MISCELLANEOUS DEPARTMENT.

PREACHING.

A preacher should be faithful to three things: faithful to the word of God, as Samuel to Eli,-faithful to his own conscience, as Peter and John before the rulers of the Jews,-and faithful to the case of his hearers, as Nathan to David. His aim should be to have it said to him with truth at last, by THE FAITHFUL AND TRUE WITNESS, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

THE CONNEXION OF SCIENCE WITH PULPIT MINISTRATIONS.

BY THE REV. DR. HOPKINS,

PRESIDENT OF WILLIAM'S COLLEGE, BOSTON.

In its literal acceptation, and in its highest character, the gospel is good tidings; and it is the grand business of those who preach it, to commend it as worthy of all acceptation to them that are lost. Nothing can compensate in a preacher for the want of a heart-felt conviction of the ruin of man, and that the gospel is the all-sufficient and the only remedy; and nothing can excuse him if he do not urge the acceptance of this remedy upon his fellow-men with his utmost force of intellect and energy of feeling. His appropriate office is to preach the gospel of peace, to bring glad tidings of good things, to stand as an ambassador for Christ, and to beseech men in his stead to be reconciled to God. But though this is the chief, it is not the only

relation which the preacher holds to society; for as the light of the sun not only reveals to us the azure depths from which it comes, but also quickens vegetation into life, and spreads a mantle of beauty over the earth, so does the gospel of Christ not only reveal our relations to God and the heaven which is to be our home, but it is spread over all the social relations, and is an essential element in the production of that moral verdure without which society would be a waste. Where the sun of righteousness shines, the whole soil is meliorated. The hemlock and the night-shade grow less rankly, the natural affections expand more fully and shed a sweeter fragrance, and the seed sown bears fruit for this life as well as for life eternal. The system which the preacher advocates is therefore not isolated and arbitrary; it is not a foreign and discordant mass thrown into society and fitted only to be a source of terror to some, of ridicule to others, and a curse to all; but it has relations to the works of God, to the social and political well-being of man, to the secret thoughts and hidden structure, as well as to the immortal destiny of the soul. It is only in the atmosphere of a pure Christianity that social man can attain his true stature. In this he moves and respires freely, while every other system is like an atmosphere more or less deprived of its vital principle, and lies like an oppressive and suffocating weight upon him. As well then may the natural philosopher rest satisfied with his knowledge of the literal atmosphere as the breath of life, and disregard its connexion with vegetation, and its use in evaporating water, and reflecting light, and conveying sound, and facilitating commerce, as may the preacher of Christianity consider it simply in its relation to another world, without regarding its connexion with the works of God, and its present influence on the well-being of society.

How then shall the gospel be studied so as most fully to liberalize the mind, and to fit the pulpit to stand, as it should, far more than at present, as the great educator of a christian community, and the

guardian of its dearest temporal as well as immortal interests? I reply, that in order to this, the gospel must be studied, first, as a science, connected in its general spirit with other sciences, and, second, in the simplicity of its plan, and the variety of its adaptations to the works of God, and the different conditions of individual and social man.

When I speak of the connexion of Christianity, in its general spirit, with other sciences, I have no reference to that mere accidental and external connexion which has been occasionally a topic of deep interest since the time of Galileo. At intervals within the last two or three hundred years there has appeared some new science or discovery shooting athwart the religious horizon, which has seemed to the timid religionist like the comet of old, not a part of our system, but sent for its destruction. For a time he has watched its progress with breathless apprehension, till it has perhaps seemed to pass out of sight into the darkness of infidelity; while there has been heard rising on every side demoniac exultation. Then it is that he has settled back upon that faith which he alone knows of who does the will of God, and after resting awhile in that position, has been surprised to see the same erratic star circling back, and coming in to do homage to revelation. Thus has it ever been, thus will it ever be; and the duty of the preacher in regard to this department is to keep himself informed of the facts, to promote investigation by all the means in his power, and not to be soon troubled in his mind as though every eastern forgery had the evidence of holy writ, or as though the theories of the geologists were as solid as their rocks.

It is indeed a remarkable fact, and one which commends to our especial attention the feature of the gospel now contemplated, that in an age when science, as connected with general laws, was unknown, the gospel should have been based upon that very feature in the character of God, his determined adherence to law, which lies at the foundation of natural science. The pardon of the gospel is not a setting aside of the law,

nor a repeal of its penalty; but it is granted in compliance with a law higher and more general than that which was broken. It is, for the purpose of this illustration, asif the law of the periodical time of the earth's rotation should be infringed, and its year prolonged a month by the approach of a new planet. Were such an infringement to take place without an apparent and adequate reason, it would unsettle the foundations of astronomy. But when the planet is seen to hold such a position as it ought, in order to retard the earth, and the less general law of the earth's time of revolution gives way to the more general one of gravitation, the foundations of astronomy remain untouched, and its fundamental law is confirmed and honoured. Now in the eyes of all heaven Christ has done that in relation to the pardon of sinners which in the case supposed the appearance of the new body would do in the eyes of an astronomerhas furnished a reason why that pardon should be granted, a principle on which it takes place, so that the law remains in all its integrity, and the sword of justice in the hand of the eternal God glitters as brightly as ever, or rather since the death of Christ, it seems to cast an intenser light. If then the moral kingdom of God is thus, in all its departments, governed by general laws, shall it be less salutary and ennobling to the mind to understand these, than to understand the general laws of the physical universe, the discovery and comprehension of which has always been esteemed the mark of an enlarged mind, and is often among the highest achievements of genius?

But we should wrong the tendency of the gospel to liberalize the mind, if we were to represent it as adapted to give us command only over a system of truth, running parallel indeed with others, but disconnected with them. The great systems of physical and moral truth are not disconnected, and were it only for the purposes of illustration, it would behove the preacher to be familiar with the fields of science. They have indeed been studied as separate, just as the arterial and venous systems in the human body were once

studied as separate; but it will yet be seen that it is in the moral portion of this universe that the pulse of its life throbs, and that it is from its connexion with this that the rest derives its vitality and importance. In the earlier stages of society these sciences, like the different tribes of men, were supposed to be rivals of each other; but as it has been found that there is a brotherhood of man over the whole earth, and that the prosperity of one nation is the best means of securing that of the rest, so it has been found that the sciences are all of one family, and that the advancement of one has an immediate effect upon that of others, and this has promoted a spirit of liberality and co-operation among scientific men. Into this circle and brotherhood, however, it seems not to have been thought that religion had a claim to enter. It has been supposed to have its own place, and its own claims, and its own modes of investigation. But everything now seems to indicate that there is an immense intellectual and moral universe corresponding in extent and variety to the physical universe, and that these are linked together by numberless relations so as to form but one whole. That there must be this unity, thoughtful men have long been satisfied, and the present is a period of eager expectation for its more full recognition. It is like that period in the history of electricity, when philosophers were watching for the link that should bind the electrical phenomena of the earth and the heavens together. Or like that period which now again recurs in the history of the same science in its connexion with magnetism and light and caloric; when the phenomena of all of them seem to indicate some central point of radiation by their connexion with which they may be severally embraced under the same general law, and be set as a single gem in the diadem of science. It is to this point that the eyes of the student are now turned. This is the next step to be taken. Rising from diffe rent and distant sources, science and religion are like two mighty rivers, sometimes seeming to run in opposite directions, but yet tending to empty their waters

NO. V.

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