Bankers were to rule the earth, while a Grand Pontiff of Philosophy, by the power of opinion, was to give Positivism as a Law to Mankind. M. Comte predicted that in a brief period of years his system would rule the world, in the last cycle of its development becoming allied to Fetishism. Thus, the Universal Religion having found, in a Platonic affection, for a separated wife, its first conception of worship, substitutes, instead of God, first, Woman, and then Humanity, for the adoration of our race. What a proof of the deathless longing of the soul, and the necessary being of the Deity, is presented, as we behold this French Atheist, kneeling in tears beside the grave of Clotilde de Vaux, or prostrating himself before the shadowy memories of departed mortals!

Yes! we are to have a millenium of Fetishism. The superstition of Africa is to be the glory of mankind! Is this doubted as the assertion of an enemy? Hear the words of a Comtean oracle interpreting the mind of its deity. Mr. John Stuart Mill says of the later productions of his master: "He gives much greater development than before to the Fetishistic, and to what he terms the Theocratic periods. To the Fetishistic view of nature he evinces a partiality which appears strange in a Positive Philosopher. But the reason is that Fetish worship is a Religion of the feelings, and not of the intelligence. He regards it as cultivating universal love. He looks upon Fetishism as much more akin to Positivism than any of the forms of theology, inasmuch as these consider matter as inert, and moved only by forces, natural, or supernatural to itself, while Fetishism resembles Positivism in conceiving matter as spontaneously active, and errs only by not distinguishing activity from life." We would suggest to Mr. Edger-the John the Baptist of the new Religion of Humanity in this wilderness of America that, instead of presenting its Philosophical aspects, he deliver a few discourses on its Cultus. Let him describe his master's forms of private devotion. Let him initiate public festivals in worship to Humanity. Let him observe the Sacraments of the Universal Religion. This nineteenth century shall then behold in our Republic, this Positivist Regenerator, this Public Preacher of Scientific Reform, this Apostle of a Continent, kneeling in Prayer, not to the Sovereign Creator, eternal in Being, and infinite in Perfection; not to the personal existences of the heathen worship; not, perhaps, influenced by M. Comte's later predilections to bow before the material, but at least palpable objects of Fetishism; not addressing

even the spirits of Earth's departed benefactors, since he denies their existence after death-but adoring images of the Past pictured on his memory, or directing his devotion to a monstrous figment of the fancy styled the "Grand Etré of Humanity."

Delicate, and hazardous as may be the attempt, it is almost impossible to avoid a contrast between the originator of Positivism, and the author of that Holy Religion whose falsity it takes for granted. How superior in its adaptation is His System, founded, not on a scientific abstraction, but on principles of Morality! How practical the truths He inculcates! How noble the worship He enjoins! How simple, yet how impressive, and venerable the Sacraments He instituted, representing to the senses the great doctrines of Christianity, and touching the heart by memories of His Person! How grand those Evidences, which, in Prophecy are linked to Omniscience, and in miracle to Omnipotence! How wise, and admirable those institutions of the Gospel which have not only perpetuated its power, but spread it through the world! How it appeals to our hopes, our fears, our affections, our conscience, our intellect, at once connecting itself with all the interests of time, and all our expectations in Eternity! Certainly in its adaptation to Humanity, the Philosophy of M. Comte is infinitely inferior to the Religion of Jesus Christ. Considering, for the present, our Saviour as simply a man, how the character of the Great Theist rises when compared with that of the French Athiest! What wisdom did He exhibit! What dignity! What majesty! He addressed himself not alone to Savans, but, identified with every want and woe of man, became a Teacher of the People. How His illustrations, embodying the deepest moral truth, touch the heart of Humanity! How His parables, move and instruct all ages! How often have the bloom, and scent of those untoiling lilies, outshining the glory of Solomon, cheered desponding Poverty! How has that wing of maternal love, sheltering a young brood from fierce talons of destruction, proved through generations an image of the Divine Mercy! How different the mere intellectualism of the French Philosopher from the influence of Jesus over the ignorant, and depraved masses! See how His immaculate Majesty, instead of chilling, and repressing, draws the multitude within the circle of its mysterious love. If Heaven exhibits Him surrounded by saints, and angels, Earth shows Him the centre of a picture, where appears the lame, the maimed, the halt, the blind, the lep

rous, the lunatic,-publicans, harlots, criminals, outcasts,- men exhibiting every deformity of soul, and body — creeping, climbing, staggering, stumbling, falling, into the Presence of this matchless Purity-now with outstretched hands, and clamorous voices, now with eloquent silence, and pleading tears, supplicating the healing virtue, and then running, leaping, shouting to proclaim its power. Turning from the abstractions of Positivism, and the undignified weaknesses of its dreamy and isolated author, we certainly behold in the career and the teaching of Jesus Christ much more that leaves the impress of a Religion for Humanity. The record of the widow's son starting from his bier; of the ruler's daughter rising from her couch; of the issue of blood staunched by a touch; of Jesus walking to the assistance of his frightened followers over the midnight billow; of Peter lifted from the abyss; of the Syrophoenician's daughter delivered by the trembling mother's faith; of the paralytic let down through the tiling; of blind Bartimeus restored through his loud cries; of Jerusalem doomed, but lamented; of the thief promised Paradise in his dying moment; of the weeping mother remembered in the agony of the Cross; of the prayer of expiring anguish uttered for the enemies by whom it was inflicted; of the hands of the ascending Redeemer stretched in blessing over the world by which He was crucified, will most probably live on the canvas of art, and in the affectionate memories of mankind, when the dreams of Positivism are used but to demonstrate the possible limits of human folly.

