Ours

the heads of an exhausted nation, and in due time, as amid the ruins of Grecian beauty and of Roman strength, the descendants of the old race linger, an enfeebled and degenerate tribe. We have no time now to examine the causes of this phenomenon, but surely we need not believe that civilization and moral degeneracy must go hand in hand-that the world moves only in a circle, and that the object and lesson of history is but to show the future repeating the past. If so, we must see in our own day and in our own country all the symptoms of a crisis. is a ripe civilization, marked by the increase of luxury, the influx of wealth, the deterioration, at least in some respects it is to be feared, of moral principle, the lust of conquest, and by an unparalleled material activity and splendor. Yet there is one thing which distinguishes our era from that of the Greek and the Roman, and which affords us a hope for the stability of all that is good in the present, and the attainment of all that is better in the future. That fact is the presence and operation of Christianity. This supplies us with a perennial vigor which the old systems lacked, and a moral power equal to any emergency. It is not necessary to specify the elements which constitute this efficiency. They are sufficiently indicated when we allude to its great law of Love to God and man, its conservative and reformatory principles, its sentiments of reverence and of hope, of individual virtue and social sympathy. It is a harmonious power, attaching to all that should be foremost in the past, yet opening to all that is needed for the future. It is in society like that agency in the physical world which drives suns and systems on their tremendous track, yet binds them in glittering harmony, holds them to a central order, fills them with joyful life, and illuminates them with universal beauty. Certain is it that whatever else we may say of this age, so restless, so pregnant with colossal powers, it especially needs Christianity, and from this alone spring all its hopeful issues.

But enough has been said to enforce the principle in which, at the present day, we need to have a calm confidence-the principle that an advanced culture, individual or collective, intellectual, moral, or social, demands Christianity; that in the developement of human nature in any direction it reaches a crisis where it needs this simple,

authoritative and regenerating Word; and, if wisely taught by experience, however far it may have wandered, it gladly comes back to this. Attacks upon the religion of the New Testament in our time, are numerous and varied. The giving up of old forms of faith, the unsettled aspect of thinking men, the internal convulsions of sects, are marked features of the age. But for all this, we do not fear that the central fabric of the gospel will be broken, or that one stone essential to the edifice will be thrown down. But we consider all this agitation as a transitionprocess, and we already behold the inevitable result in a re-action from the extravagant assumptions of reason towards the pole of faith. It is a process in which Christianity will expose no intrinsic weakness, but which will make us more aware of its strength; which will project its grand truths into a more definite outline, and show more nakedly the permanence of its foundations.

It is a striking fact that among those who abandon the authoritative ground of Christianity, the same tendencies re-appear as those which preceded its advent and called for its coming. We refer to the direction which, under such circumstances, the human mind is always apt to take towards a vague and barren philosophy, on the one hand, or towards superstition, on the other. Indeed, doubtful speculation and eager credulity are closely allied. As is remarked by Neander-" They are but opposite symptoms of the same fundamental evil, and one of them, therefore, passes easily over the other." In this way the heathen world vacillated between a cold rationalism and the puerilities of astrology and magic. Nor is Lord Herbert of Cherbury a solitary illustration of the blending of these inconsistent extremes in modern times. For in our own day we see men who have expunged the miracles, and who assume to be far wiser than the New Testament, seeking after buried treasure by the means of spells and ceremonies, establishing clairvoyant communication with Saturn, and solemnly waiting upon spiritual "knockings."

The light of reason is not sufficient for us, we must believe in something that transcends the senses, and in* one way or another faith will vindicate itself as an indestructible element of human nature. If we will not believe in direct and simple truths, we shall believe in fanta

sies. If we will not anchor our souls in the assurances of the Christian Revelation, then we shall drift loose among a thousand chimeras, in that semi-transparent region which lies between the repose of a child-like trust and the clear and comprehensive vision of a true philosophy.

