Let us then, as briefly as we may, examine each of these witnesses successively, and see what reasons they assign why we should repose unfaltering confidence in their great Author and Inspirer. And,

1. What is the testimony of the works of God. What do they declare to have been the end of their creation, and the prompting reason in the mind of their Great Architect for their origination?

Passing all the magnificent scenery of suns and and systems, which fill the constellated universe, what is their testimony respecting the end and originating reason of our own. comparatively miniature globe? For what was it made? Why its hills and valleys, its mountains and broad savannas? Why its oceans, and lakes, and rivers, and fountains, and "liquid lapse of murmuring streams?" Why its dews, and rains, and even its turbulent storms? Why its surrounding air, its glorious sunshine, and its milder radiance of the moon? Why its fire, and combustible materials? Why its constant revolutions, alternating day and night, and bringing in the seasons, spring and summer, autumn and winter? Why its various climes, each provided with its own productions, adaptations, and compensations? Why its diverse kinds of rocks, granite, and marble, and slate, and limestone, and sandstone? Why its mineral wealth, gold and silver, platina and copper, iron and lead, and numerous precious stones? Why its various and fruitful soils? Why its vegetable kingdom--its grasses, herbs, and trees--its flowers and fruits, and many kinds of wood? Why its animal kingdom, embracing all sentient life, from the animalcule to the monster-reptiles, fishes, birds and beasts, with shells, and skins, and bones, and oils, and hairs, and feathers, and furs, and wools, and nourishing flesh and milk, and various types and degrees of subordinate intelligence, capable in some of being trained and wielded, with all the strength or fleetness it animates, in subservience to the wishes and wants of man? Why all these?

With unerring finger they all point to an end-an end, out of, and higher than any found within themselves. With united voice, they all proclaim design, every variety and adaptation finding a tongue. Moreover, they all point to to and proclaim an end good in itself, and attest that the prompting motive of their Great Designer must have been benevolence--that in the constitution and arrangement of all these things and beings, he aimed solely at the origination and promotion of HAPPINESS.

"These are thy glorious works, Parent of good,
Almighty! thine this universal frame,

Thus wondrous fair: thyselt how wondrous then!
Unspeakable, who sit'st above these heavens,
To us invisible, or dimly seen

In these thy lowest works: yet these declare

Thy goodness beyond thought, and power divine?"

But whose happiness is the immediate end of this stupendous array and combination of means and ministries? Among all the other sentient beings, inhabiting the globe, and towering far above them all in constitution, attributes, and capacity of well-being, is MAN-animal, indeed, as to one department of his nature; but rational and immortal as to the other-a being,

"From different nature's marvelously mixed,
Connection exquisite of distant worlds,
Distinguished link in being's endless chain,,
Midway from nothing to the Deity."

He needs no tutor to instruct him that his is the regality of earth, and all that it embosoms and bears-that he was made "to have dominion over all the other terrestrial works of his Maker's hands, they being actually put under his feet: all sheep and oxen; yea, and all the beasts of the field, the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas." It is not more manifest to him that the house he dwells in was designed and built for the convenience and comfort of its occupant, than that the entire globe, with all its powers and productions, inanimate and animate, is a system of means and provisions for human well-being. Hence the unquestioning and matter-of-course way in which he receives and appropriates the contributions and services of all the adaptations, arrangements and adjustments, which throng around him like faithful tributaries and nimble servitors, whispering and shouting"We were made for thee: thou art the end and we the means; and the Designer and Author of both is He whose name is Love."

But turn now, and contemplate man himself. He is a gallery of demonstrations of benevolent design in his Author; or, to use a geological term, benevolent design crops out from every department, every attribute, every faculty and susceptibility of his being. Human physiology is eloquent of this theme. It points to the osseous, the muscular, the nervous, and the venous systems in the human body; to the peculiar constitution, structure, and arrangements of each; and to the

wondrous and exquisite combination of them all into one symmetrical, upright, and stately whole; it points to the structure, shape, joints, position, and obvious purposes of each limb; to the construction, location, relations, and adaptations of all the various organs, internal and external; to the brain, the heart, the lungs, and the whole digestive apparatus; to the eye, that "pure spirit of sense," so admirably constructed, adapted, and located for the purposes of vision; to the ear, that wondrous drum for the vibrating air to beat upon; to the organs of tasting and smelling, and the general capability of feeling, or sensation; to the organs of speech, the prince of which is that tuneful instrument whose rich and various capabilities are quite unrivalled by all the other organs of harmony which ever sounded in the ears of mortals, unless from heavenly voices; it points to the countless arrangements, adjustedness, adaptations, and capabilities of the whole organization, by which it has been constituted such a peerless model of combined strength and delicacy, utility and beauty; and in view of the whole exclaims-"Could all this have sprung from a hand unguided by infinite benevolence? Nay, verily, it is an emanation and demonstration of God's infinite goodness!"

