inferior in her naval strength. We should henceforth determine to surpass them all. A nation possessing more sea-coast than any other in the world-whose shores are washed for thousands of miles by two great oceans on opposite sides-a nation whose commerce is whitening every sea, and is destined to extend into every inlet and harbour of the habitable globe— a nation possessing harbours on whose broad bosoms all the argosies of Venice could ride in safety-such a nation ought to possess a navy inferior to none other in the civilized world. In fact, the mind of the country cannot but stand appalled at the utterly defenceless condition in which we have been, as against attack by any of the great maritime powers of Europe.

Such are some of the lessons which this rebellion and its attendant circumstances should teach us. It was doubtless necessary for us to learn these lessons. It was assuredly better we should learn them now than later in our history, and perhaps the particular method taken to teach us is, on the whole, the cheapest and best. And when we shall have learned them, and acted on them practically, we shall stand firm, calm, self-poised, in the simple majesty of power beneficent to bless, yet terrible to strike, guaranteeing rational liberty to the subject at home, yet enforcing the claims of constituted authority; compelling, by the unanswerable arguments of rifled cannon and iron-bound ships, an honourable recognition and respect abroad; and, having got beyond the excesses, and foibles, and boastful delusions of our youth, we shall settle down to the proper work, and the enduring triumphs of our national manhood.

ART. IV. The Doctrine of Providence practically considered.

WHEN we look abroad upon creation, and contemplate the extent of the universe, we are soon lost in the immensity of the scene, and our mind returns from the excursion with a painful sense of our own littleness. Such a range of matter, such a display of being, so many grades of intelligence, so many revolving worlds present themselves to our view, that we are amazed and bewildered. To shut out the idea of a First Cause is impossible. To exclude the notion of an end to be accomplished, is irrational. To admit an end and exclude a plan, is equally contrary to reason. And to conceive of a plan, and no superintending power to carry it into execution, is not less unreasonable than either of the suppositions previously stated.

The doctrine of Providence is, therefore, a dictate of natural religion. The belief of it, in some form and degree, has always accompanied the belief of a God. The heathen attributed the abundance of their harvests, their success in war, deliverance from shipwreck, recovery from sickness, the prosperity of trade, and such like advantages, to the favour of their idol deities. To teach them their error, not in acknowledging a Providence, but in giving its praise to idols, an impressive lesson was exhibited in the metropolis of the East. The potentate who filled the throne at Babylon, and whose sceptre controlled the greater part of western Asia, was miraculously thrust out from human society, bereft of his faculties, degraded to a place among the brutes, and then as miraculously restored to reason and the converse of men. All this, the inspired penman tells us, was to the end that he might know that "the heavens do rule."

A lesson thus taught must convey weighty truth. Let us give it our most solemn attention.

"The Lord reigneth." To reign, includes two ideas, viz., to ordain law, and to enforce it. He who merely issues laws, but has no power to enforce them, legislates, but does not reign. On the other hand, he who merely executes laws, but has no

power to make them, is as far from reigning as the first. In our country, there is properly no reigning power, because one department of the government makes the laws, and another executes them. But in Asia, where the Bible was written, the legislative and executive powers were commonly united in one sovereign prince; and there the regal authority was, so far, an image of the divine.

The doctrine of the Bible, then, is this: Jehovah, the selfexistent God, has ordained a law, according to which the affairs of the universe are to proceed, and he is constantly and efficiently employed in carrying that law into effect. A sublime truth! How wide it reaches! How deep it draws! To follow it through all the departments of being, would require an angel's wing. To search all the depths which it contains, would demand more than an angel's intellect.

In saying that Jehovah has established a law for the government of the universe, we are not to be understood as employing that term in the narrow sense in which it is commonly applied, i. e., as denoting a rule of action prescribed to moral agents merely, and in the obedience of which the will is concerned. We use the word in a sense far more general and extended, viz., as comprehending all being, rational and irrational; descending to matter itself, and governing all its modifications; holding, in its mighty grasp, heaven and hell; going back to the eternity which preceded the birth of the world, and reaching forward into the eternity which shall follow its dissolution.

