mankind I would say, in the language which the wise and pious poet has put into the mouth of the fallen angel:

The "fallen angel" of Milton is, no doubt, a most skilful rhetorician; and his audience of "fallen angels must have been delighted with his very flattering words. But did any fallen angel ever regain Paradise by this

proper motion" of his nature upward? Or was he only moved by the pleasant speech of "the false worm" to still further rebellion against the government of God itself, and plunged into still greater degradation and misery? We should be very sorry, indeed, to believe that "the fallen angel" is a good authority in Boston; that "the father of lies" himself is an oracle in "the Athens of America." But if not, why should his words be there quoted, and his example imitated, by a fallen man in his eloquent address to fallen men? Did he, too, wish to ffatter the pride of his hearers, and scatter broad cast, like "the fallen angel," the seeds of rebellion, by representing government," the ordinance of God," as the cause of the degradation and misery of mankind? For our part, we infinitely prefer the words which the same "wise and pious poet" has put into the mouth, not of "the fallen angel," but of the unfallen Son of God himself, respecting all the oracles and teachers of earth that have not drawn. their wisdom from above. On this grand theme, the Eternal Word of the poet thus speaks:

"Alas! what can they teach. and not mislead;

Ignorant of themselves, of God much more,

"And how the world began, and how man fell,
"Degraded by himself, on grace depending?
"Much of the soul they talk, but all awry,

"And in themselves, seek virtue, and to themselves
"All glory arrogate, to God give none,

"Deep versed in books, and shallow in themselves,
"Crude or intoxicate, collecting toys

*Paradise Lost.

*

"And trifles for choice matters, worth a sponge;
"As children gathering pebbles on the shore."*

In ten thousand ways, and from the very dawn of civilization, have men been at work on the outside of society; just as if they did not know that its life, its power, and its freedom must come from within. In striking contrast with all this superficiality and folly, is the sublime procedure of Him who spake as never man spake, and who acted as never man acted. His reform begins with the very heart of society, and works itself out upon the surface. Though he found the world full of governmental abuses, He assailed none of these things directly; but, inculcating submission to the powers that be, He sought to bring those powers themselves under the glorious dominion of truth and justice and mercy. Though His kingdom is not of this world; yet, for all the kingdoms of this world, has he planted principles and powers, which shall gradually work out all their abuses, and mould them into better and still better forms. His eye is ever on the perfect, on the absolutely beautiful and right, on the radiant image of all good; yet, in the pursuit of this infinitely grand ideal, we see none of the stormy violence, or impatient weakness, of human reformers. On the contrary, passing by, with superhuman silence, the great external abuses around him, he addresses himself directly to the great heart of humanity, without the renovation of which, external changes are of no avail. Instead of cutting off one tyrant here, or crushing one abuse there; he seeks to enlighten the understanding everywhere, to purify the affections, and to fashion the will aright, in order that all abuses and tyrannies may die out of the world, and disappear from among men. In one word, He aims to make society all glorious within, in order that she may put on such external form as best becomes her glorified state. And in all this, we scarcely know which the more to admire, the calm energy with which He works, or the God-like patience with which He waits.

*Paradise Regained.

His divine power, silently working through all ages, is fitly symbolized only by those stupendous agencies which, with such inconceivable grandeur, are at work on the magnificent theatre of the material universe. He is, indeed, called "the Sun of Righteousness." In the beautiful words of the poet, "it is no task for suns to shine.” The great sun above us, for example, just pours down his golden floods over all as gently and as quietly as a sleeping infant breathes. Yet, it is by their pervasive force, that all the mighty changes of the earth are wrought, and all its wonderful harmonies produced. The winds are raised, and, in their rapid flight, obey this subtle force; and the deep seas, shaken by the feet of the mighty winds, obey the bidding of the sun, and, with all their ever-rolling waves, resound his praise. It is by his touch, that the electric equilibrium of the air is disturbed, and the lightnings proclaim his power; and the magnificent sparks thus kindled, ploughing vast regions of the atmosphere, engender material to enrich the earth and feed the green herb. The sun's rays. are, indeed, his ministering angels; sent forth to minister to all things on earth. By their ministry it is, that the waters of the great deep are spread in vapor through the air; that the secret fountains of the dew and the rains are replenished; and that the dry land is gladdened with springs and rivers. As from the water of the ocean they fertilize the earth and cool the hot air; so from elements. of the crude and formless air itself, they rear the living plant. The vegetable kingdom of the globe, with all its countless forms and orders, is the more than magical result of their beneficent care. They build the giant oak over our heads, and weave the sweet violet at our feet. The forests of a thousand years, no less the flowers of a day, are the work of their delicate fingers. The endless variety of rich grains also, and all the delicious fruits of every clime, are but so many transmutations of the invisible air, wrought and matured by these ever busy alchemists of the sun, by these shining ministers of material good, who, under God, fill all the earth with food and gladness.

