been some notion of a future existence-Elijah, in the chariot of fix these up into heaven.' By the time of Christ—that is, after their acqualised! with the teaching of the refined Greeks, if they had not already borheir the doctrine of the Eastern people,-the sect of the Pharisees were ele brated for their maintenance of this doctrine; while the Sadducees, who were persons of the highest rank, rejected it and denied it altogether.

That it makes no part of the Patriarchal and Mosaic Dispensations is clear. A text or two, by great straining, could not be a satisfactory proof that it was there. What must be more important than all other doctrines put together would have met us on every page, if the writers of the early books had had it revealed to them.

Then how came it into the world? Man is like the beasts that perish' -a sentence from the book we have just been speaking of-seemed a natural and rational conclusion. Man never saw a dead dog, after his flesh was mouldered away and his bones were crumbling, start anew into life. He never beheld a resurrection of any animated being; and, as an animal himself, there seemed no hope for him of living again. But a wish is soon father to a thought-(to borrow Shakspere's wisdom); and the feeling of being for ever separated from those he loved, of never more enjoying his favourite pursuits, of remaining for ever unconscious, brought a weight and gloom upon man which seemed unendurable. But the Sun!-did he not go down into the earth, and rise again, daily? The seasons!-did they not return again by his influence? The trees!-did they not again put forth their leaves at the return of his beams? There was hope, then, for man. He was superior to the other animals. They possessed but a limited mind,-'instinct' man called it; while he was able to subdue them, to train them, to use them for his own purposes, by the superior gift of reason: he had a soul, a spiritual man within the bodily man. After the grave he would enter on a new home: rude ideas were formed of it, at first: there was hunting in it, and all kinds of pleasure: then it became more elevated—it was an Elysium, a refined existence; while the dread alternative was Tartarus--the gloomy realm of Dis or Pluto, whose gates were kept by the three-headed dog Cerberus.

:

In the East the metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls, became the prevailing idea the soul would pass through many animal forms, and then return to the same man; for which reason the Egyptians embalmed the body that it might be ready when the period arrived-namely, 3,000 years -when the mummy in its fine linen cerements was to be resuscitated by the soul re-tenanting it.

Such

Yet 3,000 years have elapsed since many of those strange relics were embalmed some of them which have found their way into Europe are believed to be of that date:-but they never awake into life! And when the rest have become as old, they will not be nearer a resurrection. an idea demonstrated that those old Egyptians, with all their colossal tombs and temples and amazing pyramids, were children in some things. To judge by what we see of the perishable condition of the body, it never can live again, except in so far as it partakes of life by being separated into other bodies.

Yet the sublimest thinkers cleaved to the doctrine of a future state. It was one of the strongest tenets of Socrates, the great master of moral wisdom among the Greeks. It was the favourite doctrine of his favourite disciple, Plato. The great and good Carpenter's son of Nazareth taught

it: that is evident amidst all the divergencies of the legends. Paul, the Pharisee for by his own statement you know he was 'of the straitest sect'-was already predisposed to believe it, and therefore made it a part of his teaching; but he, and the Platonising Christians after him, were, in their own minds, strengthened by a new verity, as they held it to be-the resurrection of their crucified Master. Since their time the question has, after endless controversies, settled down among orthodox Christians into one fixed confession. The resurrection of Christ is the only foundation for the doctrine of man's future existence.'

I say that all orthodox doctors of divinity have come to this conclusion. What, then is the evidence for Christ's Resurrection? If something so eternally important as our eternal existence depends upon it, we ought to have most certain and clear evidence for it. Is it so? How stands the fact? Let us look at the evidence calmly, candidly; but yet, unshrinkingly, and without being overawed by those who threaten us (if we disbelieve the evidence) with all the pains of endless perdition.

(To be continued.)

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A WORD ABOUT SUNDAY OBSERVANCE. THERE is a class of persons in Christendom-and unfortunately a very large and influential class, too-who, it is said, are ready to do anything on a week-day, and nothing on a Sunday; and these are the pious respectabilities who keep all on' fretting themselves to fiddle-strings about the 'awful sin of Sabbath-breaking! This religious hobgoblin that haunts the twilight of so many half-educated minds is becoming quite an alarming nuisance, and causing as much commotion as the celebrated Cock-lane ghost did in days of yore. It has forced its spectral self into the House of Commons, and there that noble churchman, Sir Robert Inglis, falls down and worships it. It has glided amongst the coronets of the Upper House, where it finds a patron in the well-meaning, but rather feeble, Lord Harrowby. The presence of his Shadowship in the Legislature bodes no good: it is ominous of unpleasant consequences to the principle of free conscience in religion: it marks an increased activity in the Cantwell and Mawworm school; and, without any disrespect to our Northern neighbours, we should say it betokens a sort of Scotch mist' over our English intelligence.

Now, as our deeds are not evil, we love light rather than darkness, and therefore feel in duty bound to do all we can to diffuse the rays of Truth and Reason whensoever and wheresoever they are most required. On every question in which man is interested, we wish man to think for himself, and argue from facts, and not by fanaticism. If the advocates of 'Sunday Grievance' Bills would follow this plan, they would find considerable difficulty in cooking orations in favour of Sabbath sanctification, and we should hear less of keeping holy' the seventh day by closing postoffices and stopping railways, and all that kind of senseless gabble. If those who stick up for the Fourth Commandment and 'no surrender,' and yet call themselves Christians, would lay aside their nursery preju

