conviction has been forced on our minds that we could not, in any fairness or impartiality, ascribe to the scriptures, that kind of verbal, illustrative, or logical perfection, which by many is claimed for them, and we have felt unspeakable relief in the conclusion, that it is not at all necessary to their character as authorised records of a communication from Heaven. If others entertain a different opinion, we complain not-nay, we rejoice for them, in this, that they stand upon the foundation,' though fencing themselves around with barriers that seem to us to be needless. And we hope that they will not be very much displeased that we, too, feel the 'rock of our salvation' to be strong and secure beneath us.

There may be skeptics, cold or contemptuous enough to look with indifference or with scorn upon this transcendent, this all-inspiring interest which we feel in the spiritual objects, and hopes, and destinies of our existence. They may think 'this intellectual being' too poor a thing to be the subject of such wide contemplation, and of such intense and overpowering concern. Yet, what avails the feeble hand that would repress and bind down the very laws of our nature? Still the thought, the feeling, the desire invincible and immortal springs within us, and craves its proper, satisfying, soul-sufficing good. No created might on earth is like the energy of that inward and undying want; no earthly blessing is like that which supplies it; and no sigh of human despondency could be so mournful as that with which we should sink from the holy light that cheers us. We stand amidst erring creatures, ourselves clothed with imperfection and conscious of sin, and the vision of perfect truth and perfect beauty and saving goodness in the person of Jesus, is a light come into the world' that would otherwise be dark to us. We stand amidst shadows and mysteries, amidst trials and sufferings; and the revelation of a gracious and pitying Father in Heaven is strength, assurance, consolation, which nothing else can give. We stand upon this shore of time-the beloved, the cherished, the hallowed in our sorrows, have gone from us-and the gospel that bringeth immortality to light, that places them in immortal regions, and invites us thither, is a message sufficient to bear us in rapture through the very shadows of death. Tell us that God hath spoken' all this to us and we cannot question the manner, we cannot be solicitous about the words, -we can only 'rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.'

ART. VII.-Lectures on Future Punishment. By EDWARD R. TYLER. Middletown. 1829.

We have no disposition to criticise any sincere expression of opinion. We are ready to extend to others the same indulgence which we claim for ourselves. Instead, therefore, of saying anything respecting the merits of this work, we shall speak somewhat at large on the subject of retribution; not intending, however, to give it a full discussion, but to make some suggestions, without which, regarded in some form or other, it cannot well be understood. There are popular and dangerous errors respecting the relation of man to God and eternity, which interfere with all right discernment of the truth. They exist in the shape of loose and floating impressions, and have a greater influence upon the judgment and actions, than if they were more distinctly presented to the mind.

Many of the prevailing religious systems, which professed to explain this great relation, have been so incomprehensible and contradictory, that men have generally been driven to illustrations of their own. Whoever has conversed much with the unenlightened, knows, that they often consider themselves as servants of God. In some respects, this illustration is correct enough, and to a certain extent is sustained by the language of scripture. But they carry it quite too far ;-so far, as to feel that they are doing his work and not their own, and therefore feel no personal interest in what they are doing, but only in the promised reward. They feel as if it were of no consequence what their heart is, provided they go through a certain round of duties; no matter whether they have love to God and man, or any religious principle whatever. This naturally makes their duty seem like restraint and oppression, and makes them feel as if they were not free, but indented to the service of God. This view of our relation to the Father of our Spirits is untrue. He directs us to labor for ourselves, and not for him; and unless we labor as if we were laboring for ourselves, not with a cold complaining reluctance, but with all the heart, it will be long before we reach that happiness which follows only the service inspired by love; which is not, in fact, a reward, but a natural consequence of fidelity to the Most High.

Again; there are those, and they are not few, who carry their maxims of business into religion. According to them,

heaven is a payment for service rendered. They, too, feel as if they were selling their service, simply because they expect to gain something by it at last. They imagine that accounts are kept, where they are credited with all the good they do, and that every good action is so much added to their just demands. When a man of this description wishes to know how he stands with respect to God and eternity, he counts what he is pleased to call his good deeds, and compares them with his offences. If he thinks that he has upon the whole done more good than evil, he is happy. Even if not, if his sins outnumber his good deeds, he supposes that he shall be rewarded for the good he has done, though he may be punished for his transgressions. Though he cannot secure the whole payment, he has yet earned a part. These impressions are degrading to christian duty and to God. There is no propriety in these estimates of value. It is not true that God hires or pays men for doing their duty. It is the disposition which makes the deed acceptable, and here the disposition is invariably wanting. It is not the scattered deeds that are to be picked up and compared; it is the character, the prevailing tone of character, which determines whether a man shall or shall not be numbered with the blessed.

