love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or that life may be full and joyous. Although streams of pena! fire flash through to remind us that we are in a fallen state, yet benevolence is ascendant, and the goodness of our God pourtrayed without ambiguity. Who can conceive what a creation would be if built and furnished by a malig-ble or invisible-no agent of this, or nant power? the world to come-can forcibly separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. IV. LAW. Order prevails in the visible creation. Crystalization, electricity, galvanism, the flow and ebb of tides, the growth of dark crags and mountain ranges, the change of seasons, the revolution of worlds, the stages of life, all depend upon inva What curses might be rained down from an inclement sky !—what sights and sounds of terror thicken around us ! what sickening productions spring from an accursed soil! The elements and the growths of nature might sustain life, and yet life be a continual disease and torment, without any spring of solace and alleviation. But we bless God for his pity, not-riable conditions, all are regulated in withstanding our sins. He gives rain from heaven, with fruitful seasons filling us with food and gladness. And though disease and pain must come, yet the medicable herb, and the ministering love which sweetens it, are always to be found. - In the domain of revelation or redemption, benevolence predominates still more conspicuously. "When we were without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." "Peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love to us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more, then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." The pathos and the argument of this are equally irresistible. Surely the greatest gift includes the smaller ones. He who has bestowed the transcendant boon will never withhold inferior blessings. They are all comprehended in him. Therefore, we joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the reconciliation. Our joy swells out in triumph- their march by the measured music of law. Without such uniformity of law there could not have been either science or miracle. If similar causes did not every where produce similar effects, and the same conditions lead to the same result, there could be no inductive philosophy forming general conclusions from the accumulation of particular instances. The experience of past generations would be no serviceable inheritance for the present age. Landmarks would be continually shifting, and knowledge would have no certitude. Nor could the supernatural have any power amid disorder and fluctuation, for it would only appear as another diversity amid phantasmagoria. Before miracle could have any commanding influence over man, there behoved to exist a grand order in the heavens above, in the earth beneath, and in the laws of human existence. Then the immediate working of the Divinity, flaming out in contrast with the operation of ordinary law, quickened the spirit of man to listen for the footsteps and the voice of his Creator. But surely those who admire uniformity of law in the material universe, should not be stumbled if they find it in the spiritual. Stumbled or not, it is and radise, and prove its universality. Have we not blights from the atmosphere and the soil which rot the grain, and blacken into corruption the golden harvest? Do not millions of beings, in different regions, pine and famish, from season to season, by such dread visitations? Have we not swamps and morasses, where malaria nurses the fever which burns out human life? Have we no swollen torrents that min must be so. The spiritual laws and ordinances of that Redeemer who died and rose again, are unchanged and unchangeable. And it is solemnly certain that the blessings to be enjoyed by obedience to divine law, cannot be secured by the substitution of will worship. Our own laws will yield no solid satisfaction. Let us not drop buckets down into empty wells, or sow the wind to reap the whirlwind. V. PENALTY. — If we may, in angle and roll in confluent mass over accommodated sense, speak of nature as a being, we may declare that, bland and serene as she is in her common radiant aspect, she is likewise stern, austere, and terrible in her seasons of retribution, and her agencies of penalty. The unbeliever marches on the sacred ground of revelation, as if it were a blasted continent. He looks into the high field of miracle and redemption with a shudder and a haggard face. Because he meets there dreadful visitations of punishment and destruction, he rushes out headlong as if possessed with a demon. He flees like one escaping from a wanly-lighted heath, where malignant wizards and fierce old crones are stirring the cauldron, and speeding the incantations of hell. But on reaching the region of nature, where his spirit is cheered, and his pale face glows again, is all unclouded and brilliant? Does one eternal spring, or perpetual summer, steep the earth in beauty? Are there no indications, dim or distinct, of law violated, and law vindicated? Is there neither whisper nor thunder of penal agency, accountability, judgment, and execution? Has creation no criminal code, no dungeon of durance, no halls of justice, or ministers of vengeance? Let nature answer. We will speak of the earth which we know by experience and by testimony. Of course the deist is at liberty to describe his own world and his own experience. If he has found a voluptuous summer clime, where no rude blast enters, and no contagion prevails, he has freedom to paint his pa the pastures and gardens of industrial power, until pauperism and despair reign among thousands who were once exulting in hope? Is there no such thing as the avalanche which descends from the ice-rocks of hoary majesty with tremendous power, smiting with final blow, cities of fame, with all their life, joy, and splendour? Did the earth