to great men. The original word, translated "God" signifies "mighty" or "powerful," and is often substituted for adjectives, (in which the Hebrew language is very poor,) and is in this instance so put, to signify sons of mighty or powerful men. See Language.

SON. This term is also applied, in a peculiar manner, to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is in reality the Son of God. (Luke, i. 35; Matt. i. 18.) See Names.

SONS OF GOD. The faithful descendants of Seth, are called in Scripture "the sons of God," in contradistinction to the infidel descendants of Cain, who are therein called, the sons and daughters of men. And what contributed not a little to disseminate corruption through the antediluvian world, and hasten its destruction, was the practice of intermarrying between these two races. Hence it is written, in reference to the cause of the antediluvian wickedness, that, "it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose." Gen. vi. 1, 2.

The expression, "sons of God," is applied to men in the following passages of Scripture; Gen. vi. 2. 4; Job. i. 6, ii. 1, xxxviii. 7; Hos. i. 10; John i. 12; Rom. viii. 14. 19; Phil. ii. 15; 1 John iii. 1, 2.

SOUL. Its existence may be proved by the same means, and to the same degree of certainty, as the existence of the body; so that the man who denies the existence of the former, ought to deny the existence of the latter. We know not what the essence of soul is: nor do we know

what the essence of matter, or body, is. Therefore if it be correct to deny the existence of the soul, because we do not know what it is; it must be equally correct to deny the existence of matter, for we do not know what matter is! If it be said, but we can hear, see, feel, taste and smell matter which we cannot do with the soul; I reply, this is erroneous: for you only thus become acquainted with certain qualities of matter, or effects which matter produces on your senses. Hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting and touching, is not matter; only terms, mere words, which we apply to the operations of matter on our senses. Then it is evident we believe in the existence of matter or body, not because we know what matter or body is; but because it produces certain effects on our external senses. Now let us see whether we have not the very same reasons for believing in the existence of the soul. The effects or operations of the soul may all be reduced to one great head, INTELLIGENCE, which is no part of matter-no operation of matter-no effect of matter. The operations of that blind impulse, called INSTINCT, with which the brute creation is endowed as a compensation for the absence of intelligence, are often confounded with the operations of the latter; but a very little investigation of the subject will be sufficient to demonstrate that there is no connection whatever between the two. To say, that the elephant, horse, dog, &c., do not possess intelligence, appears at first view preposterous and absurd, and this for no other reason but be- ́ cause the operations of their instinct, so much resemble, or approximate, to the phenomena of intelligence. But is there one atom more apparent evidence of intelligence, in any of the acts of these animals than in the calf doing what few botanists can do, even after considerable study, viz: select from a field of vegetables, those

herbs which are proper and fit for its nourishment, from those which would be injurious? Is it intelligence that enables it to do this? Again, is it intelligence that enables migrating birds to do what no navigator can do without his compass ? Certainly not. Then we find in these two instances out of ten thousand others, that instinct actually surpasses intelligence. The peculiar characteristics of instinct are, that it acts without knowing why or wherefore; and is only the blind impulse of matter; intelligence reasons, calculates, from cause to effect, and is the peculiar prerogative of the soul. To conclude: as matter or body is known only by its effects or operations, so is the soul known by its operations: and as it would be unwise to deny the existence of the body because we do not kuow what it is; so it would be equally unwise to deny the existence of the soul, because we do not know what it is.

STAR. The Apostle Paul, in reasoning on the all important subject of the resurrection of the dead, observes, "one star differeth from another star in glory." (1 Cor. xv. 41.) Every man knows that one star differeth from another star in glory, or brightness, which is the same thing; yet the learned (!) Thomas Paine, denied it— asserting that the stars do not differ in glory, but in distance! Poor fool: it could not be said of him, "that too much learning had made him mad;" but it might, with great propriety be said of him, that too much vanity, with great ignorance, hath set him mad. Who told him that all stars were of the same size? We know that the reverse is the case: therefore their brightness does not arise from their distance (as that miserable man asserted) but from the difference in their dimensions. No man will pretend to say that their distance does not affect the degree of light: we only assert that distance is not that

which solely does it.

Hence it appears that Paul knew more, in A. D. 59, of this part of astronomy, than Thomas Paine in A. D. 1800.

STARS, SUN, MOON, &c., repeatedly used figuratively of great men. There being no superlative degree in the Hebrew tongue, and but few adjectives, writers were obliged to use substantives to compensate for this deficiency whenever they wanted to describe the quality of any thing in a high degree.

STARS. The declaration of Moses in Deut i. 10, that "God hath multiplied the Israelites as the stars of heaven," for multitude, we will find on a critical examination, a positive fact. In the first place, the stars referred to must have been those that could be seen by the naked eye, for that was centuries before telescopes were invented: moreover, “God brought forth Abraham abroad, (that is out of doors,) and bade him look towards heaven,” (Gen. xv. 5;) not with a telescope; but with his naked eyes. Now, not more than 3010 stars can be seen by the naked eye, on the brightest and clearest night! And the Israelites at the time alluded to, independently of women and children, were more than SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND! But suppose we even allow the use of the telescope, from the late discoveries of Sir William Herschel, not more than seventy-five millions of fixed stars are visible, still the divine promise (Gen. xv. 5) stands literally true. For at the second census, the fighting men among the Israelites amounted to 600,000. If, therefore, the aggregate number of them who have ever lived (and recollect they have never ceased to be a distinct people) could be ascertained, it would be found far to exceed the number of all the fixed stars taken together,

STAR, applied not only to dignify great or brilliant men, but also to any thing that resembles a star. Thus although by the term star, we mean one of those numerous worlds either traversing in space, or what we in astronomy term fixed stars, or supposed SUNs, yet we also apply the noun to any small bright body that resembles a star; we call a meteor a star-we speak of a shower of stars! Do we mean a shower of worlds? We boast of "the star spangled banner," not that it is full of worlds; but has on it merely the representation of stars. That liberty of language we now use, ought certainly to be conceded to the Sacred writers. We read of the star guiding the wise men to where Jesus was born. (Matt. ii. 1.) The writer certainly did not mean that this was a world, but a bright light like a star that guided them! Again, we read of the stars falling, &c.; we need only observe, if infidelity cannot be supported without denying the Sacred writers the same latitude of language, that we at the present day adopt, (AND WE AFFIRM IT CANnot,) the sooner its advocates abandon it, and come to their senses, the better.

STONES, shower of. It is written in Joshua x. 11, that "the Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah, and they died." Some ignorant persons have considered this statement so highly improbable and unnatural, that it carried within itself its own condemnation! An old proverb says," a little learning is a dangerous thing:" and in no case was its truth ever so manifest as in the present: for so far from showers of stones being unnatural, nothing is better authenticated than that, at various periods of the world, showers of immense stones have fallen to the earth. See Appendix, F.