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On Reading-No. VI.

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and milk without money and without price," | its appellation, Israel, whose lore exceeded -that gospel which is no less than the all the lore of men in that or any other commission of God to all to whom it comes, age. This people received the law from to believe on his Son, is by such underva- the voice of God at Mount Sinai, when lued. The glad tidings it makes known, delivered by him from the bondage of they do not understand" they have ears, Egypt; and they entered into covenant but they hear not," and the holiness which with him, and became his people. In it communicates, they experience not; and Africa, now a semi-barbarous region, conconcerning its equitable precepts, they say, verts are at this moment increasingly as the Jews did to Christ, "These are hard adding to Christianity: and may they far sayings; who can hear them?" The total surpass the numbers which adorned that depravity of human nature which it de- quarter of the globe during the first centuries clares, is by such accounted incorrect and of the Christian era! gloomy. Salvation by Christ alone, which it maintains, they suppose to be injurious to morality; and the regenerating influences of the Holy Spirit, of which it so repeatedly speaks, is denominated by them enthusiasm. The gospel is thus, by its professed friends, stripped of its glory, and reduced to a mere inoperative system of morals. From such undervaluation arises that inattention to its truths when published, and that voluntary bending to the slightest circumstance which may transpire, to detain them from the sanctuary of God. Public meetings for prayer and Christian communion, to such undervaluers of the gospel, and the means of grace, possess no attractions; they diverge as far as possible from the central point of bliss, and feel the least disposition towards those services, which, more fully than others, enter into the spirituality of religion. They prefer darkness to light, because their hearts are unsound in the faith; neither will they come to the light, lest their deeds should be reproved, and their false profession detected.

(To be concluded in our next.)

ON READING. NO. VI.

(Continued from col. 427.)

Of America, in high antiquity, we know nothing certain, but when that vast continent was discovered by Columbus in the fifteenth century, its inhabitants were altogether heathen; and although multitudes have since that period been converted to Christianity, multitudes are heathens, even amidst the light of the present age.

Africa, which has degenerated into the most ignorant and savage paganism, with an alloy of Mahomedauism, of all the quarters of this sphere, contained, in high antiquity, the heathen nations the most learned and polished then in existence; also, therein was nursed one community, the Hebrews, chosen out of all the kingdoms of the earth, to bear the name of the Creator of heaven and earth, Elohim, in

138.-VOL. XII.

Israel, with his Thummim and his Urim beneath the Holy One, found his inheritance in Asia; and amidst the valley of vision, Jerusalem long was a praise in the earth; and, in Asia we may name Syria, Assyria, Chaldea, Persia, China, &c., as polished heathen nations, even in high antiquity. During several centuries immediately following the incarnation of Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of men, much of Christianity was planted, took root, and bare fruit to the glory of God; but the lapse of this fair quarter of our sphere into heathenism, with a great alloy of Mahomedanism, is as signal as even that of Africa.

Europe is an exception, and the only exception, as a quarter of the globe, to this universal lapse into heathenism. Although a formidable power seated upon her eastern frontier has carried Mahomedanism into several of her fairest provinces, this is by no means paramount: the cross does, and always did, wave in successful defiance to the crescent; if havoc has visited, conquest has never laid Europe at the feet of this turbaned tyrant of the east; and if Europe has successfully resisted Mahomedanism, she may be said to have exterminated heathenism within her limits, for no heathen nation exists in Europe. Yet, as though the plague existed from the miasma of the corrupting carcase, Europe groans to the present moment under the awful inflictions of heathenism. The idolatry of the Romish church, palpable through the flimsy veil of titular nominations, is an awful relic of heathenism pervading all her kingdoms. And the ancient idolatry of the polished heathens, who occupied this interesting portion of creation during the middle ages, reigns over and pollutes her schools. The works of the heathen philosophers of Europe, in the original Greek and Latin, as well as in elegant translations, are every where to be found, and no man is esteemed learned who is not deeply read in this lore. These works, (couched in beautiful sentences, con

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taining imagery, fascinating to, and genial with, the human mind, which is naturally depraved,) bear away the soul, and awfully add, by their false sentiments, to that sink of corruption in which they are planted.

