from his energy, are the abiding results of his rapid career; and so much of his eager and sanguine self did he throw off into every friend he had and every enterprise he touched, that for years to come there will be more life in his mere memory than in most men's bodily presence. Has "The body is dead.' Lately it looked so alert and life some that it is a strange and stunning thought-its death. the lustre faded from those sparkling eyes, and the exulting kindness ebbed away from that exuberant countenance? Will that elastic footfall never again be the signal of joy and animation in your homes, and will the music of that voice never awaken these echoes again! Ah, no! The body is dead. Yon sepulchre holds it all. But your pastor lives. The spirit is life.' Even in the fading of the flesh we saw, as it were, made palpable, the separateness and the immortality of the tenant soul. This day it is with Jesus in paradise, and even now tastes the fulness of joy and the pleasures for evermore. And a few more waning moons, a few more winters melted-at farthest, a few of our phantom generations fled and lo! the spring-time of the sepulchre. He that raised up Christ from the dead shall raise our friend now sleeping. And, oh! I think I see him clothed in incorruption. I see his willing spirit glad to meet its early comrade and faithful friend. I see him joyful to wield again the implements of his former industry, and strenuous in immortal youth I trace his ardent path through the New Jerusalem, and hear his tuneful note among the loudest of the choir. Immortal in body now as well as in soul, I see him awaking ecstatic on that universe of which he was so wide a possessor; and sleepless in every faculty, with a seraph's speed and a cherub's fire, I see him bounding forth to the labours of eternity. Yes, dear brother, finally washed in the Fountain, thy spirit is with God. Thy dust sleeps in Jesus, and when next we behold thee, there will be the palm in thy hand and upon thy brow the bloodbought crown. Thou art dead, but thou livest. Thou restest from thy labours, and yet thou wilt never need to rest again. Night and day thou servest God in his temple, and sin will not mar, and sickness will not clog, and death will not suspend thy worship and thy work. "Still, dear brethren, your minister is gone; and, in the name of that Master who lent him, I would say, Remember what he spake. He told your elders, and he told me, that he adhered to all that he had preached deliberately. And so far as I can gather from what I heard, the truths he mainly preached were such as these, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.' Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.' 'Without holiness no man can see the Lord.' And, dear friends, if any of you know that you are still unconverted and unrenewed—if any of you are still Christless and careless, and if you thus continue, Mr. Wilson, with all his love and tenderness, will only be a witness against you before the throne. You are never likely to hear the message of reconciliation from more urgent lips; and if, after the Son of God poured out his blood, and this servant of his poured out his life, and neither Divine love nor human melts you-if you still go on in sin and rebellion against God, you will wish at last that you had sat under a more lukewarm minister. Every atom of his wasted strength will be a witness against you-and is it not enough to have resisted a Saviour's blood and a Saviour's tears? This is your minister's Funeral Sermon. Oh, that it might be the resurrection of the words which he spake while he was yet with you! "I was going to add, remember what he was. But I do not think you will forget. You loved him too well. I will not say, remember your sainted pastor; but I will say, remember that Saviour whom he longed to see you love. Could he now come here as he did at the close of the last service I conducted herecould he now come down, his glowing looks and words would speak no other name but Christ.' Methinks he would say to me, 'Don't preach my funeral sermon; preach to them, "Jesus lives." And, methinks, he would say to you, 'Dearly beloved, haste to Jesus. His love is larger, his pity more intense, his power to save more mighty, and his willingness more wonderful, than your anxious souls suspect. And you, believers, press up into his clearer knowledge and nearer presence. The hundredth part has not been told you. His society creates yon heaven; but his service might make for you a heaven on earth. Rise up, my beloved, and come away. Rise up from weeping at a pastor's grave, and rush into a living Saviour's arms.' "There is only one other subject to which I would advert, and my message is done. I allude to your beloved pastor's MONUMENT. It will mainly lie with you, my friends to rear it. I do not allude to brass or stone. He was worthy of something better-something more conspicuous and more costly? I wish to see a pillar to his memory in every street of Islington. In their love to ordinances, in their Christian consistency, in their cheerful liberality, and their holy harmony, I wish to see every member and every family of his flock dedicated to the memory of JOSIAS WILSON. There is another name which I wish emblazoned in brighter letters there; -but beneath it, and in closest connection with it, inscribe your lamented minister's. Let it be seen in your personal piety and in your family religion, that the life which was poured out a libation in your service was not spent in vain. And there was a monument which he himself erected. In two years, with help from God, he built this congregation; and to the elders who are among you, he solemnly transferred its guardianship. See that it do not crumble. You members of the church, see that it do not dilapidate by your dropping away from steady attendance here; and you, elders and members both, in prayer consign it to the care of the Heavenly Architect. Should this congregation remain entire and compact-should it be the means of promptly bringing to this capital a man of piety and a man of power-should it be long distinguished for the affection of its members and their efforts in the cause of Christ-it will remain a pastor's most appropriate monument." THE BIBLE AND MODERN SCIENCE. "SUPERFICIAL knowledge," says Bacon, "may perhaps lead to Atheism, but