ism, that God, the great Maker of heaven It is sufficient to say of this philosophic and earth, is not a person, but a principle, attempt to raise the superstructure of and to this principle it is the highest piety on the basis of human reason, that piety to conform? Then, according to it did not succeed in hands more ancient, this sage teacher of darkness, all devo- if not more able than those of Kant; and tion-all that passes under the name of if we look around creation for the Goshen religion, is not a service rendered to an where its pure light may have found a intelligent Being, but to an unknown, an retreat amid all surrounding darkness, at undefined, and possibly an undefinable least we shall not find that favoured spot principle, and that, in obeying God, you among any of the plains of modern Gerare not obeying Him, but it, and con- many. The intentions of Kant were suforming to it, and not to Him. Oh, human perior to his system, just in the proporreason! human reason! Rather give me [tion that a benevolent heart is superior the faith of the humblest ploughman who to a cold and misguided intellect; but he dares to believe that "God is, and that assumed for human nature what neither He (not it) is a Rewarder of them that revelation nor experience can ever condiligently seek Him,”—give me such a cede, namely that, apart from a great faith, and I will surrender the Babel-change, it can become the home and, by builders of modern Germany to whoever may prefer the confusion of their senseless tongues! Of Kant, whose system is far less objectionable than that of many other German philosophers, one of his most ardent | admirers affirms that, in order to stem the scepticism of his country-"He came forward, professing an unbending faith in human nature itself as a sacred depository of truth, and showed that it was possible for us to possess a complete system of moral and scientific ideas, built up from materials lying ready at hand within and around us a system, too, of such a character that it would relieve us for ever from the attacks of scepticism on the one side, and the miserable shifts of tradition on the other." consequence, the friend of the moral law. This has proved in every age a fatal mistake; and in every instance in which the attempt has been made to unite the two on any known mere human principles, piety instead of being promoted, has declined into a cold infidelity, which, in its turn, has sooner or later surrendered to the forces of a more deadly Atheism. Piety from human nature, unregenerated by the Spirit of God, has yet to make its appearance upon earth; and it even now remains for a Kantian or any other philosophy to show by what strange process this pure offspring of heaven can be produced by the systems that are purely of earth. When this is once done, then, but not before, some successor of Kant may be able to boast that, where his great pre Now, this studied encomium on a fa-decessor failed, his greater follower has vourite amounts to a confession that Kant succeeded. aimed at the establishment of a system From these specimens of German Rathat should rest upon man, and not upon tionalism we can, without much difficulty, God;--that should employ existing "ma-infer its entire character. It is not neterials lying ready at hand," without a cessary, therefore, to trouble you with the Divine or any other foreign agency what- speculations of a Jacobi, or a Herbart, ever. In short, it was to be, to all in- or a Schelling, or a Reinhold, or an Oken, tents and purposes, a system in which and other less prominent names. This the ideal of God might be very politely would be to wade through the troubled allowed to have a name, but on whom it and miry waters of the whole of "German was not important to place any remark- Hermeneutics," and to waste your preable reliance. Hence this philosopher iscious time on what Dr. Carson has very said to have "grounded the moral law in the very constitution of the human reason, and then pointed to a higher state of society, in which a natural reign of justice should prevail, and in which piety, stripped of its follies and buffooneries, should be the simple handmaid of virtue in the individual, and of right to humanity at large." properly described as "a science only in name." "They have,” says that acute and learned critic, "no axioms; they have many false principles, and are a mere bundle of rules and observations. They have invented many technical names, and made many fanciful divisions and distinctions. They have nothing of the philoso pher but the cloak and the staff." Believing firmly that this humiliating description of the learned but useless labours of German philosophers to be strictly correct, I will not tire you with any more unprofitable quotations from the meta physical Babel, but proceed briefly to point out some of the pernicious consequences that Rationalism has produced, wherever it has extended. (To be concluded in the next.) Fragments and Choice Sayings. THE IMPORTANCE OF RELIGIOUS CONTRO VERSY. While there is any life of religion actuating the great body of this island, there must and will be controversies in theology. While the grand code of Christianity exercises the attention and fastens upon the passions of