Such, or similar to these, are the prevailing impressions of unenlightened men. But is there no illustration which will help us to comprehend the way in which future happiness is given, if we can say that it is given? Certainly there is; one which the scripture labors to impress-the relation of a father to his children. God gives us the power of forming characters for heaven, just as parents give their children the means of preparing for life. If the child values and employs his means of improvement, if he forms the character which his parent desires, respectability, usefulness and happiness, will, in ordinary circumstances, be the result of that character which his father gave him the means of forming. There is no debt nor credit here. This respectability and happiness are not a payment. If they are called a reward, it is one that follows, not one that is given, and the child is serving himself all the while, though it is true that his excellence does honor to his father, as the excellence of the just gives glory to God. Exactly in the same way has God given us power to form characters for another existence; and, that we may know what preparation to make, has afforded us clear, full, and glowing

VOL. VIII.-N. S. VOL. III. NO. III.

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descriptions of the better, even the heavenly country. Here it would seem that there could be no room for error; and men cannot sustain themselves in religious errors, without keeping out of view this relation, which is a key to all the mysteries which men have made or imagined in the word of God.

This representation is given in the scripture phrase, They shall eat the fruit of their own doings.' The fruit is not a thing given or added to the tree. It is as much a part of it as the blossom. Unless the tree is good, the fruit cannot be good. Precisely so does happiness follow a religious character, in the unalterable order of nature. Something of that happiness may be known in the present state. It follows hard on every good feeling we cherish, and every good deed we do. The low slave of passion can neither taste it, nor understand it. Take a thoughtless wretch from the street and place him in some house of God. There is certainly happiness there; there are a few at least, whose hearts burn within them, as they meditate on the wonderful works and kindness of God. But to him, it is dreary as the wilderness or the grave. This may help our imagination of the suffering of a soul thrown unprepared into a spiritual world. All its happiness came from material things, and how can it be otherwise than wretched, when the world and its passions are gone forever? Certain it is, that the happiness which flows from religious, kind, and generous affections, is the happiness of heaven. Perhaps, however, we cannot fully comprehend it, till we are raised higher above the world than ever yet we have been. We cannot expect, in the depth of the valley, shut in by rocks and forests on every side, to form any idea of the vastness and glory of nature. We must climb the mountain till the horizon spreads and the heaven towers. And nothing comprehensive, nothing inspiring can enter our ideas of religious enjoyment, till we rise so high, that the joys and sorrows of the world are no longer boundaries to our view.

Those who are disposed to regard future happiness as something incomprehensible, fortify themselves by such words as, 'Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.' They are not aware, perhaps, that these words are quoted from the Old Testament, and were said when life and immortality were not yet brought to light. St Paul immediately says, God hath revealed them unto us by

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his spirit; that is, in Christianity. Immortality, perhaps, was known from the earliest time; but it was like some cold star, unregarded, if seen, in the heavens, till later discoveries measured its periods, revealed its real greatness, and made it a guide to wanderers on the sea. We fully believe that future happiness is revealed and may be understood. But there is a mysterious importance attached to the change of death. What is it but a release from the body and its passions? What is it but an incident in life, and by no means the most important? To us it seems, that the soul passes from death to life, when it dismisses things present and gives the earnestness of its affections to intellectual and spiritual, and therefore to immortal things. Feeling that we are immortal, we shall not set our hearts on perishing things, to be answerable when we leave them. Feeling that we are immortal, we shall not look on death as a passing away from life, nor as the beginning of any new existence. In the change of death, the soul leaves the mansion of clay, but remains unchanged, for aught we can discover, in its attainments, affections and powers; and the hour when it begins its immortal preparation, is the time when the corruptible puts on incorruption and the mortal inmortality.

When our lives begin, then we begin a course of immortal improvement, which ends not at the grave. It is idle to say that there is a limit to mortal attainment. There is; but this improvement has nothing to do with mortality. This is the immortal improvement of the immortal part of our nature.. There are bounds to the vigor of the frame. Much as it can be strengthened by exercise, there is a limit beyond which it cannot go. And for a good reason; it is mortal, it is meant to last but a few years. But the immortal was meant to endure and to grow in strength forever. Death, which crushes the powerful frame and palsies the mighty arm, has no power whatever over the soul. Released from its earthly bondage, it goes on in improvement with less resistance; with no cares nor sorrows to weigh it down. Now if it be admitted that the only sure happiness of man comes from religious and intellectual improvement, it is evident that his happiness depends on his preparation. In this world the foundations of that improvement must be laid. In this world, the joy of heaven, therefore, must begin. This life is the childhood and youth of our existence. Death is but the putting away of childish things. It is like the moment when the vessel which has tried its