tical testimony, in the holiness of their lives, that they were the messengers of God and of Christ, I cannot conceive of any amount of rational doubt but must yield before the pressure of this flood of testimony.

We love this Bible. We can conceive no severer calamity to the race than to be deprived of its pure morality-and we know of no blacker gloom, even in imagination, than that which pours its shadow over the soul, when the weary spirit is breaking through the dissolving walls of its earthly house, unsolaced by this light of life! No Bible! Oh! horrid deprivation! No Bible! Then is the world one grand enigma-a tangled tissue of contradictions, unanswered and irreconcilable. I see the flowers springing from the warm bosom of the earth, and lifting their meek eyes towards heaven, and I say, surely there is a God, and the fragrance is earth's incense of praise. I hear the birds singing among the branches, happy and free, rejoicing in the pure air and sunlight of the bright heaven, and I say, surely there is a God, and this music is nature's anthem of thanksgiving. I look out upon the furrowed field, and the springing corn smiles its blessing upon the God who sends the soft showers in their season. I see the joy of the harvest, and the golden sheaves praise him, and the fruitful trees praise him, and in full concert, all his works declare that He is 'good. But I hear a cry of anguish-it is the moaning of an infant gasping in its mother's arms. I see it pale and quivering in its agony; I hear the wail of sorrow which woman alone can utter as she bows to weep over the dead whom she has borne. This world, what is it? A wilderness of graves! A mighty charnel house! from which groans of pain and sorrow are for ever rising to the heavens; and I ask, "Is this world governed by one God who is good, and by another who is evil? And is it so, that the evil is mightier than the good?" Wretched man that I am! How shall I oppose the wrath of the malignant being who wars thus constantly against human happiness, and finally prevails so that men die; and dying, shall they ever live again? What answer shall I give? Shall they live again? And if they do, will that life be a blessing or a curse? What can I say? There is no Bible! And every grave confounds me—the joys of life perplex me, its sorrows depress me I am afraid to live, I dare not die! Oh! what can I do without the Bible? What can I know without it, that shall still the eager questioning of the restless, deathless spirit that is beating, like a caged bird, against these earthen walls, struggling after the purer, wider range of its immortal sphere? I know nothing, except that I am a child of sorrow and an heir of death. I can do nothing but regret my existence, and submit to my fate! So says the Infidel; but not so the Christian. This world is no enigma to him. He cannot explain every detail, but he can see a glorious harmony between the operations of Providence and the testimony of the Bible. He knows that God is good. He knows that God is holy, that moral law has its penalty for transgressions, as surely as natural laws have theirs; and, therefore, he knows there will be sorrow where there is sin; but then, he learns that this is not remediless. Christ has repaired the ruin, and provided the remedy. It is faith in him as the author of a new life, that is mightier than the power of death. It is faith which binds the soul to Christ, and raises it through all these scenes of sorrow to the joys of the heavenly inheritance. Let

us cherish this Bible! Let us read its words, pure as silver refined. Its precepts are apples of gold. In keeping its commands, there is infinite. reward! Let America keep the Bible, and the Bible will keep America; it will be the salt of divine truth, that shall rectify the tendencies to moral corruption, whether in the family, in society, or in civil government. It shall save the land from Infidel licentiousness and misrule. Remember that God no sooner caused any part of his will or word to be written, than he also commanded the same to be read, not only in the family, but also in the congregation, "that they might hear, and that they might learn, and fear the Lord their God, and observe to do all the words of his law." Defend, protect and love the Bible, and the God of the Bible will cause his presence to be your glory, and upon that glory shall be the defence of his own almighty arm! God grant to you all the blessings promised in His word to them that love his truth, and ever save our country from the blasting mildew of Infidel folly and falsehood!

My opponent may deride the faith of Christians as sheer submission to the frauds of a Protestant priesthood, but so long as ministers of the Gospel enjoin upon all men the duty of searching the Scriptures, we can let this assertion pass, with others, alike unfounded, and leave our faith and character to the ordeal of that day, when the fire shall try every man's work, what it is: and the ways and the word of God shall be finally and for ever vindicated!

