lo! perhaps as the sun is just crossing the meridian, a strange procession of man, and of beast, and of bird, and of creeping things is seen moving in the direction of the ark! Slowly, and orderly, and solemnly, and measuredly, it tramps out the death-knell of the wondering world. And as the preacher and his family, and the male and his female of every species of flesh enter into the ark, and the door closes behind them, the victims of unbelief can scarcely trust their own "sight." They approach the ark, and attempt to go in ; but "the door is shut," and no human arm, whether within or without, is now able to force it. They are astounded; yet they will not believe! The day has been calm and clear, and the ground is dry and high, noon smiles cheerfully of "peace on earth, and good will towards men." And as no signs of a flood are apparent, the welkin rings with the shouts of victory and contempt from the multitude assembled to witness the seen. But lo! on a sudden the world is hushed! A zephyr comes! A speck is seen in the west! It increases It is a cloud! It rolls onward! It spreads over the sky! It darkens the earth! And the lightnings flash, and the thunders peal, and the earth is a fountain, and the heavens are rent, and the torrents fall, and the tornado sweeps, and the dwellings are shivered, and the infant cries, and the mother shrieks, and the father prays; but Mercy is deaf; for creation howls, and the living are dying, and the dying are dead, and the rocks are buried, and the trees are hid, and the hills are sunk, and the mountains are covered, and the waters prevail, and the ark is borne up,a heaven secure from a watery hell,—and the

"Sea and sky

Look vast and lifeless in the Eternal Eye."

Ah! this was "their last to-morrow!" And this was the end of their unbelief!- -Go back from the present a little more than three centuries and a half, and follow a Spanish adventurer through a long succession of difficulties, both private and public, till on the very eve of becoming a sacrifice to the faithlessness of a mutinous crew, when he stipulates only for "three days" longer; for the sight of the object of a natural faith; and lo! on the third a Continent is found! But go back a little more than forty centuries, and follow " a preacher of righteousness" through a whole hundred years over obstacles insurmountable except by supernatural assistance, until he comes within "seven days" of beholding the object of a Christian faith; and lo! on the seventh a world is lost! By the triumph of a natural faith Columbus became heir-not even to the glory which is by sight. But by the triumph of a Christian faith Noah "became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.” But though the sentence of condemnation was executed upon all flesh so to speak, in an instant, and the conflict of the preacher's faith with the unbelief of the world was now closed, the trial of the preacher's faith is still continued. The moan of destruction which commenced when the Lord shut him into the ark is echoed and re-echoed in the continued thunders and discharges from the windows of heaven, and in the wrathful surges of the deep. But though in tumult of the elements, and under thick clouds of anger, and at the mercy of the winds and the waves, that preacher of righteousness is still nourishing a Christian faith, with these wonderful works of God. The incessant pouring of the rain for the space of forty days and forty nights raises not a single doubt. Sabbath after Sabbath is hallowed, month after month rolls away, and that ark, without

