described, mere "hearsay"? The supposition is most absurd. Do you regard the accounts of the French Revolution as mere "hearsay," and call in doubt the fact that Mr. Paine was an actor in its scenes? Is it mere "hearsay" that Mr. Paine wrote the Age of Reason; or, in a word, for it comes to this, is every thing which does not come under my own senses, to be regarded by me as an incredible rumour? No! can be the only answer. Away then with the trifling, that revelation to every one but the first is mere person, hearsay." But you will be wondering why such an assertion was made. It was to weaken the reliance which is reposed in revelation;-" consequently," continues our author, "men are not obliged to believe it." No, certainly not, if revelation be mere "hearsay" to me, I am not obliged to believe it. But if, as I have proved it may do-if revelation bears the plain impress of divinity-if I see in its character traces of the Almighty's wisdom, power, and love-and if, after a careful scrutiny, the testimony in its favour, which arises from the character and conduct of those who communicated it to me, is satisfactory and constraining; then it is impossible for any ingenuous mind to fail to believe and embrace its teachings.

We have now, then, arrived at these conclusions, that a revelation is possible, that it admits of being transmitted to remote generations, and is capable of the most satisfactory evidence.

Here again Mr. Paine steps in and asserts, that there is no need of a revelation, that the voice of nature is competent to the guidance and solace of man; but the investigation of this position must be reserved to a future

occasion.

From what has now been remarked, you may learn the necessity of minutely analyzing the assertions of every writer, nor least of all, those of Mr. Paine; and you may see also how the most erroneous assertions may be clothed in a feasible and deceptive dress. Prove all things, then; learn to subject every statement, and every argument, to the closest scrutiny. Be not imposed upon by mere sounds; but ask of every thing, the reason. Bring every subject to the touch-stone of common sense. But amidst all your inquiries, remember that the grand object is not debate, but truth. Hold fast that which is goodhold it fast perpetually as the object proposed in your

inquiries; and when once truth is obtained, hold it fast as the thing which is good. Be not carried away by the childish vanity of disputing every thing, for the mere sake of dispute; but seek in your investigations, a resting place for your bosom, and a support and guide for your mind. Thus only will your labours be crowned with success, and thus only can they impart satisfaction in retrospect. The pursuit of truth, for the love of truth, is the noblest exercise that can engage the powers of man. Whilst you are engaged in it, you are conscious of delightful emotions-the discoveries to which it leads, gratify and nourish the best principles and affections of our nature; and when, at the approach of death, you remember that your powers have been developed by their appropriate exercise, and consecrated to the promotion of your own and of others' peace and comfort, by enlarging the boundaries of knowledge, and illuminating the regions of truth, you may calmly resign your destiny to the disposal of a righteous Creator, unalarmed by the apprehensions of conscience, if not exhilarated by the promptings of hope and anticipation. G. C. S.

On Self-Knowledge.—No. 3.

To judge from the estimate which man by his actions puts upon the value of present existence, and the little attention he affords to the duties arising from a desire to possess future happiness, the former will appear of immense worth; the latter as comparatively of no moment. And yet the converse of this, is the truth, since this life, as compared with a future, maintains the same proportion that time bears to eternity; a proportion so insignificant, as not to be expressible. By perverse man their relative importance is inverted, and with his usual unfortunate propensity to neglect distant, though indubitable requirements, the claims contingent on futurity are generally left to be satisfied or evaded, according to the opinions or advice of others. Yet the preparatory investigation, by which to discover the duties necessary to be fulfilled as essential to the obtaining of future happiness, can be no more performed by proxy than can the duties themselves. Salvation is strictly personal, and nothing relating to it can be managed by substitute. Revelation

is man's guide on this subject, and it behoves each individual to read with his own eyes, and use his own judgment in matters which so immediately concern him; for it will remain his province to understand its import for himself, at least until some of the many infallible expounders of sacred truth, can demonstrate their freedom from error, by producing the credentials of a divine commission, unequivocally sustaining their otherwise despicable pretensions, and empowering them to launch forth with effect on their less favoured brethren, that everlasting damnation which they are so fond of wielding, and painting in imagination in their (anti) christian harangues.

