must feel ourselves to be fellow-sinners, is literally a mora. impossibility.

We have before noticed the effect, which is produced by our connecting so closely with the notion of God's anger against sinners that of the sufferings of the other world. Without our enlarging, therefore, on this topic here, our readers will at once perceive how vast a motive power this persuasion must exert in producing sentiments of compassion, and that this is another means by which the Christian character becomes distinguished from that of a pious Israelite under the law of Moses.

Much might be said of the spirituality of the Christian community as contrasted with the worldly and visible character of the Mosaic institute. But though much has been left unsaid which might have been added corroborative of our position, we trust that enough has been said to prove its justness. The considerations which have been alleged suffice, we trust, to show that the tone of feeling embodied in the maledictions of the Psalms, viewed subjectively, belonged to the economy under which they were uttered; and that, with the degree of religious light then imparted, such feeling was the legitimate and proper frame of a mind which was animated by the Spirit of God, and actuated by that Higher Influence to deal with surrounding objects according to the character, in which they were then exhibited; but that in the altered spiritual position in which Christians are placed, such feelings are no longer either natural or proper, and that we cannot admit them as cherished visitants into our bosom without doing violence to the instincts of Christ's Spirit within us.

We cannot forbear adding a few words respecting a subject of considerable practical interest. Since we use the sacred Psalter so constantly in our devotional services-an usage, which has ever been followed by the devout from the very earliest ages, and which commends itself to our feelings just in proportion as our feelings are pervaded by the spirit of piety—it becomes an important question, what is the posture in which the mind ought to deal with such passages as we have been considering, when they come before it in the course of our daily reading.

The answer to this question is, that, though we should not be justified in employing such language ourselves, we can entirely feel with it as coming from the inspired writers. The circumstances of the Jewish dispensation, as we have shown, were such, that the saints under it could more fully apply to actual persons and parties, the enmity of the righteous soul to abstract evil, than the Christian saint can. Such application, then, in him were perfectly just and holy. They were no more

The

than the hatred of evil itself is in the Christian saint. form of the personal application is their accident not their essence. The Psalmist did not hate the persons in any other sense, than as embodying and personifying evil. He did not hate them directly, but only reflectively; he hated not the men, but the evil in the men. We may use such expressions accordingly and profit by them, as stimulatives to the hatred of evil. This holy principle requires strengthening and deepening in us; those passages in the Psalms fulfil this purpose. To the Christian they are the symbols of that fearful displeasure with which the Holy Spirit of God regards sins-sins, perhaps, which he has himself been guilty of. They should be to him likewise the symbols of that displeasure which, as God's servant, he is himself bound to feel against sins, and even against sinners so far as that emotion is duly qualified by his own circumstances as a Christian. And lastly, the solemn thought occasionally may well pervade his mind, that the hour will come when a sentiment analogous to that which is thus expressed by the Psalmist will penetrate every individual of the countless assemblage of the redeemed-might he be of that happy number!while they shall stand at the right hand of the Judge, rejoicing in the perfect triumph at last achieved by God over every power of evil which has infested and marred His creation.

must feel ourselves to be fellow-sinners, is literally a mora. impossibility.

We have before noticed the effect, which is produced by our connecting so closely with the notion of God's anger against sinners that of the sufferings of the other world. Without our enlarging, therefore, on this topic here, our readers will at once. perceive how vast a motive power this persuasion must exert in producing sentiments of compassion, and that this is another means by which the Christian character becomes distinguished from that of a pious Israelite under the law of Moses.

Much might be said of the spirituality of the Christian community as contrasted with the worldly and visible character of the Mosaic institute. But though much has been left unsaid which might have been added corroborative of our position, we trust that enough has been said to prove its justness. The considerations which have been alleged suffice, we trust, to show that the tone of feeling embodied in the maledictions of the Psalms, viewed subjectively, belonged to the economy under which they were uttered; and that, with the degree of religious light then imparted, such feeling was the legitimate and proper frame of a mind which was animated by the Spirit of God, and actuated by that Higher Influence to deal with surrounding objects according to the character, in which they were then exhibited; but that in the altered spiritual position in which Christians are placed, such feelings are no longer either natural or proper, and that we cannot admit them as cherished visitants into our bosom without doing violence to the instincts of Christ's Spirit within us.

