unimpeachable page of the prophet Daniel,' an outline of successive empires, which subsequent events have realized with the most critical exactness; and describing their eventual subservience to the spiritual kingdom of the Messiah, with a circumstantial accuracy which the well-informed Christian, who is versed in Scripture language, and whose heart is interested in the subject, reads with unutterable and never-ceasing astonishment. It is, in fact, this wonderful correspondence which gives its highest value to the more ancient half of the historic series. What would it profit us, at this day, to learn from Xenophon that the Assyrian monarch had subjugated all those countries, with the exception of Media, which spread eastward from the Mediterranean, if it were not that, by this statement, he confirms that important portion of sacred and prophetic history? And to what solidly useful purpose would the same historian's detail of the taking of Babylon be applicable, if it did not forcibly, as well as minutely illustrate the almost equally detailed denunciations of the prophet Isaiah? It was partly for the purpose of elucidating this correspondence between sacred prophecy and ancient history, and showing by how regular a providential chain the successive empires of the ancient world were connected with each other, and ultimately with Christianity, that the excellent Rollin composed his well-known work; and the impression which his researches left upon his own mind may be seen in those sublimely pious remarks with which his last volume is concluded.

A careful perusal of the historical and prophetical parts of Scripture will prepare us for reading profane history with great advantage. In the former, we are admitted within the vail, we are informed how the vices of nations drew down on them the wrath of the Almighty; and how some neighboring potentate was employed as the instrument of divine vengeance; how his ambition, his courage, and military skill, were but the means of fulfilling the divine prediction, or of inflicting the divine punishment; how, when the mighty conqueror, the executioner of the sentence of Heaven, had performed his assigned task, he was put aside, and was himself, perhaps, in his turn, humbled and laid low. Such are the familiar incidents of historic and prophetic Scripture.

Do we then mean to admit that the Almighty approves of these excesses in individuals, by which his wisdom often works for the general benefit? God forbid! Nothing, surely, could be less ap

The parts of the book of Daniel chiefly alluded to are Nebuchadnezzar's dream, and Daniel's interpretation of it in the second chapter; and his own vision of the four beasts, in the eighth. These two passages alone, preserved, as they have been, by the most inveterate enemies of Christianity, amount to an irrefragable demonstration that our religion is divine. One of the most ancient and most learned opposers of Revelation is said to have denied the possibility of these prophecies having existed before the events; but we know they did exist, and no modern infidel dares to dispute it. But, in admitting this, however they may take refuge in their own inconsequence of mind, they inevitably, though indirectly, allow the truth of Christianity.

proved by him than the licentiousness and cruelty of our eighth Henry, though he overruled those enormities for the advantage of the community, and employed them, as his instruments, for restoring good government, and for introducing, and at length establishing, the Reformation. England enjoys the inestimable blessing, but the monarch is not the less responsible personally for his crimes. We are equally certain that God did not approve of the insatiable ambition of Alexander, or of his incredible acquisition of territory by means of unjust wars. Yet, from that ambition, those wars and those conquests, how much may the condition of mankind have been meliorated? The natural humanity of this hero, which he had improved by the study of philosophy, under one of the greatest masters in the world, disposed him to turn his conquests to the benefit of mankind. He founded seventy cities, says his historian, so situated as to promote commerce and diffuse civilization. Plutarch observes that, had those nations not been conquered, Egypt. would have had no Alexandria; Mesopotamia no Seleucia. He also informs us that Alexander introduced marriage into one conquered country, and agriculture into another; that one barbarous nation, which used to eat their parents, was led by him to reverence and maintain them; that he taught the Persians to respect, and not to marry, their mothers-the Scythians to bury, and not to eat, their dead.

To adduce one or two instances more, where thousands might be adduced. Did the Almighty approve those frantic wars which arrogated to themselves the name of holy? Yet, with all the extravagance of the enterprise, and the ruinous failure which attended its execution, many beneficial consequences, as has been already intimated, were permitted, incidentally, to grow out of them. The Crusaders, as their historians demonstrate,1 beheld in their march countries in which civilization had made a greater progress than in their own. They saw foreign manufactures in a state of improvement to which they had not been accustomed at home. They perceived remains of knowledge in the East, of which Europe had almost lost sight. Their native prejudices were diminished in witnessing improvements to which the state of their own country presented comparative barbarity. The first faint gleam of light dawned on them, the first perceptions of taste and elegance were awakened, and the first rudiments of many an art were communicated to them by this personal acquaintance with more polished countries. Their views of commerce were improved, and their means of extending it were enlarged.

