and slavish religious dread. And the apostle was so impressed with the state of things which it seemed to indicate, the abominable bondage in which the people must be held to an uncounted host of deities, that as an apostle of Christ the first thing he felt called upon to do, was to denounce this extravagant weakness, and the first words which he uttered were accordingly those singularly bold and startling ones, "Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious," literally, too much addicted to the fear of demons, not, as some of our translators strangely prefer, " too much addicted to religion." He proceeds to tell them who is indeed this to them unknown God. And he And he says, "God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands, neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things; and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: for in him we live and move and have our being; as certain of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring."

Now this we cannot but think fair to take as a short epitome of the Christian view of God as a spirit, and if less strictly philosophic language be in other parts of the Christian records, and at other times employed in reference to the same subject, we think we perceive a reason and a justification for it in the circumstances under which, the purposes for which, and the analogy or metaphor probably in which that language was conceived. And taking these words of St. Paul as giving therefore a correct general view of the God preached by Christ as a spirit, if any man call it superstitious, we rejoice that we have our superstition instead of his religion. The aim of Christ, and of his apostles after him, evidently was to destroy all slavish alarms, all foolish grounds of fear, in reference whether to outward rites and forms of religion, or supposed beings exercising any noxious influence upon man, and to bring all minds to the acknowledgment of one God, a spirit, who was to be worshipped in the heart and in the life, and if worshipped in these, was sure to be worshipped acceptably; who was infinitely wise and kind; above all unworthy spirit of envy, jealousy, or revenge; who was indeed the God of all creation, reigning in unsullied majesty and unceasing benignity. This was the dignified, the spiritual, the enlightened, the unsuperstitious idea of

our Maker and his providence which Christianity was to teach, and the better to see its real nature and value (for so accustomed are we to the light, that we sometimes forget that sun from which it descends upon us), let us contrast it with this picture, drawn by the faithful hand of Plutarch, of that genuine superstition, that superstition rightly so called, from which it sought to save.

"There is nothing in heaven or on earth before which the superstitious does not tremble. Nor is it merely in the daytime that he endures this anxiety; even in sleep he is terrified by frightful images, and awakes in horror; but instead of rejoicing to find that these were only delusive shadows, he hastens away to jugglers and conjurors. Since the gods have granted us sleep as the oblivion of all sorrows, O! why dost thou thus rob thyself of this gift? since there is no other sleep which can cause thee to forget these thy dreams. Heraclitus says, all those who are awake have one and the same world; but of those asleep, each one has his own world. But the superstitious man has no world in common with others; for when awake he employs not his understanding, and when asleep he is not free from terrors; his reason dreams, but his fear is continually awake. Polycrates in Samos, and Periander in Corinth, were horrid tyrants: but no one feared them when he removed to another city. But for one who regards the dominion of the gods tyrannical and cruel, where can a land or a sea be found without gods, whither he may flee? Even oppressed slaves can demand a sale according to law, and thus obtain a kinder master, but the superstitious man can never exchange the gods before whom he trembles. When the unbeliever is taken sick he recollects his intemperance as the cause; when fallen into disgrace, he inquires what he has omitted; but when the superstitious man suffers the loss of goods, the death of kindred, adversity in business, he regards all as the stroke of an angry god, and will not strive against his misfortunes through fear of resisting the gods. The physician is driven from the sick, the consoling friend from the afflicted. There sits the superstitious man before the door, wrapped in sackcloth, or his loins girded with dirty rags; often he rolls himself naked in the dirt, and proclaims aloud whatever sins or faults he may chance to have committed: he has eaten such and such things, he has gone this or that way, which the demon did not approve.

But powerful as this picture is of the superstitions from which Christianity could and did relieve, it is still of the milder kind; it embraces not, it touches not on those horrible rites practised as worships, in which parents, as an offering to the gods, sacrificed the life or prostituted the honour of their own children. Let every good man who takes a survey of the heathen world at and before the time of Christ, and sees things otherwise incredible established at the mouths of many witnesses, even the

unbiassed and the unconcerned, seal his lips to the taunt that calls Christianity a superstition, and bless God for that light which shone into the world's dark heart at that time, and shineth still. But some, far more moderate than any that we have alluded to, will say No! we grant all that is said about the elevated, the benign, the spiritual views of God, of his character, and of his dealings, taught by Christ. We allow that the morality inculcated by him is that of the perfection of human character and attainment, and when inferred and collected from his parable and his metaphor, comes to us with a grace so attractive, a simplicity so impressive, a convincingness so irresist ible, that we bow before the Preacher at once, and confess him as our teacher and our guide. Those bright, confident, neverwavering assertions that man is an immortal being, too, and those dim shadowings and mysterious indications of that future state, that would have been incomprehensible to us, even if described, command also our reverence and homage to the Teachership of Christ. But still, they continue, we sometimes are compelled to think of Christianity as a better kind of superstition,-as good, well-meaning, pure, but as a superstition still. At first we are astonished at hearing such apparently contradictory statements. We can see in Mahometanism a superstition; we can see in every form of Paganism a superstition; we can see in Catholicism, nay, in some forms of Protestantism, much that is superstitious: but to look at Christianity, springing up where it did, and when it did,-to look at Christianity teaching what it did, and how it did,-to look at Christ himself, its calm, dignified, and self-possessed Finisher and Founder; to acknowledge its consummate excellence and purity, the need under which the world lay of its introduction, and call it still a higher kind of superstition, excites in us the greatest wonder, and seems at first to us an enigma. On more inquiry we find that the sole ground on which it appears in such a derogatory light to this class of minds, is this, that it claims for Christ inspiration and miraculous power. Now this, of course, we grant, it does, for after full examination of the various systems of the rationalists, we cannot see how we can receive the records of Christianity as furnishing us with our only original knowledge on this subject, and deny that this claim is distinctly and emphatically made. "But though certainly made," the objectors reply, "it is made under a misapprehension; under a mistaken view of the real and accounting causes; with no intention in the parties to deceive others, but in consequence of their being deceived themselves." Into the enormous difficulties of detail, into the inconsistencies, the miracles of credulity, and contri

