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broader, the blessings it conveys to the needy children of men. fuller, more abundant. "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end," attached to the commission of instrumentality, were a sufficient pledge of never-ceasing success to faithful effort, amid all adverse appearances, even were there very much less than there is, to like effect; but the Scripture is really full of kindred assurances. "Is Ezekiel permitted to behold the gospel prefigured in the living stream which flows from the Sanctuary? He sees that stream deepen and widen in its onward course, till the waters are risen, waters to swim in, a river that can not be passed over.' Is Daniel instructed to recognize in a stone cut out without hands,' an emblem of the kingdom of Christ? The mysterious manner in which it becomes enlarged, and occupies province after province, till it fills the whole earth,' strikingly represents the growth of that spiritual empire which is destined to break in pieces and consume all' hostile power, and to stand forever.' Does the Sovereign himself of that kingdom select appropriate emblems of its progress? He finds them in the growth of the mustardseed, and in the diffusive influence of the leaven. Not, indeed, that in its progress it will be entirely exempted from external shocks. Like the earthly empires which it is destined finally to absorb, its affairs may often approach a crisis, which may appear to threaten its existence. But, true to the emblems by which our Lord represents it, its history will eventually exhibit the threefold characteristic of original insignificance, constant though imperceptible progress, crowned with ultimate greatness and universal power. . . . And though its advance to the universality and glory which await it, may be attended by a seriess of providential judgments, that progress will be made, and that ultimate glory attained, by the diffusion of the Gospel directed and made efficient by the agency of the Holy Spirit. Let us not then be moved away from the hope of the gospel,' and expect that judgments and providential occurrences are to produce effects which are promised only to the diffusion of the word of God. That judgments will accompany and pioneer its march through the earth, as they ever have done, we freely admit. But they are not to be regarded as forming an order of means distinct from the Gos

pel economy, and superior to it. They wait on its steps. So vast is that economy in its sweep and design, that it includes and appropriates every kind of agency; presses into its service the angel of wrath, as well as employs the angel of mercy; and lays under tribute all the revolutions of time and all the dispensations of Providence." (Harris' Great Commis sion, pp. 156-161.)

Then see how this pledged on-going of the great cause has been already vindicated. The little band in an upper room, at once, with the beginning of the Spirit's dispensation, swells by thousands under pungent appeals of witnesses for heaven, whose souls are quickened into irrepressible earnestness by convictions clear as the unclouded sun, hopes high as heaven, gratitude stronger than death. Thence onward the new influence is borne with an unselfish devotion, a zeal never tiring, a perseverance that knows no intermission, a noble heroism unparalleled in the annals of human exploit, till Jew and Gentile, Greek, Roman, and Barbarian, hear, to effectual purpose, the glad tidings, and multitudes believe, obey, and live. What though they die by thousands in the gardens of Nero, under every refinement of cruelty possible to the contrivance of a wretch so incredibly vile. Yet in those gardens shall one day arise a temple, nominally Christian at least, "surpassing the ancient glory of the Capitol." (Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chap. xvi.) What though the best emperors, the Trajans and Antonines, as philosophers despise them, and as sovereigns consign them to the bloody butcheries "that make a Roman holiday" yet shall their faith and its adherents multiply, till the empire is itself subdued, at least in name, under the power of the cross. What though Barbarians overthrow that empire, and all old classic civilization perish in its ruins, yet is there now alive the spirit of a better, purer, fresher, mightier civilization, that can not be there, never can be on earth, entombed: the civilization of grace and truth, of righteousness and peace, of faith, hope, and love. It gains access to the hearts and homes of the conquerors, and gradually, as the ages roll on, tames the wild, rules the lawless, and refines the rude. True, there is vast confusion. The elements of society are in strange chaos.

East and west are wasted with conflict. And the dark

ness of error seems to settle on the Church itself. Yet are there all along Augustines and Gregorys, Alfreds, Anselms, and Bernards, Christian schools, and multiplying manuscripts of sacred truth. The Roger Bacons and Wickliffes arise, morning-stars foretokening the day. Then appear the types of Güttenberg, the enterprise of Columbus, the Luthers, the Galileos, and the Keplers. Now an unchained Bible opens the portals of truth, and the sun of righteousness, indeed, arises with healing in his wings. The father of inductive science receives his commission, the brightest crown that ever graced head of uninspired mortal is given to encircle the brow of Francis Bacon. And a "Novum Organum" unveils the longmissed method of true inquiry. Christian civilization enters conspicuously upon its world-exalting mission. And nowwhen after but one or two generations, its achievements are registered, its power tested, its capacity shown, its superiority over all other systems tried, or conceivable, proved-can skepticism itself fail to see that here is the benign energy, foreshadowed in the wonderful provisions of nature that look to universal improvement, and pledged in the more wonderful promises of revelation that insure increasing success and final supremacy to the kingdom of grace upon earth?

