read from the pens of genius, of talent, and reflection, too-that "Evil is not the instrument, but the enemy of God."* It gives the cheering idea, that man, subject to constant error, is capable of constant and indefinite improvement; that he is perfectible, always going on towards perfection.

Why, then, should all this mental strength be paralysed, when the author looks at the condition of his own country? "Error is part of our progress," "its consequences are our teachers," its lessons are "prudence and virtue;" but because the people of the United States are not continuously prosperous, because they suffer from commercial panics, therefore this life, human life," is not to be a dispensation of ease and independence"-therefore, it is clear, that "through tribulation we must enter the kingdom of heaven"!

Why should this conclusion be so hastily drawn? We should look more deeply into causes, before we venture to say, that Providence-making myriads of species of animals, governed by instinct, and each enjoying its appointed degree of happiness, and forming only one species, man, endowed with reason-should have given him faculties which are not destined to be cultivated, and doomed him to increase in sorrow indefinitely, as he indefinitely increases in knowledge.

The teachers of man, the laws of nature, are perpetually at work for good. Why must their operation ever cease to be effective? We see no limit to man's improvement in prudence, in virtue, and in consequent happiness. Why should we, then, arbitrarily imagine a bounding-line? Happiness is the end and aim of sentient existence-happiness for man, and in this beautiful world. As we better understand what happiness is, and what are its sources, we shall less and less be disposed to sit down quietly under a conviction, that tribulation, that destructive accidents, poverty, and destitution, are necessary to fit us for a state of superior enjoyment.

True, the Americans are the most unlucky people in the world as to their steamers, because they are the most reckless. But not always will they select their worst

* Rev. James Martineau, on "The Origin of Evil,"- Liverpool Controversy.

vessels for winter voyages; not always will they place weights on safety-valves, to produce increased speed and increased hazard of explosion; nor will they always pile bales of cotton round hot chimneys. And when they have learned prudence from the voice of those stern teachers, inevitable catastrophes, I see not why these "tribulations" may not be avoided altogether.

True, with territory practically boundless, with all sorts of natural resources of soil, mines, rivers, varied climates, they yet condescend, in imitation of the follies of the Old Continent, to be the slaves of that which is only the fictitious representative of the real wealth of which they are plethoric. Are they then wise to sit down and wonder, and discover that this is "not to be a state of ease and independence?" Would they not do better, if they concluded, that with such abundance of all the means of happiness, their recurring panics may perhaps arise from some enormous blunder in their mode of distribution?

Dietrich Knickerbocker tells, in "his sober tale,” that the precise locality of New-York was fixed on, because its Dutch founders, accustomed to swamps, perceived that "it was a good place for driving piles." It may be, that there is just as much sense, in considering that prosperity must arise from extensive commercial speculations, from bustling and agitating competition alone, as there was in concluding, that in every country the only good building land was that which was characterised by the defect of the Batavian bogs.

66

Civilization," says Dr. Channing, "has not hitherto lightened men's toils-as yet it has increased them; and to me, this effect is a great defect in what we call the progress of society."* No defect at all, says Mr. Dewey; the fact only shows, that Providence does not intend that "ease and independence" should increase with the means of attaining them; his will is, that this world shall be forever a vale of tears-that "through tribulation," as a general rule, we must pass to a superior state.

Now, this predicating from existing circumstances to the eternal will of God, is both rash and pusillanimous ; it is also short-sighted, because immense changes are continually taking place, and fill the page of past history.

* Discourse on Temperance.

It savours of the spirit of weak inertion, rather than of genuine resignation. Such logic it was that moved the old king of Lydia to cast his ring into the sea, in order to secure his share of trouble. Such a spirit it is which induces some pious people to oppose any wholesale efforts to remove the pressure of poverty, because the Scripture has said, "The poor shall not cease out of the land." Animated by such a spirit, a country clergyman of the Establishment, when he lately heard it proposed to establish communities of united interest, similar to the numerous thriving colonies in the United States, and thus to secure to the inmates an escape from the physical and moral evils that beset them,*-exclaimed, "Such plans are unscriptural and impious. Distinctions of rank, wealth, and station, have existed in all ages; and we are given to understand, from THE ORACLES OF GOD, that they will continue to exist even to the end."†

