Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer.

A STATEMENT was three or four years ago widely circulated, that a stone had been dug up near Carmarthen, with a Welch inscription on it, purporting that St. Paul had preached on that very spot in the year of our Lord, if I recollect rightly, sixty-eight. The truly pious and esteemed prelate who presides over the Royal Society of Literature (Bishop Burgess), who, as is well known, had long advocated the opinion that St. Paul visited Great Britain, caused a fac-simile of the stone and its inscription to be lithographed, and to be transmitted to various antiquaries and Welch scholars, in order that its authenticity and exact purport might be fully investigated and confirmed. Not having heard further on the subject, I should be much obliged to any of your readers who may be acquainted with the particulars of the inquiry, to state the result to the public; in order that, if the inscription is genuine, this interesting fact may be clearly established; and, if otherwise, that so disgraceful a forgery may not pass unexposed; and that the various periodical works which copied the statement may be furnished also with the refutation.

PAULINUS.

Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer. CONSIDERABLE objections were a few years since urged, though I am persuaded without foundation, against Female Penitentiaries; but I CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 312.

do not recollect that the attention of the moral and religious part of the public has been sufficiently called to a most exceptionable practice in some of our Lying-in Hospitals, that of receiving unmarried as well as married women. How many of the benevolent institutions of this kind, of which there are more than a dozen in the metropolis alone, adopt a practice so obviously fraught with evils, I will not here inquire. Some of them I know do not: but I would urge the subscribers to each of them respectively, to examine into the matter for themselves, and not to be satisfied with a general statement in the title or reports of the charity, that "married women only are received," unless they find that the practice comports generally-I would not say strictly, and in every possible case-with this profession. It is well-known to those who are acquainted with the interior of these establishments, that in some of the most respectable and best supported of them, there are two wards, called the "married" and the " single" wards; and that many of the tenants of the latter return regularly year after year.

It is not necessary to pursue the subject further. Enough surely has been said to induce those who subscribe to such institutions, to use their efforts to prevent their becom ing nurseries for the encouragement of vice, instead of being, as the benevolent benefactors to them intended, a charitable aid to poor women of good character.

SUBURBANUS.

Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer. I AM startled at the mode in which Oxoniensis opens his question as to Scriptural Geology, in your last Number.

"If a revelation has been vouchsafed from the Creator, it cannot be really inconsistent with the phenomena of his creation." I presume, 5 C

Now, in the first place, I think your correspondent is too unguarded in stating his proposition. He means, I should suppose, to speak of an inconsistency with what are understood to be the phenomena of creation as regards geology. The science is admitted, I rather think, to be in much too crude a state to be used as a help or hindrance to the weakest in matters of faith. Reasonably speaking, the first thing we have to do is to come to a conclusion respecting the correctness or incorrectness of the belief in the alleged occurrence of "death among the animals on our globe during myriads of years before the formation of man"-and then to consider if that fact be inconsistent with the written word of God.

But suppose the fact established, and the geologists right, Divine Revelation is certainly, as your correspondent properly admits, not intended to instruct man in matters of science. It is for the instruction

of man in what relates to the salvation of his soul. Divine Revelation respects man as the inhabitant of this earth, which was created by God from the beginning; which being without form and void, and darkness being upon the face of the deep, was, by the operation of the Spirit of God, moving upon the face of the waters, called into light and life and order and beauty. What were the ancient uses of the then unformed chaotic matter we know not. In what way any animals that might have lived in a world under a different system of organization, passed from one state of existence into another-or indeed, what may be conceived as to God's appointment with respect to the lower creatures under any circumstances, whether of transgression or continuance in righteousness on the part of the superior beings;-upon all this no answer can be given; for Scripture is silent, as it ever is where the mere curiosity of man

would step in and claim its gratification. I doubt not, that in the degree in which the science of geology advances, we shall find it more and more obviously reconcileable with Scripture: indeed, I believe that this has already, in some degree, been the case with respect to the Mosaic account of the order of creation. At all events, this will be the surest sign that progress is making in this yet infant study.

