firms it, that every part of God's word and works, enlarges and strengthens this love, when once it is established. Nay, the soul has now a key to unlock many mysteries of the word of God, which, before, it could only wrest to its own destruction; and what yet remains enigmatical, it takes upon trust, humbly and lovingly leaning on Christ, even when he says: What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter. So, too, with nature. For the eye that can see it, God's handwriting is everywhere, and the redeemed soul has the clew to many a hieroglyphic which is to others utterly undecipherable. Indeed, it is not too much to say that the only true lover of nature is he that loves God in Christ. It is as with one standing in one of those caves of unknown beauty, of which travelers tell us. While it is dark, nothing can be seen but the abyss, or, at most, a faint glimmer of ill-defined forms. But flash into it the light of a single torch, and myriad splendors crowd upon the gaze of the beholder; he sees long-drawn colonnades, sparkling with gems, chambers of beauty and glory open on every hand, flashing back the light, a thousandfold increased, and in countless varied hues. So, the sense of God's love in the heart gives an eye for nature, and supplies the torch to illuminate its recesses of beauty. For the ear that can hear them, ten thousand voices speak, and all in harmony, the name of GOD! The sun, rolling in his majesty,

"And with his tread, of thunder force,
Fulfilling his appointed course,"

is but a faint and feeble image of the great central Light of the universe. The spheres of heaven, in the perpetual harmony of their unsleeping motion, swell the praise of GOD! The earth, radiant with beauty, and smiling in joy, proclaims its Maker's love. The ocean is but

"The mirror where the Almighty
Glasses himself in tempests;"

and as it murmurs on the shore, or foams with its broad billows o'er the deep, declares its God; and even the tempests, that in their “rising wrath sweep sea and sky," still utter the name of him who rides upon the whirlwind and directs the storm. In a word, the whole universe is but a temple, with God for its deity, and the redeemed man for its worshiper.

And so, too, with the order of divine providence in the world: its mysteries remain, but not out of harmony; the great melody of Christ's atonement pervades them all; and all the variations, rapid and wondrous as they are, still preserve the master-tone which gives unity and clearness to the whole.

III. 1. So, then, brethren, this refined and exalted love takes possession of our being, and such are some of the means of its culture and develop

ment. But its best and surest culture, after all, is to be found in that practice to which the beloved apostle exhorts, in immediate connection with our text: If God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. And again, he applies most directly, and, for him, in somewhat stern language, the test and proof of all men's love to God: If a man say, “I love God," and hateth his brother, he is a liar; for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how CAN he love God, whom he hath not seen? It is thus the design of Christianity to make of the human race one universal brotherhood; and the solvent that is to fuse all walls of partition, the fire that is to melt all weapons of oppression, is the love of God. For, this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God, love his brother also. Loving thus, we shall fulfill all righteousness. The whole law of God is summed up in this, by Christ himself: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets (Matt., xxii. 37). That is to say, if we love God, we shall do all things else enjoined in God's law-shall fulfill all things else laid down by God's prophets. All good deeds will spring from this root, as the plant from the seed. There is one word, and but one, in which all the law is contained; and that word is love (Gal., v. 14).

2. Let us cherish, brethren, as the root and ground of our religious life, the great fact of God's love, to us in Christ Jesus. There is danger of our passing away from this simple scriptural belief, in a day when so many are wise above what is written-in a day when mysticism, in some quarters, passes current for philosophy, and philosophy takes precedence of religion. For young and undisciplined minds, the danger is great. But no danger is great, after all, so long as the heart keeps its love; so long as we keep ourselves near to the cross of Christ. Let us cherish then, the spirit of our text, and if asked the reason for the faith that is within us, answer, "We love him because he first loved us." And this answer will harmonize with all voices of the redeemed on earth and in heaven. Ask that young soul just born into the kingdom, and all quivering with the joy of its new experience-its answer will be, as it turns to the blessed cross its new-created eye of faith-I love him because he first loved me.

Ask that gray-haired Christian, who for years and years, has lived in Christ and loved his God, and whose affections flow on now in an unbroken stream, never wandering or deviating, to the bosom of his Father; and now, like Jacob, he stands leaning upon the top of his staff, and looking to behold the final salvation of God. Ask him, and still the answer will be, I love him because he first loved me.

Stand by that joyous and triumphant death-bed, and seek the source of its joy and its triumph. You will find it in the last whisper that falls

from the trembling lips, ere they are closed forever: He loved me and gave himself for me.

