compensation for all his disadvantages, in the resources of his mind. But mind of itself, is only a capacity of which we cannot avail ourselves till we acquire knowledge; and all the knowledge which a single individual could attain by his own observations and experiments, in the course of his individual life, would be of little avail. All the arts of life, even the most simple, are the result of the communicated and accumulated knowledge, or experience, of contemporary multitudes and of succeeding generations. The progress of mankind, therefore, is necessarily slow, and frequently interrupted by the natural catastrophes of famine, disease, and tempests; or by the moral catastrophes of war, of despotism, and of slavery.

Now, as mankind have been manifestly left, in a great measure, to the natural influences and consequences of their condition,-in these respects, the occurrence and the prevalence of evil, was a natural and necessary result in the first instance, and must have been contemplated and so far designed by our Maker.

But He did not leave mankind entirely to themselves. The design of his Providence was to educate them, and to raise them, by certain means, from their natural condition with all its attendant defects and evils, to an improved and exalted condition, in which the prevalence of evil and of misery would be destroyed, and the reign of happiness and of good would be established. In this view, the constitution of the world and of human nature, were formed and adapted to each other. In this design we discover the origin of evil, and the reason of its temporary prevalence; and from the development and perfection of this design, we look for the triumph of truth, of virtue, and of happiness. It follows, that neither individuals nor single generations of men, can attain to the maturity of their faculties; and therefore our next business is to show, how the plan of Providence is adapted to the constitution of such moral and intellectual beings as we are, and calculated to accomplish our ultimate perfection as a species. With regard to the sufferings of individuals in the early stage of it, the arrangements of a future state may compensate them; but I merely allude to this in passing, and to stop an objection. Our subject is, the plan itself as it has been, or will be developed and matured in the present world; and that plan we affirm to be a wise and a good one— sufficient to account for the past evil, and to give confidence to the hope of the future good.

It is not necessary that we should be able to assert, or to know, that it is the best of all possible plans. There is a variety in all the works of God, even in this world, and some are better and more beautiful than others; so it may be, of the varied worlds in the universe. But, while it is not necessary to prove our constitution the best of all, yet we should know, in what the excellency of it consists. Now, its chief characteristic and excellency is this, that from raw materials (if we may so speak) apparently unsuitable to the purpose, there should ultimately be produced a fabric of excellent qualities and surpassing beauty, such as could not have been made by the direct influence of unerring instinct, and the force of uncontrolable circumstances. And so far, indeed, as this ultimate prevalence of good over evil is concerned, such a consummation has been the instinctive desire and hope of mankind since the world began. But such moral instinct only groped blindly for its oject. It is for us now, in this advanced age of the world, and stage of its progressive improvement, to trace the plan distinctly; to observe what is accomplished; to determine our place on the road, and to take a view of the promised land which lies before us.

SALTCOATS, June, 1832.

W. B.

Dr. Chalmers' Illustrations of Theology.-No. 1.

No charm is more potent in its effects, or general in its application, than the charm of rhetorical figure. It is the soul of oratory, the spirit of poetry, and the animating principle of conversation. In hearing the orator, in reading the essay and the poem, and in conversing with friends, it is the figure of speech that thrills the bosom, and awakens slumbering associations, and arouses the imagination, and calls into existence objects of delight or dismay, and raises the feelings to a tempest of joy, or sinks them in the vortex of woe. No wonder, then, that men are so fond of figurative language. No wonder, that in their fondness for it, they sometimes allow it to lead them astray. And who has not been led astray by rhetorical figure? Frequently, perhaps, the deception is but temporary; often it may be quite innoxious, and possibly sometimes even beneficial. But when the erroneous views, created by figurative expressions, relate to matters of highest impor

tance, affect the dearest interests of man, and yet do not soon or easily pass away, the mischief done by such figures is incalculable. That matter which is of highest importance, and affects the dearest interests of man, is RELIGION. And it is in religion, above all things, that figures of speech create the greatest number, and the most serious errors, and do the most mischief. To be upon our guard, therefore, against being deceived by the bewitching influences of flowery theological oratory, is no less our duty than our interest. The necessity of this caution, will be rendered most evident, by some instances of rhetorical illusions taken from Dr. Chalmers. And the first we shall select, is, his illustration of the doctrine of the supposed supernatural influences of the Spirit, by THE TELESCOPE.

