the Northern seal, or the oranges and cocoa-nuts of the torrid zone. The monkey, the animal most resembling man, in physical structure, differs more widely from him, than any other, in his capability to accommodate himself to different climes and diet.

In concluding this discourse, we will remark

1. Man's physical nature, when interrogated, tells a tale which perfectly accords with certain declarations of the Bible. This, we think, has sufficiently appeared in the remarks that have been made.

2. We should bear in mind, that the Bible no where pretends to philosophize on man's physical system. All the information it gives on this subject, is mere historic fact or incidental allusion, and yet all that is said perfectly accords with the standard, by which its truthfulness must be tested. If, therefore, the standard, the body itself, be true, the Bible is true.

LECTURE XVI.

THE TRUTH OF THE BIBLE EVINCED BY THE HUMAN

MIND.

WHAT IS MAN, THAT THOU ART MINDFUL OF HIM?-Psalms 8:4.

In our last lecture, it was our object to show that man's physical nature gives a testimony to the Bible; it is now our purpose to prove that a testimony no less clear and convincing, is given by the mental nature. The human mind, when properly interrogated, and its true responses are obtained, utters a language that perfectly coincides with the Bible.

Let us enquire first, what does the Bible teach respecting: the human mind.

1. The Bible teaches that man has a mind, entirely distinct from the body. His body was formed dust, from the ground. It still remains dust, and must return to dust. But respecting his higher nature it is said, "the Lord God breathed into man the breath of life, and man became a living soul." Jeremiah says the Lord "made us this soul;" and Zachariah says-"he formed the spirit of man within him." In fact, it is on the presumption that man

possesses an intelligent soul, that a revelation has been committed to his care.

Our own judgment teaches that our bodies must die, but that the soul will survive death. We have within us something that thinks, feels, wills, and longs for immortality. If asked how we know we possess such a principle, we reply; we are conscious of it. Consciousness is to the soul, what the eye is to the body. We no more stand in need of proof that we can think, feel, or will, than we do that we can see, taste or smell, and we are as conscious that our souls are as well adapted to immortality, as we are that the adapted to seeing or the ear to hearing.

eye is

2. The Bible teaches that this mind is the image of God. "God created man in his own image." For thou hast made him a little lower than the Angels, or as reads the Hebrew, "TO DIFFER BUT LITTLE FROM GOD." James says "Men are made after the similitude of God." It is on account of this similitude, which is found in the intellectual and moral natures of man, that the Scriptures denominate God the Father of all. He is the father of the wicked, because they as his offspring still retain something of his image.

But what is the testimony of the human mind in relation to itself? Has it not in all ages and nations claimed this relationship with God? "We are his offspring," is the high claim of mankind. All men desire to know something of God, and all have their method of addressing him by prayer. We reason as God reasons, or else the astronomer could draw no conclusions, referring to the future, from the planets, upon which he could confidently rely; and

the zoologist from a few fragments of bones, could not make an exact calculation of the size and habits of the animal that once possessed them. We have seen the man who having received a single scale of a strange kind of fish, that he had never seen, from that single scale made a drawing of the fish, and when he came to see it, the animal perfectly accorded in size and in form with his drawing. On what principle could such a calculation be made? Only on the principle that the human mind is modelled after God's mind, and hence man reasons and comes to conclusions just as God does. If, in passing over the field, you should pick up one half of a plate, you would at once form the opinion that it once possessed the other half, because, no workman would ever have made it in its present state; so if in passing over the same field, you should pick up the bone of some animal, you would at once conclude that it once belonged to the animal that possessed a whole set of bones corresponding with the one you had found, for the Great Creator would never have made it as it is. But why would you judge that He would not have made it as it is? Because such work would be imperfect, and on the principle that He works in this manner, we might bid farewell to the idea of understanding anything of his plan. All would be confusion. But God works according We can understand something of that rule because our minds are formed like His.

to rule.

Our ideas of virtue and vice are, also, to a good extent. similar to those of God; or else the terms when referred to Him, would have no meaning to us. When we apply the

*Professor Agassis..

term goodness to God, and when we say He is destitute of all malevolence, do we mean anything? If we, by such epithets, mean to describe a character of the greatest conceivable perfection, then it is evident that we have an idea of the terms goodness and malevolence, when they are applied to man. Unless we have correct ideas of good and evil, when we apply these epithets to man, we do not attach correct ideas to them when we apply them to God.

Our minds are so constituted that we cannot avoid believing, that the minds of all men, in all countries and ages, are formed intellectually and morally, like our own. We know they reason in the same way, drawing similar conclusions from the same premises, and they have the same ideas of right and wrong; thus the human mind corroborates the revelation of the Bible, that all men have something of the moral and intellectual image of God.

3. The fact that the Bible makes all its appeals to the human will, seems to show that the freedom of the will is every where assumed throughout that book.

The Scriptures do not say, in so many words, that men are free agents, as it is not its object, directly to teach the philosophy of mind, but it treats all as though they were free. "Will ye also be his disciples" "Whosoever will let him take the water of life freely"—"Ye will not come unto me," &c. Virtue and vice are, also, made to depend upon the will. Said the Saviour, "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my father which is in heaven." Now, the mind, in asserting the fact that it possesses a free and self-determining will, agrees