It is scarcely necessary to add that the excess to which the popes carried their usurpation, and the Romish clergy their corruptions,

1 See especially Robertson's State of Europe.

was, by the providence of God, the immediate cause of the Reformation. The taking of Constantinople by the Turks, though, in itself, a most deplorable scene of crimes and calamities, became the occasion of most important benefits to other countries, by compelling the only accomplished scholars then in the world to seek an asylum in the western parts of Europe. To these countries they carried with them the Greek language, which ere long proved one of the providential means of introducing the most important event that has occurred since the first establishment of Christianity.

If, therefore, God often "educes good from ill," yet man has no right to count upon his always doing it, in the same degree in which he appoints that good shall be productive of good. To resume the illustration, therefore, from a few of the instances already adducedwhat an extensive blessing might Alexander, had he acted with other views and to other ends, have proved to that world whose happiness he impaired by his ambition, and whose morals he corrupted by his example! How much more effectually, and immediately, might the Reformation have been promoted, had Henry, laying aside the blindness of prejudice, and subduing the turbulence of passion, been the zealous and consistent supporter of the Protestant cause; the virtuous husband of one virtuous wife, and the parent of children all educated in the sound principles of the Reformation! Again, had the popes effectually reformed themselves, how might the unity of the church have been promoted; and even the schisms, which have arisen in Protestant communities, been diminished! It would be superfluous to recapitulate other instances; these, it is presumed, being abundantly sufficient to obviate any charge of the most distant approach toward the fatal doctrine of Necessity.

WILLIAM WILBERFORCE, 1759-1833.

THIS renowned philanthropist was born at Hull, on the 24th of August, 1759. His father, a merchant of that town, died before his son had completed his tenth year, and he was committed to the care of a paternal uncle, on whose death the ample patrimony inherited from his father was largely increased. This uncle's wife was a very pious woman, and a great admirer of Whitfield's preaching; and under her care he acquired a familiarity with the sacred writings, and a habit of devotion of which the results were perceptible throughout the whole of his mature life. While at school, he gave a remarkable indication of the character by which his future life was to be distinguished, he sent a letter to the editor of the York paper, "in condemnation of the odious traffic in human flesh." From school be was transferred, at the age of seventeen, to St. John's College, Cambridge, of

which, in his diary, he gives no very favorable account. On leaving college, he immediately entered upon active life, being, in 1780, sent by his own town of Hull to Parliament, when he had just completed his twenty-first year. He soon found his way into the highest circles of fashionable and political society; and, in the autumn of 1783, he set out for a tour in France with Mr. Pitt, with whom he had formed an acquaintance at Cambridge-an acquaintance that ripened into a friendship that lasted through life. He returned in 1784, and in the latter part of the same year he went again on the continent, accompanied by the celebrated Isaac Milner, Dean of Carlisle. This excursion forms a memorable era in his life; since, through the influence of Milner, his early impressions of religion, which had been greatly dissipated by his political life, were fully revived, and a deep and fervent piety took entire possession of his mind, and regulated the whole of his future conduct.

In the year 1787, he entered upon his labors in that great cause with which his name will for ever be associated-the Abolition of the Slave Trade. To that holy cause he now dedicated his days and nights, even to his closing hours. In the year 1789, he first proposed the abolition of the slave trade to the House of Commons, in "a speech which Burke rewarded with one of those imperishable eulogies which he alone had the skill and the authority to pronounce; and the zeal, the patience, the talents, and courage which he displayed during the many dispiriting delays and formidable difficulties which he had to encounter before the cause of justice and humanity finally triumphed, are above all praise."2 In 1797, he published his celebrated work on "Practical Christianity," which met with such remarkable success that not less than five editions were called for within the first six months; and it exerted a most powerful influence in stemming the tide of irreligion and nominal Christianity. In 1807, after twenty years of anxiety and unremitting labor, he had the high gratification of seeing the slave trade abolished by act of Parliament. From this time forward, until he quitted the House of Commons, in the year 1825, his parliamentary labors were devoted to a ceaseless

1 "But a victory over Guinea merchants," says the "Edinburgh Review," "was not to be numbered among the triumphs of eloquence. The slave-traders triumphed by an overwhelming majority. In the political tumults of those days the voice of humanity was no longer audible, and common sense ceased to discharge its office." The English abolitionists had much to contend with-but then they had a host of good and eloquent and learned men on their side. They had Burke, and Pitt and Fox, and Wilberforce, and Brougham in Parliament:-they had Cowper, Montgomery, Coleridge, Campbell, Hannah More, and many others in the higher walks of literature: and they had a large number of the clergy, especially of the "dissenters." The press, too, was open to them to a great extent. Let us, then, never despair of the ultimate triumph of truth, however numerous and influential they may be who combine to stop its onward march!

