globes seen, by the telescope, to be similar to the Sun in size and glory, and "accompanied doubtless by their retinue of satelites, stretching far into the trackless regions of immortality, and in the conception of whose number and magnitude the imagination is overpowered and bewildered."

In the conception of God as creating and upholding those countless worlds, and rolling them in their appointed orbits through the illimitable tracts of space, we are filled with astonishment and awe, and are led to exclaim, "Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty!" Thou art glorious in power!

We conceive of God as giving existence to myriads of intelligent and moral beings, "made in his own image," and fitted to experience emotions of delight from the contemplation of his works, and from intercourse with each other, and to share with him the exalted pleasures of a spiritual and eternal abode. Conceiving of him in this character we feel that he is glorious in Goodness!

In the conception of God as a being of spotless purity, looking upon sin only with the utmost abhorrence, turning with loathing from those who persist in their guilt and pollution, and bidding them depart "to their own place," he appears glorious in justice and holiness. But it is only when seen in the great plan of redemption that his character appears in its full glory. In that we see the combination of all his attributes, natural and moral. And it is in just such a plan of salvation as we have been considering, that God appears in the highest degree glorious. Merely to save from merited suffering, does not of itself confer glory. It may be a dishonorable weakness and interference with the claims and proper ends of justice and good government. Thus God might have melted into tenderness over the guilty, and by mere power taken them "universally," in all their pollution, without repentance, and without an atonement, to his bosom. But this would have been at the sacrifice of his justice, and his holiness. It would have been a wrong done to the obedient; it would have been unjust towards them, though merciful to the guilty; and it would have manifested a weakness of character, and a "partiality" deserving the contempt of the moral universe. Nothing like this appears in the "way of salvation," which has been the subject of contemplation in these pages. In that, justice and mercy operate to their fullest extent, while the one infringes not upon the other. There, "Mercy and Truth are met together; Righteousness and Peace have kissed each other." There, is seen a Wisdom which could conceive a plan of salvation in which the rays of the purest holiness, the most inflexible justice, and the tenderest love and compassion, meet and blend in a halo of glory around the Cross! There, too, is seen an Omnipotence that can carry into execution the full conception of that wisdom; and, by influences moral, yet mighty unto their purpose, bring it to a triumphant consummation.

Finally, "Salvation by grace," will furnish to the redeemed in Heaven, occasion for the liveliest gratitude, and the most exalted praise towards its Author.

Who, indeed, but one redeemed by grace, can exercise gratitude, and join in the praise to the "Lamb of God," which the Bible assures us will constitute so much of the happiness of Heaven? Who else, from this world, will find Heaven a desirable residence? For who else, according to Scripture representations, will find the employments and the companionship of Heaven in unison with his own feelings? Imagine a soul in Heaven who has passed through this world wrapped in the mantle of his own righteousness, satisfied with the mere external proprieties of life, and scorning the doctrines of a "depraved, and a renewed heart, and atoning blood." All is glorious around him; and his first thought may be that of self-gratulation upon having reached Heaven without the humiliation of being "born of the Spirit," and clothed in another's righteousness,-and that other the man of Nazareth! He hears the swelling notes of the "New Song" breaking forth from the great company who have been saved by grace, saying, "Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to him be glory and dominion forever." Yet to whom shall he sing? To whom shall he be grateful? He is indebted to no one; he has reached Heaven by his own works; his gratitude and his praise, therefore, must centre upon himself. The music of the heavenly choir can touch no kindred chord in his soul. While other hearts kindle with gratitude, and other lips utter praise; and while all seem drawn by an invisible influence towards a common centre of attraction, his heart is cold, and feels a repulsive influence, his lips are silent, and he learns that a change of place alone can bring no joy to a "carnal mind," an unrenewed heart. In a heaven of souls redeemed by grace, he is solitary and a stranger; and, voluntarily, he turns to hide "in outer darkness" his inglorious head. But to souls renewed and saved through atoning blood, Heaven will be "Home," for God the Father, and Christ the elder brother, will be there to welcome the Prodigal reclaimed, the "son that was lost and is found." Gratitude will there live through eternal ages, with undiminished fervor and praise will be uttered by lips never to be weary. The great multitude of the redeemed, remembering that they were once depraved and guilty, helpless, and lost, will break forth into hosannas to the grace of God that made them what they are, and placed them where they are, amid Heaven's unending glories.

"A man also, or a woman, that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death. They shall stone them with stones; their blood shall be upon them."-LEV. xx. 27.

THE man or woman having a familiar spirit is, in other Scriptures, called a wizard, a witch, a necromancer, a sorcerer. Each of these classes of persons professed to have intercourse with spirits, either with demons or the dead, and by their means to make supernatural disclosures, and perform other unaccountable things. Each and all of them are condemned, in the severest manner, in the Mosaic law. In the text it is said: "A man also, or a woman, that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death. They shall stone them with stones; their blood shall be upon them." In another passage it is said: "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." In still another, Moses says: "There shall not be found among you an enchanter, or a witch, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a necromancer; for all such are an abomination unto the Lord."

