“strengthened with might by the Spirit,” to discern how all knowledge was included and related to the “one eternal scheme involving all."

The cross of Christ is not a bare theological thesis for the lecture-room and the pulpit; it is not a mere historical incident to touch the sensibilities of genius, to be rehearsed by the tragic muse, and painted by the brush of Guido and Rubens. It is the one fact which is central to all other facts; the one knowledge which is ultimate to all other departments of knowledge. We announce it not merely as the Sabbath-day religion of the pulpit ; but as a great intellectual truth for all scholars, that the true philosophia prima is the knowledge of Christ; that the only object which gives relationship, harmony, unity, connection, to all this world's affairs, is the grand purpose of God to diffuse a stable and substantial happiness over the world, through the allpervading beneficence of Christianity, as the central power; and consequently, that our true interest and duty, in all the variety of our pursuits, is to devote ourselves to the service of our race, and seek to make the world better.

It was a beautiful conception of ancient mythology, which represented the Muse of History as the daughter of Jove; and it is the sober conviction of a better wisdom, that all the history of this world is but the gradual development of Christianity, from a germ to its present power and promise, under the control of that Supreme Presiding Spirit, with whom a thousand years are but as one day, and one day as a thousand years. It does violence to reason to believe, that all the events of time have been discordant and incoherent, as the leaves which the Sybil scattered to the winds. The most philosophical conception of history that was ever formed, is that partially executed in the History of Redemption by President Edwards, who, starting at the point where the traditions of pagan mythology and the veritable history of revelation agree, in the original innocence of man, in a golden day when heaven and earth were blended, proceeds to develop, first in the form of a promise, then in type, then in fact, the one great plan of God to redeem a ruined race, and restore them to a more than pristine blessedness. We hold to this one plan and purpose of history, even when we confess ourselves altogether incapable of discerning the import and relevancy of particular events; nor should our limited understandings be ambitious of any such omniscience. All parts of the world are related to one another; but we should not expect to find Cock-lane in London, or Byram river, on a six-inch globe; and there is a general knowledge we may obtain of the great design of God's providence, which is entirely independent of the interpretation of each and every subordinate part. "Rivers have their eddies and backwater, but the direction of the main current is obvious and intel

Jigible. The surface of the sea, when the tide is rising, is broken up into a succession of waves, and these are in constant motion, advancing and receding. One glance of the eye might cause us to doubt, any advance; but look for an hour, and you will see, in all this flux and reflux, that the whole body of the ocean is in progress, covering up the flats, sea-grass and rocks, which were before open to the sun. There is unity in history. There is progress in history. Innumerable are those conjunctions of things and times, which show the presidency of one mind, in reference to one purpose; and however labyrinthine this scene of life may appear to groping and eyeless infidelity, the one conviction which is continually strengthening in the mind of every student who holds that clue which faith has put into his hand, is, that Christianity is not a by-play in the world, but the one purpose on which time waits, to which Providence ministers, and all things promote.

Should it be objected to this view of things, that the practical power and extension of Christianity have been by no means as great and rapid as this doctrine would lead us to expect, we would reply, that we are speaking of ultimate purposes, and not of actual results; that the author of Christianity has not chosen to apply its benefits by instantaneous omnipotence, but placed it, like leaven, in the world, to work its own way, leaving men to arrive at the most important convictions, by the processes of their own observations and experience. The God of nature does not inform the world, by an immediate and universal revelation, of all those arts, inventions, and remedies, which subserve the health, knowledge, and comfort of man. These are to be discovered by careful observation ; and, when discovered, diffused abroad by human agencies. Experience is one of the teachers employed by Providence in this great school of man's education; and though Christianity, with its benign tendencies and blessings, be the ultimate purpose of the world, yet men are to learn the value of it, not by voices from the sky, not by compulsory processes which render mistakes impossible; but in good part, by the slow results of time and events, discovering the futility of all other expedients. So that the long delays and hindrances of Christianity have not been time and strength entirely lost, but preparations for better results, as the frosts of winter prepare the ground for future harvests. Mistakes and disappointments are not the same thing in morals as recession; for the clouds which the mariner mistakes for land, still lead him on where land is sure to be found; and digging for fabled treasures of gold, stirs the roots of the vines and trees,

and secures a larger measure of fruit.

