at last, the literature of all lands doing it homage, exalted above all other volumes, traditions and laws, as the history of the world's one Redeemer, the law that giveth life, the BOOK OF GOD.

In the remarks which have been made, it will be observed, that we have not generally taken up the topics suggested by our author. The amount of effort due to the Jews is, for instance, an inquiry proposed by him, to which we have not referred. The questions thus to be settled are many and grave. We have but cursorily no

ticed a few that from various causes have interested us. It has not been with the hope of throwing much light upon them. But, as in the missionary enterprise, the contributions of the Sabbath school child and the humble offering of the widow are cast together into the treasury, so must it be in settling the policy of that enterprise. The missionary work is eminently, in all its departments, a collective and a cumulative one. These reflections, thrown out amid the pressure of other engagements, are cast, as of old the soldiers cast each man his stone on the grave of some fallen chieftain. Gradually the heap became a monument, not only towering over the plain around, but a seamark eyed by the voyager on the distant waters. Every mite given, every inquiry made as to our own means of aiding the enterprise, every prayer breathed for its success, goes to swell the amount of interest felt in that cause of missions which must be dear to the philanthropist, the patriot and the Christian,-goes towards the accomplishment of the promises which assure us of its final triumph in bringing the world again into obedience to its Maker and God. W. R. W.

THE GREAT COMMISSION.

PART I.

THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE VIEWED IN ITS RELATION TO THE WORD OF GOD.

CHAPTER I.

THE SCRIPTURE THEORY OF CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY FOR THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD, STATED AND EXPLAINED.

I. MUTUAL dependence and influence is the law of the universe. Look in whatever direction and examine whatever object we may, we find nothing insulated and alone. From the globe we inhabit, and which is one of a visible community of worlds, up to the great sidereal system, the whole of which is apparently moving together through space, and down to the minutest atom that floats in the air, all are bound together, and constantly acting on each other, by definite and universal laws. The body of the reader and the book which he is reading, are held by gravitation in union with the remotest parts of the created system; while the material influences constantly transmitted from the most distant regions of space, place them in physical contact with the universe.

In this literal dependence of every part of the material economy on every other part, we behold an image of the reciprocal action and mutual relation of all animated being. Here, each is connected with all—and the whole to God. Here, in the absence of sin, we behold the sublime spectacle of the infinitely blessed God surrounded by distinct orders of sentient, happy beings; so various as to reach from the archangel down to the insect, yet so closely related as parts of a mighty whole, that no single member can be detached and made independent of the rest; while the well-being of each is an ingredient in the happiness of the whole; and all, according to their respective natures, ascribe glory to Him, their centre and their source, by whom they are alike pervaded, and in whom they are all one.

That this interdependence, as far as it relates to the human family, is part of an original plan, is obvious. By creating, at first, one common father of the species, the Almighty designed that each individual should stand related to all the rest, and feel himself pledged to promote their happiness. By rendering us necessary to each other's welfare, he sought to train us up to a humble imitation of his own goodness, to make every hand and heart a consecrated channel for his love to flow in, and thus to find our own happiness in the happiness of others. In such a state, he who approached nearest to the pattern of the Divine Benevolence, would necessarily have been the object of the greatest admiration; and as admiration leads, by a law of our nature, to imitation, men would have been always advancing towards higher and higher degrees of perfection. Inferior excellence being constantly drawn upwards by the strong moral attraction of that which was above it, a process of assimilation to the blessed God would have been perpetually going on, which would have rendered earth a copy of heaven.

The connexion then subsisting between them would have been one, not merely of mutual dependence but of reciprocal influence. And this moral influence it is

which would have invested their mutual relation with so much importance. Could we have looked down upon them we should have seen that every word uttered, projected an influence; that every action performed, drew after it a train of influence; that every relation sustained, was a line along which was constantly transmitted a vital influence; that every individual was a centre ever radiating streams of living moral influence.

Could we have selected one such individual and have investigated his moral history, we should have found that from the first moment of his existence his character went on daily and hourly streaming with more than electric fluid-with a subtle penetrating element of moral influence; that in whatever society he mingled, he left on their character, secret, perhaps, but not imperceptible traces that he had been among them; that his influence operated involuntarily for though he might choose, in any given instance, what he would do, yet having done it, he could not choose what influence it should have; that it operated universally; never terminating on himself, but extending to all within his circle, emanating from each of these again as from a fresh centre, and thus transmitted on in silent but certain effect to the outermost circle of social existence; that it was indestructible, not a particle ever being lost, but the whole of it taken up into the general system of cause and effect, and always in operation somewhere. And thus we should have seen that though he was apparently as isolated as a ship in the midst of the Atlantic, the waves which the motion of that ship generates from shore to shore, were only an image of his ever-circling, widening, shoreless influence; and that the influence which thus blended and bound him up with the whole race, invisible and impalpable as it is, is yet the mightiest element of society, the element wielded by God himself.

But, then, if such the relation and such the distinct influence of these holy, happy beings, their responsi

bility for the use of that influence would have been proportionate. The very fact that God had invested them with such influence would, without any verbal command, have been regarded by them as a sufficient expression of his will that they must use it to the utmost, and for his glory. They could not have lived to themselves if they would; for from the moment they began to live, their influence necessarily linked them to the universe. And they would not if they could, for they would have found that living to God was usefulness, excellence, and happiness, all in one. They would have found that not more certainly is the order of the material world maintained by the action of matter upon matter, than the order of the moral world is by the action of mind upon mind. And under the hallowed influence of that reciprocal action, they would have been perpetually brightening and rising into the image of God.

How far the inhabitants of the celestial world would -on the hypothesis of man having retained his primal innocence have influenced, by intercourse, the human character, admits of little more than conjecture. That He who has united distinct material worlds by indissoluble bonds, should leave two orders of holy intelligences, both of which had not only sprung from the same Fount of being, but acknowledged the same laws, and exhibited the same paternal image, to pursue their respective courses in perfect and unpassable separation from each other, is, to say the least, highly improbable. That the angelic "sons of God" took a deep and rejoicing interest in the creation of our world, is fact of divine revelation. And the scriptural history of the fall of man leaves us to infer, that, if such of the angelic order as "kept not their first estate" had access to the human mind for purposes of evil, those of them who retained their original purity would not have been denied access of a similar kind for purposes of good. And thus, the intelligent universe would have exhibited the sublime spectacle of distinct orders of holy beings, each composed of innu