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a Weekly Magazine,

OF CHRISTIAN EXPOSITION AND ADVOCACY.

Who knows not that truth is strong, next to the Almighty; she needs no policies, nor stratagems, nor licensings to make her victorious, those are the shifts and the defences that error uses against her power.-MILTON.

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A PROGRESSIVE REVELATION,

The Bible is not unworthy of our confidence as a moral guide, because both its spiritual and moral truths have come to man by a gradual and not by an immediate revelation. That all the truths necessary to the perfection of man as an individual or a race, under a remedial scheme, should not at once be presented in their highest manifestation is not only analogous with what we see in the intellectual world, but it is also in complete fitness with our constitution and state. It is not in the twinkling of an eye that the full light of science bursts upon the mind. Ages sometimes have passed in preparation for great discoveries. For long years has the philosopher almost day and night pored over the book of nature ere it has yielded up its secret. Its characters however beautiful and simple when once deciphered, have been the subjects of widely differing opinions, have been rendered in contradictory senses, and centuries have ofttimes elapsed ere their true import has been known. It needs not then, be a matter of suprise that to man's moral and spiritual nature there is a progressive revelation.

He is but a poor teacher, who does not adapt his instructions to his pupil. He is likely to continue unsuccessful till he studies the capacities and cap

No. 3, Vol. 1.

abilities of his scholar. Who would think of explaining the integral calculus, or the doctrine of logarithms to one who has not mastered the simplest rules of arithmetic who could expect any one to understand the way in which the distance of the stars is computed, who knows nothing of the simplest propositions of geometry? You would not put the Hebrew Bible into Mr. Barker's hands for the translation of a difficult passage if he was not master of the paradigm of its verbs, or even of its alphabet.

So in the moral history of our race you may expect a teaching of men as they are able to bear. To us, living amid the light and splendour of the new dispensation, the means and appliances for the moral and spiritual culture of the Jews may appear rude and rudimentary enough, but the question, the only question, which the true philosopher and honest critic will ask is, are these appliances adapted to the condition of the people among whom they were used? That they were, no one who examines the question can for a moment doubt. If a multitude of external ablutions were enjoined the Jews were certainly as far advanced as Mr. Barker, who talks so largely of the tendency of cleanliness to ennoble a man; and an enlightened Jew would go a great way further than he, in recognising these divers sprinklings or baptisms as so many attestations of the necessity, and provision of an all purifying Agent to create a clean heart, and to renew a right spirit within him,-to cleanse all the thoughts and motives of his inmost soul. Nor would he fail to get a far brighter idea of the relationship of man to God, and of the doctrines of prayer and providence, than any which Mr. B. has recently given his infidel audiences. While his conceptions of man's nature and destiny, would be immeasurably higher than those of the greatest philosophers or lawgivers of antiquity, and even than those of some of the most noted and popular infidels of the day.

The Mosaic institute we frankly admit was not absolutely perfect, but it might be relatively so. It was not the best that could be, but the best under the circumstances. The clay was not yet prepared to be put into a finer mould, and become the moral chef-d'ouvre of the all-wise potter. That economy was therefore, necessarily temporary and ephemeral. It was a schoolmaster to prepare man for a higher and better culture. It was the moral infant-school of our race.

But has it therefore to be despised? Has the man of genius no affection for the rough but honest dominie' that taught him his letters: or does he set himself relentlessly to destroy all the old grammars and dictionaries, which his father, grandfather, and great grandfather used before him

because they are not so good as the modern ones? Does the true thinker condemn the infant-school on account of the roughness of its pictures, and the simplicity of its teachings? Do you knock down the porch because it only leads to the temple? Do you break the mirror because it only reflects the sun? Do you destroy all the relics of ancient art, because it was then comparatively infantile in its efforts?

The sceptic may rail against the laws and ordinances of the Mosaic institute as he pleases, but he has not proved, and he can never prove that they were not the best under the circumstances, and that they were not greatly calculated to exert a healthful moral influence upon the people, and to prepare them for the more glorious dispensation of the future.

The fact that a mild form of domestic slavery was permitted among the Jews, in the case of a people that had filled up their cup of iniquity, and had made themselves in their associated capacity a moral curse to all around them, is no proof whatever that a slavery, which embraces all crimes in one, is sanctioned in the Bible. The slave-holders of America would need to show, not only that the institutions were the same, but that they have a special command from God to enslave the negroes. Nowhere in the Bible do you find any warrant for enslaving men; everywhere do you find those principles taught and those duties enjoined which must eventually subvert oppression for all time and in all lands.

The fact that the Jews were commanded to exterminate certain nations is no proof that the Bible represents God as cruel and revengeful, any moro than the immense yearly destruction of life by the lightning, the earthquake, the tornado, the tempest, the fire, the avalanche, or the flood, or even by what are called natural means is evidence of cruelty or revenge. The Creator of all men is the supreme arbiter of life and death. He and he alone has a right to decide when it shall be given, and when and how it shall be taken. He alone can judge when an individual or a nation forfeits existence, and if he sees that the employment of human agency in its destruction will deeply impress men's minds with a sense of its evil, and form a break-water against its spread, who has a right to find fault with such an arrangement?

