with the real value of the world. He was to give nothing-absolutely nothing. He was merely to withhold his hand from one tree. Few of our most profound sectaries, as it seems to me, view this original Adamic constitution in its true simplicity, amplitude and grandeur. It was amply large, and sufficient for the continued intercommunion and honorable standing of humanity and divinity for ever. It was most honorable to Adam, most philanthropic and condescending on the part of our Heavenly Father, and gave to the parties every means of perfect and complete intimacy and communion.

But we are contemplating moral liberty, as rising from physical necessity, as the physical harmony, regularity and beauty of the universe arise from a physical necessity. Man, as God constituted him, cannot will his own destruction or his own misery. It is, in the necessity of his nature, impossible. And from this necessity spring all his voluntary movements towards happiness; in which course, according to his light and knowledge, he cannot but pursue that which his understanding realizes and approves. God has, in the fundamental elements of the human constitution, made the desire of happiness perfect, complete, and paramount. Man as necessarily desires happiness as the seas, ebb and flow, or as moons wax and wane. Hence this love of life, this desire of happiness being innate and supreme, obliges him to move in that direction, according to the best lights he has upon the whole subject. Liberty or freedom to pursue this object in his own way, according to his convictions, is true liberty, springing from the necessities of his constitution. Fallen and degraded as he is, he may, and often does, mistake both the means and the end. Under the guise and semblance of good, he may choose evil. But this is simply a mistake of the understanding, which may have been perverted by the obliquity of his life or the tyranny of his passions. Good, real, or imaginary, must, of necessity, be the goal of all his volitions, aspirations, and actions. A necessity to pursue that, in the most direct path which his reason or imagination suggests, is our best conception of free agency. And this arises from a divine necessity or obligation, inwrought or implanted in the human constitution, as God has, in physical nature, based all the movements of all the spheres on the principle of gravity or attraction. God himself is the spiritual sun and centre of the spiritual and moral universe, and we are spiritual planets, of different magnitudes and at different distances, moving round him, and in harmony with one another. From him we receive our life, our light, our beauty, and our bliss. In this course angels, "the morn ing stars, sing together," and men, "the sons of God, shout for joy." A. C.

CHRISTIAN KNOCKINGS-No. IV.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and sup with him, and he with me.

The AMEN, the faithful and true WITNESS, the Beginning of the creation of God.-Rev. iii. 14, 20.

As man is susceptible of impressions from unseen spiritual beings, it is of the utmost importance that he should be constantly upon his guard in reference to them. He should be cautious how he listens to the insinuating eloquence of subtle foes in the guise of friends, who speak only to delude, and flatter to betray. More especially should he watch, lest, by giving the slightest countenance to their advances, they should at length glide within the portals of the heart, to usurp the dominion of his spiritual nature, and exercise their wonted tyranny over all his powers. The Christian is hence exhorted to "watch and pray," and to "try the spirits" by the infallible touch-stone of divine truth, being warned that there are many who "lie in wait to deceive," and that Satan himself, the "Prince of Darkness," can even assume the celestial robes of an "angel of light."

While, however, man should guard thus carefully the avenues of the heart against the approaches of malign spiritual foes, he should open, with alacrity and joy, the gates of the inmost sanctuary of the soul to those heavenly visitants who are commissioned to sustain him with divine power, and renew his inner nature by a sacred and blissful fellowship. To their gentlest whispers, as well as to their most earnest calls, his ear should be ever attentive, and he should cherish, with reverential awe, those holy influences which they shed abroad in the heart. It is to man alone it is thus accorded to become the recipient of the most precious gifts of Heaven. It is to him alone it is thus permitted to become himself a temple even for Deity, and to possess within the hallowed fane of a purified and renovated heart the Shekinah of his presence. It is to a communion thus lofty and ennobling, that he is invited, in the remarkable passage which we have chosen for our motto. He who announces himself as the Amen; the Faithful and True Witness; the Begin ning of the creation of God, here declares his presence and his gracious purpose. "I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and will sup with him and he with me." This is the appeal to which the believer should respond. These are the "spirit knockings" to which hẹ should pay instant and supreme regard.

How exalted the personage who thus requests admission! How worthy to be received with trustful faith and reverential love, as the spiritual guide of the soul! It is no flitting shade from the gloomy shores of Acheron; no wandering ghost from the corruption of the grave; no malignant demon from the ærial regions; no spectral apparition of a deceased acquaintance, as ignorant and as fallible as ourselves. But it is the Amen; the Faithful and True Witness; the Beginning of the creation of God. He is the AMEN: a term here used substantively to signify truth, firmness, constancy; and he is not merely represented thus as abstractly truth, stability or faithfulness, but as emphatically the impersonation of these qualities, or the very source itself from which they spring. In him, indeed, "all the promises of God are amen;" that is to say, indubitably certain and unchangeably true. But he is himself, in a fuller and loftier sense, THE AMEN, as constituting, himself, eternal, universal, unchangeable truth, and being himself the very foundation of all the stability and enduring constancy of all the systems of the universe. All things are "by him;" all things are "for him;" "by him all things consist." As he is the Alpha, so is he the Omega of the divine alphabet, and the "Amen past" of the solemn close of man's eventful history. He is the end of all prophecy; the fulfilment of all divine promises; the almighty Fiat of all divine power. He is the ultimate object of the Christian's faith, and hope, and love, and the final adjudicator of all the interests and destinies of the human race.

