Queen's existence, and his own obligation to obey her laws. Would it be any excuse for his violating them that he had never seen her? Would it not at once destroy all civil government if he were not to be content with what he saw, even in that remote region, of the effects of her laws and the influence of her power? The normal condition of that peasant is want of all knowledge of his sovereign through personal observation. Yet the ordinary sources of information available are sufficient to bring knowledge and obligation. "And yet how unspeakably less sensible, less immediate, less constant, less necessary, less numerous, are the effects and instances of regal human power and wisdom than of the divine, which latter we behold, which way soever we look, and feel in everything we touch or have any sense of."

The second question is not without a semblance of irony, and the manner in which he considers it exhibits the "platonic tinge," which his fondness for the Grecian philosopher gave to both his cast of thought and his writings: "Can we be sure there are men on the earth?" Is the possession of a human shape enough to give us "a full rational certainty" that we have before us a man? Are we under obligation, supposing we know nothing more than what we see, not to treat such an one rudely and uncivilly? Should we "carry ourselves abusively towards one, that only thus appears a human creature?" The argument is plain and irresistible. "If that alone be sufficient to oblige us to acts of justice or charity towards man, he is strangely blind that cannot see infinitely more to oblige him to acts of piety towards God."

Howe, who always kept in view the grand purpose of revelation, and in the midst of metaphysical disquisitions never forgot that heart-religion is the end to which all his argumentation was but a means, does not fail to make a powerful appeal for thankfulness to God that the evidence which sometimes men would fain demand is mercifully withheld, while He has spoken to us in a manner more suited to our nature and present state; and urges that we "have no longer any reason to delay the dedication of a temple to Him, upon any pretence of doubt whether we have an object of worship existing, yea or no."

The investigation of these questions prepares the way for " some short reflections upon the Atheistical temper and genius," in which, whatever may have been the comparatively abstruse nature of his previous inquiries, he comes down to the understanding of all, and brings his subject. to a very earnest and practical conclusion. This method usually distinguishes him; so that if, on the one hand, we are to admit that there was justice in the remark of the good woman who, having read some of his works, showed her displeasure by saying, that he was so long laying the cloth, that she always despaired of the dinner;" yet, on the other, there is equal justice in the remark of Calamy, that though the first part of his sermons generally displayed great depth and reach of thought, they "usually closed in a strain level to the comprehension of the meanest, and with an earnestness and pathos in the application calculated to produce the deepest impression." He shows this sceptical spirit to be an unreasonable thing, a perverse and cross

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grained humour, that so oddly writhes and warps the mind of a man, as that it never makes any effort or offer against the Deity, but it therein doth -by a certain sort of serpentine involution and retortion-seem to design a quarrel with itself." And here he makes a reference to his celebrated argument for demonstrating the existence and perfections of God.

If we

And we can thoroughly agree with him when he asks respecting it, "Where is the flaw? what joint is not firm and strong in this little frame of discourse?" The most subtle sceptic and the most arrant materialist must admit that " something" exists now. Therefore, there must either have been a time when nothing existed, or else "something" has existed from all eternity. Only one of these suppositions can be true; and the other must be false. can show the falsity of the one, we establish the truth of the other. Now, suppose there was a time when nothing existed. Then there must have been a time when existence began. If so, "something" must have started into existence out of nothing. But that would be doing something; and how could it have done anything before it existed? If that could be true, it would follow that it was before it was, that it was and was not at the same time, that it was something and nothing, that it was its own cause and its own effect! Since the supposition that at one time nothing existed leads inevitably to so absurd a conclusion, we must admit that "something" has existed from all eternity. It must, therefore, have been uncaused. A little reflection will show that this eternal and un

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caused "something" must be independent and capable of action upon others. And the usual à posteriori argument, reasoning from the traces of design and contrivance (of which the world is full) to a Designer and Contriver, abundantly proves that He who is mighty in power is also wise and benevolent" the only wise God, our Saviour." We are not surprised to find that Howe's spirit is roused by such a perversion of reason as appears in the "Atheist's cavils," "despicably silly against the Deity, and consequently Religion." And when he proceeds to characterise it as a base abject temper," he rises to a lofty indignation that breaks forth in splendid eloquence. "An unmanly thing, a degrading of one's self! For if there be no God, what am I? A piece of moving, thinking clay, whose ill-compacted parts will shortly fly asunder, and leave no other remains of me than what shall become the prey and triumph of worms! It is a sad, mopish, disconsolate temper, cuts off and quite banishes all manly rational joy-all that might spring from the contemplation of the Divine excellencies and glory shining in the works of his hands. Atheism clothes the world in black, draws a dark and duskish cloud over all things; doth more to damp and stifle all relishes of intellectual pleasure, than it would of sensible, to extinguish the sun. What is this world-if we should suppose it still to subsist-without God? How grateful an entertainment is it to a pious mind to behold His glory stamped on every creature, sparkling in every Providence, and by a firm and rational faith to believe, when we cannot see, how all events are conspiring to bring about the most happy

and blissful state of things! The Atheist may make the most of this world; he knows no pleasure but what can be drawn out of its dry breasts or found in its cold embraces; which yields as little satisfaction as he finds whose arms, aiming to inclose a dear friend, do only clasp a stiff and clammy carcase."

And he thus concludes a passage of

striking force and earnestness : "Shall I be the next hour nothing, or miserable? or if I had opportunity, shall I not have sufficient cause to proclaim-as once one of the same fraternity did, by way of warning to a surviving companion- A great and terrible God! a great and terrible God! a great and terrible God!'"