2 Among the letters of encouragement addressed to Mr. Wilberforce, is one written by John Wesley, from his death-bed, dated February 24, 1791. As they are probably the last written words of that extraordinary man, I subjoin them here:

MY DEAR SIR-Unless Divine Power has raised you up to be as Athanasius contra mundum, I see not how you can go through your glorious enterprise, in opposing that execrable vilJany which is the scandal of religion, of England, and of human nature. Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils; and if God be for you, who can be against you? Are all of them together stronger than God? Oh! be not weary of well-doing. Go on in the name of God, and in the power of his might, till even American slavery, THE VILEST THING THAT EVER SAW THE SUN, shall vanish away before it. That He who has guided you from your youth up may continue to strengthen you in this and all things, is the prayer of, dear sir, your affectionate servant, JOHN WESLEY.

* It is said that nearly one hundred editions have been printed in England, and it has been translated into the French, Italian, Spanish, and German languages.

watchfulness over the interests of the African race; and he lived to witness the consummation of the struggle for the abolition of slavery throughout the British dominions. He died July 27, 1833, when within a month of completing his seventy-fourth year, and was interred in Westminster Abbey, near the tombs of Pitt, Fox, and Canning.

"Few persons," says Lord Brougham, "have ever reached a higher or more enviable place in the esteem of their fellow-creatures, or have better deserved the place they had gained, than William Wilberforce. His immense influence was no doubt greatly owing to the homage paid to his personal character; but he possessed many other qualifications which must of themselves have raised him to a great eminence." As a public speaker, he enjoyed great and well-merited celebrity. Sir Samuel Romilly esteemed him "the most efficient speaker in the House of Commons ;" and Pitt himself said repeatedly, "Of all men I ever knew, Wilberforce has the greatest natural eloquence." But of what worth is eloquence when not joined to purity of character, and enlisted in the cause of God and of humanity? Few think of William Wilberforce as an orator; but as a philanthropist his name will be revered by the good in all time to come.1

THE ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE.

MR. SPEAKER-I cannot but persuade myself that whatever difference of opinion there may have been, we shall this day be at

I must subjoin here a few extracts from an almirable notice of his character, in the sixty-seventh volume of the Edinburgh Review:"-" The basis of Mr. Wilberforer's natural character, was an intense fellow-feeling with other men. No one more readily adopted the interests. sympathized with the affections, or caught even the transient emotions of those with whom he as-ociated. To this vivid sympathy in all human interests and felings, were united the talents by which it could be most gracefully exhibited. Mr. Wilberforce possessed histrionic powers of the highest order. If any caprice of fortune had called him to the stage, he would have ranked among its highest ornaments. He would have been irresistible before a jury, and the most popular of preachers. His rich mellow voice, directed by an ear of singular accuracy, gave to his most familiar language a variety of cadence, and to his more serious discourse a depth of expression, which rendered it impossible not to listen. Pathos and drollery-solemn musings and playful fancies-yearnings of the soul over the tragic, and the most contagious mirth over the ludicrous events of life, all rapidly succeeding each other, and harmoniously because unconsciously blended, threw over his conversation a spell which no prejudice, dulness, or ill humor could resist. The courtesy of the heart, and the refinement of the most polished society, united to great natural courage, and a not ungraceful consciousness of his inany titles to respect, completed the charm which his presence infallibly exercised.

"It is scarcely an exaggeration to say of him that God was in all his thoughts. He surveved human life as the eye of an artist ranges over a landscape, receiving innumerable intimations which escape any less practised observer. In every faculty he recognized a sacred trust; in every material object, an indication of the Divine wisdom and goodness; in every human being, an heir of immortality; in every enjoyment, a proof of the Divine benignity; in every affliction, an act of parental discipline. The early development of this habit of mind appears to have been attended with much dejection and protracted self-denial; but the gay and social spirit of the man gradually resumed its dominion. A piety so pro found was never so entirely free from asceticism. It was allied to all the pursuits and all the innocent pleasures of life. A fusion of religious with secular thoughts added to the spirit with which every duty was performed, and to the zest with which every enjoyment was welcomed; and the triumph of Christianity was eminently conspicuous in that inflexible constancy of purpose with which he pursued the great works of benevolence to which his life was consecrated. No aspirant for the honors of literature, or for the dignities of the woolsack, ever displayed more decision of character than marked his labors for the Abolition of the Slave Trade."

Read his "Life," by his sons, in five volumes,-one of the most interesting and instructive memoirs ever published. It is deeply to be regretted that the American editor and publisher have given us such a mutilated edition in two volumes.

* From his speech, delivered on the 2d of April, 1792.