wonderful," added James; "for, you know, all through Judges and Kings, after God had performed a thousand more miracles, it says over and over again, that the children of Israel forsook the Lord and served Baal."

"Sure enough!" said Fanny; "how strange!" "Perhaps, in the sight of God it is far less strange than some part of your conduct," said her mother. "If you compare your history with that of the Jews, I think you will find that you have received more wonderful and convincing displays of the Divine perfections; and yet you are continually setting up idols in your heart."

As Fanny made no reply, her mother resumed: "I should like to talk longer with you on this subject, and show you the means which God took in his dealings with the Jews, to reveal to them his various attributes. For instance, how he communicated to them an idea of his holiness by requiring that animals offered in sacrifice should be from a particular class, that they should be without spot or blemish; that all the vessels of the sanctuary, and everything used in the worship of God should be purified; that no person afflicted with a loathsome disease should enter the

place of worship; that a certain class or tribe should be sanctified to offer sacrifices for the rest of the people, and that out of these the high priest alone might enter the holy of holies, and he but once a-year-barefooted ;the effect of these, and other ordinances, evidently was to communicate the idea so often repeated-'I, the Lord your God, am holy.' But I will leave you to discover for yourselves how God's justice and other perfections were taught to the Jews. Not to lose sight of our argument, we have seen that man's first want was clearer knowledge. That the Bible meets this want, so far as the character of God is concerned, we have also seen. Next time we will examine the question, what new light it throws on the subject of Duty."

CHAPTER X.

THE SYSTEM OF DUTIES ENJOINED IN THE BIBLE IS FAR PURER THAN THAT TAUGHT BY ANY OTHER RELIGION, AND IS, IN FACT, ABSOLUTELY PERFECT.

"WE are now examining how far the Bible is adapted to the wants of man. And the first of these wants is clearer knowledge of God.

This the Bible furnishes. The second is a clearer knowledge of Duty, or of right and wrong. A revelation from God might be expected to unfold a purer system of morality than existed elsewhere. What have you to say on this point?"

"I remember what you told us before, mother," said Fanny, "about the way in which the Greeks treated their slaves, and sometimes their children; and I know they stole too, and taught their children to steal and lie."

"I have a general notion," said James, "that the morality of heathen nations has always been much lower than that of Christian nations; but I do not remember any particular examples of it, except those Fanny named."

"Our question," said his mother," includes more than morality, which is commonly limited to the duties we owe each other; it relates to the whole subject of duty. Our duties may be divided in three classes:-those which we owe to God, those which we owe to our fellow-men, and those which we owe to ourselves. These duties grow out of our relations; and, as all other relations are founded upon and grow out of our relation to God,

therefore, our duties to each other and to ourselves grow out of our relation to God. In other words, the only true foundation of morality is religion. And if this fundamental point of our relation to God, and the duties consequent upon it, is overlooked or misunderstood, there can be no perfect system of morals."

"Then I do not see but the morality of heathen nations is condemned at once," said James, "for you have shown us before that they were wholly defective in their views of God."

"This su

"Very true," said his mother. preme love to God, which lies at the foundation of all duty, is taught nowhere but in the Bible. The Greeks and Romans never had the most remote idea of such a thing. That man was to live for God, that his end was to glorify God, and that he was the property of God, they never suspected. Every man was to live for himself, or at least, for his country. Thus, they not only failed entirely in the duties comprised under the first table of the law, but this defect spoiled every other duty, inasmuch as our duties to man grow ultimately out of our common relation to God."

"But, mother, that is just what I do not understand," said Fanny, "and I have been all in a puzzle about it these last few minutes. I do not understand how my duties to you, for instance, grow out of my relation to God; or why I could not be a good daughter, even if I had never heard of God."

"Let us consider," said her mother "You owe me, in the first place, certain duties in common with all other beings, and independent of my particular relation to you. One of the duties which every man owes to every other man is, not to interfere with his rights, not to injure him in life, property, or reputation. But whence came these rights? How came any man to have any rights at all? It is plain that he must have derived them from God. God created him, and he also created you: you are, therefore, his fellow-creature ; you both sustain the same relation to God, and both receive the same rights from him; and one of these is the right not to be injured. Is this plain?"

"Yes, mother, very plain."

"Now, in your case and mine, you owe me certain duties which you do not owe to your fellow-creatures in general; but these duties