perhaps, ere this, have begun to regard the appalling narrative of the volcanic devastation as a fable, or at least an exaggeration of the olden time, had not its truth been confirmed by modern excavations. The exploration of the discovered ruins, demonstrates the melancholy catastrophe and former magnificence of the buried towns.

Before unbelief finally rejects the scriptural account of the original perfection and subsequent apostasy of man, let her profoundly meditate upon the moral ruins of our race, so strangely compounded of the celestial and the grovelling. How dissimilar is this heterogeneous and contrarious mass to the other visible works of the great Architect! Where, in its discordant elements, is to be found that harmony of organization which constitutes the unerring mark of the almighty hand. The grandeur of humanity claims kindred with the skies; its abject vileness can scarcely aspire to brotherhood with the brute. The lord of earth came not thus from the hands of his Creator. As the physical ruins of the Neapolitan cities demonstrate at once their volcanic overthrow and primeval splendor, so do the moral ruins of man betoken alike his original majesty and melancholy fall.

Another phenomenon, akin to that already dis

cussed, consists in the fact that the race of sinful mortals have not, ere this, been utterly exterminated. The continued wickedness of man, and the long pause of retributive vengeance, present an enigma not to be explained by the light of nature. That almighty justice should have permitted open and high-handed rebellion, to enjoy for thousands of years one entire and beautiful province of the general empire, is a dark problem which reason cannot solve without an open Bible before her. It is in the history of the great atonement alone, studied by the optics of the Gospel, that she can find the solution of the otherwise unfathomable mystery.

Even in the hours of their first moral night, the star of Bethlehem shed its cheering ray on the apostate pair. Salvation has ever since been pursuing its majestic march, sometimes with silent, sometimes with resounding steps, towards its mighty consummation. Sinners have been spared that the cross might be glorified; the bolt of retribution has been delayed, that all the predicted triumphs of redeeming love might be achieved. But when the wheat of Emmanuel's harvest shall be fully gathered into the garners of blessedness, the tares sown by the prince of darkness, and springing up

with such baneful luxuriance in the rank soil of sin, shall be collected together and burned with unquenchable fire. God's mysterious forbearance in the punishment of the rebellious world, thus affords another instance where, to explain the book of nature and providence, it is needful to invoke the Book of Revelation.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE PROMULGATION OF THE GOSPEL.

Early and rapid spread of Gospel proved by Gospel itself, and by secular and ecclesiastical histories-Formidable impediments to its progress was exclusive and uncompromising-opposed to prejudices and expectations of Jews-Country of its origin awakened prejudices of gentiles-Heathen superstition deeply intrenched in minds of nations-Retainers of polytheism roused themselves to oppose invasion of Christianity-Recoiling from open argument, they employed foulest slanders-Polytheism closely interwoven with civil government-which was invoked and came to her rescue-Roman empire embraced whole civilized world-Sufferings in Nero's gardens specimens of other sufferings-General population joined in persecuting Christians— Intrinsic impediments Gospel had to encounter-Opposed to pride, passions, and propensities of fallen man-Gospel made the moral reformation of its votaries a test of its truth-and that in an age of universal corruption-Human instrumentality employed in spread of Gospel inadequate to exigency-its promulgators a few Jewish peasants-the most despised members of a despised nation-Contrast between martial conquests and the conquests achieved by Gospel.

THE book entitled "The Acts of the Apostles," was not composed and embodied in the Sacred Canon merely to gratify historical curiosity. Prompted by the Holy Ghost, it was designed to show that God, by miraculously aiding the dissemination of the faith of Jesus Christ, recognized it as

divine. The Gospel is its own witness to its wonderful spread. The earliest record of the triumphs of primitive Christianity is found in the Inspired Volume. We may, therefore, for the purposes of our argument, classify the promulgation of the Gospel among its internal evidences, without any reprehensible invasion of the extraneous department of the christian proofs.

In the first chapter of “The Acts,” the historian states that, at the time of the ascension, the number of the disciples assembled was about one hundred and twenty. In the second chapter he affirms, that at the season of pentecost, which was only ten days afterwards, three thousand converts were simultaneously added to the infant church. In the fourth chapter it appears that the number of believers had increased to "about five thousand." the fifth chapter it is stated, "And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women." The sixth chapter superadds, " And the word of God increased, and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith." After the twelfth chapter, the evangelical historian dwells almost exclusively upon the progress of the great apostle to the gentiles. But it is