common in the country, and especially in the cities, may be ascribed to the destitution of a home. Against such a state of things the Jewish laws most carefully guarded.

The moral law of the Jews was so far beyond any other of the ancients that there is no room for comparison. The book of Deuteronomy is a text-book of legal wisdom, a study for every man desirous of investigating the noble principles of human action.

Their religion had for its object an infinitely perfect Being; a being worthy of the sovereignty of the universe. It was solemn, grave, impressive, and pure, without a single shade to darken its beauty, or a spot to mar its loveliness. It embraced no cruelty, no impurity.

There was nothing superstitious; all was reasonable, consistent, and full of comfort, hope, and peace. There was a holy joy, delight, and gladness in praising God, and a firm reliance on his wise and benevolent providence.

If, therefore, the darkness of idolatry is ever to be rolled from the world, it must be by the sun of righteousness arising with healing in his beams. For this the Christian is bound to pray, to contribute, and to labor; and we

have reason to hope that the time is not far distant when the whole earth shall be full of the knowledge of the truth; when the heathen shall cast their idols to the moles and to the bats, and learn to worship Jehovah the God of heaven.

The reason of this is obvious. The object of worship will necessarily occupy the mind of the worshipper, and as the character ascribed to the God will be the idea of excellence, so their own character will be conformed to it. Accordingly if we know the character a man or nation ascribes to a Supreme Being, we may judge very nearly of their character. Very many of the ancients believed their gods to be irascible, cruel, and tyrannical: and the people were like them. The theology of Homer fully exhibits this truth. The Romans worshipped Jupiter, and Mars, the god of war, and the earth trembled with their tread, blood sprinkled their path, which was lighted by the flames of hamlets, villages, towns, and cities; and the wailing of the widow and the orphan seemed music to their ears.

The nations of India, China, and the isles of the ocean, ascribe base, sensual, lewd, cruel characters to their gods: and their own licen

tious and lewd characters, and bloody offerings of human beings, prove how eagerly they desire to imitate the objects of their worship. The same fact, no doubt, has an influence even in Christian countries on many who err exceedingly in the estimate they make of the character of God.

CHAPTER VI.

CREATION OF MAN.

On the sixth day the earth was completed, and lay in all its beauty before God, with inhabitants in the waters, in the air, and on the dry land; yet among all these there was not one to see the power, knowledge, and goodness of God. There was none to acknowledge his glory in his works or government. There was no moral being to serve Him, no religious being to worship Him. All things in their kind were beautiful, all were good; but then there was no intelligent being there.

Everything, however, was prepared for a great and important purpose. There stood the palace full of provisions, full of servants; but no master was there. There was no one to till the ground, no one to rule over the beasts; "and God said, Let us make man in our own image and likeness." Here was the noblest work of all, the crowning labor of God.

Well might the Psalmist say, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made!"

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created He him, male and female created He them, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul." Thus in speaking of man, we must view him as male and female, possessing both a body and a soul. In this and in every other respect he is superior to every creature on earth. There is beauty in some, strength in others, and swiftness in many, but there is none possessing the noble form and power of Erect he alone stands perpendicular, his

face turned towards heaven.

It is perhaps not too much to say that the body of man is the end benevolence of God.

of wisdom, power, and It could not be more than it is. A more perfect material structure is impossible. Modern anatomists are every year discovering more and more of the wonderful wisdom of God in the formation of man; and as the organs are examined, and their various uses known, the divine wisdom and benevolence become more and more clearly manifest. The constant waste is as constantly repaired by the most ample contrivance. There is a