Who that learns the classic languages omits to read the classic works which these languages contain? The sublimity of their diction often half sanctifies the sentiments every where incorporated in these productions, and few of our youths rise up from these studies without being more or less under the influence of the false sentiments with which these compositions abound. What a foundation is this to be laid in the bosom of a youth designed for a minister of Jesus Christ! Heathenism in its most refined and subtile forms, thus to enter into the heart of a youth, dressed out with all the alluring splendours of diction, and with all the pomp of circumstances and affected wisdom, at a time when his heart is simple and pliable, in the very zenith of his susceptibilities, while he is all athirst for knowledge, are weeds which take root and flourish, choke the good seed, and often possess the soul until this mortal puts on immortality.

A very learned academician, who still professed to be a learner, although he had long been a teacher, told me unblushingly, "I have read so many sublime heathen productions, that I have no relish for christian writers; they are too dull and vapid for me." He became a divine, and, when beneficed, repeated the observation to me. What could such a divine preach to a Christian congregation? He found out the secret himself, that he could not feed a Christian flock; indeed, he could not bear either to study or deliver a sermon. His income was ample; he therefore hired a curate, read heathen authors up to a good old age, and finally made his last leap completely in the dark.

The stupid idolatry of ignorant nations may be, and is, devoid of charms to classic men, because its vulgarity is revolting to a mind stored with the polite

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generality of youths, than the showy pageantry of imposing ceremonies.

Ought not our youth, in general, to indulge sparingly in such a course of reading? More especially, ought not those pupils who are intended to be, "set apart for the service of God, in the work of the ministry," to indulge sparingly, and with great caution, in such a course of reading? What, if their minds thereby become vitiated; what, if thereby they lose their relish for the sacred volume; what, if thereby that simplicity of mind incident to youth, becomes subtile and designing; what, if habits of thinking are thereby induced, which never depart from the man; what, I say, becomes of the exalted character of the candidate for the ministry? It evaporates, and in process of time completely disappears. The moment however arrives-the man becomes a minister by the imposition of hands; he attains the summit of his ambition; commences a beneficed clergyman, with an ample income-and the benefice is his all. The clergyman expiring on the spot, is revivified in the country gentleman, who can race, and play, and dance, and hunt, and drink, and roar amidst his genial sportsmen with as good a grace as one who, born to fortune, never put on the ecclesiastic for hire, but was educated to enjoy the patrimony of his fathers.

The works of wicked men, in general, ought to be read with caution; because no wicked man will, and, indeed, I conclude no wicked man can, set forth the truth-the whole truth-and nothing but the truth, as it is in Jesus Christ, in any work, however laboured. The natural bias of a depraved mind must and will lead the man, even if he affects the contrary, into more or less display of self; his own image will be reflected from some portion of his works, with whatever caution he may write. But a heathen, however he may launch into the sublime of diction, and soar high over all sober wisdom as to the unreal, never would even affect to instruct a Christian in Christianity. No, lore of more civilized and learned commuhe despises equally the Christian and his nities; but the mysteries of Egypt, Greece, creed, and would, if he could, extirpate and Rome, in the language of the initiated, both with the same blow; and if he affected clothed with the imposing robes of priestly to instruct the Christian, it is utterly impos subtilty, various in colours, of the richest sible that he should succeed. A man, with dyes, and all embroidered with silk and the Bible in his hand and in his heart, cangold, glitter to the eye so royally, and not be instructed in divine things by any carry away the soul so completely, that man, however wise, who denies or treats thousands lose sight of their intrinsic no- with levity the inspiration of the sacred thingness, amidst the glare of their external volume; especially by one who, in the splendours. A natural consequence, in- place of the living God, worships that deed; for nothing more readily and more thing of nought-a dumb idol, even if the effectually absorbs the minds of the fabric of this idol is solid gold. He does not

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know the truth: yea, he denies and defies the | consistences, or rather non-consistences, truth; how then can he teach it to others?

