might arise from the actual vision, or present existence, of the things believed.

Attention to these considerations will probably enable us to discover some of the fallacies which have obscured and bewildered this important subject. When the impression which is thus allowed to influence the mind is one which has not been received by the judgment, upon due examination, and adequate evidence of its truth,-this is enthusiasm,-not faith. Our present course of inquiry does not lead us to treat of the notions which have, in various individuals, been thus allowed to usurp the place of truth. To those who would preserve themselves from the influence of such, the first great inquiry, respecting their own mental impressions, ought to be,-are they facts?-and on what evidence do they rest which can satisfy a sound understanding that they are so? On the other hand is to be avoided an error, not less dangerous than the wildest fancies of the enthusiast, and not less unworthy of a regulated mind. This consists in treating real and important truths as if they were visions of the imagination, and thus dismissing them, without examination, from the influence which they ought to produce upon the moral feelings. It is singular also to remark how these two modifications of character may be traced to a condition of the reasoning powers essentially the same. The former receives a fiction of the imagination, and rests upon it as truth. The latter, acting upon some prejudice or mental impression which has probably no better foundation, puts away real and important truths without any examination of the evidence on which they are founded. The misapplication of the reasoning powers is the

same in both. It consists in proceeding upon a mere impression, without exercising the judgment on the question of its evidence, or on the facts and considerations which are opposed to it. Two characters of a very opposite description thus meet in that mental condition, which draws them equally, though in different directions, astray from the truth.

BEST USE OF THE STUDY OF NATURE.

THE study of nature ought to be made subservient to religion. Let philosophy be the handmaid of theology. There is not a star in the heavens, nor a flower in the fields, which does not declare the glory of God. To look upon nature, therefore, without any reference to its Author, to admire the work, without admiring the Workman, is folly, is stupidity, is atheism. How cold is the heart, and how dull the understanding of the man, who, contemplating the magnificent spectacle of the heavens, feels no pious emotions arising in his breast, and is completely absorbed in the speculations of science! He is not to be envied, although the voice of fame should pronounce him to be the first of philosophers, who sees nothing in the universe but matter and motion; and having pointed out, perhaps more successfully than others, its constitution and laws, still refuses to acknowledge an intelligent Agent, who made and governs it. Alas! that in this enlightened age, there should be so many to whom the severe, but well founded remark of an inspired writer, concerning the

sages of antiquity, may be, with too much justice, applied: "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools."

OMNIPOTENCE OF GOD.

WOULD we be struck with admiration and astonishment, at beholding a superior created intelligence tossing a mountain into the sea? What strong emotions of reverence and awe, then, ought to pervade our minds, when we behold the Almighty every moment producing effects infinitely more powerful and astonishing! What would be our astonishment, were we to behold from a distance, a globe as large as the earth tossed from the hand of Omnipotence, and flying at the rate of a thousand miles every minute! Yet this is nothing more than what is every day produced by the unceasing energies of that Power which first called us into existence.That impulse which was first given to the earth at its creation is still continued, by which it is carried round every day from west to east, along with its vast population, and at the same time impelled forward through the regions of space at the rate of sixty-eight thousand miles in an hour. Nor is this among the most wonderful effects of divine power: it is only one comparatively small specimen of that omnipotent energy which resides in the Eternal Mind.-When we lift our eyes towards the sky, we behold bodies a thousand times larger than this world of ours, impelled with similar velocities through the mighty expanse of the universe. We behold the plenary globes whecling their rapid courses

around the sun, with unremitting velocity-the comets returning from their long excursions in the distant regions of space, and flying towards the centre of our system with a velocity of hundreds of thousands of miles an hour-the sun himself, impelled towards some distant regon of space, and carrying along with him all his attendant planets—and, in a word, we have the strongest reason to conclude, that all the vast systems of the universe, which are more numerous than language can express-are in rapid and incessant motion around the throne of the Eternal, carrying forward the grand designs of infinite wisdom which they were destined to accomplish.

INCOMPREHENSIBILITY OF GOD.

ALL the discoveries of modern science serve to exalt the Deity, but they do not contribute a single iota to the explanation of his purposes. They make him greater, but they do not make him more comprehensible. He is more shrouded in mystery than ever. It is not himself whom we see, it is his workmanship; and every new addition to its grandeur or to its variety, which philosophy opens to our contemplation, throws our understanding at a greater distance than before, from the mind and conception of the sublime Architect. Instead of the God of a single world, we now see him presiding, in all the majesty of his high attributes, over a mighty range of innumerable systems. To our little eye he is wrapt in more awful mysteriousness; and every new glimpse which astronomy gives us of the universe, magnifies to the apprehension of our mind,

that impassable barrier which stands between the counsels of its sovereign, and those fugitive beings who strut their evanescent hour in the humblest of its mansions. If this invisible Being would only break that mysterious silence in which he has wrapt himself, we feel that a single word from his mouth would be worth a world of darkling speculations. Every new triumph which the mind of man achieves in the field of discovery, binds us more firmly to our Bible; and by the very proportion in which philosophy multiplies the wonders of God, do we prize that book, on which the evidence of history has stamped the character of his authentic communication.

HOLINESS OF GOD.

"WHO shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name," say the blest inhabitants of heaven, "for thou only art holy." No other fountain of holiness is there in the universe than the God whom they adore. As his will is the standard and criterion of holiness, so his nature is essentially characterized by holiness. It is holiness. As well could he cease to be, as cease to be holy. Other holy beings there are; but their holiness is derived and dependent. Pure and glorious as are the angels of light, yet so transcendently glorious is their Creator, that it is said, "He putteth no trust in his servants, and chargeth his angels with instability." No confidence is to be placed in the stability even of their holiness, except as sustained by himself. Although in spotless sanctity they present their adorations before his throne, yet is their nature, in common with