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but one thing they have felt strongly-that a man's religion is no matter of indifference. In their ignorance they believed themselves wholly right; the Kallistas were therefore wrong, and their continuance in their error was not a thing to be tamely submitted to. The false religion of the poor Papist at Madeira, meeting no opposition from his natural heart, to whose taste it panders, has gained a real and active power over the man. This reminds us of a paradoxical observation of Mr. R. McGhee: "The Protestant is false, because his religion is true." The pure Protestant faith does not pander to the natural heart ;—therefore, unless, as the sword of the Spirit, it is made quick and powerful, it will sleep as a mere name; it has no real power over the unrenewed man; he can let other religions exist side by side with it. Ought these things so to be? Ought truth to be less dear than error? Should even the savage Madagascan revenge with death an insult offered to his idols, and Bible christians view with indifference the honour due to their Master alone, bestowed on saints and angels? True, the weapons Truth will wield are of a far different temper to those of Error. She will reject alike the aid of the midnight mob, the convent-prison, the murderous steel, and the blazing faggot. Here let the contrast be as plainly marked as possible; let it be seen by all that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal; but let them nevertheless be mighty through God to the pulling-down of strongholds. Let not the contrast be, that Papists hold fast by error, and we set light by the truth,-that they will leave no effort untried for our conversion, and we are content to suffer them to go on in darkness. Let violence for error be met by meek but fervent zeal for truth. Let their rejection of our faith be met with a

solemn yet affectionate protest against their error. Let the sickly liberality which would refuse to break their repose in the land of darkness, give place to the earnestness of Christian love, which would pluck them as brands from the burning.

THE

CHRISTIAN LADY'S MAGAZINE.

DECEMBER, 1846.

THE TREASURES OF WISDOM.

No. III.

FROM Mathematics let us now turn to physical science'; and first of all to Astronomy, one of its noblest portions. The lesson taught us by the great Apostle meets here with a further illustration. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, disclosed by science in the starry firmament, are as nothing, compared with those which remain hidden in the bosom of our incarnate Lord. "The heavens declare His glory, and the firmament sheweth His handy-work. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge ;" even the infinite knowledge of that Lord, who is the Maker and upholder of the boundless universe.

Most readers are familiar with the discoveries of modern science, on the nature of the solar system, and the immense vastness of the starry heavens. Those who desire to see them sketched and illustrated with a master's hand, may consult the first of Dr. Chalmers' eloDECEMBER, 1846.

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quent lectures on Modern Astronomy. The subject, even now, is acquiring a fresh interest, from the discovery just made of a new planet, far beyond Uranus, a solitary and long-unnoticed wanderer, in gloom and twilight, on the farthest verge of the planetary universe. The usual course of discovery was here reversed, and gave a signal triumph to the powers of modern science. From an apparent irregularity in the motions of Uranus, two mathematicians, one in France, and one in England, inferred independently the existence, the place, and the size, of a planet still more remote, whose attractive force would alone account for these perturbations. The telescopes of two observatories, almost at the same moment, were turned to the place assigned it in their calculations, and the planet was found. The range of our system, already vast, is hereby still further enlarged. The new planet requires about one hundred and sixty-five years for its revolution, and is nearly three thousand millions of miles distant from the sun. There it paces slowly, like a sentinel, in gloom and twilight, on the verge of our system, as if to guard the regions of life and intelligence from the immense void of midnight darkness that lies beyond.

While our acquaintance with our own system has been thus enlarged, there has been a similar advance, within a few years, in our knowledge of the sidereal heavens. The parallax of two or three fixed stars has been so far determined, as to enable us to form a rough estimate of their actual distance, numbered in billions of miles. The powerful telescope of Lord Rosse has proved many of the nebula, whose real character was doubted before, to be immense clusters of stars; and has thus set aside the main evidence for that bold hypothesis, which supposes all the worlds of space to be gradually developed,

by natural causes, out of an universal, nebulous firemist. Chaos has receded into the far distance, amidst the multiplying and enlarging proofs of God's wisdom and majesty in these wonderful works of His hand. Thought itself is lost in the vastness of the scene, which is now unfolded to our view; while the milky way, the nebula which includes our sun with millions of other stars, proves to be only one out of countless systems, not less bright and glorious, which are scattered through infinite space in unmeasurable grandeur and profusion.

But, it may be asked, however magnificent these discoveries are in their own nature, what have they to do with the gospel of Christ? What link of thought can unite the message of redemption to sinners on earth with these treasures of wisdom in the natural universe? Are they not rather adverse, in their tendency, to the faith of the gospel? Long before we arrive at the nearest star, will not the spirit lose sight of the star of Bethlehem? And while we wander from system to system in these innumerable worlds, shall we not find it harder than ever to hold fast the great mystery of godliness? Will not the pride of science look down from this high eminence, with contempt and scorn, on the lowly history of Jesus of Nazareth, and refuse to believe that he is indeed Emmanuel, the coequal and everlasting Son of the Father? In fact, modern Infidelity has resorted to this field of thought for its most plausible and dangerous assaults on the truth of the Gospel. However eloquently and powerfully the onset has been repelled, it cannot be denied that, on a hasty glance, the discoveries of science do seem perilous to our faith in that great central doctrine of our religion, that the Son of Man is indeed the only-begotten Son of God, the Maker of all worlds, the brightness of His Father's

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