Dark as are the superstitions of Rome, and mighty as are the strong holds of the semi-idolatry which exists in the Catholic formularies, being bottomed upon Jesus Christ, there seems a facility of reformation therein, which lets in the truth, and admits of a holy conversion to the living God, far superior to any heathen system in existence because no heathen system admits of Christian reformation; no, instead of reformation, a war of extermination exists between the two; no quarter can, therefore, be given on either side, much less can even an armed truce be patched up; idolatry or Christianity must, in this desperate conflict, perish. "Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer the Lord of hosts, I am the first and I am the last; and besides Me there is no God," Isa. xliv. 6. "Who hath formed a god, or molten a graven image, that is profitable for nothing? Behold, all his fellows shall be ashamed, and the workmen, they are of men let them all be gathered together let them stand up; yet they shall fear, and they shall be ashamed together. He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?" Isa. xliv. 11 and 20. The mighty work of God, wrought in the very centre of the Roman Catholic superstition, fitly denominated the Reformation in Europe, has no parallel in any heathen country, for depth as well as extension: a permanent Christian Church-the Protestant, having arisen out of this Reformation, which, for numbers, piety, devotion, wisdom, and love, in the power of the Holy Spirit, is adapted to the purpose, and bids fair to carry the truth, as it is in Jesus Christ, to every nation of the earth. The pure word of God, without note or comment, with the sword of the Spirit and the whole armour of faith, and that divine charity which "beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things, and never faileth, but abideth for ever," the weapons of their warfare, in the name of the Lord Jesus; and the power of this truth is so great, that it must ultimately conquer every nation upon earth; and nothing less than this will satisfy the boundless charity which God implants in the

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The history of the fabulous or heroic age forms that mass of crudity which may be denominated The Heathen Greek Fable, including the mythology of that and subsequent ages. This intricate maze of crude

where absurdity and sublimity stroll through the nations of this earth, and through realms unknown, hand in hand, a gypsy and a princess, with all the familiarity of twinsisters, compared with the simple dignity of the earliest Bible histories, and its most ancient poetic effusions, is a pompous nothing; yea, less than nothing, it is vanity. Yet this pompous nothing occupies the precious time of youth amidst universities, as well as in public and private schools, at the very moment when all his energies ought to be called forth to the acquirement of substantial learning; and while it thus occupies his time, leads down his soul to the very chambers of death.

Although every man interprets this pompous nothing according to the dictates of his own fancy, yet far too many are agreed to account no man thoroughly learned who is not a master in this tragi-comic vanity, and can quote therefrom on all occasions. It is deemed poetic, is fraught with fancy, and contains flights of imagination, with imagery in rich abundance; and, therefore, however fraught with absurdity, takes with children from five to six-feet-six in stature, equally with Cinderella or Goody Twoshoes with your youngsters of three feet nothing. But in this enlightened age, when numbers are deeply read in men and things, and all our best poets have incorporated into their works every thing worth culling therefrom, in their more beautiful and Christian manner; this is a thing to be despised rather than to be gloried in; and I trust the time is not distant, when, so far from its being any degradation to the scholar that he is not deeply read in this pompous nothing, it will be his glory that he has laid it aside amidst the lumber of his study, and employed his precious time on better subjects, and turned his attention to the great and momentous realities of eternity.

The misfortune is, that in too many schools much is taught which must be unlearned in after life, in order to form the Christian; and the time lost in unlearning these errors, because of the obstinacy of early prejudices, and the difficulty with which they are overcome, much less eradicated, is often more than was consumed in the learning. Thus does man mispend the few days that are allotted to him on earth, and cut even shorter the short period of his incarnation; although that is the only period of his existence, viz. the day of his probation, during which, by the grace of God, he can lay up treasure in heaven, and escape the damnation of hell.