We cannot forbear adding a few words respecting a subject of considerable practical interest. Since we use the sacred Psalter so constantly in our devotional services—an usage, which has ever been followed by the devout from the very earliest ages, and which commends itself to our feelings just in proportion as our feelings are pervaded by the spirit of piety-it becomes an important question, what is the posture in which the mind ought to deal with such passages as we have been considering, when they come before it in the course of our daily reading.

The answer to this question is, that, though we should not be justified in employing such language ourselves, we can entirely feel with it as coming from the inspired writers. The circumstances of the Jewish dispensation, as we have shown, were such, that the saints under it could more fully apply to actual persons and parties, the enmity of the righteous soul to abstract evil, than the Christian saint can. Such application, then, in him were perfectly just and holy. They were no more

The

than the hatred of evil itself is in the Christian saint. form of the personal application is their accident not their essence. The Psalmist did not hate the persons in any other sense, than as embodying and personifying evil. He did not hate them directly, but only reflectively; he hated not the men, but the evil in the men. We may use such expressions accordingly and profit by them, as stimulatives to the hatred of evil. This holy principle requires strengthening and deepening in us; those passages in the Psalms fulfil this purpose. To the Christian they are the symbols of that fearful displeasure with which the Holy Spirit of God regards sins-sins, perhaps, which he has himself been guilty of. They should be to him likewise the symbols of that displeasure which, as God's servant, he is himself bound to feel against sins, and even against sinners so far as that emotion is duly qualified by his own circumstances as a Christian. And lastly, the solemn thought occasionally may well pervade his mind, that the hour will come when a sentiment analogous to that which is thus expressed by the Psalmist will penetrate every individual of the countless assemblage of the redeemed-might he be of that happy number!while they shall stand at the right hand of the Judge, rejoicing in the perfect triumph at last achieved by God over every power of evil which has infested and marred His creation.

ART. IV. Outlines of Astronomy.

By SIR JOHN F. W. HER

SCHEL, Bart. K.H. &c. Second Edition. London: Longman, Brown & Co.

ASTRONOMY claims the first place among sciences for many reasons. It is the most ancient, and also the most modern. It is the most clearly comprehended in its principles, yet affords the widest opening for all future investigations. It is the most perfect subject for the exact labours of the mathematician, and the most fruitful of interest to the student of physical philosophy. As a practical science none claims for its service so large a share of abstract thought and profound study, or none requires more toil, more diligence, more patience, more punctuality, more mechanical exactness from those who would minister at her shrine. Astronomy is the most comprehensive of all sciences, for most other sciences are either included within its ample range of subjects, and explained as lesser manifestations of the great principles divulged by it, or are employed as instruments to work out its extensive purposes. Mechanics, hydrostatics, or even pneumatics, and electrical phenomena, may for instance all be found closely allied to this parental science, while every branch of mathematics, the physical science of optics, and the wonderfully perfect art of instrument making, are all in the humble and honoured relation of tried and valued servants. Astromony is the most complicated of sciences as an exercise of the human intellect, yet the most sublimely simple as a subject for the imagination to dwell on. It is equally attractive to the lover of practical analysis and to the speculative theorist. Again, to those who search for instances of divine power and a reflection of divine attributes in the visible works of creation, no more wonderful examples are possible to be conceived than in the disclosures of Astronomy. Astronomy deals with subjects that, by a direct and legitimate analogy, are more associated with the religious idea and with religious contemplation than those of any other branch of physical knowledge. For instance, take the recent discoveries as to the motion of the remotest stars which instruments can reach. The uniformity of the principle by which their motions are governed with those that direct our own sphere, lays before us an astonishing example of the unity, the love of order, and the omnipresent power of that God, whom the Christian revelation describes as possessed of such attributes.