Mercy answered, "Behold at the bottom of the hill, bearing his ``own cross;"-and then she departed and stood aloof at the hour of trial. Jesus ascended the hill, while in his train followed his weeping church. Justice immediately presented him with the deed, saying, "This is the day when this bond is to be executed." When he received it, did he tear it in pieces, and give it to the winds of Heaven? No, He nailed it to His cross, exclaiming, "It is finished."--Justice called on holy fire to come down and consume the sacrifice. Holy fire descended-it swallowed his humanity-but when it touched his Deity it expired! And there was darkness over the whole Heavens-but, glory to God in the highest-on earth, peace and good will towards men."

"This," said the Welchman, "this is but a specimen of Christmas Evans."

ENLIGHTENED PIETY.

An extensive acquaintance with nature and science, combined with Christian principle, always induces profound humility. The man who has made excursions through the most diversified regions of thought, is deeply sensible of the little progress he has attained, and of the vast and unbounded field of Divine science which still remains to be explored. When he considers the immense variety of sublime subjects which the Volume of Inspiration exhibits, and of which he has obtained but a very faint and imperfect glimpse the comprehensive extent, and the intricate windings of the operations of Providence, & the infinite number of beings over which it extends the amplitude and magnificence of that glorious universe over which Jehovah presides, and how small a portion of it lies open to his minute inspection --he is humbled in the dust at the view of his own insignificance; he sees himself to be a very babe in knowledge; and, as it were, just emerging from the gloom of ignorance into the first dawnings of light and intelligence. He feels the full force and spirit of the Poet's sentiment

"Much learning shows how little mortals know."

When he considers the comprehensive extent of the Divine law, and its numerous bearings on every part of his conduct, and on all the diversified relations in which he stands to his God, and to his fellow-men; and when he reflects on his multiplied deviations from that eternal rule of rectitude, he is ashamed and confounded in the presence of the Holy One of Israel; and, on a review of his former pride and self-conceit, is constrained to adopt the language of Agur, and

of Asaph "Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man." "So foolish was I, and ignorant, I was as a beast before thee.” He views the meanest and the most ignorant of his species, as but a very few degrees below him in the scale of intelligence, and sees no reason why he should glory over his felłows.

This sentiment might be illustrated from the example of some of the most eminent men, in whose minds science and religion were combined. The Honorable Mr. BOYLE was the most unwearied and successful explorer of the works of God, in the age in which he lived; and all his philosophical pursuits were consecrated to the service of Religion. Among other excellent traits in his character, humility was the most conspicuous. "He had about him," says Bishop Burnet, "all that unaffected neglect of pomp in clothes, lodging, furniture, and equipage, which agreed with his grave and serious course of life," and was courteous and condescending to the meanest of his fellowmen. "He had," says the same author, "the profoundest veneration for the Great God of heaven and earth, that ever I observed in any person. The very name of God was never mentioned by him without a pause, and a visible stop in his discourse;" and the tenor of his philosophical and theological writings is in complete unison with these traits of character. SIR ISAAC NEWTON, too, whose genius seemed to know no limits but those of the visible universe, was distinguished by his modesty, humility, and meekness of temper. He had such an humble opinion of himself, that he had no relish for the applause which was so deservedly paid him. He would have let others run away with the glory of his inventions, if his friends and countrymen had not been more jealous of his honor than he was himself. He said, a little before his death, "I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself, I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding 1 pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."

The same sentiment might have been illustrated from the lives of Bacon, Locke, Dr. Boerhaave, Hervey, Nieuwentyt, Ray, Durham, the Abbe Pluche, Bonnet, and other eminent characters, who devoted their stores of knowledge to the illustration of the Christian system. For, an extensive knowledge of the operations of God has a natural tendency to produce humility and veneration; and wherever it is combined with pride and arrogance, either among philosophers or divices, it indicates a lamentable deficiency, if not a complete destitution of Christian principle, and of all those tempers which form the bond of

anion among holy intelligences. After the attention of Job had been directed to the works of God, and when he had contemplated the inexplicable phenomena of the Divine agency in the material world, he was ashamed and confounded at his former presumption; and in deep humility, exclaimed, "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth thee; wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes."-In accordance with what has been now stated, we find, that the most exalted intelligences, who, of course, possess the most extensive views of the works and providential arrangements of God, are represented as also the most humble in their deportment, and as displaying the most profound reverence in their incessant adorations. They "fall down before Him who sits upon the throne; and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory,and honour, and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created." Their moral conduct evinces the same lowly temper of mind. They wait around the throne, in the attitude of motion, with wings outspread, ready to fly, on the first signal of their Sovereign's will; they do his commandments, hearkening to the voice of his word," and do not disdain to perform important services, in our wretched world, to the meanest human being who is numbered among "the heirs of salvation." In like manner, were we endued with the grasp of intellect, the capa cious minds, the extensive knowledge, and the moral powers which they possess, we would also display the same humble and reverential spirit, and feel ashamed of those emotions of vanity, and pride, which dispose so many of the human family to look down with contempt on their fellow-mortals.