M. GUIZOT passed thirty-five years of his life, he tells us, in struggling, on a bustling arena, for the establishment of political liberty, and the maintenance of order as established by law. In the labours and trials of this struggle he learnt the real worth of Christian faith and of Christian liberty. And in the repose of the retreat to which he has betaken himself from the cares and vicissitudes of statesmanship, God permits him to consecrate to the cause of faith and freedom what remains to him of life and of strength. Hence the "Meditations on the Essence of Christianity," with which the veteran statesman has favoured the public. And these are only an instalment of what he hopes to give the world. If the three volumes to come are at all equal to that which we have now in our hands, the four will form a precious legacy, and those who can appreciate them will not regret that the course of events has driven the Prime Minister of Louis Philippe into the retirement of ValRicher.

But

The

say that they contain rather fruits than processes of thought. they are ripe fruits. And it is no small satisfaction to find this man of thought and study seeking and finding rest in those plain Bible statements in which Christ is set forth as the Son of God and the Saviour of men. last meditation of the series is entitled, "Jesus Christ according to the Gospels," and the following is one of the seven sections of which it consists. It is one of the least important in the volume, but its subject is treated in a somewhat novel manner, and it will form a fitting introduction to the paper which follows it in our pages.

JESUS AND WOMEN. At the very source of all religions, as well as in their subsequent history, women find a place to fill, and a part to perform. At one time they constitute the material and furnish the ornament of licentious systems of mythology. At another, on the contrary, they are, for the heroes of those religions, objects either of pious horror or of observances at once rigorous and austere: women

full of evil and of peril; and they are accordingly thrust from their lives as men thrust from them what is a temptation and an impurity. Voluptuous Voluptuous pictures and adventures on the one hand, and zealous impulses of rigid asceticism on the other, constitute the two extremes to which religions in their ages of youth and of vigour are alternately prone. Sometimes-and

it is more fortunate for women when it is the case they are described in the narrative of these religions, such as they really are in human life, charmers, and at the same time charmed, seducers and seduced, idols and slaves; at first votaries of the enthusiasm, the victims of the errors and the passions which they at once inspire and feel. Whether Asiatic or Europeans, rude or refined, such are the striking features with which all systems of religion, excepting Christianity, have characterized the women whom they have introduced in their narratives.

Neither of these characteristics, nor anything analogous, is met with in the Gospel, and in the relations of Jesus with women. They seem irresistibly attracted towards Him, with hearts moved, imagination struck by His manner of life, His precepts, His miracles, His language. He inspires them with feelings of tender respect and confiding admiration. The Canaanitish woman comes and addresses to Him a timid prayer for the healing of her daughter. The woman of Samaria listens to Him with eagerness, though she does not know Him: Mary seats herself at His feet, absorbed in reflections suggested by His words; and Martha proffers to Him the frank complaint that her sister assists her not, but leaves her unaided in the

performance of her domestic duties. The sinner draws near to Him in tears, pouring upon His feet a rare perfume, and wiping them with her hair. The adulteress, hurried into his presence by those who wished to stone her in accordance with the precepts of the Mosaic Law, remains motionless in His presence, even after her accusers have withdrawn, waiting in silence what He is about to say. Jesus receives the homage, and listens to the prayers of all these women, with the gentle gravity and impartial sympathy of a being superior and strange to earthly passion. Pure and inflexible interpreter of the Divine law, He knows and understands man's nature, and judges it with that equitable severity which nothing escapes, the excuse as little as the fault. Faith, sincerity, humanity, sorrow, repentance, touch Him without biassing the charity and the justice of His conclusions; and He expresses blame and announces pardon with the same calm serenity of authority, certain that His eye has read the depths of the heart to which His words will penetrate. In his relations with the women who approach Him, there is, in short, not the slightest trace of man; nowhere does the Godhead manifest itself more winningly and with greater purity.

And when there is no longer any question of these particular relations and conversations, when Jesus has no longer before him women suppliants and sinners who are invoking his power or imploring his clemency; when it is with the position and the destiny of women in general that He is occupying himself, He affirms and defends their claims and their dignity with a sympathy at once penetrating

and severe. He knows that the happiness of mankind, as well as the moral position of women depends essentially upon the married state; He makes of the sanctity of marriage a fundamental law of Christian religion and society; He pursues adultery even into the recesses of the human heart, the human thought; He forbids divorce; He "Have ye says of men, not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female ?......For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh. Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What, therefore, God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. They say unto Him, Why did Moses

then command to give a writing of divoreement, and to put her away? He saith unto them, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery."

Signal and striking testimony to the progressive action of God upon the human race! Jesus Christ restores to the divine law of marriage, the purity and the authority that Moses had not enjoined to the Hebrews "because of the hardness of their hearts."

"How the powers of women may be turned to their best and highest account; how far charitable work in its many branches is a right and natural employment for them, and by what kind of organization it may best be carried on, are problems which are pressing on us from all sides. They pressed on Miss Sieveking with the added force of novelty, for until her time it had scarcely been admitted in Germany that such questions had a right to exist at all. It cannot but be good for us to learn what a noble practical solution she found for them in her own life, notwithstanding many difficulties and much discouragement.'

So writes the biographer of this lady, in the preface to a memoir, in itself of unusual interest and value, and especially so at the present time,

when women's special work in the Lord's Church, and amongst the Lord's poor, is engaging so much thought and sympathy, and women of all ranks are stirred up to noble and loving deeds, bringing hope and comfort to many a sinning and suffering one, and a rich harvest of blessing to their own souls. Born at Hamburgh in 1794, of a family of some social and intellectual standing in the city, Amelia lost her mother at too early an age for recollection, and at the age of fifteen became entirely an orphan. Her biographer speaks of her as characterized by a strong, active, truthful, and independent nature, but with the faults peculiar to such a nature, a great deal of ambition, not without vanity, and a strong inclination to carry out her own opinions and will, against the will and opinion of others.