Thus cries the human body in the ear of the world; but still louder and sweeter is the attesting voice which comes from its glorious inhabitant, the IMMORTAL MIND. It sits on the throne of the earthly creation, and calls attention to itself. It points to its own godlike faculties-reason, and conscience, and understanding, and imagination, and memory and will, and sensibility; to its primary ideas, its intuitions, its ratiocinations, its imaginary creations, its hopes and fears, its sateless desires and passions, its clinging affections, its tremulous emotions, and its "thoughts that wander through eternity;" to its achievements in science, and art, and letters, and civil institutions, and useful inventions; to its conscious immortality; its intuitive discernment of the intrinsic nature and value of real well-being-the ultimate good of God and man; its consciousness of imperative obligation to aim at the promotion of this well being, to the highest possible degree, in all our moral actions; its experience of a rich felicity in complying with it, and of actual misery in violating it; its dissatisfaction with all mere earthly good, and its ceaseless seeking with a boundless ardor for a boundless bliss; its sense of imperishable responsibility to God; its spontaneous and irrepressible plaudits of virtue and

anathemas of sin; it points to all these, its own attributes and phenomena, and cries with incessant voice-"I am from God-immortal, and ever-progressive in nature and capacity of good-made to bless, and to be blest, to endless ages.

"Trailing clouds of glory do I come,
From God, who is my home;"

Here to undergo a brief probation, and then to reascend to my native seat, if I forfeit it not by sin. Earth, and all it contains and produces, are means and ministers to promote my temporal good. The "city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God," is the place of my destined everlasting abode, and God and good angels will be my eternal companions. Jehovah is Love."

Thus all nature, throughout all her works, from her myriad mouths, proclaims with choral voice the infinite goodness and trust-worthiness of God. She shouts and hymns it even in the heathen's ear. "Because," says Paul, "that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it to them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse." If this is her inculcation to the heathen, how much louder and plainer must her utterances and anthems be to those who have been introduced to her lectures and concerts, by the courtesy and direction of Inspiration?

Should any one impiously impeach this testimony of the works of God, and point to the miseries, present and prospective, of such multitudes of souls, as its confutation they have an obvious reply

"Not man alone, all rationals, Heaven arms
With an illustrious, but tremendous power,
To counteract its own most gracious ends;
And this of strict necessity, not choice;
That power denied-men, angels were no more,
But passive engines, void of praise or blame.
A nature rational implies the power
Of being blest or wretched, as we please;
Else idle reason would have nought to do,
And he that would be barred capacity,
Of praise, courts incapacity of bliss."

Because fire burns, or water drowns, or the violation of moral law works disaster to well-being, it is no evidence that fire, and water, and moral law are not the results of infinite wis

dom and love. Obedience to physical and moral law is the very axle on which well-being revolves-the attractive center, which, like the eddying whirl of the maelstrom, absorbs to itself the services and tributes of surrounding creation; while the evils which result from disobedience are the handwritings of Jehovah, asserting that happiness cannot be so attained or promoted. All the evils that ever have or ever will come upon mankind, are no more an objection to the infinite benevolence and wisdom of God, in the constitution of things, than are the disasters which befal those who expose themselves or are exposed by others, to the working of a steamengine, an objection to the wisdom and motive of those who may have planned and constructed it. Well-being cannot result from nothing-it is the product of arrangement and constitution, except so far as it is the result of voluntary action; and, if it be thus far the product of arrangement and constitution, it is absurd to say that conflict with, or violation of this arrangement and constitution can by any possibility produce it, or fail to produce its opposite. And, furthermore, if the legitimate tendency of the constitution of things is to produce well-being, this is sufficient to demonstrate the benevolence of its Author, notwithstanding all the incidental evils connected with it. Thus is the objector shown to err, from pure, heroical defect of thought."

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"Parts, like half-sentences, confound; the whole
Conveys the sense, and God is understood."

In the light, then, of what we have said respecting the testimony of the WORKS of God, we ask-Who, even on this ground has a right to distrust him? Who is not bound to confide in his character with all his heart? Who?

2. But let us next inquire what the Bible affirms and testifies respecting the character and trustworthiness of God? What ground does it furnish for our confidence?

We answer it is well nigh its whole vocation to affirm and testify, not only that God is Love, but that his love is quite unparalleled and transcends all human thought. "He commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." He "so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him, should not perish, but have everlasting life." He "waits to be gracious." He is the prodigal's compassionate Father, rushing towards his returning feet, to meet and embrace him. He assures us that if we ask, we shall receive; if we seek, we