our people, there will be weakness of intellect to be set right, and perverseness of conduct to be corrected by the clergy (ministers). These are to stand around the altars of the gospel to keep up the fire of religion there in all its power, and to maintain it in all its purity. Nor will they be found unfaithful to their charge while there is any spring of theological activity in the clerical (ministerial) mind, and while there are any energies of religious zeal in the clerical (ministerial) heart. When they come to nod beside the altar, to slumber over the dying flame, or to look with a stupid unconcern while wretched men are heaping false and unhallowed fuel upon it, then irreligion has finished its course among us; a spiritual frost has spread its influence through the body. It has benumbed the extremities; it is come to the heart. And, like a poor man stretched out upon the snows of the Alps, the nation will then be angry at those who disturb its rest in order to save it-will then beg to be allowed a little longer repose upon its bed of ice, and feel a kind of pleasing serenity gliding gradually through all its veins, stopping up one by one all the avenues of life, and hasting on to quench the last spark of vitality, by seemingly lulling it into a gentle sleep. To this state, thank God, the clergy (ministry) are not reduced at present. I trust they never will be, They will, always, I trust, be a national ministry, active of intellect and vigorous in religion. In spite of the syren song of moderation, I hope we shall ever be alive to the spirit of our institution, and ever bending for ward to "the prize of our high calling in Christ Jesus" and we shall always continue to be what our ancestors have always been, the most learned and the most zealous of Christian divines, the honour of our kingdom, the glory of the reformation, and the admiration of all Christendom. -J. Whitaker, B. D., on Arianism Disclosed (1791). AFFLICTION SANCTIFIED TO THE UNGODLY. This affliction, for which thou mournest, may be the greatest mercy to thee that ever yet befel thee in this world. God has now made thy heart soft by trouble, shewed thee the vanity of this world, and what a poor trifle it is which thou madest thy happiness; there is now a dark cloud spread over all thy worldly comforts. Now, O now, if the Lord would but strike in with this affliction, and by it open thine eyes to see thy deplorable state, and take off thy heart for ever from the vain world, which thou now seest has nothing in it, and cause thee to choose Christ, the only abiding good, for thy portion. If now thy affliction may but bring thy sin to thy remembrance, and thy dead friend may but bring thee to a sense of thy dead soul, which is as cold to God and spiritual things as his body is to thee, and more loathsome in his eyes than that corpse is, or shortly will be, to the eyes of men, then this day is certainly a day of the greatest mercy that ever yet thou sawest. O happy death, that shall prove life to thy soul! Why, this is sometimes the way of the Lord with men. "If they be bound in fetters, and holden in cords of affliction, then he sheweth them their work and their transgression, that they have exceeded; he openeth also their ear to discipline, and commandeth them that they shall return from iniquity." (Job xxxvi. | 8, 9.) O, consider, poor pensive creature, that which stole away thine heart from God is now gone; that which ate up thy time and thoughts, that there was no room for God, soul, or eternity in them, is gone; all the vain expectations that thou raisedst up unto thyself from that poor creature which now lies in the dust, are in one day quite perished. O what an advantage hast thou now for heaven, beyond whatever thou yet hadst! If God will but bless this rod, thou wilt have cause to keep many a thanksgiving day for this day. John Flavel. THE HEAVENLY JOURNEY. There is no convenient travelling without proper accommodations and a competent supply of provisions. Deprived of these, the healthiest would become languid, and the most robust would faint by the way. For this reason the God of all kindness has, figuratively speaking, furnished the road to his kingdom with houses of rest and refreshment, where his redeemed may occasionally turn in and renew their strength. The good things of his providence may be considered as the temporal accommodations, vouchsafed by his bounty for the comfort and support of our mortal part; and the stated means of grace are the spiritual accommodations, designed to quicken, strengthen, and sustain the soul unto life eternal. When outward ordinances are made effectual to this end, through the Holy Spirit's influence, of which they are the ordinary channel, then is it that God's travellers can pursue their way rejoicing, and sing as they go, "The King of Zion has brought me into his banqueting-house, and his banner over me was love." In secret prayer, in public worship, in reading the Scriptures, in sitting under the word preached, and in compassing the altar of the Lord, his saints catch some delightful glimpses of their heavenly Father's countenance, and lay up a stock of experiences and consolations for faith to feed upon afterwards, and in the strength of which they travel many days. Summer experiences, viewed in retrospective, are what the soul can sometimes reflect on with comfort during the cold and darkness of wintry desertions, just as the pot of manna, reserved in the ark, reminded Israel of the months and years that were past, and remained as a token for good, long after God had ceased to rain on his people the bread of heaven, and to feed them with angels' food.