the soul to such aspirations as "Thy kingdom come,

thy will be done!"

Hence, among all God's creatures, it is man alone who has a soul to be saved

man alone who has the

freedom of choice-man alone who pants for an hereafter. Why? Because man alone is endowed with "PRACTICAL REASON," the sure guide to realms of never-ending bliss, which not only explains to his own soul what duties are required of him, but also distinctly acquaints him with the issue of his actions, by bringing them in review before that Sacred Tribunal, "Conscience," which either acquits or condemns, in the most unequivocal manner-not the action performed here in TIME, but the motive, which exists only in ETERNITY.

Will any one venture to affirm even that inferior animals are so superiorly gifted! The instances we can adduce to establish the converse are so numerous and so convincing that we defy all attempts to maintain the assertion. The grand distinction between man and animal then is :

MAN

is endowed with

ANIMAL

is endowed with

REASON.

INSTINCT.

Now, the importance of the distinction between REASON and INSTINCT cannot be too powerfully enforced, for it constitutes the only ground of difference between MAN and ANIMAL, and proves most decidedly not only that Man is the superior Animal, but that, by virtue of his superlative faculty- REASON- he necessarily becomes the "Scope of Creation." To explain this distinction still more clearly, we should say:

The nail never reasons with the hammer, even when it does not obey this law of force, its opposition being the result of another law that of resistance. Man is conscious of his powers; and in his moral conduct he is conscious of the MORAL LAW-that is, "the Word of God." This law commands strict obedience, and shows the distinction between right and wrong. That action is right which is in perfect accordance with the law of PRACTICAL REASON, and performed out of reve

rence for this pure law of God. Surely no one will pretend to endow the brute with purity like this! His most refined INSTINCT is but an instrument in the hand of his Creator · —a hammer and chisel in the hand of a Phidias. It is true that angels have no power to disobey this law of their Rational Nature, wanting the seducements to transgress: hence they are Holy Beings. But man, in his probationary state, is plunged into a vortex of difficulties, to prove his claim to higher regions. Virtue is the victory of REASON Over the sinful lusts of the flesh; Vice is the ascendancy of SENSE, or the perversion of God's "Holy Law," which subjects the inclinations to the guidance of REASON. Yet let it not be supposed even that it implies any servility in REASON to obey a law. Know, then, that it obeys no other law than that of which it is itself the Author; and it would most assuredly be very irrational to make laws merely to break them. Hence Man is Free, and has the power to fulfil the laws of his own REASON, and defy all nature to interpose. How sublimely is this doctrine expounded in "Holy Writ!” -"Love worketh no ill to his neighbour, therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law: awake then, cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armour of light."

From the preceding reasoning, it must be abundantly evident that it far exceeds the power of matter to think, that is, to act voluntarily, being in its very nature inert and motionless till moved by other matter. Not so spirit, which waits not till it is impelled, but acts spontaneously and of its own accord. Could matter originate the "MORAL LAW?" - No; here we must positively have mind, and that, too, of the very first order. What but PRACTICAL REASON is capable of evolving from its own nature a law so pure, so commanding, that nothing short of that Divine Faculty, REASON, has the power to contemplate, to comprehend, and to execute, its divine commandments! - Here, indeed, inert matter shrinks in the comparison; and so does animal instinct, which is on a par with matter, having been made as perfect at its creation as it will be till its extinction. In fact, the Animal, Vegetable, and Mineral, Kingdoms are all three governed by necessary and instinctive laws, leaving mind free as air to proceed in its voluntary and spontaneous course ever to approximate in purity its Divine Author, and finally to nestle and centre in the very bosom of God! After such an elaborate argument, which permanently establishes the distinction between Mind and Matter,

we surely may venture to display the impassable barrier

that for ever separates Spirit from Matter, in the fol

Now for our interminable string of proofs, collected from by-gone ages, and confirmed by the refulgent blaze of intellect that marks the present era.—That atmospheric air is necessary for the preservation of life no one doubts. It is also equally well known that this requisite of existence is a compound of vital air and mephitic gas. Suppose the atmosphere to consist wholly of vital air, it would destroy not only life itself but all the substances in nature. To correct this effect, there exists a portion of mephitic gas, the property of which is to extinguish vitality. The excess of either is death to every thing. Therefore, we should say that it is the instinctive property of the one air to promote life, and of the other to extinguish it. Thus the assigned quantity of animated and inert matter is produced by the due admixture of these opposite instinctive qualities.