6. Finally. Chastisement is useful, because it leads the believer to look for complete happiness in Heaven only.

And at this stage of our reflections, let us rejoice, dear brethren, that the consolation offered is liable to no exception or abatement; it is adapted to every case; perfect and entire. If the comfort which you need depended upon the hope of deliverance in this world, there would be many cases which we should be forced to leave as hopeless: for there are many in which no expectation of exemption in this life can be indulged. But let the worst, most lingering, and most aggravated instance of suffering be presented, and the hope of heaven is still sufficient to mitigate its ills. You may have been reduced to hopeless poverty; you may have suffered from the treachery and ingratitude of supposed friends, from cruel mockings and persevering calumny; you may labour under incurable disease, or follow to the grave beloved objects of your affections, who can never be replaced in this world. Still, there is a country, and you are rapidly approaching it, "where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest." It is well if you have learned to look beyond all secondary, earthly, imperfect comforts, to God, the source of good, and to that world where all tears are wiped away. It is well if the trial of your faith has enabled you to say "I know in whom I have believed, and that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day."

This is a benefit of affliction, which is striking and great in proportion to the failure of earthly consolation. For it may be doubted, whether any man fully yields himself up to the view and prelibation of heaven, until he is disentangled and rent away from all hope of blessedness on this side the grave. It is natural to seek resting-places by the way; and trials, losses, sufferings, bereavements, are thrice blessed when they engrave upon our hearts that we have here no continuing city, but must seek one above. So long as we can flatter our'selves with any refuge in this world, we are prone to lean on an arm of flesh, and to look upwards only for the supply of what is deficient here. But let all expectation of worldly peace and satisfaction be cut off, and the released soul, which is truly sanctified, and full of faith, rises, like a bird from the snare, and rejoices to say "My soul, wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from him. Then shall I be satisfied when I awake in thy likeness!" Think not, however, to enjoy this fruit of chastisement, while you cast

longing and lingering looks on that country whence you came out. Nothing but the hope of a glorious resurrection upheld the apostle Paul, when troubled on every side, perplexed, persecuted, cast down, and (as to the outward man) perishing Hear the method of his escape out of sorrow, "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding, and eternal weight of glory."

He is the happy man who dwells most on the thoughts of heaven. Like Enoch he walks with God. Like Job he can say, "I know that my Redeemer liveth," &c. Like David he glories, "Thou wilt show me thy salvation." Like Paul he triumphs, "for I am now ready to be offered," &c.

This happiness we sometimes witness; but where have we found it? In the house of prosperity, where death has never invaded the family circle; where all have more than heart could wish; where health, and opulence, and honour unite to expel all care? No! but in the hovel of the poor, where one affliction hath followed another, till earthly hope is almost extinct. In the darkened chamber of mourning, whence all that was most loved and cherished has taken its last flight. In the bed of lingering, incurable disease, and in the very gasp of death! Here religion hath set up her trophies; here, is happiness, here, where things hoped for are substantiated to the believing soul, where things unseen are evidenced to faith by divine influence.

In every case of suffering it is the prime wisdom of the Christian to fix his eyes upon the heavenly crown. In every other hope you may be disappointed, in this you cannot. Try, as you may, all other fountains for your solace, there is a time coming when you must be driven to this. Become familiar with the meditation of heavenly glory! Daily contemplate that joyful deliverance from evil, that indissoluble and ecstatic union with the Lord Jesus Christ! Then, when death lays upon you his cold hand, you can say "I am prepared for this hour. I have longed for this deliverance to meet my Lord in his temple. I have lived in communion with the blessed Lord of heaven." "Lo, this is my God, I have waited for him, and he will save me, this is the Lord, I have waited for him; I will rejoice and be glad in his salvation."

VOL. IV. No. III.-2 Y

ART. III.-REVUE ENCYCLOPEDIQUE. Paris. HISTOIRE DE LA PHILOSOPHIE. PAR M. V. COUSIN. Paris.

"THE world by wisdom knew not God." The history of Philosophy, whether ancient or modern, not only confirms this testimony, but demonstrates that wisdom is emphatic in the sentence that makes the declaration. It is not simply, that man, without direct revelation from God, is ignorant of his glories; this ignorance is most conspicuous in philosophy, the boasted wisdom of the human race. From the oldest philosophers of Egypt or India, to the wildest disciple of Kant, or Fichte, the reputed sage has, with few exceptions, entertained more incorrect notions of God, than the peasant whose superstition he has scorned. The latter may not have held the divine unity, he may have cherished many ridiculous aberrations of fancy, but he has seldom stripped superior beings of the first essential attributes of intelligent existence. If he has formed gods in his own image, he has not reduced them lower than himself, by denying their individual consciousness and free volition. Philosophy is the sole parent of such folly.

