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through one channel than another and the time necessary for effecting this purpose was shortened as before, for to do so is part of the prerogative of God, a thousand years are to him as one day.

We may reason in a similar way on all the other miracles, many of which, such as those that relate to complaints and diseases, seem less obnoxious to the conception of those professing disbelief, because they do not, in so great a degree, differ from the more usual course of things round about us. We see, therefore, in following up step by step, the difficulties which oppose belief, how soon they put on another shape and cease to be difficulties at all.

Christians believe there is a God, we believe nothing impossible with him; we feel the value and the power of knowledge from that little portion of it which we ourselves are allowed to possess, and we are able to picture to ourselves something of the greatness of omniscience. The most enlarged estimate, however, of divinity which our human researches have hitherto ena

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bled us to form, we may assert to be derived from those secrets of the heavens which astronomical science has opened to our admiration. We turned our attention to that quarter once before, in the course of our inquiry, nor can it be too often recommended to the attention of the sceptic.-Let him, indeed, only for a moment direct his eye upwards and gaze on the starry concave, Arcturus, Orion, Pleiades, and the chambers of the south '-let him look to the infinity of lights that are seen glistening in the dark abyss of space, then let him ask himself the question-what is there that ought to cause my doubt, or even my astonishment in what was done on the crust and surface of this globe of ours? We may venture to say there is no one miracle that will not, in such a moment, appear to him as if only a trivial exertion of of Omnipotence.

Here after all lies the fault of the sceptic. In order to believe, it is only required that a man should have a proper degree of humility of mind, that humility which arises from making a due allowance for the difference existing between

himself and his Creator. Let him once be thoroughly imbued with the idea that there is a God-such a God as the maker of heaven and earth, and the foundation of his faith is secured. Let him read his Bible with this feeling on his mind, and he will and must necessarily become a Christian.

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CHAPTER VIII.

Support given to our Faith in Christianity, from human Science-from History-Purity of the Precepts of the Christian Religion-Testimonies of its AdversariesRammohun Roy-His Speculations-His Error on the Subject of the Trinity.

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IT Ir may be said, that we have shown, contrary to the ideas of the opposers of revealed religion, that there is more of probability than of improbability in favour of such communication from God to man having taken place; and this too from an argument drawn after the fashion of the sceptics, upon our own preconceived notions of what the Supreme Being would have done. It remains, therefore, that we should next touch upon such evidences as we can bring to prove that such communication from God to man did really occur.

We will begin therefore with the circumstance which naturally presents itself first in in order-the creation of the world.

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Who is this,' says the Lord to man, that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?'

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Gird up thy loins, and answer like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.' 'Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth ?-Declare, if thou hadst understanding.' Job xxxviii. 2, 3, 4.

It is clear that the only possible method by which man should attain any knowledge of the circumstances of the creation was by their being revealed to him. They could not by any other means be discovered; unless, indeed, man had been the first created being, which we shall presently see that he was not.

We must then examine those lights which have been thrown upon this subject by modern science, and see how far they tend to corroborate or invalidate the truth of the Mosaic account.

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It is not needful for us to enter into any the more abstruse and speculative questions which have been entertained relative to the structure of the earth: there is, however, a statement of certain facts now considered as

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