4

felt that they meant something; and that, if they could understand this meaning, they should understand much that they wanted to know. These relationships were the gleams of light which chequered the night of heathenism; and by some of its sages were welcomed as the dawn of a better day. Yet the greatest of them all so confounded the sign with the dim vision of the thing signified, that he recommended a community of wives, as an institution of his ideal commonwealth. With the chosen people it was different- a sanctity invested all relationships; and, in the minds of the faithful, there was a continual sense of mystery in them, a continual anticipating of some light to burst through them. But it was not till the prophets had been instructed to unfold the relation of God to his people, that men began to enter into the holiness of this union. After the Babylonish captivity, a judgment occasioned so much by indifference to the marriage ceremony, and the righteousness of the mystery involved in it,— the putting away of strange wives, under the

direction of Ezra, shows that God was opening the minds of the Jews to the consideration of this subject; and we may believe, upon good evidence, that during the years which elapsed between that period and the coming of Christ, monogamy became more and more the universal practice, among those who were waiting for the consolation of Israel. But it was not till the sun had arisen, and the shadows fled away; till every human relationship had been transfigured into a mystery by the revelation of God, as the father of a family, united in one Lord, sanctified by one Spirit, even the Spirit of the Father and the Son, in whose blessed unity they dwell and reign for ever;—it was not till the unveiling of this mystery, hidden from ages and generations, that each man could see the reason and the glory of the institution, which made him leave his father and mother, and cleave unto his wife-that he could feel be was bound, by the most awful and real obligations, to be the husband of one wife, whom he was to love, as Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it.

Yes, how deep are the counsels of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and His ways past finding out! and yet, when revealed, how clear to him that hath understanding, and to him that findeth knowledge! You wonder that the polygamy of the patriarch was not forbidden; rather wonder at that divine wisdom, which uses statutes and prohibitions indeed, as a means of awakening men to a sense of the evil that is in them, but which, when it would lead them out of the evil, has other and diviner methods. By gradually manifesting Himself, by gradually revealing the light in which is no darkness at all, doth He purify and renew the inner man, showing him that it is only in the knowledge of the perfect and supreme Good, that the creature can find purity, and life, and happiness. In those states which acknowledge the supremacy of the Pope, Christianity, as a system of rules, of forms, of laws, is as much upheld as in any part of Christendom; yet the effects of Christianity, in purifying all relations, and this one especially, which were so manifest

*See Romans.

during the primitive ages, are in these countries scarcely visible. The union of Christ and his church, as the ground of all other unions, and emphatically of this one, is there utterly forgotten and obscured. It is to the preservation of this idea amongst ourselves,— upon the strength with which it is received, upon the consistency with which it is acted out,—that the glory of the marriage state, the happiness of our social life, and the permanency of practical Christianity in our land, mainly depend.

FROM AN UNPUBLISHED MS., ENTITLED
"LETTERS TO A ROMANIST"

They that enter into a state of marriage, cast a die of the greatest contingency, and of the greatest interest in the world, next to the last throw for eternity."

WHEN on her Maker's bosom

The new-born earth was laid,
And Nature's opening blossom
Its fairest bloom displayed;
When all with fruit and flowers
The laughing soil was drest,
And Eden's fragrant bowers
Received their human guest;
No sin his face defiling,

The Heir of Nature stood,
And God, benignly smiling,
Beheld that all was good!
Yet, in that hour of blessing,
A single want was known-
A wish, the heart distressing—
For Adam was alone!

Oh God of pure affection!
By men and saints adored,
Who gavest thy protection
To Cana's nuptial board;
May such thy bounties ever

To wedded love be shown;
And no rude hand dissever

Whom thou hast linked in one.

HEBER.