ANECDOTE OF PRESIDENT DAVIES.

This great divine, originally a poor boy of Hanover, Va. but for his extraordinary talents and piety, early advanced to the professorship of Princeton college, crossed the Atlantic to solicit the means of completing that noble institution. His fame as a mighty man of God, had arrived long before him. He was of course speedily invited up to the pulpit. From a soul at once blazing with gospel light, and burning with Divine love, his style of speaking was so strikingly su perior to that of the cold sermon readers of the British metropolis, that the town was presently running after him. There was no getting into the churches where he was to preach. The coaches of the nobility stood in glittering ranks around the long neglected walls of Zion; and even George the third, with his royal consort, borne away by the holy epidemic, became humble hearers of the American orator, Blest

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with a clear voice, sweet as the notes of the Harmonica, and loud as the battle-kindling trumpet, he poured forth the pious ardour of his soul with such force that the honest monarch could not repress his emotions; but starting from his seat with rolling eyes and agitated manner, at every burning period he would exclaim, loud enough to be heard half way over the church, "Fine! fine!! fine preacher! faith, a fine preacher? Why-why-why-Charlotte! Why Charlotte! This beats our archbishop!" The people all stared at the King. The man of God made a full stop-and fixing his eyes upon him, as would a tender parent upon a giddy child, cried aloud: "When the lion roars, the beasts in the forest tremble; and when the Almighty speaks, let the kings of the earth keep silence." The monarch shrunk back in his seat, and behaved, during the rest of the discourse, with the most respectful attention. The next day he sent for Dr. Davies, and after complimenting him highly as an "honest preacher," ordered him a hundred guineas for his college.

POPULATION OF THE EARTH.

The number of inhabitants which people the earth at one time may be estimated to amount to at least eight hundred millions; of which 500 millions may be assigned to Asia; 80 millions to Africa; 70 millions to America; and 150 millions to Europe.-With regard to their religion, they may be estimated as follows:

From this estimate it appears, that there are more than 4 Pagans and Mahometans to 1 Christian, and only 1 protestant to 17 of all the other denominations. Although all the Roman Catholics, Greeks, and Protestants, were reckoned true Christians, there still remains more than 620 millions of our fellow-men ignorant of the true God, and of his will as revealed in the sacred scriptures; which shows what a vast field of exertion still lies open to Christian benevolence before the blessings of civilization, mental improvement, rational liberty, and Christianity, be fully communicated to the Pagan and Mahometan world.

Our world is capable of sustaining a much greater number of inhabitants than has ever yet existed upon it at any one time. And since

we are informed in the Sacred Oracles, that God "created it not in vain, but formed it to be inhabited," we have reason to believe, that, in future ages, when the physical and moral energies of mankind `shall be fully exerted, and when Peace shall wave her olive branch over the nations, the earth will be much more populous than it has ever been, and those immense deserts, where ravenous animals now roam undisturbed, will be transformed into scenes of fertility and beauty. If it be admitted. that the produce of 12 acres of land is sufficient to maintain a family consisting of six persons, and if we reckon only onefourth of the surface of the globe capable of cultivation, it can be proved, that the earth could afford sustenance for 16,000 millions of inhabitants, or twenty times the number that is at present supposed to exist. So that we have no reason to fear, that the world will be overstocked with inhabitants for many ages to come; or that a period may soon arrive when the increase of population will surpass the means of subsistence, as some of the disciples of Malthus have lately insinua ted. To suppose, as some of these gentlemen seem to do, that wars and diseases, poverty and pestilence, are necessary evils, in order to prevent the increase of the human race beyond the means of subsistence which nature can afford—while the immense regions of New Holland, New Guinea, Borneo, and the greater part of Africa and America, are almost destitute of inhabitants-is both an insult on the dignity of human nature, and a reflection on the wisdom and bereficence of Divine Providence. The Creator is benevolent and bountiful, and "his tender mercies are over all his works;" but man, by his tyranny, ambition, and selfishness, has counteracted the streams of Divine beneficence, and introduced into the social state, poverty, dis order, and misery with all their attendant train of evils; and it is not before such demoralizing principles be in some measure eradicated, and the principles of Christian benevolence brought into active operation, that the social state of man will be greatly ameliorated, and the bounties of heaven fully enjoyed by the human race. If, in the present deranged state of the social and political world, it be found difficult in any particular country, to find sustenance for its inhabitants, emigration is the obvious and natural remedy; and the rapid emigrations which are now taking place to the Cape of Good Hope, New Holland, Van Dieman's Land, and America, are, doubtless, a part of those arrangements of Providence, by which the Creator will accomplish his designs, in peopling the desolate wastes of our globe, and promoting the progres of knowledge, and of the true religion among the scattered tribes of mankind.

Dick's Christian Philosopher