(To be continued.)

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Thoughts on Happiness.

THOUGHTS ON HAPPINESS.

HAPPINESS, though professedly the object to which all aspire, must either be strangely misapprehended, or have become very difficult of attainment; for casual observation alone, is sufficient to convince us, that, "whilst by numbers sought, 'tis realized by few." Wherever a tendency to dissatisfaction exists, the present constitution of things is so calculated to elicit its exhibition, that, if a calm serenity of mind be essential to the object proposed, we may cease to wonder at the unfrequency of success. Were we to make our deductions from the numbers, who, unanimous in sentiment, and combined in effort, propose to themselves happiness, and note not only the vigour, but also the complacency with which the pursuit is conducted, we might be led to infer, that in reference thereto, knowledge was complete, and success indubitable. But, alas! how many have lived to prove, that numbers furnish no guarantee against the encroachment of error, and that defectiveness of judgment may cause the efforts and hopes of a multitude to end in disappointment and abortion.

The will of man appears to be constantly at variance with the circumstances of his situation; and, though the utmost which repeated disappointment leaves him to expect, is but a partial accomplishment of his desires; still he deludes himself with the hope of success, and seeks for happiness amidst the changes and conflict of natural elements. Surely nothing can justify such an expectation; but a state unvarying in its comforts and continuance, where that which he has proved to be essential to his happiness, is constantly within his reach, to which he can recur on every volition of the will, and of which he may participate without fear of innovation or control.

Of such kind are no natural or external circumstances. They are liable to be acted upon by innumerable agents, to be shortened or protracted in duration by causes inconceivably diversified, or to be deteriorated in quantity or quality, by occurrences, over which man has no control. Yet, strange as it may appear, his inclination and desires lead him, in the pursuit of happiness, to those very sources, which are of all others the most fluctuating and uncertain. How many thousand times has he lamented the impotence of wealth, the fickleness of titles and honours, the instability of friends, the uncertainty of life, and the prevalence of death; yet riches have their thousands, and honours their tens of thousands, seeking them as the chief good:

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whilst, with others, to increase the number and enhance the respectability of their connections, is an object which, in their estimation, admits of no equivalent.

Others there are, who, in comparative youth, have already adapted their plans to the process of a lengthened existence, and who pique themselves on arriving at a point in time, when age shall procure for them a veneration and respect, the claims to which are already in advance, and which remain unacknowledged, not from any want of prominency in them, but through the undiscerningness of the circle with whom it is their misfortune to contemporize. then is the fallacy of seeking, in contingent circumstances, an abiding and unchanging principle. If there be merely a possibility of my arriving at a distant good at a given time, it is not certainty, and therefore I am not happy till I possess it; and having possession, if there be a possibility of my being deprived of it, I am not happy by all the deductions of anticipation in reference to that possibility.

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What then has finitude to do with real, during happiness? If man be solely finite, he is solely miserable, and bears about with him a principle of destruction to all the good he may enjoy. To such a being what can the dictator of happiness recommend? Eat, drink, and be merry, seek riches, that thou mayest attain unto honour; take thy fill of pleasure, and think not of its termination; know that thou livest, but forget that thou must die; in short, reflect not, meditate not, but forget the truth and thyself, and be happy.

This, then, is the happiness of the man of chance, who came into existence by accident, who sees, and hears, and breathes! fortuitously, and who will be annihilated if chance can effect it. This too is all we can offer to the practical infidel, who avows not his disbelief of a future state, but is so in love with the present world, that he courts no other element; his actions supply the place of words, and say, if there be another world, I have no desire to know or to see it, I am satisfied with this. Hence, he amasses wealth; the initials of his titles occupy several times the space of his name; his friends he can scarcely number; his years become many; and, he ceases to breathe. Does he exist? if so, he must be unhappy with regret at leaving the things he loved. Is he annihilated? then, it is certain, he has missed of happiness.