And so, beloved, it shall be in heaven. Ages hence, around the throne of God, if, in his mercy, we are permitted to enter that beatific presence, our ears shall hear, and our voices shall join in that ascription of grateful praise that goes up before God and the Lamb forever-that hymn that rises from the midst of the elders, who fall down before the Lamb that was slain, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of saints-that grateful hymn which goes up forever from amid the many angels round about the throne, and from that vast multitude whose number is ten thousand times ten thousand, and thou sands of thousands-all saying, with a loud voice, "Worthy the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing." "And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, all that are in them," shall be heard saying, "Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever."

DISCOURSE XXII.

MARK HOPKINS, D.D.

PRESIDENT HOPKINS was born at Stockbridge, Mass., February 4th, 1802, so that he is now fifty-five years of age. His father was a farmer, and gave to his son the advantages of a sound early education, such as our New England schools so admirably afford. When about twenty-four years old, he was brought, by divine grace, to a knowledge of the Saviour, and admitted to the fellowship of the Congregational church in his native town. He graduated at Williamstown in 1824, and gave himself to the study and practice of medicine, pursuing his profession for a time in New York city. In 1826 he was appointed as tutor in Williams' College, and in 1830 elected to fill the chair of Moral Philosophy and Rhetoric. He came to the Presidency of the same institution in 1836, which office he has since filled with eminent success. He is also pastor of the College church.

Dr. Hopkins has published a work on the Evidences of Christianity; another called Lowell Lectures, a large volume of miscellanies, and a number of separate sermons. He has long been considered one of the closest thinkers and strongest writers in the country. His mind is eminently keen and analytical, and readily grasps and resolves into their proper elements things the most subtle and intricate. The peculiarities of his style, as a preacher, are seen in his miscellaneous sermons. In his pulpit productions there is a rare combination of conciseness and pungency, of sprightliness, clearness, sharpness, and strength-in a word, of the soundly logical and instructive, with the rhetorical and ornate.

The discourse, which is found below, was preached in August, 1850, before the American Association for the Advancement of Science, during its session at Albany, and printed by request of that body. It is of a high order, and will extend the reputation of the author as a philosophical thinker, a polished writer, and an eloquent preacher. It is besides eminently timely in these days, when science and science, falsely so called," seem eager to assert their claims, as opposed to those of revelation. We do not remember to have seen some of its positions stated elsewhere; nor a more effectual storming of the two great points where science diverges into infidelity. Its discriminations, also, respecting the sphere of faith as greater than that of science, and distinct from it, are not less opportune than just. We are desired to say for the author, in this connection, that the occasion of the discourse suggested a consideration of the relations and bearings of mathematical and physical science; and it will be seen that what is said refers specifically and almost exclusively to them. It was not intended to deny that there may be a science of mind so far as there are in that fixed attributes, necessary relations, and uniform facts certainly deducible.

THE RELATIONS OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION.

"Avoiding profane and vain babblings and oppositions of science falsely so called; which, some professing, have erred concerning the faith."-1 TIM., vi. 20, 21.

THE genera and species of science are permanent. The genus Apis, and the species mellifera, are the same to-day as when they were described by Virgil eighteen hundred years ago. So, too, there are per

The second

manent manifestations of human character. We learn from the text that the genus babbler existed eighteen hundred years ago as it does now, and that then, as now, it was divided into two species. First, there was the simply vain, or empty babbler. Without depth, frivolous, conceited, with no apprehension of the grand and solemn aspects of this universe, with no comprehension of its great problems and interests, he is always and everywhere an annoyance and a hinderance. species of babbler is the profane. In this species.conceit is intensified, and there are added to the characteristics of the other, recklessness and malignity. Both were opposed to Christianity, and, then, as now, closely associated with these, often identical, were some who professed science of some kind, and opposed Christianity on that ground. They so professed it as to err from the faith. Of this genus some are earnest inquirers, and some mere babblers. Certainly there have never been more perfect specimens of babbling, whether of the simply vain, or of the profane, than have been put forth in the name of science. Before the circulation of the blood was known, what perfect babble were the theories of animal spirits pervading the arteries? How much scientific babble was there, both vain and profane, about the zodiac Dendera? Of what a retreating ocean of it are we now hearing the last ripples respecting the "vestiges of creation" and the Acarus Crossi?

But the doctrine implied in the text is, that whenever any thing claiming to be science is in opposition to Christianity, it is science falsely so called; and hence, that between true Christianity and true science there is perfect harmony. It is also implied in this passage, that there is a sphere of faith distinct from that of science. These are the points to be illustrated; and, to this end, let us inquire, 1st, What science is.

2d, Whether all science is related to religion.
3d, What science is thus related, and how; and

4th, Consider the sphere of faith as distinct from that of science, but not opposed to it.

First, then, what is science? This is a species under the genus knowl edge. All knowledge is not science; nor is the most important part of it. Those primitive intuitions which underlie all other knowledge, which are the same in all, and give unity to the race, are not science. A knowledge of isolated facts by the senses, knowledge from testimony,