a single act, but a universal, uniform principle, which stimulates to sympathy, flowing freely forth to every creature capable of being affected by it; and it rejoices in the felicity of all animated beings. And while his peculiar blessing is pronounced on the merciful, Matt. v. 7, he denounces an awful woe on those who omit to show mercy. Matt. xxiii. 23.

Question.-As it is the will of God that dumb animals should be treated with mercy and kindness, what other encouragement did our blessed Saviour give to those who should obey the will of his heavenly Father?

Answer. He offered them the highest possible encouragement; for he graciously declared, that he would acknowledge such as related to himself, and esteem them as "brothers, sisters, and mothers." Matt. xii. 50.

Question.-Doth not that person who delights in perpetrating acts of cruelty, forfeit his character, as a disciple of the merciful and compassionate Jesus, although he boasts himself a Christian?

Answer.—Yes.-For the Apostle St. Paul 2 Tim. ii. 19, says, "Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity." And St. John declares, 1 John, iii. 8, "He that committeth sin is of the devil." And surely no iniquity can be more atrocious, nor any action deeper stained with sin, than the base ingratitude of man to God, as displayed in the horrid tortures so wantonly inflicted by wicked men on those valuable animals, which God has so mercifully provided for the comfort and advantage of man. Question. Is there any instance recorded in

the Holy Scriptures, of God denouncing the speedy and total overthrow of a very wicked people, and yet forbearing to punish them; partly on account of his merciful regards to the dumb creation?

Answer.-Yes.

Jonah iv. 11, "Should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than six-score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also much cattle."

Question. Is it not our duty, when depriving any animal of life for our sustenance, to do it with meltings of compassion, and without tormenting it, seeing it is in its own nature cruelty to put a living creature to death? and has not God positively commanded his servants to advocate the cause of the dumb creation, and to plead for them when they are suffering the pangs of death for the benefit of man?

Answer.-Yes.

Prov. xxxi. 8, "Open thy mouth for the dumb, in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction."

In this merciful precept are evidently meant to be included, those animals which man is permitted to slay for human sustenance; warning him not to inflict upon them, in depriving them of life, one unnecessary or avoidable pang. Surely then, if to those victims "appointed to destruction," man is divinely commanded to shew a merciful concern, every other animal, not "appointed" for slaughter, is entitled to it. Question.-Are not all creatures which God has made, his peculiar care; and does he not claim them as his own?

Psalm 1. 10, 11, "Every beast of the forest is mine, saith the Lord, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains, and the wild beasts of the field are mine."

Gen. i. 29, 30, And God said,-" To every beast upon the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given meat."

Job xxxviii. 41, "Who provideth for the raven his food, when his young ones cry unto God?"

Psalm xxxvi.6, "O Lord, thou preservest man and beast."

Psalm civ. 21, "The young lions seek their meat from God."

Psalm civ. 24, "O Lord, how manifold are thy works, in wisdom hast thou made them all; the earth is full of thy riches: so is the great and wide sea also, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts. These also wait upon thee, that thou mayest give them their meat in due season. That thou givest them they gather; thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good."

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Psalm cxlv. 16, "Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.' Psalm cxlvii. 9, "He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry.'

Matt. vi. 26, "Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them."

Luke xii. 6, "Are not five sparrows sold for

two farthings; and not one of them is forgotten before God.'

Question. As brute animals are the objects of God's peculiar goodness and care, did God grant to man any power or authority to take away their lives, when he gave him dominion over them at their creation?

Answer. No. The infinitely compassionate Jehovah, who alone is the great Creator, the merciful Preserver, and the bountiful Benefactor of all that exists in heaven or in earth, never designed for any of his dumb creatures to be tormented by wicked men. Death could not have entered our world, nor would animals have lost their happiness, if Adam had not fallen from holiness but he sinned, and cruelty, violence, a thirst for blood and death so rapidly overspread and filled the earth, that God was under the necessity, in the space of one thousand six hundred and fifty six years after the Creation, to cleanse the earth, by sending upon it an universal deluge of waters, "whereby the world that then was perished." After that awful event, God, in accordance to the unhappy change which the nature of man had experienced by the sin of Adam, permitted man to slay animals for his sustenance. But this permission to make them subservient to his support, did not invest him with a right to torture or destroy them in sport; for neither man nor devil, Job ii. 6, have any right, power, or authority from God, to take away life, as an act of fancy or amusement. Though man was empowered to conquer, to subdue, and to tame the animal creation, yet his powers have their limits, and animals have

their rights. Man has no privilege from heaven to go forth like a demon of destruction, wantonly to slaughter and destroy. When the Almighty, the God of love and mercy, created animals, he breathed into man a reasoning, and into animals an instinctive soul ;* and he willed

* Instinct in animals, and reason in man, are closely allied to each other. That animals possess moral affection is evident, for they have gratitude; and intellectual faculties, for they have memory. They have also perception, consciousness, and will. In these originate love, hatred, fear, fortitude, patience, generosity and obedience. They are by no means either so inferior to man, as he has placed them, nor so contemptible as he wishes them to appear. If it be allowed that they have a certain proportion of reason, the difference consists in degree. If an animal reason in degree, he possesses the reasoning faculty. PLUTARCH observes, "that reason is in the creature by nature, but right and perfect reason is obtained by industry and education; so that naturally all creatures may be said to be rational. But if they look for perfection of reason and true wisdom, they will hardly find these perfections in any man."

As to a rational principle in brutes, LOCKE was of opinion that it could not be denied. "It seems to me as evident" says he "that brutes do in some instances reason, as that they have sense." And the Rev. Mr. HILDROP affirms, that "brutes reason well, and discover more sense than many a man who pursues every appearance of pleasure, gratifies every appetite, submits to every demand of lust or fancy, without thought or reflection, and rushes with his eyes open into certain diseases, beggary, and damnation."

JESSE, in his Gleanings of Natural History, states respecting an ourang outang, lately brought to England, that there was but one person on board the ship of whom the creature seemed at all afraid that man was the butcher! The ourang outang had seen him kill sheep, &c., and he probably anticipated a fate similar to that of his equally dumb, but not so intelligent companions. In order to conciliate the friendship of this dreadful dispenser of death, he made every advance. He would, for instance, approach him with great caution, examine his hands minutely, finger by finger, and finding no weapon, proceed by every little artifice to attract his notice. With the rest of the sailors he was on terms of intimate friendship.