never hear the voice of an earthquake-first booming with a hollow murmur of warning, then crashing with a noise of meeting worlds-the solid framework rends— the ancient mountains disappear—the deep-seated rocks spring into the air with galvanic life—the abyss yawns fearfully-down go into darkness million beating hearts and living souls, with all the accumulated evidence and manifestation of their wealth, intellectual glory, and moral aspirations? In this great Eden, was there never the sweep of the choking siroco, or the awful pomp of the purple simoom? How many thousands have suddenly expired amid sulphery wind and burning sand, leaving their bones to bleach in the savage wilderness? Has this paradise of ours no mouths of fire? Are there not thousands, some silent and some audible, yet all have spoken, and all have spoken in wrath and devastation. First a sullen roar from the central magazine- then a sudden crash of near thunder, and lo! the lava torrent seethes and rushes on as a river of hell, kindling with lurid and livid flame the shrinking and ghastly scenery. Towns contiguous are buried in a sepulchre of fire, and covered with a monumental slab, on | prescience which embraces all the fuwhich future generations will build ture, discerning the end from the beand propagate, repeating the tragedy, ginning, is in perfect harmony with. comedy, and mystery of life. From the voluntary agency, the entire freefacts like these let us learn to bow dom of men and superior beings. So with reverence before the punishment the grace which dispenses pardon to which revelation apportions to the the ungodly, sinking transgression in wrong-doer. the infinite ocean of mercy, is in strict accordance with the grand requirement which demands that man shall work out his salvation with fear and trembling, entering the city of God in the beauty of holiness. VI. COUNTERPOISE. A comprehensive survey of the material world might teach men reverence in the examination of spiritual things. It is generally the absence of knowledge and reflective power which leads some profanely to declare that certain things in the testimony of God are discordant. As the poetic artist worded it long ago, "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread." Have we not, under our own eyes, a warfare which produces stability between the aqueous and the igneous agencies? The one with humid influencies sapping the rocks, wearing down the mountain bulwarks, and washing away the solid ground to the engulphing ocean: the other with its huge central fire raising up islands in the sea, elevating the sunken valleys, and heaving crags and hills upon the level earth. In the compass of that great law of matter which binds the worlds and systems to each other, and to the throne in the centre, have we not the centripetal and centrifugal forces, one driving from, and the other drawing towards, the ruling orb, and thus by antagonism producing eternal harmony? In the higher mystery of human life, we have chemical action urging a fierce assault which looks like unwearied vindictiveness, but valiantly resisted by the vital action within. The mystical war preserves peace, and secures during appointed years the vigour and joy of existence. In like manner, the justice of God, austere and unbending, is compatible with the most profound love; and awful punishment is in solemn concord with unfailing benevolence. So the Alike in the material and the spiritual world, the wheels of mechanism may revolve in opposite directions, but they have one spring of motionone regulating power, and are working out one result. The opposition is in semblance the agreement is in truth, reality, and perpetuity. Discord we cannot find, for a God of light and love reigns through all and over all, accomplishing his sublime purposes by marvellous machinery, alike perfect in conception and construction. His unsearchable wisdom, eternal power, and boundless love, are all in affluent and congruous operation. CONCLUSION.- - The destiny of the earth is twined with that of man. The intellectual monarch and his material inheritance cannot he separated in weal or in woe. Hence if man has again to put on his crown and his spangled robes of office, we know where the throne will be reared, and the dominion established for ever. The inspired man of God powerfully unfolds the matter when he is writing to Rome. He speaks of that creation which was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected it in hope. being a moral agent, it could have no will of its own, but must participate in the doom of its ruler. Hence by a moral painting, which lives on the canvas, we have nature personified. groaning and travailing in pain and pollution, from the period when the malison of God fell upon it, for man's sake, even to the present time. Not Yet that deep heart, or living soul of nature, which is bared before the Eternal in complaining anguish, is not unvisited by gleams of transporting hope, and voices prophetic of latter day glory. The earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. Yes, when the children of God come out of the wilderness, and are manifest in spiritual liberty and immortal lustre, the primeval curse will be repealed, and creation spring exultingly into more than the beauty of its virginal glow. When the purchased possession is redeemed, and the grave-opening, life-inspiring trumpet of jubilee is sounded, that the ransomed may return home, what deep and undying melodies will sweep over the lyre of nature. The triumphant joy of that period will be wafted in every gale, will swell with the music of every gathering stream, and roll with every mountain torrent. The reign of a glorified people on a renovated earth, is the salient point of the coming age. It stands out clear and commanding as a column of jasper- the centre of light, holiness, and power. From that continent blows the salutary gale of life which announces paradise regained. It is the spirit, the pure ethereal flame which streams and flashes on the ground of prophecy. As a great and wide river of pure molten gold, it flows majestically betweeen the banks of the happy land, revealing and adorning all the surrounding scenery. G. GREENWELL. victory obtained over the Beast, the Kings of the earth and their armies, the false Propthet with his dupes, &c. by the army of the faith, commanded by the King of Kings, with the sharp sword. In taking an estimate of what may reasonably be considered as gained by the war, we may put down the following items:-1st, An exposure of the falsehood and wickedness of the whole Anti-christian system. 