dices, and condescend to talk more like reasonable beings and less like bigots, the world would not be disgraced as it is by the deluge of trash vented on this topic. For, verily, the ignorance and illiberality displayed whenever the subject is broached by the orthodox are appalling. There seems to be a double-quilted jerkin of obstinacy around the brain of the Sabbatarian Christian, which bids defiance to the sharpest-pointed argument. "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy"-that is the perch to which they cling, and from this arbitrary law, because it happens to be printed in the Jewish decalogue, no power on earth can drive them. But, however, if they cannot be convinced of their error, and be brought to perceive the injury their views inflict upon their own cause, it is easy to embarrass their logic by simply asking the following questions:-Where is the Scriptural authority for transferring the law in the Fourth Commandment, which bound the Jews to observe as holy the seventh day, unto the Christian code, and applying it to the first day of the week? When did Christ or his Apostles ever declare that commandment to be binding on Christians? And if it be a religious duty to obey that Jewish law, why did not Christ or his Apostles say so? To these queries we have always failed in obtaining a satisfactory reply. The moment they are put, the Sabbatarian Christian begins to shuffle and flounder, and is regularly beaten. He has not a leg to stand upon, and is obliged to fall back again on the defence of his old text,-" Remember," &c.

Some remarks made on this matter by Dr. Whately, the present Archbishop of Dublin, are worthy of notice. In a pamphlet, entitled "Thoughts on the Sabbath," he says:

If, however, any persons are fully convinced that the precept respecting the Sabbath was given to Adam, and also conclude, thence, that it must bind all his posterity, they are of course, at least equally, bound by the (recorded) precept to Noah relative to abstinence from blood. Any one who admits these obligations, and complies with them just as they were given, observing not the first, but the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath, is acting on a system which, though it may be erroneous, is at least intelligible and consistent. But he who acknowledges a divine command to extend to himself, ought to have an equally express divine command to sanction any alteration in it. Those Christians of the present day, however, who admit the obligation of the ancient Sabbath, have taken the liberty to change not only the day, but also the mode of observance. I believe they sometimes allege that the Jews were over-scrupulous on this point, and had superadded by their tradition, burdensome restrictions not authorised by the Mosaic law. This is true; but if we shelter ourselves under this plea,-if we admit the authority of the written law, and reject merely the Pharisaical additions to it,-we are then surely bound to comply at least with the express directions that are written; for instance (Exod. xxxv. ch. 2 and 3 vv.), Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the Sabbath day,' no one can pretend is a traditional precept; yet I know of no Christians who profess to observe it. Perhaps we may be told that it is a regulation not suited to our climate. That may be an additional reason, of some weight, for believing that the Jewish Sabbath was an ordinance not designed to be of universal obligation; but seems hardly sufficient, if it were of universal obligation, to authorize Christians to depart from the divinely-appointed mode of observing it."

Let it be remembered that these are the sentiments of a prelate of the Established Church, whose intellectual and moral worth renders him an ornament to the Episcopal body. He certainly will not be accused of despising the Scriptures, for he has written eloquently in defence of their truth; and yet he denies the Fourth Commandment is the basis of the Christian Sunday. The vain attempt to build upon this foundation has no other effect than to widen the breach between Christianity as taught in the Churches, and the common reason of mankind. The sinister de signs of the Sunday-Sabbatarian party are obvious. These strait-laced

projectors want to shut up the lecture-rooms and halls of the people on the Sunday; and to extinguish what they term Sunday newspapers. It is an aristocratic move, and there is in it far more of political intrigue than genuine piety. The amount of stupid hypocrisy involved in it is positively incalculable.

All we say is, let the bigots do their worst; let them pass as many stringent Sunday Bills as they please-the more stringent the better, and the sooner may we hope to see a strong reactionary tide set in, and sweep away such monuments of religious folly.

F. G.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

THE times are sadly out of joint. What can we do, to better our condition? This is a question in almost everybody's mouth. But the answer, it seems, is not quite so easy to give. Association is the idea of the time, the allabsorbing topic. It is a noble one, and cannot well be overrated. But the best things may be perverted. Dwelling ever on association, men are apt to forget the importance of individual efforts. There is an individuality in Man which cannot be destroyed. Duty is a personal thing. It is from a man's own thoughts, words, and actions that he derives pain or pleasure,-ultimate happiness or misery,-honour or disgrace. Men cannot become wise or virtuous, merely by combining their efforts. A bad man may be a member of a good association. Such an one has often contributed to the accomplishment of a noble work, from a very ignoble motive.

Individually, man is weak. Isolated, the little he can accomplish, is liable to discourage him from attempting anything. "True," said one in my hearing, "were I where I could combine my efforts with those of others, I might be induced to attempt something; as it is, I go with the stream. Nor do I see how the obligations of a reformer can extend to me." "No," said another, who had just been applied to, by a poor fellow who needed a little temporary relief," show me others, by combining with whom, something permanently good may be effected, and I am your man. But I see no good likely to result from these acts of private relief. I have renounced them altogether. I give nothing in such cases. My benevolence, if I have any, flows in another channel." Were not these misapplications of the associative principle? To such men, and in reference to the duties they had thus declined, I would say, in the words of an old author-"These things ought ye to have done; and not to have left the other undone."

In this country, whose "glorious constitution" is "the envy of surrounding nations and the admiration of the world," bricks and mortar, land and money, make legislators. Unless he be the son of a Peer, a man may have the wisdom of Solon, the justice of an Aristides, the patriotism of a Marcus Curtius or a Codrus, or the eloquence of a Demosthenes, still, being poor, he cannot serve his country, where such talents and virtues are most needed. He may be more than a mere declaimer; he may possess great knowledge-may be more than a mob-orator,-may possess the rare gift of true eloquence,--yet should that modesty, which is the natural concomitant of genius, make him hesitate to denounce at once, as fools or knaves, all who may differ from him in opinion, he is little likely to succeed as a popular leader, especially where such leaders are most needed.