fundamental knowledge will conduct back to religion." The truth of this profound remark has never been so strikingly exhibited as by the progress and results of modern science, the direct tendency of which, since it is based upon well-ascertained facts rather than theories, is to defend and elucidate the word of God. Let us glance at some of these results. Laudable attention has of late years been paid to the natural history of our character among men seem most decidedly to militate against such a statement. The deductions of modern science, however, triumphantly sustain the inspired account. Pritchard, in his "Natural History of Man," 1843, thus states his object: "The principal object of the following work may then be described as an attempt to point out the most important diversities by which mankind, or the genus of man, is distinguished and separated into different races, and to determine whether these races constitute separate species, or are merely varieties of one species." He concludes the physical part of his argument by asserting that "the different races of men are not distinguished from each 66 other by strongly-marked, uniform, and permanent distinctions, as are the several species belonging to any given tribe of animals," and that, therefore, diversities among men are merely varieties of one species." The physiological varieties then engage his attention, and result in the same conclusion. The psychological diversities are last of all considered. In drawing his conclusion from this part of his subject, Mr. Pritchard says: "We❘ contemplate among all the diversified tribes who are endowed with reason and speech, the same internal feelings, appetencies, aversions; the same inward convictions; the same sentiments of subjection to invisible powers; and, more or less fully developed, of accountableness or responsibility to unseen avengers of wrong and agents of retributive justice, from whose tribunal men cannot, even by death, escape. We find every where the same susceptibility, though not always in the same degree of forwardness or ripeness of improvement, of admitting the cultivation of these universal endowments, of opening the eyes of the mind to the more clear and luminous views which Christianity unfolds, of becoming moulded to the institutions of religion and of civilized life in a word, the same inward and mental nature is to be recognised in all the races of men. When we compare this fact with the observations which have been heretofore fully established as to the specific instincts and separate physical endowments of all the distinct tribes of sentient beings in the universe, we are entitled to draw confidently the conclusion, that all human races are of one species and one family." The profoundly learned Edwards, of Versailles, and Schlegel, the German editor of Pritchard's work, have contributed to strengthen the evidence adduced on this point. Thus, then, the result obtained by this branch of science, "a department of knowledge so recent," says Dr. Edwards, "that it may be considered to have been for the first time explored by an author now living," is most decidedly favour able to revealed truth. Nor will its testimony be considered less conclusive that it is based upon inquiries "made with as much freedom as if the testimony of the Sacred Scriptures were altogether indifferent as to its decision." We turn now to Comparative Philology. Formerly the "earth," according to the inspired word, was of one language, and of one speech." Now, hundreds, and, indeed, thousands of dialects exist apparently differing greatly from each other. Has modern science any thing to offer on this subject? Much indeed. In no department of knowledge has the mind of man been more actively and successfully engaged. Amidst this vast diversity of languages, some principles of classification must be adopted sufficiently comprehensive to include all, and so correct as to stand every necessary test. This, in the judgment of sound scholars, has been done by Bopp, the greatest living philologist. He divides languages into three great classes or families. 1. Those with monosyllabic roots, but incapable of composition, and therefore destitute of grammar or organization: such as the Chinese. 2. Those having monosyllabic roots, susceptible of composition, on which the grammar and organization depend: as for instance the Sanscrit family of languages, including, of course, our own, Greek, Latin, &c. 3. Such as consist of dissyllabic verbal roots, requiring three consonants as the vehicles of their fundamental signification. To this class the Semitic languages, viz., Hebrew and the cognate dialects, belong. These three divisions include all languages, and the sound principles on which they proceed must recommend them to all capable of duly exercising a judgment on the subject. Having, then, but three great families of languages before us, the question now is-Is there any connection between them? Modern linguists, considering language as the product not of blind chance, but of a forming and superintending providence in the mind of man, have endea and his feelings cannot be obtained from the study of language, but by becoming acquainted with the peculiarities of these three classes. This proves the unity of human nature, and, therefore, the primary unity of language. voured, by rational analysis, to separate the accidental from the essential, the separable from the inseparable, the native from the foreign, the root from the stem, the branches from the leaves, the warp from the woof. The consequence has been that the primary material of all language is seen to consist in an assemblage of roots, equally flexible and commutable, and agreeing in number, form, and meaning. These roots are the sources of strength and richness to languages, the springs of their abundance of words, however different the latter may become while following the common laws of formation and increase.