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seriousness of feeling and seriousness of principle ;" and hence the great number of passages in his discourses of which the following may be taken as specimens:

"But the falsehood takes possession of the man's own heart. He is pleased with his emotions and his tears; and the interpretation he puts upon them is, that they come out of the fulness of a heart all alive to religion, and sensibly affected with its charms, its seriousness, and its truth. Now, my brethren, I will venture to say, that there may be a world of all this kind of enthusiasm with the very man who is not moving a step towards that eternity over which his fancy delights to expatiate. **** The mind may seize the vastness of some great conception, and rejoice in the expanding loftiness of its own thoughts, as it dwells on the wonders of eternity. **** The heart may sadden into melancholy at the dark picture of death and its unrelenting cruelties; it can be soothed and animated when some sketch is laid before it of a joyful resurrection, triumphing over all the sorrows and separations of the dark world that is now passing away. **** And yet, O, my brethren, we fear, we greatly fear, that while busied with topics such as these, many a hearer may weep, or be elevated, or take pleasure in the touching imagery that is made to play around him, whilst the dust of this perishable earth is all his soul cleaves to, and its cheating vanities are all his heart cares for, or his footsteps follow after. **** Oh! it may have been a piece of parading insignificance altogether-the preacher playing on his favorite instrument, and the people dissipating away their time in the charm and luxury of a theatrical emotion."

It is a remarkable trait in the character and preaching of Chalmers, that whilst beyond almost all others, he might be styled the messenger of the gospel to the cultivated intellect of his day, he was also, in an extraordinary manner, the popular, the deeply beloved, and the successful preacher to the poor, the ignorant, and the neglected of mankind. Seldom have these two qualities been found so combined before. Some of his plain parochial sermons furnish no less evidence of his greatness in one department, than his astronomical discourses in the other. He seems to have taken even more delight in preaching to the Westport poor, than to the intellectual audiences who thronged the Tron church of Glasgow, or surrounded his professorial chair of Moral Philosophy. His sermons, too, to such illiterate audiences, lost none of their true elevation in being adapted to less cultivated minds. There was no artifice employed to catch the admiration of the unlearned, no mock humility, no seeming condescension to their capacities, no presentation of truth in a style affectedly simple and undignified. And yet without this, he was ever fully understood. His preaching to this class of minds was eminently successful. The reason was, he was ever serious and deeply in earnest. His mind was ever on the great theme, which, whilst it furnishes the highest topic for profoundest argument, comes home alike to the hearts and capacities of the learned and the unlearned. It was the continual presentation, in some form or other, of the truth which he so feelingly laments having neglected in "his by-gone days," when he had given himself up to the comparative trifles of chemistry and geology. It was the great thought to which he had been aroused, once for all, to make henceforth its proclamation

the great business of his life. It was the constant presentation of the contrast between the things seen and the things unseen, the continual pressing home the thought-" how wrong, how outrageously wrong, was the common estimate of the littleness of time and the magnitude of eternity." Here, in one sense, all are on a par. These thoughts may associate themselves with the highest order of human intellect; they have an equally solemn interest for, and their greatness may therefore be equally appreciated by, the humblest and the most untaught.

A very high evidence of the truly Christian character of Chalmers is furnished by his feeling appreciation, or spiritual discernment, of the very essence of Christianity and the Christian life, as seen in those the furthest removed from his own high intellectual grade, and having nothing in common with himself but a "like precious faith." In all this there is no trace of that spurious sentimentalism which would seek a luxury of emotion in the thought of its own condescension, or which would delight in drawing a picture of lowly piety, that the world might see with what dignity, and through what an immense distance, so intellectual a disciple can stoop to appreciate the piety of his humble brother. No man ever presented with more feeling and power than Chalmers, the moral sublimity of that character-the Christian poor man. As we read some of his inimitable sketches, the feeling cannot be avoided, that he does indeed recognise in his subject a brother," a brother beloved"-a very near kinsman, bound to him by spiritual ties, the thought of which banishes every consideration of intellectual difference. It is one like himself, living for eternity, whom he thus sets forth:

"We know not if any who is now present, has ever felt the charm of an act of intercourse with a Christian among the poor-with one whose chief attainment is, that he knows the Bible to be true, and that his heart, touched and visited by a consenting movement to its doctrine, feels it to be precious. We shall be disappointed if the very exterior of such a man do not bear the impress of that worth and dignity which have been stamped upon his character-if in the very aspect and economy of his household, the traces of his superiority are not to be found-if, the promise even of the life that now is, be not conspicuously realised in the decent sufficiency of his means, and the order of his well-conditioned family-if the eye of tasteful benevolence be not regaled by the symptoms of cheerfulness which are to be seen in his lowly habitation. * ***But these are the mere tokens and visible accompaniments of Christian excellence-the passing efflorescence of a growth that is opening and maturing for eternity. To behold this excellence in all its depth, you must examine his mind, and then see the vastly higher elements with which it is conversant, than those among which the children of this world are grovelling; then see how in the hidden walk of the inner man he treads a more elevated path; then see how the whole greatness of heaven is present to his thoughts, and what a reach and nobleness of conception have gathered upon his soul by his daily approaches to Heaven's sanctuary. He lives in a cottage, and yet he is a king and priest unto God. He is fixed for life to the ignoble drudgery of a workman; and yet he is on the full march to a blissful immortality. He is a child in the mysteries of science, but familiar with greater mysteries. * * * * These are the elements of the moral wealth by which he is far exalted above the monarch who stalks his little hour of magnificence on earth, and then descends, a ghost of departed greatness, into the land of

condemnation. He is rich, just because the word of Christ dwells in him richly in all wisdom. He is great, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon him." How serene, and pure, and heavenly, the spiritual atmosphere of such a passage, when compared with that which pervades the writings of the philosophers of the phalanx! It is this appreciation of the true worth and dignity of man, as an heir of eternal life, redeemed by so inestimable a ransom, which makes the immense difference between Chalmers, as a reformer, and such philanthropists as Owen, O'Connell, Ronge, La Mennais, or Fourier. Of the latter it may be said, that his whole philosophy is of the earth, earthy. The highest degree of enjoyment on earth is the highest aim which it ever proposes. Even this end, however, as might easily be shown, it must ultimately defeat, by leaving out that which gives all its dignity, and all its value, and even all its true happiness, to the present state. If Christ's words be true, then those who seek their life in this world will certainly lose, not only the life to come, but that which now is. Any scheme which rejects, or overlooks, the higher, must inevitably sacrifice the lower. The philanthropy which will not look beyond time, or which refuses to receive among its motive influences, any considerations drawn from eternity, must, in the end, generate an earthly selfishness, which will inevitably destroy and render vain all its temporal artificial stimulants and schemes of passional attraction.

Chalmers loved the poor with a far higher, and truer, and more effectual love than the Irish patriot or the French philanthropist, because he found among them, to use his own words, the materials of a new moral and spiritual creation, connected with an eternal existence. It is from the high position of the central truth of his theology, that he views this and all other human relations. It is in this, he finds the grounds of a a truly practical philanthropy, embracing both the present life and the life to come; and instead of a vain babble about rights, and social wrongs, and attractive destinies, and enlightened self-interest, he thus sets forth the doctrine of a philanthropy grounded on motives producing the most blessed results in time, because possessing a power and a light drawn from eternity.

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"Let the testimony of God be simply taken, that on His own Son he hath laid the iniquity of us all,-and from this point does the humblest scholar of Christianity pass into light, and enlargement, and progressive holiness. If the poorest be capable of being thus transformed, how should it move the heart of a city philanthropist, when he thinks of the amazing extent of the raw material for this moral and spiritual manufacture that is on every side of him-when he thinks that he is in truth walking amid the rudiments of a state that is to be everlasting that out of the most loathsome and unseemly bodies, a glory may be extracted, which shall outlast all the storms and vicissitudes of this world's history-that in the filth and raggedness of a hovel that is to be found on which all the worth of Heaven can be imprinted that he is, in a word, dealing with the elements of a future empire, which is to rise indestructible and eternal on the ruins of all that is earthly, and every member of which shall be a king and a priest for evermore."

1Sermon on the advantages of Christian Knowledge to the lower orders of Society.