Nor is it one of the smaller excellences of this admirable influence that its sympathizing heart is large enough to embrace, its far-reaching hand strong enough to help all the lost wanderers from the family blessings of regenerated humanity. There is no degradation of human creatures so low but to it this benign power can apply elevating agencies. No darkness so deep but to it this divinely furnished energy can impart something of heaven's own light. This, every where, with fair trial, it has uniformly proved. How many a Christianized African, under good influences in the United States, or well taught through missionary fidelity in the land of his forefathers, has been amazingly elevated in character! How many a South-Sea Islander, vile beyond all other known depravity, has been so changed, through the assiduous care of Christian love, that not only, in the language of Captain Wilkes, (United States Exploring Expedition, vol. i. p. 326,) to cite no other authority, "has the savage become a reasona

ble creature, but to visit one of these missionary stations after witnessing the hopelessness of heathen pollution elsewhere, is like passing out of darkness into light."

Whether it be in the plan of Providence that these degraded races shall, in the progress of ameliorating influences, be raised at length to full equality in physical, mental, moral, and all human characteristics, with the leading families of men, we may, possibly, not be permitted to anticipate: nor is it at all necessary to determine. Suffice it that we know them to be men of the same original endowments, the same general capacities, the same responsible nature, and the same final destiny as ourselves. And that, as they are embraced in the great double promise of indefinite improvement, so are they susceptible of culture to which we can assign no limits.

The experience, too, of prodigious elevation effected in Europe by centuries of Christian training, upon races once scarcely less degraded than the most barbarous now are, warrants a large hope for these, when the lever of Bible-civilization has been judiciously plied upon them for any thing like a similar term. What were Britons when visited by Cæsar, 55 B.C. Barbarians in the worst sense of that epithet. Clothed in skins, often entirely nude, "omnibus membies expediti," (Cæs. Comment. lib. iv. chap. 24,) and horribly disfigured by paint, after the manner of our modern savages. "Omnes se Britanni vitro inficiunt, quod coeruleum efficit colorem; atque hoc horribiliore sunt in fingua aspectu." (Lib. v. chap. 14.) Their moral condition, as described in the next few lines, is too shocking to permit repetition even under the partial disguise of a dead language. Nothing more revolting is at this day known among the vilest of human kind. In all this, intellectual debasement is, of course, implied. But we have it besides most distinctly intimated by Cicero, in his letter to Atticus, the next year, B.C. 54, when advising the latter against trying slaves from Britain, because of their extreme ignorance, their untutored rudeness, "nullos puto te litteris aut musices eruditos expectare." (Lib. iv. Ep. 16.) Yet the descendants of those ignorant barbarians, those unclothed, painted savages, those sickening specimens of moral pollution, are this day among the noblest of the cultivated peo

ple of the world, an element of unsurpassed worth in the great dominant, Christianized and Christianizing, healthily-civilized, progressive, earth-encompassing Anglo Saxon race. Surely, with this spectacle before us, illustrating what the doubly assured agencies of religion according to the Bible, and of nature opened by science, can do; we need never despair of ultimate elevation for the lowest of our kind, gradual improvement for all human tribes, and experience at last, wherever man finds a dwelling-place, of sanctified civilization in all the fullness of its comforts, all the glory of its blessings.

Thus cheered, then, let the Church awake to new life, to holier consecration, and to nobler enterprise. Let every good man, in prayer, in considerate concern, in contribution as he can, in all wisely zealous action as he may, and especially in the power of a godly life, lend strength to the agencies whereby "the knowledge of the Lord" shall be made to "cover the earth." And let every appliance of truth, every achievement of science, every shock of war, every accumulation of industry, every improvement of art, and every enterprise of commerce, be consecrated to the same great end; then, indeed, shall the coming generations see gloriously fulfilled in world-wide blessing the grand double prophecy of Human Progress.

ART. II.-NEW-HAVEN CHURCH REVIEW ON DR. SPRAGUE'S ANNALS OF THE EPISCOPAL PULPIT.

It must be a source of regret to the amiable author of these notices, that they should be made an occasion of discord among the ministers or members of the Church to which they relate. An extract from the April number of the New-Haven Quarterly will show the propriety not only of this remark, but of subjecting a portion of that article to critical examination. What was intended to be the sting of that article, and what is really its venom, is in its tail—the concluding paragraph and note. As preliminary to its examination, we place it before

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