* The profoundly erudite Humboldt divided these roots into verbal, nominal, and pronominal-contrast of stability and fluctuation, which a distribution, says Delitzsch, "which illumines with the light of day the grammar of all languages." The learned researches which Ewald, and especially Hupfeld, have of late made in the doctrine of sounds, lead most conclusively to the same results. Furthermore, on examining the three great classes of languages in their peculiar characteristics, the same truth appears. Languages of the first class preserve their primitive type with but little modification. They are the vehicles of thought to men in whom the imitative and retentive faculties are particularly active. Those of the second class display the flexibility and untiring energy of men in whom the imaginative feelings have full play. The third class differs from the two preceding, since it includes those languages in which the reflective element is peculiarly prominent.+ Now, it will be evident that a correct, complete view of man's mental capabilities The conclusion to which we arrive, and which has the sanction of the most eminent philologists of the present day, is this, "that language is the necessary and spontaneous result of man's constitution, that human speech and human nature are inseparable, and consequently that language was originally one." "The true solution," says Humboldt, in his posthumous work on the Varieties in the Structure of Human languages, "of the we find in language, lies in the unity of human nature." In Geographical studies much has been done of late to illustrate the Bible. Ritter, the celebrated geographer, has remarked, that of all the records of ancient times, none are receiving more confirmation from modern researches than the tenth chapter of Genesis. "To this highly important study," says the same scholar to Dr. Robinson, with reference to Biblical geography, "you have imparted a wholly new life: and have thus indirectly rendered great service to the science of theology in general, and done more to illustrate and enforce the truthfulness of the Bible than all theological controversies and subtleties could ever do." Worthily was this acknowledgment rendered to the estimable and learned author of the "Researches in Palestine". -a work which has introduced a new era in biblical geography. Owing to his discoveries we can now readily follow the army of Sennacherib, and trace the wanderings of David. Subsequent travellers have well seconded his efforts. The Dead Sea and the Lake of Tiberias now lie exposed in their length, breadth, and depression. The sources and course of the Jordan are well known. A scale of levels of the whole land has lately been made, by which it appears that Jerusalem is 700 feet above the level of has been left for late years to make known the true site of Colossæ (Hamilton's "Researches in Asia Minor," ii., 505,) Tiphsah, Resen (Ainsworth Class. Mus.), Calah (Col. Rawlinson), &c., and correctly to describe the provinces and Fellowes, Ainscities of Asia Minor. Mount Tabor, 2,500 feet above that of the Mediterranean, and 3,800 feet above the Dead Sea. The number of caves so frequently mentioned in Scripture, and the active agency of earthquakes, twice alluded to in the Bible, have recently been well illustrated and satisfactorily accounted for by geologists. The Na-worth, Hamilton, Forbes, and Taxier in turalist Professor Schubert has, more- his splendid yet unfinished work, have done much towards making us acquainted over, from personal inspection, given us the following testimony on the fertility with these regions of deep interest to the See, for instance, the last of Palestine: "No soil," he says, "could Christian. be naturally more fruitful and fit for author's admirable account of Perga, and cultivation than that of Palestine." Fellowes' description of Assos. Recent information has tended to establish the opinion, that by the land of Sinim (Isa. xlix. 12) is meant China. The only objection of any weight against that view was, that the name of Sin or Tsin was not thought to be in use amongst the Chinese till the year 246 of our era. Professor Neumann, a learned Chinese scholar, tells us that Tsin was the name of a great tributary kingdom of one of the western provinces of China, nine centuries before the birth of our Lord. Now this kingdom would be first reached by western caravans, whose course Heeren has shown. In the celebrated cuneiform inscription containing a list of the Persian tribes, Bournouf, Lassen, and De Sacy, have discovered the Shepharad of Obadiah. As the name stands in that list between Cappadocia and Greece, they conjecture, with much probability, that it was a district in Western Asia Minor, or near it. In the "Selections of the most important Monuments for Egyptian History," published by Dr. Lepsius, are tablets recording the conquests of Thothmus, in Mesopotamia, and mentioning Nineveh, Ararat, and other names occurring in the Bible.* The deeds thus commemorated took place long before the Exode, and serve to prove that the Egyptians in the time of Moses were not so ignorant of geography as some sceptics would have us believe. It *An excellent paper on these tablets was read before the Royal Society of Literature last January. Modern researches in History have thrown much light on Scripture. M. Bournouf has found the names of Darius and Xerxes among the arrow-headed in. scriptions of Persepolis. The same inscriptions frequently present the pompous title of "king of kings," appropriated by the Persian monarchs. The wonderful discoveries recently made in Nineveh reveal to us a state of civilization and of power admirably in accordance with the narratives of Scripture. The same may be said of Egypt. "These researches," says Robbins, in his preface to Hengstenberg's "Egypt," referring to Egyptian Antiquities, "derive special importance from the light which they cast upon the Old Testament records, especially upon the Mosaic history. An incidental, undesigned, but most valuable proof is thus drawn from witnesses that cannot lie, in favour of the trustworthiness of those records. 'Paintings, numerous and beautiful beyond description, as fresh and perfect as if finished only yesterday,' exhibit before our eyes the truth of what the Hebrew lawgiver wrote almost five thousand years ago. The authenticity of the documents of our faith thus rests not on manuscripts and written records alone, but the hardest and most enduring substances in nature have added their unsuspecting testimony." In Amos, and elsewhere, the Philistines are declared to have come from Caphtor. Recent critics have decided that this Caphtor is the island of Crete. Thus Hitzig says that the Philistines were |