The anthropomorphisms of the Old Testament are repeated to weariness, as proof that the Bible cannot be depended upon as a moral guide. But I would like to know if the youngest child that reads that book in the Sabbath school is either led astray or morally endangered by them. That God is frequently spoken of after the manner of men, is evidence only that

the Old Testament was adapted to the world in the infancy and nonage of its history; and that it is God's design that his book while it will not offend the true philosopher, shall be level to the capacity of the peasant. Isaiah's sublime vision of the Lord seated on a throne, high and lifted up, his glory filling the temple, with ten thousand times ten thousand holy intelligences prostrating themselves in lowly adoration before him, is incompatible neither with his appearance to Abraham, Jacob, nor Moses as the "angel of the covenant," nor with John's representatiou of him as sitting, in the humanity which he had assumed, wearied and faint at Sychar's well telling Samaria's erring and hopeless child of a living water that could quench her thirst. Is it a crime to be a man? And shall the creature presume to say that it is unwise in the Creator for the highest ends in the universe-for the manifestation of his own glorious character, and the salvation, and moral culture of man-to take upon him our nature, to speak to us in human language and reveal himself through human sympathies. O proud and foolish heart of man, to turn away from a spectacle so sublime and thrilling! Has the highest, the most disinterested love no claim upon your attention and gratitude, because it wears no outward insignia of heavenly royalty? Will you scorn it because it speaks in accents of human tenderness, and vents itself in human tears? Relentlessly will you attempt to snap asunder that wonderful tie that binds man to God? If, O scoffer, you can for yourself, dispense with those delineations of God that take the most powerful hold of the heart of man; will you not pity the wants and sorrows of the rest of your brethren of mankind, who feel that those passages of the Bible to which you object are all the more precious to them that they speak of God as a real, a present friend, and pour into the breaking heart a balm which human philosophy and friendship can never give?

THE CHRISTIAN AND THE INFIDEL IN THE HOUR
OF DANGER.

In order to travel to Wetherby as economically as possible, I concluded to go by the steam-boat from London to Hull, and previous to my departure, had made the necessary arrangements for so doing; but, as the day approached, I had a foreboding, (in consequence of a dream), that I should have a dangerous passage. This worked so strongly on my mind, that I determined to go by land, but could not feel easy under the change of purpose, as the monitor seemed to say in my heart, that my fears were turning me from some approaching duty. After much exercise of mind, under a restless conscience, I, at length, found peace in returning to my original determination.

On the morning of the 7th, my wife and children, in ignorance of this impression upon my mind, accompanied me to the wharf; and when on board the

steamer, she made an earnest request, that I would go in the best cabin, instead of the forecastle, urging that she should be easier in her mind if I did so. This was but little to give up to one who so zealously holds up my hands in all my engagements, and, without whose free consent, I could not, in all probability, have undertaken the task. Therefore I agreed to her proposal; and having booked my place, we took leave of each other.

Notwithstanding the beautiful appearance of the morning, I could not divest myself of the feeling that there was danger of some sort before me; we however floated along the Thames favoured by the wind and tide, and refreshed by. all the smiling beauties of nature, as the sun, with varied rays, played upon the banks and the neighbouring hills.

At dinner, a stranger who sat beside me, observed that I did not eat meat; and a person opposite to me, finding it was not in consequence of any indisposi tion, inquired, if I had any conscientious scruple against eating flesh ?—I explained that I acted only on a principle of self-denial. This produced a religious conversation, in which my neighbour made some remarks of a sceptical character; and occasionally spoke of Mr. Owen's system of philosophy, as if he believed in it. In my replies, I took care to illustrate the essential doctrines of Christianity; but, in opposition, he justified his doubtings by reflecting on the conduct of the preachers, and the general habits of their flocks, declaring that he believed they did nothing without some interested motive. I answered his argument by shewing him one of my bills, on which he observed the words, "not the agent of any society"-"No collection," and he confessed there appeared to be no sinister motive there. I then asked him :

"How could you have known my motive if I had not shown you my bills? "That would have been impossible."

"Nevertheless, you included me in your general condemnation of Christians." I did not mean to say that there may not be a few exceptions."

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"How can you tell how many?-May not every individual at the table be as disinterestedly engaged as I am, for aught you know?"

"Certainly."

"Then you see the wisdom of Christ, who tells us, 'Judge not.""

About eight o'clock, p.m., being in the English Channel, the wind began to blow very hard from the southward, and, shortly afterwards, I lay down for the night on the upper end of the settee which extended round the side and the end of the saloon. My head was in the corner under the stern windows, and my body in the fore and aft direction, so that my feet were at the head of the unbeliever, who occupied the next length of the running couch. I soon fell asleep; but about midnight, was awoke by a tremendous crash on deck. On raising my head, I observed that all the cabin passengers had already made their way to the door, through which the crowd was impetuously rushing, whilst, in the rear, the sceptic strove manfully to escape also: but whither?—To dumb Philosophy? God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not.'

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I, under the shadow of the Almighty wing, was favoured to experience the power of his promise :-"Thou shalt not be afraid of the terror by night; and conceiving that I could be of no use on deck, (whither I supposed the whole party had fled,) I contentedly laid my head upon my pillow, whilst this ungodly man now felt the effect of the woe which is unto him that striveth against his Maker.

I could not sleep; but, as a lighted lamp was suspended from the deck, I observed the movement of the passengers, and, amongst the rest, that of my new acquaintance, who seemed to be so terrified that, in useless and restless anxiety, he now ran to the cabin door, then to the sleeping berths, holding as well as he could, by the table and other fixtures. In the meantime, having been twice pitched off my couch, I therefore changed my berth to the end settee, so that, being athwart-ship, I could not be thrown, as, at each roll of the vessel, I should

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