monious subserviency to each other; always, however, assigning the chief place to that which is the most exalted.

Wisdom may be defined as consisting in right views of God, of ourselves and of our relation to our fellow creatures; and in doing (not merely in knowing or approving,) but in doing our duty to Him, to ourselves and to our fellow men. These three things, simple though they may appear, comprehend truths, and principles and actions of the highest import, far transcending the power of unassisted reason to discover, or unassisted nature to perform, and which may supply topics for study not only to the utmost limits of time but through the boundless ages of eternity.

The first part of wisdom is to find the knowledge of God; to learn to know him in his triple relation, as our Creator, our Redeemer and our Sanctifier; to reverence Him as a Father, who is venerable in wisdom; to love Him as a Saviour, who is tender goodness; to submit to Him as a Governor who is glorious in Holiness. He who has found true wisdom, has had manifested to him the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, has been brought to know the Father as He has revealed himself in his Son-has been led to regard that Son as his only and all sufficient Saviour-as made of God unto him through the might and merciful working of the Holy Spirit, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption; has consequently renounced all other guides to truth, all other grounds of confidence, all other means of holiness, all other hopes of glory, and taken Christ to be his all in all.

In the light of God's character as unveiled in his word, he has discovered the true knowledge of himself-his own sinfulness, his lost condition by nature; his utter inability to restore himself, by his own power, to righteousness and happiness-his continual need of the help and sanctifying grace of God's Holy Spirit, the duty which he owes to his soul, to seek his own eternal salvation, to avoid the destructive ways of sin, and to follow after that holiness, which alone can qualify him for the enjoyment or secure the possession of everlasting life.

In the love which God has manifested towards mankind, in the mercy which he has himself experienced, he learns his duty to his fellow creatures, which is to love them notwithstanding the evil that is in them, or the injuries they may have done him, to forgive them even as he hopes to be forgven of God, and to seek their good in all those ways and by all those means which will best secure that benevolent and God-like end. This, brethren, is the course of true wisdom; in these things wisdom consists; and happy is he that findeth it.

23-VOL. VI.

BIBLE TEMPERANCE.

FIVE ARTICLES

BY

REV. THOMAS SMYTH, D. D.,

Pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church,
Charleston, S. C.

Published in the Charleston Observer.

BIBLE TEMPERANCE.

THE IMPORTANCE ATTACHED TO TEMPERANCE IN THE Bible. No. 1.

Mr. Editor. Some of your correspondents, and Melancthon among the rest, on the subject of temperance, seem to be anxious to find the extremest limit of separation from one another. The one is as citra (to adopt the new coined phraseology) as the other is ultra. There are many that do not like the spirit of the one, while they cannot coincide with the views of the other. It may, therefore, be a seasonable time for one who holds the safe and middle path, to give his opinion also. That there is a ground on which the total abstinence cause may be advocated and advanced, I believe-and that there is a more popular ground on which it has been most generally based, which is unscriptural and dangerous in the extreme, I also believe. It will be my object, therefore, without any personal allusions or controversy, to shew the importance attached by the Bible to Temperance-what the Bible means by Temperance-the improper application of this term to Total Abstinence Societies, and some dangerous principles which some of their advocates have sustained-the christian rule of liberty and charity, particularly in reference to temperance-and the true and only ground on which as a believer in the plenary and verbal inspiration of the whole Bible by Him who knew the end from the beginning, and the present age as fully as those that are past, I can sustain these Societies.

I assume not the character of a dictator to other men's faith or practice, but that of an inquirer. These papers I drew up for my own satisfaction, as I had difficulties in my mind which have as yet prevented me from uniting with the Total Abstinence Societies, and which have not been met by Jonadab, or any advocate of the cause I have yet heard. Were these Societies, however, based upon the principles I lay down; were these principles defined in a written constitution, so that a member would not be responsible (as every member now is) for the unscriptural and false doctrines put forth by many of their advocates; and were the pledge made temporary, or binding only while the giver of it believed that his continuing it was necessary or useful-then do I feel assured many who are now restrained by conscientious obligations, would willingly co-operate in the furtherance of the cause of temperance, through total abstinence Societies. TEMPERANCE.