In accounting for the severity with which Moses denounced these characters and their works, it should be borne in mind that they were heathen works. The Canaanites, into whose land the children of Israel were about to come, and the Egyptians from whose land they had just escaped,* were both greatly defiled with them. Indeed, then as now, the whole heathen world in ancient times was full of such practices. They were pre-eminently heathen in their origin and character, and God would not

See Is. xix, 3.

suffer his own people to be degraded and corrupted with them. They had been instrumental, with other things, in corrupting the heathen, and God knew that, if permitted, they would have the same effect upon the children of Israel; and he would not suffer the dealer with familiar spirits, or the witch, to live.

The mode of proceeding against the witch, however, according to the statutes of Moses, has been often mistaken. There is no evidence that any of those absurd tests of witchcraft, which were so common in this country and in Europe two hundred years ago, were ever resorted to in Israel. But the fact to be inquired into, with respect to the person accused, was her own pretensions. Does she pretend to be a witch? Does she claim to have intercourse with familiar spirits? If so, she is guilty, according to the law of Moses. If not, she is not guilty. Now there was some sense in a trial such as this. Here is no plunging the poor creature into water, to see whether she will sink or swim. Here is no searching of her naked body, to see if there are witch-marks upon it. But the fact to be proved is the culprit's own pretensions; a fact which could be substantiated by testimony, as well as any other fact.

Not only was the witch a criminal, according to the Mosaic law, but all who resorted to her, or consulted with her, were in the same condemnation. "Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled with them.” "The soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut them off from among his people."

The historical parts of the Old Testament furnish a commentary upon these statutes of Moses, and go still farther to show the character of the proceedings in question. Among the good things which Josiah accomplished for his people is specially mentioned his putting away all "the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land," 2 Kings xxiii. 24. Among the evil things charged upon Manassah, was, that "he observed times and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards,” 2 Kings xxi. 6. The crowning act of Saul's wickedness, for which he was finally rejected and cut off, was, his "asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to inquire of it," instead of inquiring of the Lord. "Therefore the Lord slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David, the son of Jesse," 1 Chron. x. 13.

Nor do these practices find any more favor in the New Testament than in the Old. Philip found one Simon, a magician, at Samaria, "which before time had used sorceries, and bewitched the people, giving out that himself was some great one." But inspiration testifies that he was a deceiver and hypocrite, "in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity," Acts viii. 9-23. Paul found another, a sorcerer, at Paphos, whom he addressed and characterized as follows: "O full of all subtlety and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord," Acts xiii. 6-11. The effect of a revival of religion at Ephesus was, that "many of these characters confessed, and showed their deeds, and brought their books together, and burned them; and they counted the price of the books that were burned, and found it to be fifty thousand pieces of silver," Acts xix. 18-20. John places sorcerers in the same class with "murderers, whoremongers, and idolators," and dooms them together to "the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death," Rev. xxi. 8.

But it is time that we inquire as to the pretensions of the characters of whom we have spoken. What are we to think of them? What judgment are we to form respecting them? Did they really have commerce with spirits, as they pretended? Or was it all a trick, a delusion?

However these questions may be answered, it makes but little difference as to the guilt of the persons implicated. If their strange proceedings were all a trick, they were guilty men. They were deceivers and imposters. Or if they really had, as they pretended, intercourse with spirits, they were none the less guilty. For such intercourse had been expressly forbidden by God, as a dangerous, heathenish, corrupting practice. So that whatever opinion we may form respecting the claims of those who professed to have commerce with spirits in ancient times, we are bound to regard them as guilty men-rebels against the law and the government of God.

But to come more directly to the question: There can be no doubt that many of the strange performances of the witches and wizards of olden time were a mere pretence. They were an imposition and a cheat, and were known to be such by those who practised them. They were brought about by some slight of hand, or in some secret way, which the performers understood, but of which others were ignorant. This was true of the magicians generally. They had magical books which revealed their secret arts, and which constituted their principal study. The books which were burned at Ephesus were undoubtedly of this character; and those who "confessed and showed their deeds," laid open the tricks and artifices which they had been wont to practise. Of this character, in all probability, were the magicians of Egypt. They are said to have done certain things by their enchantments; which is equivalent to saying that they did not really do them at all, but only seemed to do them, imposing upon the eyes of people by some slight of hand.-Ex. vii. 11.

Among the arts practised by the ancient jugglers was ventriloquisman imitation of the voices of animals, and the making of sounds which seemed to come from some other place. Thus they are said by Isaiah to "mutter and to peep," to "speak out of the ground," and to "whisper out of the dust," Is. viii. 19; xxix. 4. A more perfect description of ventriloquism could hardly have been given.

But all the performances of the ancient witches and necromancers may not have been of this description. Some things may have been as unaccountable to them, as to those who witnessed them; and may have been regarded by both as of a supernatural character. And yet there may have been nothing supernatural in the case. There is a propensity in us all to regard everything new and unaccountable as supernatural. If we can account for an appearance in no other way, we refer it to the spirits, and let it go. But is this reasonable? Is it philosophical? How do we know it is the work of spirits? Have we investigated all the secrets of nature, and are we sure that the unaccountable phenomenon may not be the result of some hitherto undiscovered natural cause?

I have not a doubt that many things which the ancients attributed to their gods and demons were produced by unknown natural causes. In those days, natural science was but little understood. Of some of the more powerful physical agents, such as electricity, galvanism, magnetism, and the chemical gases, they were wholly ignorant. Many things which are now constantly performed through the agency of these forces, would by them have been accounted miraculous. Nor is it at all unlikely that