Being as if he did not possess any, and as if they were altogether of no importance. But is this line of conduct becoming, or defensible? Should any one write the history of our Alfred, and say nothing of his impartial administration of justice, or of his excellent moral qualities, would not such an individual be regarded as having given a miserably imperfect representation of his subject? And is the Divine character, then, altogether destitute of moral attributes? Is not God holy, and just, and good? This must undoubtedly be the case; if he were destitute of these excellencies, he could not be God; he could not have been the Father of the world which we inhabit. Most assuredly God is good. No man can look abroad on creation with an impartial eye, and not see that his kindness is displayed, more or less, in all the works of his hands. Paley proves that this is the case, on two grounds; first, because, in a vast plurality of instances in which contrivance is perceived among the creatures, the design is beneficial : and, secondly, because the Deity has superadded pleasure to animal sensations beyond what was necessary for any other purpose; or when the purpose, so far as it was necessary, might have been effected by the operation of pain. "When," says he, "the multitude of animals is considered, the number of parts in each, their figure and fitness, the faculties depending upon them, the variety of species, the complexity of structure, the success, in so many cases, and felicity of result, we can never reflect, without the profoundest adoration, upon the character of that Being from whom all these things have proceeded: we cannot help acknowledging what an exertion of benevolence creation was; of a benevolence, how minute in its care, how vast in its comprehension! It is a happy world after all. The air, the earth, the water, teem with delighted existence. In a spring noon, or a summer evening, on whichever side I turn my eyes, myriads of happy beings crowd on my view." 66 That God has given us pleasure in many cases beyond what was necessary to the support or preservation of life, is evident. Let us select a single instance. Assuming the necessity of food for the support of animal life, it is requisite that the animal be provided with organs fitted for the procuring, receiving, and digesting of its food. It may be also necessary that the animal be impelled by its sensations to exert its organs. But the pain of hunger would do all this. Why add pleasure to the act of eating-sweetness and relish to the food? Why a new and appropriate sense for the perception of the pleasure? Why should the juice of a peach, applied to the palate, affect the part so differently from what it does when rubbed on the palm of the hand? Eating is necessary, but the pleasure attending it is not necessary. This is a constitution, which can be resolved into nothing but the pure benevolence of the Creator." Thus God is evidently good. All nature and all being proclaim the delightful sentiment. It is equally certain that He is just. If He had not an entire love of what is right, and a supreme abhorrence of what is wrong, He could not be God, nor could He be worthy of the highest esteem of all rational beings. Would not a chief magistrate, who should view the honest and dishonest, the murderer and the humane and benevolent individual, with an equal eye, and who should adopt the same line of conduct towards these widely different persons, be, in the opinion of every one, a most exceptionable character? Would any people long endure the government of such an individual? Certainly not. Who, then, can hesitate to believe that the great Manager of the universe must necessarily detest, and, in some way, manifest His displeasure against what is wrong? We are, indeed, certain that He does so. God has given us many plain intimations, to say the least, that this is the case. It is not so much a deduction of reason," says Bishop Butler, "as a matter of experience, that we are under the government of God, in the same sense as we are under the government of civil magistrates; because, the annexing pleasure to some actions and pain to others, and giving notice of this appointment beforehand, is the proper formal notion of government. Whether the pleasure or pain which thus follows on our behaviour be owing to the Author of Nature acting upon us every moment that we feel it, or to his having at once contrived and executed his own part in the plan of the world, makes no difference. For if civil magistrates could make the sanctions of their laws take place, without interposing at all after they had passed them, without a trial and the formalities of an execution, we should be just in the same sense under their government then as we are now, but in a much higher degree, and in a more perfect manner. God actually exercises dominion or government over us at present, by rewarding and punishing us for our actions, in as strict and proper a sense of these words, and even in the same sense, as children, servants, and subjects are rewarded and punished by those who govern them." It appears, from the nature of things, that the vicious and the virtuous cannot be equally happy even in the present world; He, then, who was