We have spoken of the need for Christianity which is excited by the unfoldings of nature. We may be permitted, in turn, to draw an illustration from science in aid of religion. A few years since the labors of astronomers were limited to the solar system and to the phenomena of our own firmament. But the discoveries of the elder Herschell opened the floodgates of speculation, and strange theories took the place of that induction which had threaded the simpler mazes of our own planetary sphere. But lo! a keener telescopic insight has dissipated these surmises and resolved those nebulous spots into galaxies kindred to our own, and we detect the order of a complete creation even in the girdle of Andromeda and the sword of Orion. Thus the human mind, in the career of religious investigation, passes from the simple through the complex back to the simple again; though now the familiar aspects have a far deeper significance and wider relation. When, therefore, we see one tossing upon the sea of skepticism, driven from hypothesis to hypothesis, we lose no confidence in the gospel, but believe, rather, that this sharp trial will endow it with a more stringent evidence, and that the exhausted reason will gladly emerge from those gulfs and shadows into that broader sphere, where it will find nobler confirmations of its long rejected faith, and, discerning in a new light and in more extended application its absolute necessity, will reconstruct its elements into a temple of trust and of prayer.

It may be expected that we should take some notice of the book, the title of which stands at the head of this article. But we placed it there, not with the purpose of reviewing it, but as suggesting the general train of remark which we are now about to close. It is a book which has already been extensively criticised, and which the university of Oxford has burned into notice. In connection with other works which have recently issued from the English press, it indicates a remarkable developement among some of the disciples of the Oxford school. It is

a work of rare power, and contains passages of most exquisite beauty. But its tone is sad, and its tendency morbid. Ambiguous and unsatisfactory in its conclusions, its best results may appear in the instruction which it will afford in confirming the great truth that however wide the intellect may travel the heart needs rest, and that, when once we quit the rational and simple propositions of the Christian religion, we launch out upon a sea without a shore, to be beaten by every wind, and to alternate between implicit credulity and a despotic logic; happy, it may be, at length, to turn and say " Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life."

E. H. C.

ART. XI.

The Rationale of Prayer.

ALL the religions, which have most extensively prevailed in the world, have inculcated and demanded the exercise of prayer, as a duty that dependent creatures owe to their bountiful Creator. Judaism, Mahomedanism and Christianity alike recognize piety as an essential attribute of the religious man; and they consider prayer as a means of promoting and strengthening pious sentiments in the heart. The systems which we have mentioned do not, indeed, represent vocal prayer as an infallible evidence of superior sanctity; for the greatest hypocrite may show himself as much engaged, as solemn, as earnest, as the greatest saint, in the performance of this service; and the same may be affirmed of every exercise of a merely external nature. But, then, we think that no one can reasonably doubt the piety of the person, in whose soul the spirit of prayer is resident, alive and active, whether he breathes his desires in words, or not.

But though religion generally teaches the duty of prayer, we must feel ourselves indebted mainly to Chris

tianity for a satisfactory explanation of its reasonableness, its utility, and its connection with the spiritual welfare of man. The Mosaic dispensation enjoined many outward services upon the people, the use or intention of which, we think, could have been known to but a very small number of the ancient Jews. They were nearly in the situation of young children, who are instructed in the alphabet, the purpose of which they do not understand; and hence regard the frequent reading of the letters as a grievous toil. The religion of Christ makes no requisitions, enjoins no duties, the reasonableness, propriety, importance, and use of which cannot be clearly elucidated. In fact, the entire service, which the gospel enjoins, is very justly defined "a reasonable service."

On the subject of prayer, however, some vague, and, as we think, incorrect notions are entertained, and some inconclusive reasonings advanced. That prayer can be of any service or benefit to him who engages in it, is confidently denied by many, who are ready to bring arguments in defence of their position. The following may be considered as a summary of their reasoning: "God perfectly knows, without information from his creatures, what their necessities require;" and hence, it is inferred, that to express our wants before him is absurd, useless, and even impious, as it is supposed to imply his ignorance of our real condition. Again. "As God is unchangeable, and always acts from a wise determination, no entreaties, no importunities of ours, can effect any change in his pur29 From this the reasoner concludes, poses respecting us.' that prayer is rather an insult to the Divine Majesty, than an act of religious homage, as it supposes a desire of the suppliant to alter the designs of God, so as to meet his wants. Further, it is alleged, that as God is infinitely. benevolent, and always disposed to bestow on us every requisite blessing, he needs no intercessions of ours to render him more favorable to us; while prayer is thought to imply the possibility of a human being's acting upon the divine mind, to produce, or to increase, a disposition to do us good. We have stated the objections to the exercise of prayer, in the way, and generally, in the terms, in which we have heard them advanced; and we believe they will be found to cover the entire ground, that any objector would wish to occupy.