Nor is the solid globe itself exempt from the transform

sun.

ing power of the sun. All the stupendous coal strata of the globe,-those inexhaustible sources of power and wealth and comfort laid up for human use in the bosom of the earth, are but the entombed vegetable kingdoms of the past; all of which were reared and ruled by the mighty The slow transformations of the earth's solid crust, too, in which its chief geological changes consist, are almost entirely due to the abrasion of winds and rains, the alternations of heat and frost, and to the everlasting lashing of the sea-waves; all of which are produced and set in motion by the action of the sun. In like manner, the great oceanic currents, by which the matter thus abraded is transferred to its final resting place, are mainly owing to

And when we consider the immense transfer of matter which, through the long lapse of ages, is thus effected, we can well understand the declaration of scientific men, that the sun's rays have, in some portions of the globe, bound down the elastic force of the subterranean fires, and prepared the way for their upheaval in others, either in the form of mountain ranges or in the outburst of active volcanoes; thus bringing even these tremendous phenomena under the same great law of solar influence. The Alps and the Appenines were, in fact, determined by the sun. Nay, when the primeval waters first rolled away, and the dry land rose to view, it was the sun which had appointed the place of its emergence, and the form with which it should appear. Thus, by the silent and all-pervading action of the sun, are the vallies exalted, and the very hills brought low. The foundations of continents are laid; their outlines and features determined; and their surfaces adorned with ten thousand forms of animal and vegetable life.

It is not without a deep significance, then, a wonderfully deep significance, that the great Reformer, or rather the great Transformer, of the moral world, is called "the Sun of Righteousness." The nations on which He does not shine still sit in the region and shadow of death. He acts, not like the "material god" on particles of matter, but on immortal minds. As, under the influence of the

one, all the forms of nature spring into life and beauty; so, under the other, thoughts wide as the universe, and hopes more imperishable than the stars, are called into existence. As, by the one, the dry and shrivelled seed is changed into the stately plant and crowned with bloom; so, by the other, the dark, degraded, savage mind is transformed into "the image of God," and made the heir of eternal blessed

ness.

In the moral world, however, as in the natural, the plans of the Almighty require ages for their development. In neither should we expect to see mountains removed in a day. If, in the formation of the earth, He labors through the awful periods revealed by geology, in which the rise and fall of Alps and Appenines are comparatively transient phenomena; then surely we should not expect Him to complete the far nobler and more enduring formations of the moral world in a day or a century. Hence we should learn, in imitation of our Divine Master, to wait as well as to work.

Under His guidance, however, we may be assured that the world will steadily progress. If it be true, as some allege, that the moral and political world is, like the natural, doomed to a perpetual vicissitude of night and day; yet it must be conceded that, all things considered, each night has been less gloomy than the preceding, and that each day has risen on the world with augmented splendor. The elements of progress have, no doubt, been made to fluctuate by the mutability of human passion; yet, under all the agitations of the surface, have they struck their roots deeper and still deeper into the moral nature of man. The waves may have rolled back, but the ocean is deeper than its waves. Even the dark ages, as they are called, contained more germs of moral and social good, than either Greece or Rome could ever boast. If we read history aright, we shall not fail to discover, even in those ages, the pulsations of a stronger and a warmer humanity, than ever beat under all the external splendors, or amid all the intellectual refinements, of Grecian or Roman civilization. We shall not, in one word, fail to discover