the Author of this arrangement, must approve of that which is right and good, and abhor that which is unjust and unholy. But why does deism contemn, or overlook, the goodness, and justice, and holiness of God? Can any being, however powerful or wise, be justly admired or beloved who is destitute of moral grandeur ? If so, the most execrable despot that ever disgraced the name of humanity-even a Caligula or a Nero, deservedly held up by the historian to everlasting abhorrence-might be justly regarded as an object of esteem and admiration. If there were an individual residing near, and well known to us, whose life was an exemplification of every virtue, should we be regardless of his excellencies? Would it not argue that there was something exceedingly defective in our own principles and character ? Can the neglect and disregard of God's moral character, which is so evident both in the writings and in the conduct of deists, proceed from any other principle than a dislike to the Divine Being, on account of His holiness and purity? And surely, the system which presents to us a God destitute of moral attributes, cannot but, on the very face of it, be exceedingly defective and absurd.-F. GOD SEEN IN HIS WORKS. THOU art, O God, the life and light Its glow by day, its smile by night, Are but reflections caught from Thee! Through golden vistas into heaven- When night, with wings of stormy gloom, When youthful spring around us breathes, And all things fair and bright are Thine.-Moore. Immortal Hope HOPE. Takes comfort from the foaming billows' rage, And makes a welcome harbour of the tomb.-YOUNG. THERE is, perhaps, no feeling which the human breast cherishes so nearly connected with its happiness as that of Hope. And it was mercifully appointed that in a world, whose brighest visions of felicity prove but the shadow of a shade, whose past pleasures, while they feast the memory, leave the heart aching with a sense of their desertion, and whose present enjoyments vanish ere they are grasped, and wither ere thy bloom, some more enduring realities should be held out to the anticipation of the spirit fainting under weariness and disappointment. When sin had entered within the bowers of Eden, and the primal curse had been pronounced on the parents of the human race, Hope, the young and beautiful offspring of untainted joys, sojourned with the exiles, and attended on their wanderings. She cheered them with the song of future and happier days, pointed them to the horizon of eternal life, and showed the first glimmerings of that bright and morning star, which should rise on Bethlehem and set on Calvary, but whose brightness should remain, and whose memory should live, till eternity had lost itself in its own vastness. Since then she has trod a thorny path, and partaken deeply of the wretchedness of the world, which she came to solace and to cheer. Time was when she could have flown over the obstructions of her path, but the cruelty of men has bound her wings, and her feet have bled among the briars of the wilder ness. It has been the Christian bosom which has cherished best this worn and wandering pilgrim,—while the pilgrim, in her turn, has warmed and cheered the bosom that gave her shelter; and while Hope has listened to the tale of sorrows, which the suffering children of humanity have poured into her ear, her eye has kindled with the brightness of immortality, her voice has trembled with the inspiration of prophecy, and she has infused into their "song, in the house of their pilgrimage," the joy and peace of believing, and the assurance of eternal salvation. THE BIRTH OF CHRIST. BRIGHTEST and best of the sons of the morning, Guide where our infant Redeemer is laid! Cold on his cradle the dew-drops are shining, Maker, and Monarch, and Saviour of all! Vainly we offer each ample oblation, Vainly with gold would his favour secure ; Richer by far is the heart's adoration, Dearer to God are the prayers of the poor! Brightest and best of the sons of the morning, Dawn on our darkness, and lend us thine aid! Star of the east, the horizon adorning, Guide where our infant Redeemer is laid!-HEBer. SCULPTURE. SCULPTURE is the most sublime of the imitative arts; of this any one will be convinced who will compare his feelings in the contemplation of a beautiful piece of sculpture with his feelings in the contemplation of a beautiful painting; and the reason probably is this, that, notwithstanding its want of colour, there is more of reality in sculpture than in painting; we may walk round the figure, and view it from every point of sight, and each will make a new impression; we may gaze upon it till we fancy the marble lips move, and the head and the arms show signs of life; if alone in the presence of a fine statue, we do not feel alone; we are almost tempted to address it, and all that is wanting of reality the imagination supplies; and how sublime is all that the imagination creates ! But painting has nothing of all thisthe figure is fixed, the colour is defined, there is no varied point of sight, there is nothing or little for the imagination to fill out, there is less that is real, less that is tangible, less of animation and life. Sculpture, among the ancients, derived greater advantages |