ment will not protect us in rejecting all believed corruptions of Christianity, neither will it vindicate us in rejecting any. The divergency between the old and the new construction of Christianity, however, seems to us so wide, that, for the sake of definiteness, discrimination, and intelligibility, Anti-supernaturalist Christians ought to take a new name. Names are simply a contrivance to mark and distinguish things, in order that we may reason accurately concerning them. Perhaps the best name might be that suggested by Mr. Hennell, Christian Theists. This would be at once distinctive and comprehensive. It would mark the relation to Christianity; it would link them with the historical Christ, and it would clear so wide a field as to comprehend all students of theology, and all religionists. It seems to us scarcely fair in Anti-supernaturalists, to march under the banner of Unitarianism. They are a distinct variety of the great Christian Community— let them have have a distinct designation to mark this. Confusion arises from blending under one appellation the rejectors of miracle, and those who, with Priestley, Belsham, Ware, and Channing, hold to the supernatural, and regard it as a main pillar of their Christianity.

Mr. Fox further expresses his views of Christ and Christianity :

"The universal and enduring are in Christianity, and allowing that they exist in all religions, the result of a complete and fair examination will be, I apprehend, that they exist more truthfully and efficiently in Christianity than in any other specific form. We find them in its devotion. How sublime are the delineations of the Deity by the old prophet-bards of Judea! How magnificent their exaltation of the power of God over human imaginations and devices! How grand the theology of the Old Testament! How benignant the theology of the New Testament! What can the heart know of piety that is indisposed to adore the Lord God' with Isaiah, to trust the Heavenly Father' of Christ? This cannot change while the world shall last. As long as the stars shine in their brightness and roll in their orbits, it will be felt that we may worthily and devoutly use the language of the Jewish Psalmist, and affirm that the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Look at the morality of Christ. How heart-searching! how pure from conventionalism! how clear, and true, and strong! how simple his maxims! how easily applicable, and how complete, his summary of human duty and human good, in loving the Lord our God with all our heart and soul, our mind and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves!

"These, then, are things eternal, enshrined in Christianity. No storm can shake them; they can be superseded by no discovery in science. The moral pictures of the Scriptures are everlasting; be they historical truth, or be they fancywork; let them be the narratives of the literal chronicler, or let them be parables, still there they are,—and such characters as those of Joseph, of Moses, of Caleb, of Ruth, of the good Samaritan, of the zealous and energetic apostle Paul, will remain thrö all time, unchanging in their worth and in their power, as moral influences. They are paintings whose color no time can obliterate, no accident impair,-which are never obscure in their meaning, nor feeble in their application. "These, and together with these, the maxims and precepts founded on a deep observance of the heart of man-the readings, clear and distinct, of that law which was written not upon tables of stone but in the fleshly tables of the heart, -dictates of truth and thoughts that cannot pass sway-legends which, in their very wildness, have a force and beauty that charm the mind-these are all of the enduring, these will last. And, preeminent above them all, the character of Him, 'the Son of God,' the crucified one for man's salvation-so full of gentleness and tenderness, so rich in compassion, so prompt to forgivenness, and so submissive

in agony-so confiding in God, in humanity, in futurity-that remains, the soul of all, CHRISTIANITY INCARNATE, and yet unchanging. These then are the enduring, the universal. They speak for themselves. They appeal for their proof, not to the musty records of dark ages,-not to verbal criticisms on Greek or Hebrew, --but they appeal to our own moral sense, to our elementary perceptions-they commend themselves there, and there they command full and lasting admiration." Pp. 186-189.

It is a small matter, but possibly the volume might have been more appropriately named 'On the religious Sentiments.' It is in the emotional region of human nature that we find the fountain-head of religion. While men's ideas are very diverse, their sentiments and tendencies exhibit a much greater accordance, and a greater approach to universality. Ideas are developed by culture-sentiments, tendencies, faculties, are given us by nature. But the title of the volume is still defensible, for sentiments arise from, and expand into, Ideas,—and the task which the lecturer prescribed to himself was, not merely to show that human nature has spontaneous and inherent tendencies to religion-but also, that abstraction being made of what is local, temporary, mistaken, fraudulent, or superstitious, there still remain certain grand and pervading ideas, which might be called the Religious Ideas of the Race.