Great as is the service which Chalmers has rendered to the Church by his writings, it may well be doubted whether she has not received a still higher gift in the inestimable value of his Christian character. Our faith should not stand in the wisdom of men; and yet, there may be seasons of faintness when, perhaps, we may be forgiven, if amid the naturalism which is so rife in the world, the false churchism which is found in some quarters, and the infidel no-churchism which prevails in others, we turn to so high an example, and get some strength to our own faith from contemplating the faith of Chalmers. To some minds, however, there is, in his very position, a peculiarity which tends greatly to weaken the force of this testimony to the truth and power of the Gospel. Had he remained a geologist, or astronomer merely, and in this character risen to eminence, as he doubtless would have done,-in that case, some cold opinion from him, intimating his respect for Christianity, and certifying to the value of our "our holy religion," might have been trumpeted forth, as similar worthless testimonies have been often paraded as coming from some of the savans of the day. But Chalmers the theologian,Chalmers who gave up science that he might give his life to the study and proclamation of Christianity,-Chalmers who proved his faith by his works, he is a theologian, and therefore an impaired and interested witness.

Every reader of his masterly treatise on the evidences of Christianity, must remember how often, and in what varied lights, according to his peculiar manner, he exposes a similar prejudice in respect to the higher authority generally attached to a secular, than to an evangelical testimony in favor of Christianity. With what convincing logic, and with what consummate knowledge of the weakness of human nature, does he exhibit the miserable fal lacy which leads many to get more comfort to their poor faith from a few lines of Tacitus or Pliny, than from all the writings of evangelists, and apostles, and fathers. And so with us, in respect to the example before us. How much value is attached by many to the opinion of a Davy, of a Herschell, or of others, who, whatever may have been their excellences, certainly never made Christianity their peculiar study, and whose certificates, therefore, in favor, are of no more real value than those of Jefferson or Buffon against it. In our own country this foolish prejudice of a weak faith often manifests itself in a peculiar way. There are good people who take great delight in hunting out the cold and worthless religious testimony of some ex-President, or ex-Governor, or of some distinguished military commander. Sometimes, to show in a striking manner how exalted station can lend its powerful aid to Christianity, some member of Congress is cited, as having "even from his proud position among the great men of the nation," given important evidence in favor of "our holy religion;"

and this remarkable "homage of high intellect" is held forth for the edification of our young men, and the strengthening their faith in the gospel. As though one should say who can doubt when such men believe? Now what is the chaff to the wheat? What are all these, and ten thousand more like them, to one life like that of Paul, or Augustine, or Luther, or Chalmers? The testimony of such a theologian is actually worth more than that of all the mere chemists, and geologists, and mathematicians, and astronomers in Christendom. The evidence of one such man who shows that he is indeed living for eternity, has more intrinsic value than that of any number of speculative or philosophical friends of Christianity, who yet are manifestly living for time-xata τὴν σοφίαν τοῦ κόσμου τούτου.

ARTICLE IX.

THE TAX-BOOK OF THE ROMAN CHANCERY.

By ALFRED H. GUERNSEY, New York.

Taxe Cancellaria Apostolica et Taxe S. Pœnitentiaria Apostolicæ, juxta Exemplar Leonis X. Pont. Max. Romæ, 1514, impressum, etc. Sylvæ Ducis, Apud Stephanum Du Mont. 1706. Letters concerning the Roman Chancery. By the Rev. RICHARD FULLER, of Beaufort, S. C., and the Right Rev. JOHN ENGLAND, Bishop of Charleston. Baltimore. 1840.

ONE of the gravest charges brought against the Church of Rome is that of having made crimes of every degree of enormity subjects of express license; so that, as is affirmed, upon the payment of a sum definitely fixed and publicly announced, permission might be obtained to commit fraud, violence, robbery, murder, adultery, incest, and even those abominations for which the modesty of modern languages refuses to furnish a name. If the charge be true, it stamps an ineffaceable brand of infamy upon that Church, which claiming to be immutable, one and the same everywhere and throughout all time, assumes a present responsibility for all her past acts. Where there is no change there can be no amendment. If Rome is guilty of the offence charged, her boasted immutability becomes her bane and her disgrace; the rock upon which she claims to be built becomes the stone to grind her to powder. If, on the other hand, the charge cannot be fully

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