-Toplady. 66 OVERCOME EVIL WITH GOOD." From an American Publication. A man had been in the habit of stealing corn from his neighbour who was a Quaker. Every night he would go softly to the crib, and fill his bag with the ears which the good old Quaker's toil had placed there. Every morning the old gentleman observed a diminution of his corn-pile. This was very annoying, and must be stopped-but how? Many a one would have said, "Take a gun, conceal yourself, wait till he comes, and fire." Others would have said, "Catch the villain, and have him sent to jail." But the Quaker was not prepared to enter into any such severe measures. He wanted to punish the offender, and at the same time bring about his reformation if possible. So he fixed a sort of trap close to the hole, through which the man would thrust his arm in getting the corn. The wicked neighbour proceeded on his unholy errand at the hour of midnight, with the bag in hand. Unsuspectingly, he thrust his hand into the crib to seize an ear, when lo! he found himself unable to withdraw it. In vain he tugged, and pulled, and sweated, and alternately cried and cursed. His hand was fast, and every effort to release it only made it the more secure. After a time, the tumult in his breast measureably subsided. He gave over his useless struggles, and began to look around him. All was silence and repose. Good men were sleeping soundly in their comfortable beds, while he was compelled to keep a dreary, disgraceful watch through the remainder of that long and tedious night, his hand in constant pain from the pressure of the clamp which held it. His tired limbs, compelled to sustain his weary body, would fain have sunk beneath him, and his weary eyes would have closed in slumber, but no; there was no rest, no sleep for him. There he must stand and watch the progress of the night, and at once desire and dread the return of the morning. Morning came at last, and the Quaker looked out of his window and found he had "caught the man." What was to be done? Some would say, "Go out and give him a good cowhiding, just as he stands, and then release him." But not so said the Quaker. Such a course would have sent the man away embittered and muttering curses of revenge. The good old man hurried on his clothes, and started at once to the relief and punishment of his prisoner. “Good morning, friend!" said he, as he came within speaking distance; "how does thee do?" The poor culprit made no answer, but burst into tears. "O, fie!" said the Quaker, as he proceeded to release him; "I'm sorry thee has got thy hand fast. Thee put it in the wrong place, or else it would not have been so." The man looked crest-fallen, and, begging forgiveness, hastily turned to make his retreat. 66 "Stay, said his persecutor, for he was now becoming such to the offender, who could have received a blow with much better grace than the kind words that were falling from the Quaker's lips;Stay, friend; thy bag is not filled. Thee needs corn, or thee would not have taken so much pains to get it. Come, let us fill it;" and the poor fellow was obliged to stand and hold the bag while the old man filled it, interspersing the exercise with the pleasantest conversation imaginable; all of which were like daggers in the heart of his chagrined and mortified victim. The bag was filled, the string tied, and the sufferer hoped soon to be out of the presence of his tormentor; but again his purpose was thwarted. Stay," said the Quaker, as the man was about to hurry off, having uttered once his apologies and thanks; "Stay; Ruth has breakfast ere this: thee must not think of going without breakfast. Come, Ruth is calling." guilty man turn from the dwelling of the pious Quaker! Everybody is ready to say that he never again troubled the Quaker's corn crib. I have something still better than that to tell you. He at once relented and reformed, and my informant tells me that he afterwards heard him relate, in an experience-meeting, the substance of the story I have related, and he attributed his conversion, under God's blessing, to the means the Quaker had adopted to arrest him in his downward course. JESUITS IN FRANCE. (Extract from a Letter.) "Paris, December 27. "The more I observe the position of matters here, as far as the interior of the country is concerned, the more I feel convinced that one of the gravest, if not the gravest of all questions, is the religious one. The bishops of France are evidently, the greater number of them, losing all judgment and common sense. The Jesuits are gaining in power and importance every day; their establishments of education are spread all over the land, two, three, or even more existing in the large towns, and their principles are, unfortunately, becoming those of the higher clergy, and of the ultra-catholic portion of the public. All this is paving the way for a