As it is dangerous to believe without examination every spirit which comes with salvation on his lips, it is an incumbent duty to try the spirits whether they be from God, because the warning is recorded, that many false spirits are gone out into the world. Of these some teach that the all-atoning blood of Christ will procure for true believers, everlasting bliss. No one could certainly receive this doctrine, if he estimated aright the nature and properties of happiness, and the utter impossibility of acquiring the frame of mind necessary to its production, by imputative righteousness. But it is necessary to evade all difficulties, and eject every doubt, on behalf of a scheme which is so exceedingly comfortable, and makes such a smooth and easy road to heaven! But if such a simple action as flying to the sacrifice of blood will wash out sin, it is difficult to discover the meaning of Jesus when he says, "wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat; because strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." They who taunt Unitarianism with paucity of numbers, and triumphantly adduce the silent eloquence of votes as a proof of truth, may indeed marshal the multitudes of professing believers in the vicarious sacrifice, as the only heirs of salvation; but peradventure the broad and not the narrow way may be requisite to afford them accommodation. At any rate, on the system founded on the atonement, there is no more trouble, pains, or labour, required to ascend into heaven, than to descend into hell. Hence arises a doubt. Can this be the gospel scheme of salvation? is it inculcated by the Saviour?-and an examination (alas! for sloth and ease) leads to a decided

negative. Jesus declares that "the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he shall reward every man"-not according to his faith, not according to his implicit confidence in the merits of Christ's death, and the cleansing, efficacy of his bloodbut "he shall reward every man according to his works." (Matt. xvi. 27.) And in answer to an inquiry respecting the means necessary to the production of the end now in view, the great Master and Teacher did not direct his catechist and hearers to the efficacy arising from mystical charms, and the imputation of occult influences. It was a plain cause which he taught them would produce the requisite effect-it was the much denounced "filthy rags" which he required, when he uttered the plain, the not to be mistaken precept, "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments."

But to keep the commandments requires vigilance and self-denial, which, in Christian verity, is a somewhat more difficult task than professing to believe in incomprehensibilities; and as it would not beseem a disciple to controvert his Master's commands, the injunction of Jesus is outwardly received as an article of faith, and inwardly subverted and destroyed by the virtual tendency of an apologetical dogma, which true spiritual pastors and teachers have devised in aid of the craft by which they acquire wealth. They have abstracted the principle of evil from heathenism-have given to the fabled phantasm a "local habitation and a name”-have dressed it up right canonically, but somewhat impiously, with the attributes, the incommunicable attributes of Deity, and then frightened babes of younger or older growth, with accounts of this all-evil being, rambling amongst the sons of men, employing his tremendous influence to tempt to the commission of evil, and ever seeking whom he may devour. To keep this power in check, and wrest his victims from his grasp, is the favourite and gainful occupation of the hosts of orthodoxy and superstition. True, man is finite, and the Adversary of man is almost if not altogether omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent; hence, perhaps, there are more professions of valour on record, than authenticated instances of victorious encounters; but still, what finite, weak, poor creature like man, can possibly "keep the commandments," when continually subjected to the attacks of so potent an adversary? How comfortable the

palliative for the weary sinner, how refreshing to be able to plead the impossibility of the successful wrestling of the flesh against so much power, and the evident necessity of submitting to the strength which overwhelmed him! And thus is twofold good obtained: wealth to the advocates of the doctrine, in the pay which they receive, for their incessant warfare with the prince of darkness, and their unremitting exertions to snatch from him his prey; but if, alas! unsuccessfully, the unanswerable plea in mitigation of punishment, if not even arrest of judgment, to be advanced on behalf of those, who, spite of the dis interested activity of their advisers, is their having fallen beneath the power of an adversary with whom they were unable to compete for a single instant. The appeal is irresistible; and even if the Devil is too strong for his orthodox opponents, the sinner slips from his grasp, by the decree of justice, and he will therefore much rather trust to the immunity thus held out as respects the consequences of sin, than be at the perpetual trouble of "keeping the commandments."

But if the spirits who assume to instruct man are to be tried, peradventure some may be false; and we find, on the investigation, that this extenuating plea for man's guilt is worthless, is dangerous; because placing in jeopardy the salvation of those, who, on the representations of interested craftsmen, found their dependance upon it. There may be, as some scruple not roundly to assert, a father of lies; but there is not a Universal Father of man's guilt, to whom all backslidings, and derelictions from duty may be unceremoniously attributed, for the apostle James says, that "every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lusts and enticed;" and the Saviour taught, that "out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness; all these evil things" (Mark vii. 21, 22), man originates without the aid of demoniacal activity. But it is needless to multiply references.

On the Introduction to St. John's Gospel.

(Concluded from page 122.)

S.

On this important subject, Mr. Cameron reasons thus:"Moses, to give us the most sublime idea possible of the