constituting expiation; no acts of penitence or reformation, as making amends, have ever availed, of themselves, to secure to the sinner the favor of God and the pardon of sin. Of this, the propitiatory death of Christ has, in the Divine mind, and in all ages, been to all the saved, the sole meritorious and procuring cause. And at the final day, when the counsels and proceedings of God, in the great work of redemption, shall be fully unfolded and vindicated, all intelligent beings will, doubtless, see it to have been so.

Nor, again, must it be inferred that, because God, in the exercise of his sovereign power and grace, in ages and nations where no atoning Saviour was made knowǹ, has renewed and sanctified and saved sinners, without their having the knowledge of him, or having exercised faith in him, he will do the same in respect to sinners to whom the Saviour is clearly preached, and salvation through his atonement freely offered; while yet they will not believe in nor love him; but wilfully reject his salvation; and thus evince that they have no penitence for sin, or desire to be delivered from its reigning power, and none of that filial confidence

in God and acquiescence in the provisions of his mercy, which sinners in less favored ages manifested, and by which they were led to obedience and salvation; and who, had they been taught the Gospel scheme, would have heartily and joyfully cast themselves upon it. They who will not cordially embrace the atonement of the Gospel, do, by this very refusal, show that in their heart they are still estranged from God, and are not, as to their personal character, in a fit state to be pardoned and saved.

Nor, again, must it be inferred from this discussion, that it is of little importance whether the Gospel be preached to the unevangelized nations or not. The mere fact that the Spirit of God, by means of the truths which nature teaches respecting his being and attributes, and the relations of men to him, has renewed some individuals to obedience and holiness, who never heard of the propitiatory sacrifice for sin, by no means proves that the exhibition of those attributes, as they are far more gloriously and effectively displayed in the Gospel of his Son, is not a much more efficacious instrument for reclaiming and sanctifying the heathen. And because God, in his sovereign mercy, may have saved here and there one, out of the millions of the heathen, without their having had a knowledge of the crucified Saviour, it by no means follows that incomparably greater numbers would not have been made new creatures in Christ, had he been faithfully preached to them. The goodness of God leadeth men to repentance. Of course, the greatest and most affecting exhibition of that goodness ever made, God's having "so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son to die" for it, God's "unspeakable gift," must be, as Paul represents it, "the power of God unto salvation."

Another thought, bearing on this point, may be worthy of notice. As God has commissioned his people, the Christian church, to make known the atoning death of Christ and the consequent salvation to the nations, as a part of their discipline and probation; and has determined to make known, by the church, his manifold wisdom, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus, he may, for

wise reasons, not exert, under the Christian dispensation, that measure of sanctifying influence among the heathen ignorant of the Gospel, which he put forth previously to the full introduction of the Gospel revelation, when there was no Christian church to carry the news of the atonement, and no atoning Saviour revealed to be preached.

That in lands where Christ has not been preached, there are, at the present day, extremely few, if any, whose character and life furnish evidence that they love and obey, or even know the true God, the observation and inquiries of all modern missionaries, with great uniformity, bear testimony; while in all lands, where the love of God, seen in the atoning death of Christ, has clearly been made known, many, and in some lands great multitudes, have been converted and saved. Now, since he has fully unfolded the Gospel plan of salvation, God reasonably looks that his people should be so moved by the riches of the glory of his grace, as to go everywhere and spread it before the benighted, dying nations, as the fullest display of his power and wisdom put forth for saving them. He would have all know that the same Lord over all, both Jews and Gentiles, is rich unto all that call upon him. How, then, shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent ?

ARTICLE VIII.

THE CEDARS OF LEBANON.

Editorial Correspondence. Letter of Rev. S. H. Calhoun.

THE region of the Cedars (ten hours ride south-east from Tripoli), is not far from 7000 feet above the level of the sea, and is surrounded on the north, east, and south by a still higher range of mountains. It is open towards the west, and looks down upon a vast mass of rugged mountains, and beyond them to "the great and wide sea." The scenery is most majestic and impressive.

The soil in which the Cedars grow, is of a limestone quality, and so exceedingly rough and stony, as to be entirely unfit for the plough. The whole region around is covered deep with snow, usually from early in December to the middle of April. On the higher summits, we yet [early in July] see many banks, and in some places it never disappears. But though the snow is so abundant, it would appear that the cold is not so intense, as for instance, in New England, where you have less snow than here. You perhaps know that very little rain falls in Syria from April to November, but the amount that falls in the other half of the year is probably nearly or quite as great as the aggregate of your rain and snow for the year. This region around the Cedars is too cold for rain, and hence almost the entire discharge from the clouds is in the form of snow, while at the same time, as far as I can judge, from the reports of the people inhabiting the nearest village, the ice is far less than with you, thus indicating a less degree of cold. The Cedars are few in number. I have been counting them to-day, and find them to be about four hundred. Our actual count was three hundred and ninety-three. The double trees mentioned hereafter are counted as single trees. I should think that not more than a dozen are less than a foot in diameter. Many of them are two feet, a less number three feet and even four and five feet in diameter. Several of them are from six to ten feet. One that I measured this morning is forty feet in circumference, say two feet above the ground. A little higher it sends forth five immense branches, each from three to five feet in diameter, which shoot up almost perpendicularly, thus, in reality constituting five trees of great size. Many of the cedars are double and a few even triple and quadruple; that is, from one root apparently there 'grow up two or more trees, united, as one for a few feet, and then separated by a slight divergency, thus forming independent trunks straight and beautiful.

As to the age of these trees, I do not know that history says much. In a chip two inches thick I have counted to-day sixty circles; which I believe you who know better about such matters would make equal to sixty years. A tree of six feet in diameter according to this calculation would be nearly 1100 years old. But as the chip alluded to indicates a very