had shown it abundantly when they had sent missionaries across the ocean, though thousands and tens of thousands of our own countrymen were sitting in heathen darkness, so, now a spirit, kindred in its character, but more blessed in its effects, has been aroused and directed to evils nearer home, they think they have done all they can to further it, when they have subscribed to societies established for its diffusion their pounds, their shillings, or their pence, though they themselves remain void of deep, pure, personal holiness. How monstrous the conclusion! If they, the salt of the earth, lose their savour, wherewithal shall the world be purified? If they, the members of Christ's church, permit a beam to remain in their own eye, how shall they see clearly to remove the mote from their brother's eye? Yet so it is. The evil demon, Avarice, to mention no other, which is the source of almost every vice of slavery and oppression, of wars and fightings, of dishonesty and fraud-has entered the very church itself, and caused his false-professing followers daily to crucify the Saviour by violating, most grossly, the spirit in which he lived and died. The axe must be fearlessly laid at this root of abundant evils, whenever it is found within our own hearts. There must be no peace till we have let the world know, that the phrase "a covetous Christian,” or a "an avaricious Christian," is as palpably a contradiction in terms as 66 a blasphemous Christian," or a "licentious Christian;" nay, till we have made it as impossible for a grasping, over-reaching, cheating man to maintain an outward Christian standing, as it is for the drunkard or the libertine. When this and other vices shall have been expelled by the members of the church, and conformity to Christ's life shall have become the one great object of ambition, then will they be temples of Christ's most holy spirit, and fit instruments for the regeneration of the world. Like the stars of heaven, they will reflect the light of their sun upon all. Though they never speak of uprightness, or benevolence, or religion, by the simple action of their characters upon others, they will raise the character of all around them. Their influence may be silent and slow, but it will be certain. It may be unobserved, but it will flow on like a still stream through thirsty vallies, traced only by the greenness and fertility of its banks; itself hidden by the very luxuriance of the herbage to which it has given nourishment.

Another means of cleansing the world from all that defileth will arise from the perfection of the individuals who compose the body of Christians. They cannot remain satisfied with fertilizing the respective vallies in which their course may run; but, all tending to one common object, they will be found carrying the waters of life to a common ocean, which will bless with their influence every region of the globe. Dogmas and institutions, which are valuable in their places, but not indispensable, may be maintained and supported, indeed, by many as essential, and thrown across the rivers which are tending to that ocean for the purpose of damming up their waters, and confining them within certain boundaries; but the streams will enlarge, and if they do not entirely sweep away such banks, they will assuredly overflow them, and find some channels which will conduct them to their desired destination. Would to heaven that past experience might teach the supporters of such impediments wisdom, or that the signs and prospects of our own day might induce them to relinquish their fruitless and injurious attempts. There is no section of the Christian church which has not its peculiarities that are looked upon as all-important, and thought to be embankments which ought to separate their supporters from all who differ from them. Formerly they did this; but now, thanks be to God, they are losing the power. All who take the spirit and life of Jesus for their creed and ritual, are overstepping them in every direction, and the result is, that we find at our great philanthropic meetings men from every denomination taking sweet and fraternal counsel together, pledging their combined influence and efforts, and making common cause to put away sin, and bring in everlasting righteousness. They have seen the folly of refusing to combine to accomplish something, because they cannot combine to accomplish all. Their number will increase; and if we do not, future generations will see the whole body of Christians rising as one man, for the purpose not only of applying to daily life, every principle upon the value of which they are agreed, but also of disseminating those grand and eternal truths of the gospel, about the importance of which there can be no doubt. Exclusiveness may cry aloud, when her boundaries are crossed, and the glory of her petty thrones.

and principalities grows dim, but her voice must be that of despair: for the time will come, when men will say, "We differ, nay differ widely as to the metaphysics, and technicalities of religion: we differ on points which we regard as of commanding importance: on these we will preach our own views, and to our common Master stand or fall; but, because we are alike seeking to breathe His spirit and live His life, because we agree in making Him our only standard of duty and piety, we will unite in proclaiming Him such to the world; and, as far as we are agreed on the means of conforming men to His likeness, we will jointly apply those means and labour for that end." Štanding united on this broad ground, the power of believers in the divine mission of Christ must be immense. The evils which individual exertion cannot remedy, that will overthrow and banish from the earth. The good which individual effort cannot accomplish, that will obtain, foster, and nourish. I can conceive of no sin, however monstrous or prevalent, which it might not uproot; and of no virtue, however difficult of attainment, which it could not rear. The very deserts of society it might make to blossom as the rose, and the solitary places of the earth to rejoice exceedingly. There is no valley of misery which it might not exalt, and no mountain of oppression that it might not bring low. In fine, there is no obstacle, however great, which could by possibility prevent it from making the kingdoms of this world the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ.