We regard the publication of this work, and of similar productions by very able men, as among the signs of the times, It is needful for our learned theologians to bestir themselves, if they would stand upon the old ways, and save the ark of their fathers. The controversy is not now on the surface, but it touches the very foundations of Historical Christianity; it is not about baptisms, and bishops, and forms of Church government, the devil, the Trinity, or the decrees of God-but it is an enquiry into the original facts of Christianity itself,—the way in which those facts are to be accepted,-the origin and composition of the sacred books,-Miracle, Inspiration, Revelation, etc. These topics are now forced afresh on the attention of the learned of all denominations; and they require, for their satisfactory solution, deep thought, sound learning, force and clearness of understanding, with mental honesty to follow the evidences whithersoever they may lead. Truth must gain by every examination; and the more simple and spiritual our faith becomes, the less is it exposed to the shafts of infidelity. If, as some suppose, Disbelief is fast spreading both among the Working and Educated Classes of society, it is not the mocking, sneering, ribaldrous, and superficial infidelity of a former age. Doubt and questioning now come to us in the form of reverence and learning, and giving a reason withal for their unfaith. In a time of such upheaving as the present, it is to be expected that crude political and religious theories will be started. So much the more need for all friends of true learning, sober thought, and progressive reforms, to arouse themselves, and help toward the diffusion of sound ideas on the paramount topics of human contemplation. Meanwhile, let us maintain in ourselves that philosophic spirit and stability which is just alike to old thought and to new thought, gathers up its portions of truth from old schools and new, and is equally proof against slavishly clinging to antiquated and exploded notions, and against being carried away by whatever new opinions may be thrown up into the atmosphere of speculation.

Chowbent.

A. MACDONALD.

WATCHING.

BY W. J. LINTON.

I AM weary, watching for thy coming,-
And yet thou comèst not;

Day after day my weary feet are roaming

To that dear spot

Where thou didst bless me with those words so vain

'We soon shall meet again.'

My soul is worn with prayer for thy returning,
And yet thou dost not come;

All thro the long long night the lamp is burning
In thy lone home,-

Thy home, my heart, where echo yet in vain
Thy words We meet again.'

TO A RIVER.

PORTIVE Young River, we've rambled together, Over the mountain moors, purpled with heather; On where the foxglove and bracken wave over The blackcock and curlew, the pewit and plover; And down the rough rocks, with a shout of delight, To the cleft where the birken tree clambers for light; And onwards again with a sparkle and splash To the dark, dusky woods of oak, alder, and ash; And down deeper still to the green sunny valley, With frolic and laughter, with song and with sally.

Beautiful River! full many a day

In that green happy valley we've sauntered away;
Watching the flight of the light cloudy shadows,
Listing the low of the kine in the meadows,
The chirp of the grasshopper, hum of the bee,
And sweet loving song of the bird on the tree.
In a world of our own, without sorrow and sin,
All peaceful around us, all peaceful within;
Where gay pleasant fancies, profuse as the flowers,
And musings and calm meditations, were ours.

True-hearted River! we've wedded together;
There came a sweet rill from thy home in the heather,
And ye kissed and united, and flowed on in one,
O'er rugged and gentle, thrö shadow and sun;
And I found a sweet maid in a nook by thy side,
Where bees, birds, and roses enraptured abide;
And glad was my heart as the soft sunny breeze,
As we whispered and walked 'neath thy bowering trees;
And that young lovely maiden, so modest, benign,
Is the rill now whose being is blended with mine.

Strong-hearted River! for God and for man,
We've toiled fulfilling His mighty plan—
All things working together for good—
Soul, earth, and atmosphere, light, fire, and flood,-
Toiled together, hard, early, and late,

Bearing undaunted the buffets of fate;

Ever earnestly striving, gaining strength,
Thrö patient endurance to triumph at length;

And win the high guerdon, and learn the deep lore,
Unfolding to true, earnest work, evermore.

Majestic Old River! we're passing away
From the land of our pilgrimage, green and gay;
Calm, deep, and strong, thy beneficent course
Sublimely rolls on to its vast ocean source;
And I lonely listen the deep low roar,
Of a mightier ocean that knows no shore;

Where the streams of all time and being tend,

Where all thought, love, hope, sorrow, and joy descendAnd I bow down and pray to the Will Divine,

For calmness and courage and strength like thine.