rudder or sails, rocks on the waves till the end of an hundred and fifty days, when it rests gently and safely down upon the very spot selected by Jehovah. According to the preacher's faith, He who brought the waters is drying them away. And is not this more sublime than any triumph of mere natural faith? Turn back from the present about twenty-five years and behold an Orientalist* struggling, day after day, at the utmost of the efforts, here with a prospect of success, and there with a actual defeat, to accomplish the long-cherished purpose of a natural faith, till, on a third attempt you behold him slowly and labourously ascending cubit on cubit upward, and still upward, and finally standing on the hitherto so-considered inaccessible summit of Mount Ararat! But turn back a little more than four thousand years, and behold a preacher of righteousness, month after month, with no defeat, with no effort even, descending cubit after cubit downward, and still downward, by a Christian faith, and at last resting down upon that very summit to which that noblest triumph of a natural faith could only climb up! But no land-no lofty peak is yet visible, and the ark weighs deep in the sea. And three months longer must the waters decrease before even the tops of the loftiest mountains can be seen. And forty days longer still waits that patient servant of God before he begins to be anxious about the condition of the earth. Then he opens the window and sends forth a raven. But that type of unbelief is a bird of the "not clean," and goes a hunting the spoils of the deluge. Betrayed by the raven, however, Noah casts not away his confidence, but after hallowing a Sabbath, sends forth a dove. Round and round above the window she flies, increasing her circle of observation both in height and circumference, until she cannot be seen for the distance. But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him in the ark." Another Sabbath is now hallowed, and the experiment with the dove is repeated. Faithful to her grand commission she darts up in her spiral circle as before, straining her eye in every direction till on a sudden she hovers a moment, as if gazing at a single point afar off, and then hies away in a straight line in all probability to the province of Akhaltzikhi. Hour after hour is run out, and yet there are no tidings from the little winged messenger. But, "late in the evening," a sound as if something were beating the air is succeeded by a feeble cooing on the roof, and he immediately opens the window and gratefully welcomes his panting dove. Surely, if the raven deserved a punishment, the dove has earned a reward. And according to a Bibical legend of the Mussulmans, "Noah blessed the dove, and Allah gave her a necklace of green." And by no means has she since been forgotten; for the Muses have sung her praises till

-The gentle dove

Has become a name for trust and love."

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And what is of infinitely higher regard, God himself has employed her similitude in sending the Holy Ghost. But what report has she brought from Akhaltzikhi? To Noah the message of his carrier-pigeon is the very emblem of peace; a revelation to his sight of God's remembrance of him. By faith he looked through the "olive-leaf pluckt off," and "knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.

And now he patiently waits for divine permission, and then marshals the remnant of "all flesh" down the peak to a convenient spot, and builds an

* Parrot.

altar to the Lord. And as of every kind of "clean" beasts there are three pairs and one, while of each kind of those which are "not clean," there is only a pair, he sacrifices the seventh of "every clean beast, and every clean fowl," as a thankoffering for his signal deliverance. And there, just descended from the towering Ararat on whose peak is resting alone and sublimely "the awful monument of the antediluvian world," and just arisen from the valley of the Araxes,-"the second cradle of the human race."-and sending up "a sweet savor to the Lord" in a song of adoration and praise, he celebrates a triumph of faith "by the which he condemns the world." The trial of faith, through which that preacher of righteousness has passed, has been great. Trial upon trial has been laid on him for these six hundred years. When Noah had separated himself from unbelievers, and at the end of the fifth century of his age, was found worthy to be commended as "just and perfect," God saw that his faith might safely be tried. And when no ordinary exhibitions of faith would suffice to point the world heavenward, it seemed fitting that there should be an effulgent illumination of that spirit who "found grace in the eyes of the Lord." It would seem that the first sphere of his faith was brought within the second horizon of his sight when, after a long but fruitless season of preaching righteousness to the world, the Lord announced to him, face to face, an approaching retribution of unbelief in a flood of waters. And the second sphere of his faith was brought within the third horizon of his sight when the Lord shut him into the ark, and whelmed the world in the deluge. Then, as upward and onward he was borne on the billows, the third sphere of his faith was brought within the fourth horizon of his sight when the Lord revealed to him in the olive-leaf his continued remembrance of the righteous. And as he left that vessel of gopher-wood on the summit of the mountain, the fourth sphere of his faith was brought within the fifth horizon of his sight when the Lord permitted him to erect an altar on the plain below, and lay a divinely provided and designed thank-offering thereon. And the fifth sphere of his faith is brought within the sixth horizon of his sight when he beholds in the cloud the covenant that the Lord will not again destroy the world by a flood. Hitherto he has walked altogether by faith. And now he has approached so near the ultimate objects of his faith, that sight itself almost pierces through its own horizon into that which is within the veil. And as often as the earth receives a gentle refreshing from the heavens, with renewed thanksgiving, he repairs to the altar now arched with the rainbow. And while he gazes from below, the Lord looks from above, and affords him a rapturous beholding by sight of his heavenly beholdings by faith-a rainbow in the realm of his faith, of which the raindow of his sight is but the symbol. And yet onward and upward "three hundred and fifty years" is he guided by the light of this symbolized glory, when he launches upon the swelling Jordan, advancing and ascending till the triumph over "the last enemy" is gained, and he anchors securely on the mount of God; where the last sphere of his faith is taken into his unbounded beholdings, and he receives from the Adorable and Heavenly Dove the assurance that "the righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance."