tremendous explosion some day, and for a division of the nation into two parts; one, bigotted as were the Spaniards under Philip II.; the other, atheistical as were the conventionalists of the revolution of 1793." JESUS. The name of Jesus is not only light, but also food; it is likewise oil, without This was most unendurable. This was which all the food of the soul is dry; it "heaping coals" with a vengeance. In vain is salt, unseasoned by which, whatever is the mortified neighbour begged to be ex-presented to us is insipid: it is honey in excused. In vain he pleaded to be re- the mouth, melody in the ear, joy in the leased from what would be to him a heart, medicine to the soul; and there punishment ten times more severe than are no charms in any discourse in which stripes and imprisonment. The Quaker his name is not heard.-Bernard. was inexorable, and he was obliged to yield. Breakfast over, "Now," said the old farmer, as he helped the victim shoulder the bag, "if thee needs any more corn, come in the day-time, and thee shall have it." With what shame and remorse did that PREACHING. Pulpit discourses have insensibly dwindled from speaking to reading; a practice, of itself, sufficient to stifle every germ of eloquence. It is only by the fresh feelings of the heart that mankind can be very powerfully affected. What indeed can be more ludicrous than an orator delivering stale indignation and fervor of a week old; turning over whole pages of violent passions written out in German text; reading the tropes and apostrophes into which he is hurried by the ardour of his mind; and so affected at a preconcer ted line and page, that he is unable to proceed any farther!—Sydney Smith. WORTHY OF IMITATION. There is in Sweden a Ladies' Bible Society, which presents a copy of the Bible to every newly-married couple. Correspondence. DEAR SIR,-The truths of the gospel, in whatever light they come presented to us, whether it be by legal types or living examples, are, to Christians, subjects of the deepest importance. The Epistle to the Hebrews-no matter whether it was addressed in the form of a letter to any particular church or whether it constituted a series of apostolic discourses which were noted down and recorded by Clement, whose name is mentioned in a certain part of the New Testament-is a richly instructive part of God's Word, and it is highly desirable that no sentiment which it contains should be otherwise than faithfully presented to us. It will not be tedious to your readers, as it will not be wearisome or unprofitable to myself, to resume the discussion of the question which has been already taken up, whether, under the Christian dispensation, the church of God, in its collective or individual, public or private capacity, has power or privilege to enter into that place which in Scripture is denominated the Holy of Holies. The idea, if it be seriously entertained by any, rests chiefly upon one passage of Scripture (Heb. x. 19) which reads thus:-"Having boldness to enter into the Holiest," &c. Without going to other parts of the sacred writings, we may come to clearness on this point by simply attending 1st, to the general tenor of the epistle, and 2ndly, to the verse under consideration, as to what was the meaning of the writer of the exhortation. The design of the epistle seems to have been to point out the connexion which the law bears to the gospel, or to place the type as it shows itself in correspond ence with the anti-type, and the shadow as it stands in relation to the substance. What we expect in a copy is, resemblance to the original; and by a shadow which an object casts we are not grossly deceived as to the form and outline of the substance. Whatever we suppose the subject of the picture to be, or the effect which may be produced by a shadow, if a thing is not truthfully pourtrayed or a false effect produced, we blame the arrangement of light in the case of the shadow, or the want of skill in that of the copyist, or say it is a description not of the same, but of a different scene. Under the figure of a temple divided into two compartments, called the Sanctuary and the Holy of Holies, earth, and the services in which the church below is engaged appear represented in one, and heaven, or the heaven of heavens in the other. The inaccessibility of the Adyton, or the inner sanctuary of heaven, to mortals, was shown by its being entered only once a year-then by the high priest only, and that not without blood. Generally speaking, therefore, the type made it appear closed; nor would it have been appropriate to have shown that place as disclosed to public view and open to the whole congregation, which was never intended to be gazed upon by mortal eyes, or to be entered but by one individual. 2ndly. As to the form of expression used in Heb. x. 19, 20, I think it will be found that the word Sanctuary is the word made use of in the original, and not Holiest; and that, instead of "boldness to enter," if the translation were literal, we should read, "boldness to the entrance of," the word eisodon, or entrance, being employed, and not the verb, as in our English translation. Further: after saying, “Having boldness as far as to the entering in of the Sanctuary, the apostle proceeds to say, |