As soon as Dr. Berg had finished, Mr. Barker left the hall. A friend of Dr. Berg took the platform, and, while the audience were separating, read some resolutions in favor of the Doctor and the Bible. "Less than one fourth of the audience," says the Philadelphia Regis ter, "voted for them. The more serious part of the audience did not vote at all. The great majority seemed to take the thing as a farce. The result of the vote made a good many long faces on the stage and front seats. A short silence ensued, followed by a burst of obstreperous laughter, and cries of the Infidels have it.' And so ended the most remarkable debate ever held in America."

HUMAN PROGRESS.

Br

JOSEPH BARKER.

There are three opinions with regard to human affairs.: 1. The first, that they are continually getting worse. 2. The second, that they are stationary.

3. The third, that they are evermore progressing or improving.

1. The first opinion is the most ancient. We find it in the oldest writings that have come down to our times. The Poets of Greece and Rome, sing of a time when men were all healthy and strong, virtuous and happy, and lived, without care and without pain, to a good old age,-a time when the oppressive heat of summer, and the terrible rigors of winter were alike unknown, and when the earth yielded without culture, whatever was needful to the support and comfort of her children. We meet with similar representations in the Poets and Fabulists of other nations. All sing the praises of the past, and lament the degeneracy of the present.

The same opinion, somewhat modified, is entertained by numbers at the present day. We meet with men both in the old world and the new, who think there are no men now, either in church or state, to be compared with the worthies of other days. Their forefathers were giants, both

intellectually and morally, compared with us; and we are but pigmies compared with them.

2. The opinion that things are stationary is not so ancient; yet we meet with it in writings of great antiquity. It is advocated by one of the speakers in the Book of Ecclesiastes. "The thing that hath been," says he, "is that which shall be; and that which is done, is that which shall be done, and there is no new thing under the sun." We meet with the same sentiment in the Roman Poet Manlius.

"The world is still the same, and still the same shall be:
That which our Grandsires saw, our Sons shall see."

And still we meet with men who regard all hopes of better days as fallacious, and all schemes or efforts for the elevation of our race as visionary. "You cannot alter the nature of man," say they, "or change essentially the state of society."

3. The doctrine of Progress is comparatively modern, and is regarded by many with suspicion and dread. Yet it has many friends, and their number is daily increasing. It ranks among its disciples and advocates the best and noblest spirits of the age. Our leading Philosophers and Statesmen acknowledge its truth, and employ their talents and influence in its favor. The most active spirits among all classes, in every civilized nation, are making the doctrine of Progress the leading article of their creed. It has won the hearts of our sweetest poets, and through its inspirations they have enriched our literature, with a number of the most touching and enchanting melodies that ever cheered or charmed the heart of man.

Raising their voices in a chant sublime,

They sing the glories of the coming time,

When error shall decay, and truth grow strong,

And right shall reign supreme, and vanquish wrong.

There may be a difference of opinion among us as to which of these three doctrines is the true one, but there can be none as to which is the most cheering. The doctrine that

all things are going to decay,-that vice and misery are continually increasing and destined to go on increasing, is truly dismal; and the doctrine that things are to be forever stationary, is not much better. The doctrine of progress, on the contrary, is full of hope and joy and consolation.

Nor will there be any difference of opinion among us as to which of these doctrines is the most beneficial in its influence on man's heart and character. It is plain that the influence of the first two cannot be otherwise than injurious. Their tendency is to chill the noblest affections of man's nature, and to convert the patriot and philanthropist into a useless, moody, melancholy croaker. What inducement has a man to try to improve his garden, if he believe that in spite of all his efforts, it will still remain the same, or get continually worse. And so with regard to the great political and social garden of our country and the world. If a man believe that, do what he may, the character and condition of his country and his kind, can never be improved, what encouragement has he to do any thing? But if a man believe that his efforts to promote the improvement and welfare of his country and his kind will be successful,that tho' they may not accomplish all he could wish, they will still accomplish something; and that what the labors and sacrifices of one age do not accomplish, the labors and sacrifices of a succeeding age will, he can labor with comfort and spirit. Our wish is to see every man a patriot and a philanthropist. The patriot and the philanthropist, enlightened and guided by true science, is the noblest character under heaven. And nothing, we imagine, is better calculated to make men patriots and philanthropists, than a hearty belief in the doctrine of eternal progress. If then the doctrine be true, we ought to know it? If there be facts demonstrating its truth, we ought to be acquainted with them. Our conviction is that there are such facts, in infinite abundance; and our purpose is to point out a few of them in the present lecture.