My brethren, since God in His mercy has given us to see that a conformity to Christ in our thoughts, desires, and affections, is the one great object at which we ought to aim, and that, when it is attained, we are bound by the most solemn obligations to stamp on all around us the same likeness; since, if true to our privileges, and faithful to our means, we must stand prominently forward as the salt of the earth, both individually and collectively, let us set our hand heartily to the work which the church has to perform, and, by the exhibition of a catholic, loving, Christ-revering, Christ-following piety, do our: part in effecting that mighty regeneration of the world which must be accomplished, before the arrival of that day in which Jehovah has declared, "I will put my law into their inward parts, and upon their hearts will I write

G G

it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more, every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know ye Jehovah!" for they shall all know me, from the least of them even to the greatest."

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE NEVER EXISTED;*

OR, THE GRAND ERRATUM, WHICH HAS BEEN THE SOURCE OF AN INFINITE NUMBER OF ERRORS, IN THE HISTORY OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

THERE have been unbelievers of note who, in order to impugn the historical evidences of the Mosaic and Christian revelations, have endeavoured, by the help of heathen mythologies and etymological deductions from the dead languages, to resolve the principal facts recorded in the Old and New Testaments, into mere astronomical allegories. Thus Volney has gravely assured his readers, on the word of a philosopher emancipated from vulgar prejudices in favour of historical testimony, that Jesus of Nazareth, whom Christians have for eighteen hundred years regarded as their Master and Lord, was neither more nor less than a fabulous personage, namely, the Sun in the firmanent; that the Virgin Mary was the constellation Virgo, one of the twelve signs of the Zodiac; and that Christ's crucifixion, and his resurrection, were nothing more than the Sun's declension to the winter solstice, and his subsequent return to the summer one. In the same manner, Sir Wm. Drummond, in his Edipus Judaicus, has laboured hard to prove that the entire structure of the Old Testament is metaphorical; that the patriarch Jacob was the Sun; his twelve sons the twelve signs of the Zodiac; and that the Israelites fleeing before the men of Ai, represented the Sun cutting the plane of the Ecliptic. And in France the same principle has been adopted by Du Puis, in his Origine des Calles. To refute the theories of these writers by an examination of their arguments in detail, would be a task as endless as it would be unnecessary; for who would, to expose fallacies that

* A translation of a curious tract entitled Napol on n'a jamais existé.

would transform the best authenticated facts into fables, plunge into the labyrinths of heathen mythologies, or laboriously explore the dead languages in unsatisfactory researches after the roots and into the application of words? Writings of this class are, perhaps, best answered by being parodied-the reductio ad absurdam process being resorted to-when it will appear that the adoption of their principles of interpretation to the records of transactions that have occurred within the memory of the present generation, and in which many individuals yet living, have borne a conspicuous part, would lead to the transmutation of such transactions into nothing better than fables. The Edipus Judaicus of Sir. W. Drummond was accordingly met by the Edipus Romanus of the Rev. George Townsland, who, adopting Sir W. D's. rules of interpretation, showed most conclusively that Romulus was the Sun; the twelve Cæsars, the twelve signs of the Zodiac; and that Cæsar passing the Rubicon, was only the Sun cutting the plane of the Ecliptic. And in France, the work of Du Puis has called forth a clever little tract, entitled Napoleon n'a jamais existé, in which the writer has converted the history of the greatest warrior of modern times into an astronomical allegory. This little tract appearing to us to contain, within the narrowest possible compass, an indirect but effectual exposure of the system of Volney, Drummond, and Du Puis, and also, apart from this object, to possess some historical interest by its rapid review of Napoleon's life, it has occurred to us that a translation of it, with a few short notes, would be acceptable to our readers.

Napoleon Bonaparte, of whom so many things have been said and written, never even existed. He is simply an allegorical personage. He is the Sun personified. This assertion will be proved, if we show that all that has been published of Napoleon the Great, has been borrowed from that splendid orb.

Let us then briefly state what has been affirmed of that wonderful man:

We are told that he was called Napoleon Bonaparte; That he was born in an island in the Mediterranean ;