With these thoughts we rise from the perusal of the publications the titles of which we have placed at the head of this article. We have coupled them together, as containing many sentiments in common with each other, not on account of any connexion in authorship or professed object in writing.

The Revue Encyclopédique is a monthly publication at Paris. Each number contains from one hundred and fifty to two hundred pages, sometimes more. It is professedly a general review of all that deserves notice in the passing history of the human mind. Notices of American, English, German, Italian, and French publications, together with those of other countries, find a place in its columns. Many of the articles are very brief; others of the ordinary length for Quarterly Reviews. The number of contributors is very considerable, as appears from the signatures appended to almost every article. Some few of them appear to entertain a degree of respect for the Christian religion, but the general spirit of the publication is what we should term decidedly infidel. The following extracts from the number for last December, will convey a clear idea of the spirit that pervades many of the most elaborate and extended articles. It is from a review of

a work entitled, An Essay towards a system of speculative Philosophy, by G. Fr. Daumer, Nuremburg. "If the German mind has engaged with ardour in the philosophic career, it is because it expects from philosophy solutions that will lead to the regeneration and salvation of the human race. Our hope, our perseverance, our painful researches will not be disappointed. The German philosophy, far as it seems from the earth, has not only its commission to produce a new theory for practical life-for the organization of society; it has also the sublime destiny to produce, what for man is most sacred and important, that which embraces every thing-a new religion. The philosophical system of M. Krauze laid its foundation in 1807; but this great attempt could not be appreciated at once; and, although the author has laboured incessantly to induce his fellow countrymen to establish a [new] religion and society, he has been encouraged by only a few, who have followed him with zeal, devoting their lives to the establishment and propagation of his doctrine. At a later period, the political and religious views of the St. Simonians reached Germany, and then it was recollected that M. Krauze had already promulgated a doctrine (system) that had numerous points of resemblance with that of the St. Simonians. This approximation (of each other's views) promises much fruit; the example given by France will draw the attention of the Germans to a system of religious philosophy born among themselves, and which seems the final result of all the philosophic and scientific labours, which have been the mission and glory of Germany. Thus we see the germs of the future show themselves at the same time in the two most advanced nations of the world; we can unite the philosophic labours of France and Germany; we anticipate the day when these nations will be united in regard to a similar social organization and common religion, which will have given the most complete solution of all the vital questions of humanity.

"It is the duty of all generous men, of all who feel the new wants, so clearly expressed in so many political commotions, to carefully examine all that comes from men who announce a new religion, whether they only prophecy or announce a system of doctrine more or less complete. Let the Germans do this for France, the French for Germany; this reciprocal examination made in sincerity, and with a single desire to conduct humanity towards its destination, will hasten the day of knowledge and general association among men. On this

account, we shall now give particular attention to the work of M. Daumer; for he also seriously thinks, that a new religion is the result to which all the modern philosophy of Germany tends, and must finally come. From the title of his book we did not suspect this religious tendency, but it is clearly stated. The author commences thus:

"This system recognises God as a spirit, which determines itself in itself and by itself as personality, and has freely conceived in itself the idea of the world and plan of its realization.' Knowing that M. Daumer is a partizan of the modern philosophy, which is called Pantheism by its adversaries, I supposed he would attempt to fill a great blank in this philoso phy, one that the system of Krauze seemed only to enlarge to its greatest extent. It is known that Schelling, the renovator of the philosophy called Pantheism, placed, as did Spinosa, for the foundation of the science, the absolute existence (l'être absolu), from which every thing must be derived. He attributed to this being several properties, but his expressions were neither simple axioms nor legitimate deductions of reason. Besides, his object, in seeking for these highest attributes of God, or the absolute existence, seemed only that he might reach nature, and a new construction of nature, made according to the highest attributes of God, who was, in his estimation, the constituent principle of all existence. The highest part of philosophy, that in which the complex attributes of God ought to be explained, such as the divine personality, the absolute self-intelligence (la conscience absolue), the sentiment of infinite (le sentiment infini), as well as love, wisdom, justice, &c. this part of philosophy in the work of Schelling was a blank, a desideratum. We might even demand if his system could reach these questions, if it possessed the necessary scientific instrument, the principal ideas, (the categories, as Aristotle calls them). This part, together with the spiritual world, was neglected for the natural world. Nature, so long viewed with the eyes of materialism and atomism, as abandoned of God, of soul, of life, was to be re-established. It was, in a glorious manner. The grand movement, necessary to produce so many men distinguished by their knowledge of nature, as Oken, Steffens, &c. &c. took place. By a necessary re-action, it happened that this philosophy, thus incomplete, and giving no satisfaction to the sentiments of the heart, especially to the religious feelings, called forth men to protest against it, accusing it of atheism and ir