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moved? How is guilty man to be restored to the Divine favour? What are the leading principles on which the moral government of the world is conducted? And in what is that system of divine dispensation to terminate, so far as the destinies of mankind are concerned? These are some of the questions resolved by religionquestions, compared with which, the noblest discoveries of philosophy and science lose their importance, and appear "less than nothing and vanity."

EXISTENCE OF GOD.

GoD is a spirit, infinite, boundless, illimitable, unfathomable in his conceptions and capacities; but we are finite, circumscribed, and weak in our conceptions. Between the finite and the infinite, there must be an infinite distance; and if there be an infinite distance between the intellect of Gabriel and of God, what must be the distance between ours and his! Those morning-stars gather all the lustre of their vast intelligence from him, and perpetually replenish their effulgent orbs at the fountain of light. Such is God; but God is the great subject of divine revelation, his being, his attributes, his purposes, the principles of his government, and the modes of his existence. Is it probable, then, that all which this volume shall reveal of God we should be able to understand? Is it in the nature of things? Then must the mighty deep compress itself into a scanty rill-the glorious sun pour all its light into a twinkling star-the vast revolutions, the myriads of ages of eternity, be comprehended in the fleeting years of time. For not till then

"shall man by searching find out God," or the finite comprehend the infinite. But because we cannot comprehend it, is it therefore contrary to our reason? No! the very circumstance that we cannot comprehend it, commends it to our reason. The duration we can calculate, is not eternity; the being we can grasp, cannot possibly be infinite. If God were comprehensible by us, he would be a finite being like ourselves; and if revelation told us nothing about God which we could not comprehend, we should say, either the revelation is imperfect, or this being of whom it treats is not God. The doctrine of a God, then, must necessarily be superior but not contrary to

reason.

MEANS OF MORAL IMPROVEMENT.

If we would seek for that, which must be of all conceivable things of the highest moment both for the peace and improvement of the moral being, it is to be found in the habit of mind, in which there is the uniform contemplation of the divine character, with a constant reliance on the guidance of the Almighty in every action of life. "One thing," says the inspired writer, "have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple." The man who thus cultivates the habitual impression of the divine presence lives in an atmosphere peculiarly his own. The storms which agitate the lower world may blow around or beneath, but they touch not him; as the traveller has seen from the mountain's top the war of elements below, while he

stood in unclouded sunshine. In the works, and ways, and perfections of the Eternal One, he finds a subject of exalted contemplation, in comparison with which the highest inquiries of human science sink into significance. It is an exercise, also, which tends at once to elevate and to purify the mind. It raises us from the minor concerns and transient interests which are so apt to occupy us, to that wondrous field in which "worlds and worlds compose one universe,"and to that mind which bade them move in their appointed orbits, and maintains them all in undeviating harmony. While it thus teaches us to bend in humble adoration before a wisdom which we cannot fathom, and a power which we cannot comprehend, it directs our attention to a display of moral attributes which at once challenge our reverence and demand our imitation. By thus leading us to compare ourselves with the supreme excellence, it tends to produce profound humility, and, at the same time, that habitual aspiration after moral improvement which constitutes the highest state of man. The proud," says an eloquent writer, "look down upon the earth, and see nothing that creeps upon its surface more noble than themselves; the humble look upwards to their God." This disposition of mind, so far from being opposed to the acquirements of philosophy, sits with peculiar grace upon the man who, through the most zealous cultivation of human science, ascends to the eternal Cause. The farther he advances in the wonders of nature, the higher he rises in his adoration of the power and the wisdom which guide the whole;" Where others see a sun, he sees a Deity." And then, in every step of life,

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whether of danger, distress, or difficulty, the man who cultivates this intercourse with the incomprehensible One "inquires in his temple." He inquires for the guidance of divine wisdom, and the strength of divine aid, in his progress through the state of moral discipline; he inquires, in a peculiar manner, for this aid in the culture of his moral being, when he views this mighty undertaking in its important reference to the life which is to come; he inquires for a discernment of the ways of Divine Providence, as he either feels it in his own concerns, or views it in the chain of events which are going on in the world around him. He learns to trace the whole to the same unerring hand which guides the planet in its course; and thus rests in the absolute conviction that the economy of Providence is one great and magnificent system of design, and order, and harmony. These are no visions of the imagination, but the sound inductions of a calm and rational philosophy. They are conclusions which compel the assent of every candid inquirer, when he follows out that investigation of mighty import,-what is God,-and what is that essence in man which he has endowed with the power of rising to himself.

THE PROVINCE OF THE MENTAL FACULTIES IN MORAL IMPROVEMENT.

THE restoration of man from a state of estrangement, anarchy, or moral death we are taught in the sacred writings to refer to a power from without the mind,-an influence directly from God. But, without in any degree losing

sight of the truth and the importance of this principle, the immediate object of our attention is rather the process of the mind itself, by means of which an habitual influence is produced upon the whole character. This is a compound operation, which may probably be analyzed in the following manner. It seems to be composed of reason, attention, and a modification of conception. The province of Reason is to examine the truth of the statements or doctrines which are proposed to the mind as calculated to act upon its moral feelings; and upon this being done in a correct manner must depend the validity of the subsequent parts of the mental process. This being premised, it is the office of Attention, aided by reason, to direct the mind assiduously to the truths, so as fully to perceive their relations and tendencies. By the farther process, analagous to Conception, they are then placed before us in such a manner as to give them the effect of real and present existence. By these means, truths relating to things for which we have not the evidence of our senses, or referring to events which are future, but fully expected to happen, are kept before the mind, and influence the moral feelings and the character in the same manner as if the facts believed were actually scen, or the events expected were taking place in our view. This mental operation is Faith; and for the sound exercise of it the constituent elements now mentioned are essentially necessary. The truth must be received by the judgment upon adequate evidence; and, by the other parts of the process, it must be so kept before the mind, that it may exercise such a moral influence as

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