2nd, The emancipation of mind from the bondage of error. 3rd, The enlightenment of the public understanding in the knowledge of the true science of government, and of a large class in particular in the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. 4th, The consequent voluntary and intelligent surrender of numbers formerly the vassals, dupes, and abettors of the above-mentioned powers, to the government of him who "sits upon the floods, who sits King for ever," the sceptre of whose kingdom is a right sceptre. Next it will be necessary to form the same judgment of that diabolical system thus exposed and put down, and its author, which the unerring Spirit of God does. To ascertain what that is, we quote from 2 Thes. ii. 7 -"For already the mystery of iniquity secretly works, only till he who now restrains be taken out of the way; and then shall that lawless one be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will consume by the spirit of his mouth; with the brightness of his coming he will indeed utterly destroy him, whose coming is according to the energy of Satan, with all the deceit of unrighteousness among the destroyed." cient evidence to conclude that that Here, then, we think there is suffimalignant being, styled the Old Serpent, the Devil, and Satan, is the originator of that pernicious system by which the truth of God has been corrupted, his ordinances changed, the authority of the King of saints presumptuously supplanted, and a great portion of mankind deceived and To imagine that there is, in the ruined over all Christendom, during binding of Satan, only the putting the currency of seventeen centuries. forth of physical power in arbitrary Regarding, then, the Anti-chris- sovereignity, as some would speak to tian system as the grand engine of restrain by violence the working of Satan, through which he works in his the adversary—is to entertain a view perverse way, with implacable hatred of things highly derogatory to the chaagainst God, with intent to mar his racter of the Great Supreme, whose works and counteract his benevolent wisdom and council require no such designs toward man-when this deep supplementary aid. Neither would laid scheme, which has worked so it be in harmony with Messiah's successfully and so long against God, kingdom, and the nature of his against Christ, and his cause and administration, who said, standing bepeople, is obviated in its own naked fore Pilate, "My kingdom is not of falsity and corruption, and rendered this world: if my kingdom were of this unworkable by the beaming forth of world, my adherents would have the light of the truth, Satan, conse-fought to prevent my falling into the quently, may in truth be considered hands of the Jews." "but my kingdom "pound"-being deprived of his arms is not hence."To have recourse to in which he trusted, is rendered power-violence to carry a cause, is the dernier less for mischief from henceforth by that arch device. His agents have deserted him, and have turned to be his enemies. The mystery of his power has been found out he is shorn of his strength and prostrated. Strong as he is, One Stronger than he has come upon him, "bound him, and taken from him his goods" and cast him helpless into the abyss, "and set a seal on him," so as to have no power to avail himself of this once so popular and extensive an enginery any more! This, then is what we would understand to be the binding of Satan. It is a view in harmony with the context, and in good keeping with the divine government. "With God is strength and wisdom; the deceived and the deceiver are his. He leadeth councillors away spoiled, and maketh the judges fools. He looseth the bond of kings, and girdeth their loins with a girdle. He leadeth princes away spoiled, and overthroweth the mighty. He discovereth deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out to light the shadow of death. He disappointeth the devisers of craft, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprize. He taketh the wise in their own craftiness; and the council of the froward is carried headlong." resort of earthly kings, and which, indeed, proclaims their impotency, and places all of them in humiliating contrast to him who is perfect in wisdom, and whose ways are past finding out. Were it so that physical power was to be used against our adversary, the Devil, and he restrained and overcome by superior strength of that description, he could boast of being the vanquisher, not the vanquished, and be left in his pride to say "Our better part remains To work in close design, by fraud or guile What force effected not; that he no less At length from us may find, who overcomes By force hath overcome but half his foe." But the ground of boasting never will be afforded him who must yet learn by experience, that wherein he has been wise to do evil, by a deeply conceived scheme of fraud and falsehood-He, with whom he has to contend, is above him, and will prevail, and make all his mischief recoil upon his own head. However, though thus overcome and foiled in his designs, his implacable malignity and cunning remains; though compelled to give up working by the agency of the Antichristian system and its votaries, he sets to work in sullen disappointment to hatch some new device, but before |