vance which this view would compel us to receive as probable, nay, as actual, if we hold the documents to be the productions of eye-witnesses, we do not at present enter. Suffice it to say,

that the objector (and though sometimes a quiet, he is by no means a rare one) deems this claim sufficient to stamp the religion that makes it as a superstition. Now we would briefly offer to his attention three considerations on this his verdict.

Firstly. In the first place, that to which he objects forms the machinery of Christianity, not Christianity itself. It forms the means, and the instrumentality by which it was introduced, received and confirmed in the world. It was intended primarily for contemporaries, as a help to, and confirmation of, their faith. It was intended to give them assurance of the truth and value of what was taught, and to make them rely with confidence and security on its authority. This end it subserves still; but if any man feels within himself, from the nature of this religion and of his own heart, that that religion is God's gift to him; if he feels the revelation in the mind and teachings of Christ accord with, and interpret, the less distinct revelation within himself; if it approves itself to him as so essential, so accordant with his nature as to be necessarily true; if in its many voices there are to him distinct messages from God; if he does not require that help to his faith in it, which other men require, but has sufficient testimony within :-then let him rejoice in the evidence he has within him. But if a more palpable machinery of evidence was requisite and was employed at a time when the spirit of man was not, as in many cases now, become moulded to Christianity, but had to be taken as it were by storm, and have its attention arrested, and its belief commanded, and if with others, perhaps the mass of men, this is requisite still,let him not call the religion a superstition because its records declare that there were proofs offered at the time which his particular mind cannot easily receive, or does not stand in need of eighteen centuries after.

Secondly. The objector believes in God; he believes in His providence, he believes that God careth for the best interests and happiness of all that he hath made, and for the race of man. Now we must suppose, that after being created with an intelligent spirit, and placed in an abundant and beauteous world, the best gift that was ever afterward conferred upon man, was this same religion of Jesus. It being such, he would not find fault with the language if we said "God was specially with us in the ministry of Christ," that "there was a special providence in his mission." Now we certainly think that if this were the ease, the objector to Christianity has made too much of the

particular fact of miracles as connected with its ministration. For if we believe in the existence of God, if we believe in His providence, if we believe that after man's creation and placing in this world, Christianity was God's best gift to him, we cannot think what extraordinary instance of superstition it can be, to assert that this same God endowed the bearer of this gift with a certain power that should command attention to it, confirm its teachings, and give confidence in its authority. At any rate, we cannot see why, on the mere ground of such claims being made, any one would be entitled to call the religion making them a superstition.

Thirdly. When any man will tell us to what extent and in what manner God influences with moral power or wisdom the minds of any of his creatures; what limit there is beyond which he cannot go, or what mode there is out of which he cannot act, then may we agree to his calling that religion which claims an influence from Him for its founder beyond that limit, and out of that mode, a superstition.

In the meantime we must believe that the same God who first gave man understanding, can affect and influence that understanding, such way, and for such purpose, as seemeth good to Him. What is the precise meaning of inspiration, how that God, who surely may affect and hold communion with the minds of his creatures, influenced the mind of Christ, we cannot tell. If we believe in Christianity as a great gift of God,-we cannot suppose that God left the mind of him that was to bear it to us, unfurnished for his mission. But how, and to what extent the knowledge requisite was conveyed, we are not required to know, nor can we tell; but surely, to say that this great and pure religion is a superstition, because its records declare that that knowledge was given to Jesus by our Father, is a proceeding too summary to be wise, and involving an assertion of impossibility, which human ignorance is not competent to make. We believe the candid and reflecting mind, seeing what Christianity is in itself, independent of these concomitants; what it did on its introduction; how its beautiful spirit is entering more and more into the views of men and the laws and policy of nations, and what we should be or do without it,—will confess that the grounds we have mentioned are most slender and insufficient ones for even the wisest of our time, much less the confident, half-educated sneerer, to designate a superstition. The religion before which Locke and Bacon and Newton, the greatest minds of our country, unequivocally bowed, and which they ably defended, was not a superstition.

Of it, as of Christ, we may indefinitely (and the more