Divine Providence.

Now I ask the unbeliever him

self, whether this be at all probable!

Third. That for 3600 years the Jews were the only people on earth capable of giving an account of the commencement and progress of time; as they only possessed both knowledge and letters.

With the

primitive tongue, they retained the true knowledge of God, and of the remarkable events which occurred during the first ages of the world.

Fourth. The Jews were made the trustees of the Mosaic narrative, when it was written, and have preserved it uncorrupted unto this day. Ask any Jew in Europe, and he will tell you that the passover has been celebrated, by his countrymen, all over the world, from the days of Moses, up to this very year!

Fifth. When the infidel presents a book, pos

sessing equal claims to truth and antiquity, he may then demand a hearing against the Bible; the discussion will then turn upon the comparative merits of the two books. At present, the Bible stands alone in these respects! It is emphatically the book! It has no competitor! Our sceptical friends may not have adverted to the fact, but there is not, at this time, an individual in the states of Europe, distinguished either as a statesman or a scholar, not even in France itself,

who stands before Christendom, as the avowed representative of Voltaire and his sentiments. The public is greatly in advance of the plausible sophistry that pervades his philosophy! I would say to my unbelieving friends keep your own secret: say nothing against the Bible to any one, for, if you do, sensible people will conclude that you labour under some mental infirmity. Get your doubts removed as soon as possible, by reading, reflection, and, I would add, prayer. I cannot recommend, for your imitation, a better example than that of Dr. Ashbel Green, of Philadelphia. "When I was a young man," says he, “I fell under irreligious influences among officers of the army, and at length became a sceptic. But my mind was not at rest. I read the leading works on the evidences of christianity, and found that I could not withstand the argument, but even my intellect seemed to need something further. To the Bible itself I determined to make a final appeal. My christian education had already rendered me, in a degree, familiar with a large portion of its contents; but on this I resolved to place no dependence. I took up the New Testament as if I had never opened it before; and with the single object of looking out for the signatures of divinely-inspired truth and I prayed, as well as half an infidel could

pray, that God, in whose existence and attributes I believed, would help me to form a just opinion of the truth or fallacy of that book. Proceeding in this way, I had not gone through the four Evangelists when all my scepticism left me, and to this hour it has never returned. My mind, indeed, has sometimes been harassed with almost every species of infidel, and even atheistic suggestions; but I have, at the very time of their occurrence, been thoroughly convinced that they were false and groundless." It will be well if those of you, who are the subjects of sceptical doubts, will deal with them in the manner that was done in the instance referred to. The word of God, if honestly studied, with prayer for enlightment, is its own best witness.

I feel obliged, by the lateness of the hour, to conclude this lecture. At as early a period as possible, I will take up the second part of my proposition and, after contrasting the narrative of Moses with the historic facts adduced this evening, endeavour to vindicate the literal meaning, and establish the authenticity of that narrative.

PART SECOND.

THE LITERAL MEANING AND AUTHENTICITY OF THE MOSAIC NARRATIVE, EXAMINED AND ESTABLISHED.

Regarding, as we do, the word of God as the basis of all rational faith and the standard of all that is valuable to society in moral equity, we cannot but regret the tendency of the present legislation of the states of Europe, practically to ignore the supreme authority of that book. Instead of endeavouring to mould the principles, habits, and institutions of the people, to a conformity to the will of God, it seems as if they were aiming at such a modification of the divine law itself as may adapt it to the diversified tastes of the present age. Even in our own country, instead of regulating the trade and commerce of the nation, by the simple and obvious principles laid down in the fourth commandment, our statesmen advocate the relaxation of those principles, so as to meet the convenience of commerce. While a large portion of the public press is transfusing the elements of liberty, truth, justice,

religion, and morality into the national mind; another, though as yet, less influential portion of it, is patronising and disseminating every form of error. Coming upon the stage of life at such a crisis as this, and looking at the bold assertions of unbelievers on the one hand, and the diversity of religious opinion presented on the other, the youth of our land are apt to conclude that revealed religion has no fixed principles, and that it is incapable of being successfully defended. As all personal and social virtue must originate in a believing recognition of the authority and inspiration of the sacred writings it is surely the duty of the christian minister to guard the working men of our time against those false and seductive systems that would weaken their belief in the validity and integrity of those writings. In a former lecture, we proposed to establish, "the antiquity of the Mosaic narrative by an appeal to history!" On that occasion we endeavoured to prove, first,―That, though the nations of antiquity, the Phoenicians, Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Grecians excelled in many of the arts and sciences, yet they could give no satisfactory account of their own origin, inasmuch as they were wholly unacquainted with the primary cause of existence. Second,―That, if they had possessed ample information, on this momentous subject, yet they had