Mr. Editor, I indulge no fantastic expectations; I look and wish for no spoliation, no mad abandonment of machinery, with the foolish hope of giving a population "leave to toil." I want no Agrarian law-no division of accumulated property-no wrong done to any man. But, listening to the voice of complaint that rings round us from every quarter-looking at the state of the mass of mankind in countries called civilised, I do feel, with the excellent and thoughtful Channing, that the existing state of things presents to view a hideous "defect," not in the ordinances of God, but in the conduct of man, in ill-using what ought to be universal benefits; and I cannot but think, that when public wealth and public distress have simultaneously reached their acme, some vigorous efforts will be made to throw off the incubus weight under which the nations groan; to show, that, with powers of production all but infinite, the life of man ought to be, and

* See, on this subject, a well written "Letter to Lord Melbourne; by a Member of the Church of England." Ridgway, 1840. The Author claims a grant of money for the purpose from Government. It would be well for Mr. Dewey to make an excursion of inquiry to some of these colonies; they are pretty numerous in the States, as Miss Martineau and others tell us, and may show whether the tribulations of which he complains (bankruptcies and bad debts) be the lot, or the fault of a people-of mankind.

†The Christian Minister's Warning: a Sermon by the Rev. E. L. Roberts, M. A. Incumbent of St. George's, Barnsley. 1840.

might be, in a constantly increasing degree, "a dispensation of ease and independence;" and that, as moral and intellectual progress continues, "tribulation," except that which arises from the lot of man as mortal, would cease to form what, certes, it now forms, the principal feature in the path through this world! X.

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.

Is there a God?-Look on the starry sky;
For there is many a mighty witness there.
Who hung yon orbs of fadeless light on high?
Who made them shine so brightly and so fair?
In all their journeys through the realms of space,
Have those bright pilgrim-worlds no law, no one
To lead them on? and doth no finger trace

The path of light and glory which they run?
Is there a God?-Ask of the teeming earth:
Hath she within her nothing to reveal
Of that Almighty Power whose thought gave birth
To all that we perceive and all we feel?
Yes, from the womb of earth there ever rise
A thousand voices which proclaim a Mind
Eternal and Omniscient, Good and Wise,

By whom creation's works were all design'd.
Is there a God?-Ask the wild waves that heave
In the deep's channel, when the winds are high;
Or as they slumber on a summer-eve,

Kiss'd by the breeze that passes silently.

Is there a God?-Ask nature everywhere,
For all speak of Him, from the mighty sun
To the minutest atom: all declare

The Uncreated, Self-Existent ONE.
Glasgow, 1840.

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B.

To the Editor of the Christian Pioneer. DEAR SIR,-Your correspondent, in the Pioneer for March, on "the Pastoral Duties of Ministers," has called attention to a most important subject; one which, I conceive, demands the consideration of the people as much, if not more, than of ministers themselves.

With respect to the arguments which are attempted to be founded on Christ's conduct, in behalf of pastoral duties, I regard them as weak and trifling. Jesus declared the truth. He gave forth its regenerating and sanctifying spirit, and in doing so he necessarily came into contact with mankind at their homes, as well as in more public places, and saw them under divers aspects of our common humanity. But ministers, as such, he did not appoint; for their duties, public or private, he did not legislate. These matters have arisen solely from human views of expediency; and hence, all that a Christian ministry can lay claim to, is a knowledge of the truth as taught by Jesus, and a desire to communicate it to others.

Ministers are the servants of the people; in Dissenting congregations, they are appointed to their office by the people. The nature and extent of their duties are, in a great measure, dependent on the wishes and wants of their respective congregations. No two are alike; no two can be conducted precisely on the same principle. Local circumstances must modify the application even of the most generally approved rule of church discipline. Hence, I would suggest, that if any congregation should require a more extended range of ministerial duty than is comprised in the common routine of our services on the Sabbath, it should respectfully intimate the same to its minister, and insist upon it as his duty to them. There is no impropriety in this, provided it be expressed in a becoming manner. It is common justice to both parties, and one essential means for the preservation of their mutual comfort and happiness.

On the paramount importance of pastoral duties, I have long been satisfied. They constitute one of the purest comforts and refreshments to a minister's own mind. They afford him the only sure test of his usefulness; and by the sympathy and interest which are awakened on both sides, truth has a readier access given it to the good and deep affections of the heart. But excellent as this branch of ministerial duty and experience is, it has been exacted with too much rigour,—that is, beyond the absolute wants of the people themselves, and its own utility as a means of good. That ministers, if