plishments; for the result would exceedingly serve to heighten the contrast. and to illustrate the importance of the office of the Christian missionary. I also greatly wish I could subject to the same test our historians, orators, and poets, and, above all, our mental and physical philosophers. The nations of Europe have been prodigal of praise upon the illustrious names of Malebranche, Leibnitz, Condillac, Helvetius, Kant, Locke, Reid, Hartley, Stewart, and Brown. These distinguished men have contributed much to enlighten the world in matters relating to the human mind. But it cannot be denied that, to a great extent, their speculations have been curious rather than useful. They have but very slightly contributed even to the temporal welfare of the human race, and they have been still less influential upon its spiritual interests. Had not one of their lucubrations ever seen the light, the wretched inhabitants of Europe could not have shed one tear the less, nor would there have been one additional outrage in the catalogue of crime! The single work of Adam Smith, "The Wealth of Nations," has conduced ten thousand times more to the world's welfare. If they have so little contributed to the good of man, it is not to be supposed that they have advanced the Divine glory. Had the whole body of European metaphysicians never had a being, their absence would not in the least have retarded the advancement of the kingdom of heaven. Their elegant speculations have broken no hard hearts, have incited no perishing souls to flee from the wrath to come. Neither at home nor abroad have they sped the salvation of mankind. No class of scholars are more inferior to the missionary servants of the Son of God.

There is another class of illustrious men, with whom I should much like to compare and contrast the missionary, and with whom such comparison and contrast would be more formidable. These are jurists and po

litical economists, such men as Machiavel, Hobbes, Grotius, Puffendorf, Montesquieu, Hume, Smith, Malthus, Ricardo, and others of the same order. These are men of various views and merits, but most of them men of transcendent powers. A portion of them have contri

buted much to the welfare of nations. It is difficult adequately to estimate their services. All, however, has been " seen and temporal;" it has chiefly, or rather solely, had to do with man's body, and with his political relationships; his immortal part, and his eternal interests, have not shared their consideration. I speak not of the infidel and atheistic part of them, but of such as professed better principles. In their own sphere they are truly great, and highly honourable; but that greatness is of an humble order, and that honour of a perishable character. Neither has it in its nature aught of the celestial, aught of the immortal. The extinction of some of those lights in the cradle had been to mankind a great and irreparable loss; but that loss would have been limited by earth and time; it could not have extended to eternity: they laboured not for souls, and hence into the world of souls their glory cannot enter; and in the day of final reckoning but small account will be made of their toils. They, and only they, work for immortality who work upon that which is immortal— the spirit of man: they, and only they, will realize a crown that fadeth not away, who are devoted servants of Jesus Christ, and co-workers with God in the recovery of a lost world! The men whom earth despises, are precisely the men whom Heaven will honour; they who share in Messiah's shame, are the men who will participate in his renown: the name of Christ alone will constitute a passport to the region of eternal fame. The poorest missionary now toiling in the wilderness, teaching the alphabet to the child of the savages and pointing the parent to the skies, fills an office of far greater distinction than the prime minister of the proud

est kingdom in Europe. His work will outlive the stars, and his reward will be as lasting as his labours. In the world of light, the first political philosopher of our earth, if, through the mercy of God, he be permitted to enter it,-will be a very humble personage as compared with the meanest instrument in promoting the kingdom of heaven. How altered then will be men's views of Christ and of his service! How different then will be their estimate of his mission and of his messengers, especially of those whose lives were peculiarly dedicated to the extension of his kingdom and glory!

There is another class of philosophers whose pursuits are profitable and praiseworthy, noble and sublime: their fame will be wide as the world, and lasting as time. Of this illustrious throng the heads and chiefs are, Brahe, Kepler, Gassendi, Galileo, Descartes, Huygens, Halley, Fontenelle, Bernouilli, Newton, Berkeley, and D'Alembert; and while the eldest is Brahe, the most distinguished, without controversy, is Newton. What a constellation of intellectual lights! How immense the range of these men's contemplations! They traversed the ample realms of time and space; their inquiries extended throughout the whole universe of God. Nothing was beneath their notice, nothing above it: they laboured to scan creation it all its parts, the largest and the least, from an atom to a system; the nearest and the most remote, from the light by which they conducted their midnight researches, to the burning sun, and the farthest star. Such men do honour to human nature, by displaying its stupendous powers even in its fallen state; and they bring glory to the Creator, by their illustration of his wisdom, power, and goodness. Their position as interpreters and expositors of the volume of nature, is one of the most honourable distinction. I feel constrained to believe that they were as certainly raised up for the especial purpose of illus

trating the natural attributes of God, as the holy prophets and apostles for the special purpose of illustrating his moral attributes. I respectfully submit to you, Sir, that there is something very extraordinary in the time and place of these great men's appearance in our world. Is it not remarkable that they were all born in Europe? Not even one such star has ever yet appeared in any other than a European sky. Is it not still more remarkable that they all burst forth within the brief space of little more than a century? Is it not the fact, too, that they just succeeded to the introduction of the mariner's compass; to the discovery of the Indies, and of America; to the revival of letters, and the invention of printing? Is it rational, then, to doubt that the allcomprehensive intellects of these men were an essential part of the rich provisions, and diverse gifts of Divine Providence to mankind at that wondrous period? Can it be doubted that they were as really sent forth to fulfil their high and special destiny in developing the constitution, properties, mysteries, and laws of creation, as were De Gama, Columbus, and Cook, to explore the ocean, and discover the habitable portions of the globe? All this I do most surely believe; for this, and much more than this, I shall ever most earnestly contend. Who can look at those men of science, and contemplate the magnitude and peculiarity of their intellectual powers, without admiring the wisdom and goodness of Him that formed them, and sent them to enlighten a benighted world? Bernouilli alone, had he appeared singly on our earth, would have been the universal wonder of mankind; and the same, indeed, may be affirmed of all the names above inserted. When a reflecting man stedfastly looks at the great philosophical brotherhood, he is filled with gratitude, delight, and astonishment. He feels it an honour to belong to the species of which such men are a portion! He feels that

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his personal insignificance is exalted by the fraternal relation.

But, Sir, I must check myself. There is a limit to eulogy, because there is a limit to human excellence. Men, like things, are great only by comparison; these natural philosophers, considered in themselves, are great, superlatively great; but, compared with adepts. in a higher knowledge, the knowledge of God in Christ, the dimensions of their greatness are speedily contracted. Surveyed through the medium of evangelical light, all such studies as theirs, notwithstanding their sublimity, are seen to be "of the earth, earthy." Curious speculations, discoveries in nature, and profundities in science, have but little charm for men condemned to die, and apprised of their doom. The united wisdom of this illustrious band can furnish no answer to the most important question that can be framed in human language, a question in which all men are interested. Approaching the august temple of Science, I inquire of her priests, "Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the High God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul ?" All are silent! Trembling, I wait in anxious expectation. Still there is no voice! I press, I pray for an answer. At last they speak, and speak of the Divine wisdom, power, eternity, omniscience, omnipresence, and goodness. But the question which interests, which absorbs me, is his justice ! On this point the wisest and best of them refuse to speak, and the less discreet speak to no purpose. tell them my fears, and ask them of his mercy. Here again the Oracle is silent or unsatisfactory. I am left in terror of the coming judgment! I look around for

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