He is also denominated the FAITHFUL and TRUE WITNESS. To this end was he born; for this cause came he into the world, that he should bear witness unto the truth.' It was he who revealed the Father to the world, and declared the things which he had seen and known of Him. He spoke not of himself; but the Father who sent him gave him in charge what he should say and what he should reveal. "I speak, therefore," said he to the people, "even as the Father said unto me, so I speak." And in his address to the Father himself, he says: "I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world; for I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me." To this great truth, that he was sent of God-that he was the Messiah-the Son of the Highest, his words, his acts, his life, his death, bear witness; a faithful and a truthful testimony, attested by prophecy; confirmed by miracles; sealed by his precious blood, and accred

ited by his resurrection from the dead and glorious exaltation in the heavens.

But this illustrious Guest, who stands at the portal, is announced, also, by the title of the BEGINNING of the creation of God. It was he "who laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of his hands." And "by him were all things created, that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible or invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers." He is the BEGINNING, not only of the old, but of the new creation-the first fruits of the harvest of eternity--the first born from the dead—preeminent--whose voice shall yet, from amidst the chaos of sin and the darkness of the grave, bring forth the beauty, light, and life of a world forever renovated and redeemed. For it pleased the Father, that in his person should dwell the fulness of the God-head, and that he should become the Author of the spiritual as of the natural system; of the world to come, as of that which is; of a life and a salvation that are eternal, as of an existence and a providence that are temporal.

Such are the glorious attributes implied in the title here appropriated to him who says, "Behold I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him, and he with me." And ah! with what earnest attention should man regard such an annunciation. With what ready promptitude should he open wide the door for so illustrious a visitant! With what trembling hope and reverential love should he receive him! With what anxious desire should he long for that sacred spiritual communion to which he is here so graciously invited!

But vain and thoughtless man, alas! prefers to listen, with ready ears, to the "spirit rappings" of imposture; to seek, with prying curiosity, the solution of some idle speculation; or to receive, with superstitious awe, the absurd reveries of some false and fanatical apostle, rather than to hearken to the knock of the Faithful Witness, or believe his truthful testimony, or acknowledge his divine and glorious character. How alienated from God must be the human heart, which can refuse admission to the Holy One whom he has deputed to reveal to man his gracious purposes; to enlighten his benighted mind with heavenly wisdom, and guide him safely to the realms of bliss! How perverse and deluded the mind that can mistake the darkness of the world for the light of life, and willingly reject the richest gift of heaven to enjoy the delusive vanities of earth! With what unreserved confidence, however, may the believer

entertain this divine Guest, who thus desires admission! How readily may he open his heart to him who has shown his love for man, in forsaking the blessed abodes of heaven to assume his nature; to share his sorrows; to expiate his sins, and crown him with everlasting joy! In him there is no delusion, for he is himself the Truth; in him no darkness, for he is himself the Light. With him are the secrets of heaven; the mysteries of eternity; the wonders of the unseen spiritual world. He only can reveal them. He only has made them known.

In that divine fellowship to which he invites his people, there is no disquietude; no satiety; no doubt; no fear. But there is there the peace of God; the assurance of faith; the confidence of hope; and the perfection of love.

How happy, then, is he with whom the Lord shall dwell; and how blissful the consolation, that nothing shall be able to separate him from the love of Christ! R. R.

GERMANIC LIBERTY:

ITS CHARACTERISING SPIRIT AND RESULTS. THE following oration, delivered at the late Commencement of Bethany College, by Mr. Edward Tener, of Ireland, we deem worthy of the pages of the Harbinger; not as the only one of that day, either in composition or good taste, worthy of so appearing; but its subject matter, equally with its other merits-its congeniality with the spirit of the age and the character of our political institutions-lead me to think that it will be both useful and pleasing to a great majority of our readers.

A. C.

Ladies and Gentlemen: We celebrate the day that gave to America freedom, and to the world a nation. In doing this, we do homage to all the brave spirits who strove in the same holy cause-the courage of the soldier, the wisdom of the statesman, the devotion of the citizen, the common patriotism of all. We honor all in the grand result; for this day was the joyous harvest of their hopes-the golden fruitage of their labors. On this day a youthful people assumed the toga virilis of freedom, and arrayed in the robes of independence, strong in her trusting faith and assured hope, America appeared no longer a twilight Urania of the world's system, but,