subject more directly upon the careful and prayerful consideration of our Christian readers. We have purposely confined our attention, chiefly, to the teachings of the Bible, because we are writing for the Christian community. No Christian who has followed us through this article, can fail to see that something like the plan, which we have unfolded, is revealed in the word of God; and that the plan, whatever it be, comes to us with the sanction of divine authority. None may, therefore, refuse the discharge of this plain Christian duty, and be an obedient Christian.

How does it come to pass, then, that a system of Christian duty, so clearly revealed, of such vital importance to the success of Christ's cause, and enforced by the most powerful motives that can reach the human soul, is so generally neglected? To show that it is not generally practiced by Christians, needs but a glance at the annual reports of the boards of our church. Some of them report as many as one-half of the churches under the care of the General Assembly, as contributing nothing to their treasuries. Of course, if so many whole churches entirely neglect to take up collections, we may expect to find thousands of individuals, in churches which do give, wholly neglecting this divine command. And, of those churches and individuals, reported as contributing to the board, many of both have no systematic plan whatever. They give only when aroused to a spasmodic effort, by the visit of the agent of some board, or by a special effort of their pastor.

We earnestly entreat every Christian reader to adopt some scriptural plan of systematic beneficence, and continue to practice it through life. If the Lord has given you more than it is proper, in the light of this subject, for you to retain for yourself and family, then prayerfully consider how much of it this divine law may require you to devote to strenghtening the endowment of some needy college, or feeble theological school, or to founding a library, or other charitable institution, that may continue to pour forth streams of blessing long after you have gone to your reward.

If, however, you determine that it is your duty to retain all, then, as all Christians of smaller means ought to do, settle

with yourself, as nearly as you can, your yearly, monthly, or weekly income as suits you best, think of Christ's love for your soul, and in view of all your circumstances, fix the proportion of it which you will give to your Saviour as high as your gratitude to him will allow; and never touch it for any other purpose. It is a sacrifice to God. It is a sacrifice to God. Take from this sum so much as is necessary for the support of the gospel at home; then divide the remainder among the boards of your own church, and such other benevolent objects as you may think deserve your benefactions, according to your judgment of their relative importance, reserving a small balance for occasional calls. Whenever, therefore, a call is made, for a given cause, you know exactly how much you have to give to it. If your church neglect to make the collection when the proper time arrives, make your own donation and forward it to the proper destination, as you would offer you own prayers. How vast a change, in all our benevolent operations, would the adoption, by every Christian, of this simple system produce! No more pastor's salaries unpaid, how many weary laborers' hearts would be gladdened! How much swifter round every wheel of our King's chariot would fly! How much sooner the millennium would dawn!

We can not close, without assigning, with diffidence, however, one manifest cause of the general neglect of this important subject. This system of beneficence will never be carried extensively into operation, without the earnest effort and watchful care of ministers and church sessions. The teaching of Scripture, on this great theme, is but very imperfectly understood by many members of our church. It is the bounden duty of ministers to preach the whole will of God to men; nor can there be the least breach of modesty, in expounding the divine teaching on this subject. We do not ask ministers to beg (would they had never done so!), but only to make the people of God know and feel what he requires of them; and we vouch for the Lord's true people, that they will not long neglect their duty, after it is clearly understood.

But mere preaching is not sufficient. It requires the earnest, personal, persevering efforts of pastor and session, to

introduce such a system into a congregation. On the other hand, as soon as such efforts are made, they will, in great measure, be crowned with success. When a church is reported as contributing nothing to purposes of general benevolence, we generally expect to hear that, at least, only insufficient effort has been made by the pastor to instruct the people in their duty. When a minister has long had the religious instruction of a church in his hands, and, in the end, is starved away from it, we generally think that it is his own fault. No grace of the Divine Spirit is more cultivatible than Christian beneficence.

DANVILLE REVIEW.

No. VIII.

ப

DECEMBER, 1863.

ART. I.— Shams and Presumptions of Physical Philosophy.

We hold in great respect and honor, all men of true science and true philosophy of whatever kind. Their value is inestimable, and their honor should be sacred in the eyes of all good men. Ev ery encouragement should be given to them, and every obstacle possible, should be removed from their path. They should made to feel that the world looks upon their laborious and persevering investigations with applause, because of the expectations of good. And they should feel that it is Christendom, annot heathendom or infideldom, that is their only true and reliable friend.

But while we say this, and say farther, that all true science and philosophy, like all true religion, are changeless and eternal, yet there are more shams and more empty pretensions put forth in these latter days, under the names of science and philosophy, than of any thing else. Knowing the weight which these deservedly have among men, the shallowest pretenders are everywhere flaunting their banners under the authority of these honorable names.

But men cheat themselves and others in the use which they make of these terms. It is apt to be presumed that men, claiming science as peculiarly their own, are all that they claim to be. That they have great breadth of learning, great variety of information, and great capacity for just and general reasonings. They are supposed to be clear and wide in their range of thought, exact in their perceptions of truth, and greatly enlightened and candid as to all inferences and deductions to be drawn from their own especial pursuits. But uo

mistake is greater than this. Science, in its large and enlightened sense, is both modest and positive. Positive in all things clearly proved, and dubious and modest in all things yet unsettled. And as we are here writing especially for the benefit of our educated and educating young men, we have to say to them, that more numerous, or more splendid cheats are no where perpetrated, than under the supposed infallibilities of science.

We have not one word to say against men of very narrow learning, information and philosophy, who nevertheless are attempting to pick their way through the intricacies of some untried scientific path. As first visitors to the secrets of nature, and as discoverers on her domain, they may act their part well and profitably, but we know of no arrogance which is greater, and of no assumptions more contemptible, than when such men undertake, in the pride and feebleness of infidel science and philosophy, to overturn the foundations of Christianity. The very novelty of their knowledge, and the very limited amount of its objects, seem to qualify them for deciding great moral and historical matters entirely beyond the range of their knowledge or competence, and of which conduct, proper qualifications would make them utterly ashamed. How many have been the times, and how great has been the joy, and how long and loud the shout of triumph, when Christianity has been doomed to fall and perish beneath the consuming light of some new scientific discoveries? The troublesome existence of the Bible, and of all the annoying obligations which it imposes on man, was to pass away before the lavas of Etna, the vastness of astronomy, the revealings of geology, the mysteries of mesmerism, the power of phrenology, the various types and origins of mankind, the revived and exterminating forces of pantheism, and so on to the end, if end there be to such premature and idle triumphs. Alas! for the fame of such achievements. The voice of the triumphal shout has scarcely passed away, and the victors scarcely sunk into peaceful repose, before it is found that the battle is not gained, but lost, and that another, and another Marengo game has been played against them. Time and truth have laughed their triumphs to scorn, and no weapon formed against them has beaten their ranks to powder with so much ease and power, as true