It

"When a telescope is directed to some distant landscape, it enables us to see what we could not otherwise have seen; but it does not enable us to see any thing which has not a real existence in the prospect before us. does not present to the eye any delusive imagery; neither is that a fanciful and fictitious scene, which it throws open to our contemplation. The natural eye saw nothing but blue land stretching along the distant horizon. By the aid of the glass, there bursts upon it a charming variety of fields, and woods, and spires, and villages. Yet who would say, that the glass added one feature to this assemblage? It discovers nothing to us which is not there; nor, out of that portion of the book of nature which we are contemplating, does it bring into view a single character which is not really and previously inscribed upon it. And so of the Spirit. He does not add a single truth, or a single character, to the book of Revelation. He enables the spiritual man to see what the natural man cannot see; but the spectacle which he lays open, is uniform and immutable. It is the Word of God which is ever the same, and he whom the Spirit of God has enabled to look to the Bible with a clear and affecting discernment, sees no phantom passing before him; but, amid all the visionary extravagance with which he is charged, can, for every one article of his faith, and every one duty of his practice, make his triumphant appeal to the law and to the testimony."-Sermons preached at the Tron Church; p. 35-37.

Alas! this telescope makes awful work with Dr. Chalmers' divinity. The sermon in which the preceding

simile is employed, is entitled "The necessity of the Spirit, to give effect to the preaching of the Gospel." The object of the sermon is to prove, that without the supernatural assistance of the Spirit, the Bible is not to be understood. Now the telescope either illustrates Dr. Chalmers' idea of the aid of the Spirit, or it does not. If it does, then the teachings of the Spirit, as understood by the Doctor, are not supernatural: if it does not, then the illustration is inapplicable, unwarrantable, deceptive.

Thus stands the case:- A man looks through a telescope, and sees objects which he could not see with the naked eye, unless he could get nearer to these objects; but he sees nothing which the naked eye could not see, if the eye and the object were sufficiently near each other. The instrument does not alter the eye. It merely aids and extends the range of its vision. If it be the same with the "spiritual man," then the eye of his mind is no more altered by looking through the Spirit, than is the bodily eye of him who looks through a telescope. The Spirit merely aids and extends the range of vision, but enables it to see nothing which it might not see without the aid of the Spirit, by simply approaching nearer to the object. Again, the things seen by a person looking through a telescope, are real objects in nature, and he can always explain what he has seen, and enable others who have not used the telescope, to form clear ideas of the objects which the instrument has brought into view. I never looked through Herschell's great telescope, yet from his description, I can form a clear idea of the appearance of the moon through it. If it be the same with the "spiritual man," then he must be able to describe so clearly to one who never looked through the Spirit at the Bible, what, by the assistance of the Spirit, was seen, as to make the objects or doctrines evident to the mind of that individual. He who has seen clearly, can tell what he has seen; but he who has not seen clearly, does not know, and therefore cannot describe what he has seen. If, therefore, it be true, as the Doctor affirms, that the Spirit "enables the spiritual man to see what the natural man" (i. e. the man without a spiritual telescope) "cannot see," then this spiritual man can explain to his neighbour what he has seen, as well as Herschell has explained what he saw. So, then, there is nothing supernatural in the act of looking through the Spirit; and farther, there can be no more occasion for

Christians in general, to have and to use the Spirit, in order to understand Christianity, than for astronomers generally to have and to use Herschell's telescope, in order to comprehend astronomy. One person only by looking through the spiritual telescope, and then describing the wonders he has seen, may render it unnecessary for the great mass of mankind to trouble themselves with using the instrument.

This is precisely what has been done. Moses and the Prophets, Christ and his Apostles, had in their possession, instruments wherewith the far distant scenes of futurity, the regions of woe, the realms of bliss, the judgment day, and the destined conditions of the righteous and the wicked in the other worlds, were brought fully and clearly into their mental view. They had the SPIRIT, the Prophets and Apostles with measure, but Jesus without measure. They well understood what they saw, for it was no "delusive imagery, neither a fanciful and fictitious scene which was thrown open to their contemplation.” And as they well understood, so they faithfully described what they saw, and the Bible is that description.

Here, then, is Dr. Chalmers' great mistake. He insists on the necessity of employing "the Spirit, to look to the Bible with a clear and affecting discernment." But the Bible is not the heavenly scene itself, which is to be viewed. It is a description only of the scene. Now, surely, Dr. Chalmers does not mean to say, that it is necessary to apply a telescope to the pages of a book, containing a description of the discoveries made with that telescope, in order to read and understand the book! Surely he will not tell me, that I cannot understand Dr. Herschell's discoveries, unless I look through his forty-feet reflecting telescope at the book. No, he will say, if you look through the instrument, it must be at the scene itself, not at the book containing a description of that scene. If you rely on the book, you do not need the telescope. If you examine the scene yourself with the telescope, you do not need the book. True; and therefore, if a man look through the spiritual telescope, it must be at the scene described in the Bible, and not at the Bible itself. If he rely on the description given in the Bible, he does not need the telescope. If he has the telescope, that is, the Spirit, and examine heavenly things and scenes for himself, he does not need the Bible. In other words, if