peace. The greatest blessing in nature is that which every honest man may bestow upon himself." Again: "A peaceful conscience, honest thonghts, virtuous aetions, and an indifference to casual events, [his Stoicism] are blessings without satiety or measure." This consummated state of felicity is only a submission to the dictate of right nature,—(thus agreeing with Cicero) the foundation of it is wisdom and (abstract) virtue, the knowledge of what we ought to do, and the conformity of the will to that knowledge." Now all this is excellent and well said. Modern philosophy cannot say more. Natural religion ends here, and we are still left in doubt. Man cannot pardon his own sins-and should he pray only for a clear conscience, without penitential confession of sin and without faith in God, what answer does he receive? None! Doubts and difficulties thus encompass man on every side. He wanders in thick darkness, if not in absolute despair-for who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? It is beautiful to see in Scripture truths perfectly accordant with right reason. The law of God is perfect. It is a transcript of the divine character, and it says, "This do, and thou shalt live." But it also says, "the soul that sinneth it shall die." Perfection by both systems is happiness. But while reason fails to shew how perfection may be attained, revelation points out "the Way, the Truth, and the Life." God is benevolent, full of mercy, goodness, and truth; yea, even delighteth in mercy." But He is also holy and just as well as good. True, He pardons for His own name's sake," absolutely for His own sake. No created being could help sinful man. Thus we are shut up to what the mind of God has revealed to us. The ground of pardon is substitution, prefigured in the rite of sacrifice, which has so universally prevailed in the world-no small proof this of its divine origin-— and which was fulfilled in the death of Jesus, the God-man, and hence the Mediator betwixt God and men. "He gave himself a ransom for all”—“ for all-meu"-for "the sins of the whole world." Thus PARDON may be granted to every sinful man, and yet "God is just" when He forgives the repentant sinner, seeing "the blood of Christ cleauseth from all sin. Pardon thus flows to the penitent from the boundless love of God; and it is thus essential that all is of God. The Mediator cannot be a mere creature; He must be God, for God only pardons for His "own sake,"-otherwise the whole scheme of redemption falls to the ground. And hence Jesus was and is God. The Logos who was in the beginning with God, and was God, became Emmanuel, God with us. Mystery of all mysteries, for God is truth as well as love! I find here something far surpassing the powers of natural reason fully to comprehend. The love of God in Christ passeth all knowledge. No mere finite being could have devised such a scheme. No angel could have fulfilled it. It is the manifestation of the united wisdom, love, and absolute holiness of God to the moral universe; and how deeply interesting is it to man, for whose benefit it has been specially revealed! And is it not marvellous that God should have again said, "Let there be light, and light was"; when Luther, like the priests of old, found the Book of the Law, which had been hid for ages, and restored it in all its native purity, that it might become a light to man in his weary pilgrimage on earth, to guide him to his everlasting home. To the influence of Plato's tyrannical and bloody laws, and of Aristotle's cursed law of revenge and equally false morality, may be traced all that misgovernment, cruelty, and oppression-civil and ecclesiasticalwhich have hitherto reigned on and deluged the earth with blood, while to the divine influence of the benign laws of Christ all those ameliorisations in civil government by human legislation, and all those social and domestic ties and blessings which necessarily spring from the purity of truth, may as infallibly be traced. Even philosophy has been thereby directed in her truthful course, and all true sciences have thus become the handmaids of true religion. The Christian law of love, after all, is the only true conservative principle; and every divergence from its eternal law of absolute rectitude is a divergence from the straight path which leads to happiness and peace," for God is love." Is it not also marvellous that, after the bright Sun of righteousness had set even amidst the resplendent glory of an Augustine, that thick "darkness should have so soon covered the face of the deep;" and yet all this was a literal fulfilment of Prophecy, and had it not been for Luther, in what state would we now have been? "She comes! she comes! the sable throne behold, Of night primeval and of chaos old! Now at her felt approach, and secret might, Art after art goes out, and all is night. Still, after all, it is clear that a consistent unity of absolute truth pervades the whole web of Scripture, and it is that which prophets in different ages had declared, in language various and sublime, yet still in perfect concord-as one harmonic whole! How could such testimony have been so perfectly accordant? It was first couched in symbols daily held up to the worshippers for their study; symbols, from the beginning of the world, which foreshadowed the truth with a clearness suited to all ages, although they everywhere became corrupted by false philosophy and false tradition; but which, in their original institution, cannot now be misunderstood, and, withal, the precepts which were invariably inculcated as inseparable from the truth itself, are so pure and so good, that ancient heathen systems of morality, as I have proved, fall infinitely short of their perfection. And how true it is that perfection is happiness; for without holiness-objective to the mind and subjective in the heart-no man shall ever possibly see God. "I am the way," said Christ. I hope you will excuse this hasty sketch; but the subject is of deep interest to every thinking mind. Yours faithfully, ROBERT DEUCHAR. ROBERT DEUCHAR, Esq. If Edinburgh, March 28. 