The existence of such a law as this, which is no other than that eternal purpose which was in the Divine mind, when God called the world out of nothing, is every way agreeable to sound reason. For it is surely inconceivable, that a Being allwise and almighty should have produced such a result as this universe, and not have previously determined what it was to be, what end it should answer, and by what agencies it should attain the end proposed.

But we are not left here to reason's dubious ray. The Bible speaks: "Known unto God are all his works, from the foundation of the world." That settles the first point, that God had determined what the universe of creatures was to be. "The Lord hath made all things for himself." That settles the

second point, as to the end to be attained-his own glory. "He worketh all things after the counsel of his own will." That settles the third point, as to his appointment of the agencies through which that end was to be pursued. That these agencies are pre-determined, and the results fixed, follows directly and inevitably from prophecy. "The Lord declareth the end from the beginning; he calleth things that are not, as though they were." Thus does the Bible confirm, in every particular, the deduction of reason.

But the moment we admit the existence of such a purpose, we must also admit its certain fulfilment. For there can be but two reasons to prevent it-defect of wisdom, or defect of power in him who formed the purpose. But either of these suppositions, if true, would strip God of his perfections. A God who, wisely purposing, lacks the power to execute his plans, or who, having power to execute, lacks the wisdom to devise, does not reign; and a God who does not reign, is not worthy of our worship.

Some who are unwilling to oppose a truth so plainly revealed, but are equally unwilling to submit to its application, seek to relieve themselves by a distinction. a distinction. They admit a general, but deny a particular Providence. They would persuade us that, in regulating a system of being, consisting of an inconceivable number of parts, God rules the whole, but does not rule any of the parts! He rules all, and yet rules none! A clumsy and self-contradictory device to remove God farther from us; to set him on high behind a cloud, instead of bringing him, as the Psalmist does, "round about our path and our lying down."

The reader already perceives the object aimed at in this paper. It is to explain and vindicate the doctrine of Providence, as taught in holy writ. A scriptural elucidation of this deep theme will best meet, and most successfully refute, the various objections urged against it; since, however formidable they may appear at first view, they all derive whatever strength they have from a misconception of the doctrine which they oppose. When the truth itself is rightly apprehended, these objections, either wholly or in great part, lose their force. 1. In governing the universe, the Lord, the great King,

uses the interposition of subordinate agents, all in action, but all acting under his immediate control. That is to say, he does, constantly and infallibly, what every great and wise earthly monarch desires and endeavours to do, but for the most part without success; namely, arrange his empire in a complete system of subordination, beginning from himself, so that, throughout his dominions, his will is done everywhere, in the minutest and least important, as well as in the greatest and most important thing which is the subject of his government. We saw this attempted, half a century ago, on the other side of the Atlantic, and with a success which filled all men with admiration at the transcendent powers of a mind which seemed everywhere present and everywhere active. But if this, when partially effected by a wicked prince, through wicked means, and for a wicked end, could command our admiration, and enforce the tribute of respect, can we withhold a sentiment of adoring wonder and awe from Him who does the same thing on an infinitely broader scale, and without the slightest failure in a single particular, and who is, at the same time, a righteous Ruler? He whom the Bible presents to us as sovereign and universal King, is seated upon no throne of iniquity. No plunder enriches his treasury. No murders and burnings, no bribes and treasons, no tears and curses established his power. Truth is the girdle of his loins. All his ways are equity. His throne is the seat of judgment for all worlds. His provinces are the realms of universal nature. of heaven. His engines are the His tribute flows from all being. directs, controls, animates, and dominions. His hand can reach, in a moment, the least or the greatest, the nearest or the most distant, of all his dependencies.

His armies are the hosts elements and the seasons. His infinite mind pervades, actuates every part of his

2. In governing his creatures, the Creator acts upon them according to their several natures. And who so capable of this, as he who is himself the Author of those various natures? Who so able to accomplish it, as he who assigned to each its powers, and tempered and combined them in each according to his own good pleasure? When any part of his plan calls for strength, he uses the strong. When any part requires wisdom,