us that there is an unseen soul present and controlling them, so all the mighty movements and regular changes of creation should likewise convince us, that they as directly proceed from the energies of creation's unseen God. It is education and habit that make us slow to believe. Could we forget the use of language, so that the convenient term, laws of nature, would vanish out of mind; could we moreover forget that we had been accustomed from earliest infancy to the ordinary revolutions and processes of matter; or could we be placed at once with adult faculties in the midst of this visible scene of things, we should most undoubtedly realize that there is a mighty, invisible power moving, sustaining, and controlling all that should meet our wandering eyes.

With this view the sublime scriptural descriptions of the omnipresence and omnipotence of the Deity are not mere metaphor; they are but the earliest and poetic garb of philosophic and eternal truth. The clouds are His chariot, they are rolled by the propulsion of the viewless energies they infold. And doth He not fly on the wings of the wind? Its swiftness and its strength are the effluence of His power. His pavilion round about Him are dark waters. The ocean that inwraps the earth, the floods that expand in the sky, are the dwelling of his might. With Him is terrible majesty. The Lord thundereth in the heavens; and the Highest giveth his voice. He shooteth out the arrows of His lightning, and flaming fires are his ministry. He toucheth the hills and they smoke. At his presence the mountains flow down, yea are overturned by their roots; and the earth trembleth and is dissolved. The heavens declare His glory. He covereth Himself with light as with a garment. The infinitude of stars is the robe of His omnipresence.

We would now advert to some important uses of the doctrine we have endeavoured to establish. It gives us a very distinct and satisfactory view of the manner in which the Creator continues to exercise a providence over his creatures. If the material creation were carried on by the agency of laws, or in consequence of one original act of the Infinite will, there would certainly be no such thing as an immediate superintending providence over our lives, as we are assured there is by revelation. For what would the Deity be but an idle being, or at least mostly so, in respect to the earth and all other worlds, and the creatures of flesh and sense

therein passing through their first stage of existence? Universal nature would indeed be but a machine. The hand omnipotent that formed it is withdrawn for ever, excepting that it returns on great occasions with a miraculous touch to remind us of its existence. "Our Father in Heaven is but an unmeaning sound.

In what respects is a paternal providence manifested, according to Christian belief? Is it not in the appointment of the unforeseen vicissitudes of life,— the lot of health or sickness, prosperity or adversity? But these do most intimately depend on those changes in material things which take place according to an established mode of operation, or in obedience to those laws which are said to pervade and control the works of God. For instance, when we are brought to the brink of the grave by disease, do we not feel that our lives immediately depend on the will of the Giver? And when we recover, do we not acknowledge the hand of the Most Merciful? We say that the "Lord chasteneth whom He loveth." "Affliction cometh not forth of the dust.” Yet we know that the disorder by which we sink, and the causes by which we rise, are as natural, as that the inanimate foliage should wither in the frost and put forth again in spring. If we are rich, and the flames consume or the tempest sweeps away our well-earned wealth, if of Christian heart, we believe that the all-wise Disposer designs that we should lose and be poor. With the Psalmist we might exclaim, "Fire and hail, snow and vapor, and stormy wind fulfil his word!" Nevertheless, in all these things there is nothing apparent but inanimate matter proceeding according to fixed methods of operation. Indeed, nothing ever happens to us through the physical world and our bodily constitution, which does not take place according to these methods or in obedience to what are called natural laws. Where then is the immediate providence over our lives, - a Father's unceasing care over his beloved children, unless these material instruments directly affecting us are within the immediate grasp and subject to the actual moving of the parental hand? Our argument proves, we think, that this is the truth. The volumes of Revelation and nature agree. The light of the Divine countenance is lifted upon us in philosophy as well as in the figurative Word. Well may it be said, that not a sparrow is

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forgotten before God, or falleth to the ground without our Father. It is true that he numbereth and keepeth the very hairs of our heads. He is indeed the breathing of our life, the health of our countenance, the giver of every good and perfect gift. In all that makes us happy, we cannot but realize a Father's immediate bounty, as much as if the blessing dropped from an opening hand in the skies. From the mightiest to the minutest of physical objects and operations there is a present consciousness and care. Not only the flying orbs of immensity, which vary not a hair from the path or a moment from the year appointed, but every particle that converges toward its respective centre is an argument for a providence, a providence over all that breathe, from upright man with face toward heaven, to the organized atoms that mingle life with the very elements. This is indeed to be the Friend, the Father, the All-in-all of an enjoying creation. It is a different character from one, who created at first, and then left a machinery of laws coldly rolling and vibrating throughout his material works. With this view, it is not merely the heart uplifted to the sublime of devotion, but the understanding assenting to eternal truth, when we exclaim with the Apostle, "In Him we live and move and have our being; for of Him and through Him and to Him are all things." We may now be permitted to make a practical appeal respecting our doctrine. It regards its use in the education of the young. We have intimated before that the text-books of students abound in the deceptive term, "Laws of Nature." The same phrase is ever on the lip of instruction. And how many teachers explain the phenomena of nature, and perform "beautiful experiments" on the affinities of matter, with scarcely an allusion to the Divine Author and Mover of all. Like the idols of the heathen, which at length diverted the worshipper from the divinities they represented, so also, only worse, both the teacher and the taught, have been withheld from the Only and True Power in nature by a convenient representative, more unreal than the idolater's image, by an unsubstantial word. Science seems to be pursued from mere curiosity, or to lift the learner to the reputable eminence of knowing, or to furnish the coarse utilities of work-day life and gain-getting hands. Some, perhaps, may have a vague notion of disciplining the faculties, but how very few

