light upon man's immortality. It never was clear enough to enable man to pursue it with confidence of success. His immortality could not be reasoned out of the analogy of nature, beyond a doubt. To doubt it, was so to impair the feeling in the human mind, as to destroy its motive power. The most enlightened men of the most enlightened nations of heathendom, were never able to refrain from the vices of the age in which they lived. Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Zeno, and Diogenes, were more or less guilty of the vices, from the influences of which they sought in vain to reclaim their countrymen. They speculated much upon ethics; and delineated theories, in themselves so plausible of advantage to the practitioner, that they thought to attract men, by the charms of their utility, to the practice of virtue. But long and repeated trials of their theories upon morals, urged from considerations of religious obligation, too, as affording additional, if not the stronger motive, proved only their weakness and inefficiency. It was, therefore, no hasty conclusion to which that sage and accurate observer of the principles of human actions arrived, when, in view of all they had done in reclaiming men from the dominion of their appetites and passions, he pronounced them systems of vain and deceitful philosophy. The lives of their founders prove them as void of motive power to reclaim men, as they were false in theory.

He must, indeed, have studied the lives and theories of those philosophers but very imperfectly, who has not discovered them to have been as unsatisfactory to their authors, as they were to those to whom they were delivered. They not only prove that men, by mere human reason, unaided by a clear revelation, cannot think and act according to the capabilities of their entire nature, but as clearly show that traditional truth, divine in its origin, passing through the channels of an unchaste and corrupt imagination, and superadded to the deductions of human reason, leave men still the sport and victim of their passions.

The wisest of the heathen philosophers wanted he knew not what, but it was something to which he had not attained. Had he discovered it, what think you it would have been? He would have found it, say you, in what would have filled up the measure of his intellectual and moral capacity. He wanted, then, the impersonation of truth, goodness and love. To love and to adore such a Being, required a clear revelation of his character. But this could not have been made, without clearly revealing to man his relations to such a Being. The secret of his wants will thus be discovered, and he will make its discovery obvious to all, by seeking for eternal life, and truth, and

good, to live upon forever. He will as evidently show, that there is no reasonableness in reasoning so long, as men seek nothing more than daily amusement, occupation, and aliment. He exclaims, as did one of classic memory, "I have found, I have found!" The grand secret is happiness, without death. And its daily enjoyment is loving God supremely, the author of his being and his bliss.

But tell him he is to perish to-morrow, and forever, and in vain do you exhort him to love God. The hope, alone, of an imperishable existence, as an irrevocable boon, is that only upon which he can found his gratitude to his Maker, and who thus becomes the author of his felicity.

But need we say, that no such assurance and hope, as the foundation of present and future bliss, is any where to be found, save in the Bible; for, however ready men may be to felicitate themselves upon the acquisition of their desires, they find, in the end, selfdeception, and that they have rested only in that which is no better than the Rhadamanthine dreams of natural heathenism, if they found not their morality upon the revealed will of God.

The question of man's immortality, is one which comprehends much more than the mind of Plato ever conceived, in his argument for the immortality of the soul. He had but half the idea, and that he obtained from Jewish tradition, rather than from abstract reasoning upon spiritual existence. The Bible alone gives us the whole idea. The immortality of the spirit, or soul, was never the subject of a special revelation. But that man in his entire nature-in body, soul, and spirit-shall live again and forever, is a revealed truth, and the burthen of the Christian revelation. It is there taught us, not in word, but in fact. The Author of immortality, in the fact of his resurrection, brought to light the immortality of body, soul, and spirit. From this fact the Apostle Paul argues for the immortality of man in his entire nature. The argument runs thus: If Christ be not raised, the believer is not raised-he is perished. This negative argument, had it been true, would have proved the mortality alike of soul and body. They who are fallen asleep in Christ are perished, if Christ be not raised. But the apostle carries his argument triumphantly, from the fact that Christ arose from the dead, and has become the first fruits of them that slept. The argument, then, for the revival and deathlessness of the body, is thus stated by the apostle: If the Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall make even your mortal bodies alive by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.

Many sceptics, like Plato, may have professed to believe in the

immortality of the spirit of man; but the apostle argues that, if the body be not raised to life, the man has perished in body, soul, and. spirit. The revival of the latter he makes to depend upon that of the former. The future life of the spirit is consequent upon the future life of the body.

We repeat, then, that all true morality and religion are based upon the hope of immortality; and not only so, but the very desire to regulate his moral and religious conduct by a given rule, does, indeed, indicate an intense feeling of deathlessness. And what are our notions of right and wrong, but an evidence of our belief in a future state, where good and evil are to find their proper results.

With the consciousness of our immortality, we feel ourselves bound to right conduct, seeing the laws of heaven are the laws of eternity; and with the apostle, we feel that we cannot escape the sentence already against us, if we neglect our salvation.

The great line of demarcation that separates the two great classes of society, we have now drawn.

On the one side, are those who, from an ever-present consciousness of their immortality and consequent accountability, feel themselves bound to right conduct. Their motto is, "Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole happiness of man." On the other side, are those who are devoid of such consciousness, and do not look beyond a present life; whose motto, strange as it may appear, is, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die."