Know, O reader, if thou art a searcher for happiness, that she dwells not with non. existence. Seek her in the abode of Reve lation, where life and immortality are

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brought to light. Enter, and she shall show thee the connection of time with eternity, of present with eternal existence, of the relationship thy spirit bears to the great eternal Father of all spirits; and if thou liligently seek her aid, she will commend thee to his care and guidance, and he will ead thee into all truth. So shalt thou find hat truth is happiness, and become possessed of happiness in truth.

J. H-SH-D.

THE SYSTEM OF NATURE.

WHEN the Almighty, after the labour of six days, had completed the work of his hands, he cast a surveying look over the whole, and pronounced it to be very good. Since that period, the works and economy of nature have engaged the attention of some of the wisest of men; who, the more they have inquired, have been the more impressed with their beauty and fitness.

Ray and Derham, who stand among the first in the ranks of naturalists, have employed their pens in shewing the admirable adaptation of the organs of animated beings, to the functions they have to perform, and the wisdom which actuated their Creator when he framed their structure. Paley also, though inferior to the former as a philosopher, has from the same foundation raised an argument against atheists and infidels, that will never be successfully controverted. Yet, notwithstanding the labours of these men, the subject is so far from being exhausted, that there is a point of view in which it may be taken, that has been wholly omitted by them; and which in fact could only be treated by modern naturalists, since the foundation on which it stands, rests on discoveries only made of late, and even now but partially developed. An inquiry of this sort cannot fail to impress our minds with the depth of the wisdom of Him who hath called the animated world into existence,-a wisdom more especially developed in the harmony with which all his works are united together.

A knowledge of the creation, even as at present ascertained, will convince us not only of what the more ancient naturalists knew, that the parts of animated beings are excellently adapted to the actions they have to perform, and to the instincts by which their individual characters are established, but also that every separate individual, by its external figure and inward organization, possesses such an affinity to other individuals and races, that its existindispensable to the harmony which the Almighty intended to implant within his works: those with the strangest

ence was

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forms, and most anomalous structure, occupying situations, which, without them, must have left chasms in nature,

In the Imperial Magazine for 1827, (vol. ix. col. 621,) may be found some observations on the natural analogies which exist in creation; and if we possessed a closer acquaintance with the actual relations which animated beings bear to each other, the subject, which in that paper is only hinted at, might be extended in a much greater degree, and thus would form a third method, (the relation of structure to instincts being the first,) in which creation might be contemplated. For the present, we confine our observations to the affinities by which the orders and classes are connected together.

When considering the animal creation, a classification of its parts is not only an help to our contracted understandings to comprehend and remember, but seems also as a rule to have entered into the Divine mind, to guide the operation of his hands. The following orders are in their nature sufficiently distinct to enable us to recognize in them something more than arrangement adopted only for human convenience.

Class 1st. Quadrupeds: marked by four jointed organs of motion, jaws covered with lips, breathing air by means of lungs, the young until birth forming a part of the mother, suckling by teats. Heart with a double circulation, blood red, its temperature above that of the surrounding medium.

Class 2d. Birds: with four jointed organs of motion, jaws naked, breathing air by means of lungs, young from eggs, not suckled, but fed. Covering, imbricated feathers; heart with a double circulation, blood red, warm.

Class 3rd. Amphibia. Organs of motion variable in number, but jointed where existing; breathing air by a voluntary action; produced from eggs, not suckled nor fed, but in some hatched within; covering, neither hair nor feathers. Heart with a single circulation, blood red, cold as the surrounding medium.

Class 4th. Fishes. Organs of motion variable in number and position; breathing water, its egress through a different passage from its ingress. Young from eggs, not fed, but some hatched within; covering mucous. Heart with a single circulation, blood less red, colder.

Class 5th. Insects. Organs of motion variable in number and position, jointed, the skeleton chiefly external; respiration without lungs or gills, jaws lateral, young from eggs. Heart without any regular circulation, blood white, cold.

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