1857. Dear Sir, I have read your letter of March 27 with due attention, and really do not see why you should trouble yourself about other men's opinions, or seek to alter the faith you now possess-which appears to give you complete satisfaction. your desire is to convert other persons to your convictions, I should advise you to refrain from attempting this with adults, and confine your efforts to indoctrinating the young with your views; for if adults think on religion, you will find it difficult to shake their opinions; and if they do not think, but only believe what they have been taught, they will not yield to your arguments, however strong they may appear to you to be. I do not advise you to read my book, but the reverse. will only give you pain. I am, dear sir, Yours faithfully, It GEORGE COMBE. Edinburgh, March 30. 1857. GEORGE COMBE, Esq. Dear Sir,-Your favour of the 28th inst. has caused me to regret that my last letter should have disturbed your usual equanimity. My desire in writing to you was simply to obtain a rational answer to a simple question-one which Hennell had not answered, or even touched. Yet it is the question of questions; and no system of religion can possibly be correct or satisfactory which overlooks it. The rational mind cannot rest without an answer to it, and I had some hope that you, who have so long studied the subject, would even to the last sheet of your intended Work, have added a short exposition of your theory relating to this all-absorbing point. I said I did not expect an answer to my first letter, however much I desired one. Bnt you were so kind as to write to me. I took it as kind, and my reply was only intended to shew the dissatisfactory nature of all other systems I had studied when compared with the Bible. This made me anxious to learn what your new system actually was. It (the Bible) professes, what no other system does, to give a full and perfect solution of the question at issue. It is, therefore, the only system which fairly meets the condition of sinners such as we are, and which is perfectly suited to "THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN." On this ground it deserves the most serious consideration. And if there be evidence in its favour to any extent, however partial, that evidence deserves to be candidly weighed, and effect given to it. To one the evidence may appear strong, to another weak, yet no man can rationally conclude that mankind, in all ages, have been seduced from the truth, and made worse characters, by believing the Bible to be the truth of God. It must have had, and must still have, necessarily, some claim on the human mind, both from external and internal testimony, otherwise it never could have survived so many persecutions, and gained over even a Newton to its side. All human systems have been proved to be full of errors and contradictions. And thus it is that no sceptical writer has ever succeeded in demolishing that wonderful and beautiful structure of divine truth which had been raised up by architects of every age, and who had contributed successively to perfect its glory. All of them had, by inspiration, caught the sublime idea of its first great Architect, and contributed to the unfolding of the original idea or plan. It is this unity of design, unity of operation, unity of parts, and unity in the grand whole or result, that places ancient prophetical testimony to the truth in its proper light. The Bible is fragmentary, a perfect pillar, as it were, broken to pieces, yet all the prophetic witnesses agree. And now the superstructure, like the restored Etruscan vase, stands before us perfect and complete! It is Jesus the Galilean, and Prophet of Nazareth, whom Hennell has both eulogised and equally condemned, who has done this marvellous work! However, it was not my desire to instruct you—although I perceive you are not a master in Israel-my desire was to get, if possible, instruction from you. But surely when you have set yourself up as a teacher of adults, you must believe that your arguments will or ought to have some little force with men of a few gray hairs. I do not return your advice to me as applicable to yourself, for you are certainly no teacher of babes. Postulated truths should only be addressed at first to men exercised in thinking, and when found to be truths, then they may be safely used for "indoctrinating the young," but not till then. I assure you that, notwithstanding your advice, I will read your book with the deepest attention. If I shall find a satisfactory answer to my question, it will make me to rejoice; if not, your work will indeed cause me "pain;" yet not on its own account, but on account of yourself. It must necessarily soon perish, like that of Thomas Paine, by the simple touch of truth, and it will then be said with justice that even the great mind of George Combe has not been able to set up a system on which a rational soul can rest in "peace." He may have erected for himself a pillar in the Temple of Fame, but not a pillar in the temple of God. This is no vain speculation, and weak as my efforts have been, I have at least the satisfaction of knowing that, should you evade the great question at issue in your new work, it will not be from want of premonition, but from the impossibility of your inane science to answer it apart from the word of God. Yours faithfully, ROBERT DEUCHAR In answer, Mr Combe sent me a newspaper report of a Mr M'Donald's address, without any writing save a request to return the paper. It was an answer to Dr Hugh M'Neill's lecture to the members of the Christian Institute in Liverpool on the "Infallibility of the Bible." Notes for Mr Combe. Mr M'Donald's address contains a virulent attack on the inspiration of the Scriptures, and adduces the usual examples of supposed contradictions, interpolations, and errors in the sacred book, all which have been answered or explained by numerous Christian writers. Yet one thing is certain, viz., that not one of M'Donald's supposed erroneous passages affects in the slightest degree the unity of truth in the Divine scheme of redemption. His concluding objection is as follows:-"The Bible contains no system of morals, no regular code of human duties, though it indicates a few grand spiritual principles. It embodies the opinions of the ages on astronomy, geology, metaphysics, and physiology, if we may apply such terms to the contents of Scripture." He adds, that it is doubtful if there is a Socinian in England, yet some Unitarians. "The Unitarian interpretation is at least," he says, "a possible one, and could be sustained by usage of Scripture language-God and Christ one, not in nature, but by agreement.' If so, is it not clear that we must |