Nor can we forbear, in conclusion, glancing at an argument, suggested by our former Article, in favor of those Scriptures which M. Comte contemptuously regards as a myth, or a superstition, unworthy of serious notice. Do we obtain from our own consciousness the conception of causation, and then, transferring it to a Universe exhibiting traces of wisdom and power, rise to the conception of a God? Must motion proceed from mind, and not from matter? Are the forces of creation but the volitions of the Deity? If reason can proceed thus far, certain other consequences are inevitable. From the fact that being in the present proves that there must have always been existence in the past; from the vastness of creation; from the impossibility that matter should conserve, and govern itself; from the changelessness of all known laws; from the uniformity of plan everywhere visible through the Universe; from the numberless traces of design we constantly remark; from

the mingled evidences of wrath, and mercy seen in the suffering, and in the happiness of our world-having first demonstrated in the method indicated that God is we necessarily infer His Eternity, His Omnipotence, His Omniscience, His Unity, His Wisdom, His Justice, His Love. With all the advances of Science, revealing the facts and principles of Nature, our proofs of these attributes multiply. Perhaps, upon the supposition of a God, this will be conceded even by the Positivist. The question then arises, do the representations of the Scripture accord with these deductions of Reason? In the deities of Babylon, and Egypt, and Greece, and Rome, and India, and China, we find no such attributes as accord with the greatness and majesty of that Being rul ing over a Universe so vast in extent, so intricate in its movements, so uniform in its laws, so wise in its arrangements, as ours is proved to be, by the discoveries of Science. Yet in the Bible are descriptions in every way worthy of His character, and just such as would be suggested by modern research. How does this happen? Job wrote before Homer. Moses preceded Hesiod. David sang before the age of Euripides. Solomon penned his Canticles ages before Virgil penned his Eclogues. The sublimity of Isaiah exalted long before the polish of Horace pleased. The majestic descriptions of the Scripture began in the morning of our world before Art, before Science, before Philosophy. Yet, while in the progress of mankind, the debasing superstitions of Fetishism, and the corrupting idolatries of Polytheism, have passed away from its intelligence not to be restored even by the later sympathies of M. Comte, and the final developments of Positivism-how does it occur that Science, in her furthest and profoundest researches into Nature, finds no traces of an attribute undelineated in the Bible? Nay, should she carry us around the circles of the Universe, exhibiting all that is minute, and all that is vast, she not only never transcends in her discoveries, the descriptions of the sacred writers, but can never rise to their elevation. By her observations and her calculations should she reveal the whole plan of creation, and then catch the loftiest inspirations of Poetry, she could not comprehend or express, much less exceed, Eternity, Immutability, Omnipresence, Omnipotence, Omniscience — Purity without a stain, Justice without a blemish, Wisdom without an error, Love without a limita Perfection, in itself, Absolute and Infinite. The Divine Nature as unfolded in the Bible is beyond both the measure of

human capacity, and the march of human progress. The descriptions of Moses, the delineations of David, the sublimities of Isaiah, the representations of Paul, produced in a mere twilight of Science, not only may express the devotional feelings of a Bacon, a Galileo, a Newton, a Davy, amid the brightest blaze of modern discovery, but may be conceived as worthy of the lips and harps of Saints and Cherubim before the Throne of Heaven, during the endless progressions of the great Hereafter. Yet we are asked to substitute the Philosophy of Positivism for the System of the Scripture, the worship of Humanity for the adoration of Jehovah, and the career of M. Comte for the Life of Jesus Christ.

ART. II.-"EN BAITIΣMA; OR MERCY TO BABES.

A Plea for the Christian Baptism of Infants; addressed to those who doubt and those who deny the validity of that practice, upon the grounds of the Doctrine of Baptism, and the literal sense of Holy Writ, and of the Domestic, Social, and Religious Nature of Man. - By WILLIAM ADAMS, D. D., Professor of Systematic Theology, in Nashotah Theological Seminary, Wisconsin. Philadelphia: Richard McCauley, 1314 Chestnut St.

THE author of this book is unfortunate in having a name that belonged to others, who, in their day, did good service to the Church of Christ, and whose memory still lives. Beside many bearing that surname, there was one William Adams of Christ Church College, Oxon, and subsequently Rector of Staunton-upon-Wye in Herefordshire, whose sermons were published in 1716 by the famous Dr. Sacheverel. In the next generation another, and more distinguished William Adams was Master of Pembroke College, Oxon, and Chancellor of the Diocese of Landaff. Besides several occasional sermons and tractates, he published a volume of excellent discourses, some of which were reprinted in 1795, in the admirable collection edited by Vicesimus Knox. About fifty years after his decease, Oxford produced another William Adams, who will long be honored for "The Shadow of the Cross," "The King's Messengers," and other graceful allegories in which he taught Gospel truths to young and old. And there is now alive