May we not say, with a modern writer, that "indifference to results, is all the ethics of ignorance?"

The profanum vulgus of all conditions are those who, practically believing in death as their finale, endeavor to pass their lives in desperate disregard of the coming event; and lest it should abbreviate their guilty pleasure before its time, even by its shadow, they resolve to look another way. What, then, is the philosophy of repentance, and why is it demanded? Is it not because immortality is revealed, and a day of judgment appointed, the certainty of which is known to all who have received the pledges of God and examined the evidence-Christ is risen.

Piety and humanity cannot but be productive of present happiness, either in the enjoyment of what is passing, or in the hope of what is to come. They must give a warrant of future bliss, not from a possibility of merit, but from the assurance which a mind must feel that is walking in the way that wisdom appoints. This may be styled virtue, because it is not in merely pleasing ones self that is the motive, but because it is an obedience to a law acknow

ledged by the mind, as good in itself; for both the motive and the joy of virtue consist in conscious fulfilment of duty. But duty depends on relationship between the mind that yields obedience in love, and the mind that commands in love. Without love, there is neither authority nor duty.

In conclusion, then, we ask for the reasonableness, for the righteousness, for the benevolence, in the Omnipotent, if he grant only a short lease of life and enjoyment to his reasoning and confiding creature, that in love submits to his will. Surely He cannot for. get the works of faith and the labors of love which such a one has performed, in the truest devotion of his soul, to the will of Him whom to love and to adore was his chief delight.

A. W. C.

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FAMILIES OF LITERARY MEN.

MEN distinguished for extraordinary intellectual power, of any sort, very rarely leave more than a very brief line of progeny behind them. Men of genius have scarcely ever done so; men of imaginative genius, we might say almost never. With one exception, of the noble Surrey, we cannot at this moment point out a representative, in the male line, even so far down as the third generation, of any English poet, and we believe the case is the same in France. The blood of beings in that order, can seldom be far traced in the female line. With the exception of Surrey and Spencer, we are not aware of any great English author, of at all remote date, from whose body any living person claims to be descended.

There is no other English poet prior to the middle of the eighteenth century, and we believe, no great author, of any sort, except Clarendon and Shaftsbury-of whose blood we have any inheritance among us. Chaucer's only child died childless. Shakspeare's line expired in his daughter. None of the other dramatists of that age left any progeny; neither Raleigh, nor Bacon, nor Cowley, nor Butler. The grand-daughter of Milton was the last of his blood. Newton, Locke, Pope, Swift, Arbuthnot, Hume, Gibbon, Cowper, Gray, Walpole, Cavendish, and we might greatly extend the list, never married. Neither Bolingbroke, nor Addison,_nor Warburton, nor Johnson, nor Burke, transmitted their blood. Poor Goldsmith might have been mentioned in the above list. theory is illustrated in our own day. The greatest names in science and literature, of our time, were Davy and Sir Walter Scott. The first died childless. Sir Walter left four children, of whom three are dead-only one of them, Mrs. Lockhart, leaving issue; and the fourth, his eldest son, though living, and long married, has no issue. These are curious facts.-Quarterly Review.

The

CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE- No. I.

THE abuse of any creature of God, is no argument against the use of it. Nor is the abuse or improper application of a word or phrase, any reason or argument against its proper use and application. The word experience, was not in popular favor in the reign of James I., when our commonly received version of the Sacred Writings was made. They gave it to us only five times in all the whole volume, and the word experiment but once.

But it may be said that the Greek dokimee, was not in much more favor with the apostles of Christ, for none but Paul ever used it, and he but seven times in all his epistles; and for it, in these passages, King James "authorized" the English word experience twice; proof, three times; experiment, once; and trial, once.

Its pedigree is remarkable. It is the first-born of Patience, and the mother of Hope, whose descendents are Love, Peace, and Joy. The family is illustrious, and yet, like many illustrious families, it is of rather ignoble and obscure origin. It is lineally and naturally descended from Tribulation, and, farther than this, its genealogy is not known. Strange, indeed, that Joy, one of the most noble creatures in the heraldry of earth, should be a remote descendent of Tribulation. The whole family known on earth, in all the records of time, are Tribulation, Patience, Experience, Hope, Joy. This grand descendent of Tribulation was, unfortunately, first miscalled Experience, till, on its baptism, it was changed into Approbation, its most natural and appropriate name. Hence, the true line, properly traced and legally named, are entered on the church records-Tribulation, Patience, Approbation, Hope, Joy. But Joy is the youngest of this noble family. The eldest sister is called Love, the second is called Peace, and the youngest Joy. I can assure all my readers, that I have consulted the ancient and true heraldry of this noble family, and can affirm, with all confidence, that so they are enrolled, each having its own signature and seal, witnessed by two of the Apostles of Christ, living and being present when they were recorded, as I have reported them, by a scribe wearing the King's signet.

Now, then, on the highest authority, we shall always think of them, speak of them, and write of them, as eo descended, and endeavor to treat them with all due respect and decorum. For a long time past-time out of mind-the history of this family has been in perpetual litigation, some claiming Approbation to be the parent of the whole family, and Joy to be the mother of Hope. But it SERIES IV.-VOL. I.

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