If the Christian system be the one great end and object of all things, it is easy to see that in this system, there is a place for

every science, every art, and every pursuit. The natural and providential, though not the ultimate end, are nevertheless auxiliary to that end, and necessary to it, and so are invested with high importance and dignity. All which relates to the phenomena of nature; the physical constitution of man; the adaptation of external things to his nature; whatever promotes his health, comfort, and general good; all which subserves his elevation, convenience and happiness, as a part of a social system; the beautiful sisterhood of the arts; the whole science of government; the advancement of knowledge, and whatever else is related to the civilization and progress of the world—all stand immediately and indissolubly connected, both as means and results, with that great purpose which Christianity proposes as the one end and object of all things. These are objects worthy of our study, worthy of pursuit, important and dignified, because, in the constitution of things, they are essential to the framework of that system in which Christianity is to display her highest results; while Christianity, the great central power of life, invariably acts most directly and auspiciously, on the physical, political and intellectual nature of man.

There is a distinction generally made between what is religious, and what is secular. This is well enough in common parlance, for purposes of convenience, as we divide and subdivide the ocean into seas, bays, and inlets. But in more exact speech, no such distinction exits. The ocean is one and the same; and all things in this world, are religious. There is religion in commerce, in steam-boats, and steam-presses, since they help the progress of Christianity. There is religion in politics, in constitutions, declarations of independence, and charters since these affect the freedom of religion. On the other hand, there are politics in theology; whole systems of government, jurisprudence, commerce, art

, and enterprise, included in justification by faith; the simple fact being, that all parts are mutually attracted to each other in a common system. Truth belongs to a system; it is not a detached and isolated thing at all. The most inert forms of matter even have their mutual attractions and repulsion. Science has demonstrated this perfect dependence of parts, to that degree, that your foot cannot press a spiculum of snow, without imparting a shock to its neighbor, and this to others still, till extended acres and continents have felt the concussion; and religion instructs us, that you cannot elevate the character of man in the most essential part of his being, without thereby improving every other part of his nature. Throw a crystal into many chemical substances when in a state of solution, and the whole mass will conform to the model. Christianity is a law of love, and when deposited in the heart of society, all the laws and institutions of society gradually and

necessarily conform to it. The science and practice of law, who different a thing it is in the presence of Christianity, and in the presence of Paganism. In the one, a benign power looking at the general good; in the other, a corrupt power founded in the supremacy of self. The transcript of the codes of heathen nations, by Sir Wm. Jones, shows conclusively, that these laws have no reference to the general good of society; the law of love not being found in any heathen code, from Confueius to the present time. The same is true of the healing art, in the presence or the absence of Christianity. What is the art of medicine in India, but a feat of jugglery to awe ignorant credulity ? It is Christianity, which, conferring such importance on man, sets a before unknown value on the life and health of the body; and all the asylums and hospitals, and beneficence of medicine, are the offspring of the Christian religion.

Three hundred years ago, upon the beautiful banks of Lake Leman, there lived a man whose pale and emaciated face, betrayed a life purely intellectual, who is known in history as the Theologian of the Protestant Reformation. Let him be. Shut him up in his Alpine home. What has the world to do with him? If not a monk by name, what is he better in fact, delving there in his old Hebrew and Greek books, proclaiming his theological theses, and insisting on theological distinctions, fit only for the school men. The world nothing to do with him! Yes, let him be. Let him study. Let him work. That translucent Lake, on which he lives, is not stagnant; but through the midst of it runs the "arrowy Rhone,” bearing fertility to the vineyards of the South. That theology is no inert and recluse thing; and the life of that Genevan Reformer, judge him as you may, is destined to exert a power above that of any other man upon the intellect, liberty, and progress of the world. Thither repair for shelter the Marian exiles of England, and there they find those great religious principles, which they bring back to plant deep in their native soil; and of which even Hume, was compelled, in spite of his teeth, to grumble out his approbation as the great parent of English liberty. “What poem has it written”—That doctrine of justification by faith? Undoubtedly the best epic the world ever saw; the greatest thing England ever did. English Puritanism was there. The revolution of 1688 was there. The Mayflower was there. American independence was there. Thither resorts also, John Knox, that peerless son of Scotland; and through him life appears in the North. “Scotch literature and thought, Scotch industry, James Watt, David Hume, Walter Scott, Robert Burns. I find," says Mr. Carlyle, “Knox and the Reformation acting in the heart's core of every one of these persons and phenomena.” All forms of thought, enterprise, life, progress, were enfolded as mighty forests, in a