aspire to exalt and sanctify the soul by the aid of science. The beauty, grandeur, and gloriousness of creation are presented as a mere pastime to the vision, or a luxury to the taste of an epicurized intellect. How seldom recognised is the Spirit that expresses itself through these lines and lineaments. This should not be so. It would not be so, did all who instruct possess the true unction of their calling. No wonder that so many of our young men know not the truth and the delightfulness of piety. The necessary appliances are not made by the hands set apart to the work. Let the teacher of science feel, that he is not merely the expounder of mechanical and vital nature, but that he is also the teacher of Natural Religion, the interpreter of God. As much depends on him as on the pulpit or the theological chair. The teacher of science presents objects and phenomena to the senses; and, while sense and intellect are fastened on these unquestioned verities, he may take the heart by surprise, and burst forth in a strain which shall for ever associate the Creator with his works in the minds of his pupils.

We would moreover urge our views on the teacher in the Sunday school. Let not the more dependent minds here be distracted from the truth by a blinding and unexplained phraseology. With the opening spring many schools, interrupted by the inconveniences of winter, are again renewed. It is the favorite season of childhood, as if it found a living sympathy in the emblem of its own tender period. Of all the year, this is the most propitious time for making it feel the realities of the Divine presence and agency. The faithful teacher cannot but seize on the opportunity to impress his pupils with the perfections of the Creator. The little enjoyers need hardly be prompted to inquire what has produced the delightful change. Let them be taught aright. Discourse, if you please, of what is called cause and effect, of the revolving earth, the increasing warmth, and nourishing moisture, but speak not of these operations and elements as if they were nothing but a machine. Say not merely, "Our Father made them all," putting the space of centuries between the filial soul and the paternal presence, but rather say, he is making, is repeating what he has done for his children from creation until now. Let every object and every change in nature betoken the indwelling and ever-working and all-loving

Spirit; and the rain shall not drop, and the dew distil, on the tender herbage with a more vital and beautifying influence, than that of your instruction upon the tender and forth-putting heart; and God shall bless the "springing thereof." Thus shall Religion have its sweet and holy prime.

We intimated that the doctrine we have endeavoured to establish, had an important bearing on the miracles connected with our religion. We will now devote a brief space to this point. The Deist also is beguiled by this delusive phrase, "Laws of Nature." With him a figure of speech has become an agent; or, rather, creation is a machine put in motion by the Infinite Artist, and decreed to go on for ever without further interference. We hope to have proved to his candid mind, that the Laws of Nature, if any thing, are the immediate and ceaseless energies of nature's indwelling and ever-living Soul; that the boundless material machine is intimately and essentially connected with its Creator, and is acted upon every moment, in every mass and particle, by the all-diffusive power of the universal God. We believe that this agency is exercised in that chosen and particular manner, which will on the whole promote the highest possible good of his creatures. Now if his omniscient wisdom perceives that this highest possible good can best be effected by occasional deviations from his ordinary course, being essentially present to all matter, he can as well deviate from his general mode as proceed in it. Miracles are no disordering of a machinery impelled by its Maker to changeless rounds and vibrations. Miracles are integral portions of one infinite plan, the unbroken continuity of everlasting action. He who is directly pouring Jordan to its sea, is as able to stop it in its flow as to bear it onward. He could as well hush the winds and sink the billows to stillness at the prayer of the Saviour, as stir the elements to a tempest. The resurrection of Jesus was not more difficult to his power than stopping the currents of vitality at death. He could as well raise to life in the twinkling of an eye all that have breathed and died since Adam, as have returned them to the dust one by one through the long space of centuries.

Let the preceding view of the Creator be impressed on the Deistic unbeliever, and we cannot but think that he will have taken a considerable step toward a thorough conviction of the divine origin and miraculous circumstances of Christianity. It