"For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul ?"—MARK viii. 36, 37.

This is one of the most grave and momentous inquiries which can be proposed to the human mind. It is intended by our Lord to induce reflection-to awaken and warn the sinner, and influence him to "deny himself and take up his cross and follow" Christ. It implies that the soul may be lost, and that those who strive to gain the world, and are unwilling to give it up for the sake of religion, will lose their souls.

The subject of this discourse is, The Loss of the Soul.

What is meant by the loss of the soul? In answering this question, it is evident that we must rely chiefly on the teachings of revelation. The scene in which the reality is to transpire, is veiled from our sight. The facts about which we inquire, lie beyond the province of the senses. On this subject, conjecture is rash and arrogant. And reason is incompetent to pass judgment upon the divine administration, and to determine, independently of revelation, the proper penalty of sin. Human reason is liable to fall into great mistakes on this subject, on account of our selfinterest, evil inclinations, and ignorance. We must not lose sight of the fact, that the subject has a relation to our own inter

ests, and to the interests of our friends and fellow men; it awakens our self-love and partiality, and our tender and sympathetic affections; and whoever takes upon him to decide upon the guilt of sin, must be supposed to be conscious that the decision has a personal bearing upon himself, and consequently to be exposed to an improper bias and erroneous judgments. To this must be added the blinding influence of depraved inclinations, darkening the understanding and blunting the moral sensibilities. Man is a sinner. The good man, even though he has been convinced of sin, and has seen its criminality in himself, yet is not wholly free from the effect of sin, in obscuring his spiritual discernment, and disqualifying him to be an unprejudiced and righteous judge in his own case.

Besides, human reason lacks information. It can be qualified to judge truly and safely on this complicated and momentous subject, only by obtaining a perfect knowledge of the intrinsic malignity of sin in itself, and in all its relations. One needs to comprehend its relation to God, and how evil and bitter a thing it is to feel and act out disobedience to the great, and good, and infinite Jehovah. He needs to know the relation of sin to the soul, in which it works corruption and whose immortal interests it tends to destroy. He needs to understand the whole amount of good, which sin aims and tends to destroy in this world, and throughout the universe of intelligent creatures, propagating for ever its own pollution among them, and spreading rebellion and ruin far and wide. No man has these qualifications. "Such knowledge is too wonderful" for us; it is too high and vast for us to attain. No one is, therefore, competent to judge of the ill-desert of sin, and the penalty which the wicked will suffer. No one can determine by reason independently of revelation, how infinite benevolence, guided by infinite wisdom and justice, will treat sin, nor what influence that treatment will have upon law, and justice, and government, and the welfare of all the worlds of God's intelligent universe. "Who knoweth the power of His anger?" Will you trust a little child to decide what is a proper punishment for a forger, who fraudulently writes a note? The child would be out of his place in judging of such a case, by reason of his limited knowledge of the bearings of the crime upon the interests of society. The wisest of men are not less incompetent to judge of the proper punishment of sin, not only through their ignorance, but through self-interest and prejudice.

is

It is the rightful prerogative of God to pass sentence upon the transgressors of his law. The only wise and safe course for us, to learn from the word of God what that sentence will be. At length we shall learn it from the decisions of the last day. It is evident to every serious reader of the Bible, that the language of Scripture is very explicit and strong on this subject. It speaks of losing the soul," of "the perdition of ungodly men," of