single germ, in that living truth of justification by faith, which John Calvin announced and resuscitated; and he who suffers himself to talk of this as a dead dogma, and of the theologian, as a living dead man, shows that he knows nothing of the origin, history and progress, of modern civilization. Said we not truly, that politics, whole systems of human governments, liberty, and all else which ennobles and blesses man as the creature of time, are embodied in the central truth of Christianity ? Indeed, we should like to dwell on this topic, and show how large a part of the world, at this very hour, are unconsciously indebted to the silent power of that doctrine many affect to despise, for allthe intel. lectual life and freedom which they possess.*

It is in season to rebuke the intolerance which would limit the praise of Calvin to a single sect. They who have no admiration but for wealth and rank, can never admire the Genevan Reformer; for, though he possessed the richest mind of his age, he never emerged from the limits of frugal poverty. The rest of us may be allowed to reverence his virtues, and regret his errors. He lived in a day when nations were shaken to their centre by the excitement of the Reformation, when the fields of Holland and France were wet with the carnage of persecution; when vindictive monarchs, on the one side, threatened all Protestants with outlawry and death; and the Vatican, on the other, sent forth its anathemas and its cry for blood. In that day, it is too true, the influence of an ancient, long-estab. lished, hardly disputed error; the constant danger of his position: the intensest desire to secure union among the antagonists of popery; the engrossing conscious. ness that his struggle was for the emancipation of the Christian world, induced the great Reformer to defend the use of the sword for the extirpation of error. Reprobating and lamenting his adhesion to the cruel doctrine which all Christendom had for centuries implicitly received, we may, as republicans, remember that Calvin was not only the founder of a sect, but foremost among the most efficient of modern republican legislators. More truly benevolent to the human race than Solon, more self-denying than Lycnrgus, the genius of Calvin infused enduring elements into the institutions of Geneva, and made it, for the modern world, the impregnable fortress of popular liberty, the fertile seed-plot of democracy.

Again, we boast of our common schools; Calvin was the father of popular education, the inventor of the system of free schools.

Again, we are proud of the free States that fringe the Atlantic. The Pilgrims of Plymouth were Calvinists; the best influence in South Carolina came from the Calvists in France. William Penn was the disciple of Huguenots; the ships from Holland, that first brought colonists to Manhattan, were filled with Calvinists. He that will not honor the memory, and respect the influence of Calvin, knows but little of the origin of American liberty.

Or do personal considerations chiefly win applause? Then no one merits our sympathy and our admiration more than Calvin. The young exile from France, who achieved an immortality of fame before he was twenty-eight years of age, now boldly reasoning with the king of France for religious liberty; now venturing as the apostle of truth, to carry the new doctrines into the heart of Italy; and now hardly escaping from the fury of papal persecution : the purest writer, the keenest dialectician of his age; pushing free inquiry only as the means of arriving at fixed principles. The light of his genius scattered the mask of darkness, which superstition had held, for centuries, before the brow of religion. His probity was unquestioned, his morals spotless. His only happiness consisted in "the task of glory, and of good;" for sorrow found its way into all his private relations. He was an exile from his place of birth. As a husband, he was doomed to mourn the premature loss of his wife; as a father, he felt the bitter pangs of burying his only child. Alone in the world, alone in a strange land.he went forward in his career with serene resignation and inflexible firmness; no love of ease turned him aside from his vigils ; no fear of danger relaxed the nerve of his eloquence; no bodily infirm