At present, however, very little is known on the subject, and not more can be safely assumed than is known. For convenience sake, I have taken it for granted, in the present in stance, that the geologists are right; but be it remembered, we are not concerned to reconcile the speculations of geologists-even of Scrip tural geologists-with the written Word. That must stand sure; and that must be consistent with, though it may be above, human learning and science, rightly so termed.

W. M.

To the Editorofthe Christian Observer.

I was glad, for several reasons, to observe in your last Number an inquiry by Oxoniensis on the subject of the popular study of Geology. Infidels have endeavoured to press this, as, with equal injustice, they have done many other branches of physical science, into their service; and how do some well-meaning but ill-judging Christians attempt to answer them? Not by proving either that their alleged geological facts are not facts, or that if they are facts, they are not irreconcileable with Scripture; but by attempting to prevent all inquiry, just as did the Papists in the days of Copernicus or Galileo. "You say the earth is round, and not flat; you say the earth turns round the sun, and not the sun round the earth; we will not hear you-you contradict the Bible." Nay, returns the devout astronomer, "I bring you facts; and I feel assured that those facts

can be fully reconciled with Revelation." "We will admit none of your facts, and we ask for none of your reconciliations," replies the Papist: "the church has put its own construction on the sacred text, and we are quite satisfied with authority without argument." Such, sir, has been virtually the style of reply on the subject of geology, which I have more than once heard even within the precincts of our universities; in both of which, in consequence chiefly of the talents of Professor Buckland in the one, and Professor Sedgwick in the other, the study of geology is, as your correspondent has observed, "justly popular."

But such replies can never satisfy a fairly-I do not mean a presumptuously-inquiring mind. Some in fidels, for example, have maintained that there must have been more than one common parent of mankind, because some races of men are white and others are black. Would it be a satisfactory reply to this argument to say, "I will not believe that there are two colours-for the supposition would contradict the Mosaic account." Would not such a reply directly tend to make infidels? Would not the right way be to shew, as may be easily done, that the fact does not contradict Scripture; for that the difference of colour may be satisfactorily accounted for on other principles than that of supposing two aboriginal

races.

And so in the matter of geology: there are alleged physical facts; and there are alleged theological inferences from them. It will neither confute the infidel nor satisfy the inquiring Christian, to say, "We will listen to neither." The infidel triumphantly replies, "You cannot confute me, and therefore you silence me." But we can confute you, rejoins the well-informed believer in Revelation. We deny your alleged physical facts, for instance, replies Mr. Bugg, in his elaborate work lately published on the subject. We do not deny your physical facts,

reply Professors Buckland and Sedgwick, and Mr. Faber, and numberless other Christian geologists; but we deny your alleged theological inferences. Your facts are true;

but, so far from contradicting, they accord with and cast light upon the Mosaiac account of the creation, when rightly understood. Either of these courses is fair and manly, and either solution is abundantly suffi cient for the refutation of the infidel. Let not then the Christian be afraid to meet truth wherever it may be found. God cannot contradict himself; his works and his word, if rightly understood, must be in unison. We may not, indeed, be always able to reconcile every difficulty; nor is it necessary to do so. The divine inspiration of Scripture stands on irrefragable arguments of a moral kind; and we need not, therefore, fear that physical facts, if rightly understood, can contradict its declarations. But let us not shut our eyes as if we were afraid that if we opened them we should see what we might not wish to discover. According to the just remark of Oxoniensis, "If a Revelation has been vouchsafed to us from our Creator," as we know on the most solid grounds has been the case, "it cannot be really inconsistent with the phenomena of his creation," however unable we, in our ignorance, may be to reconcile them. In the present case, however, I do not admit any such inability: on the contrary, I consider the facts of geology, as explained by the professors at both our universities, to be perfectly consistent with a fair interpretation of the first chapter of Genesis, and to offer no occasion for the alarm with which some well-meaning persons seem to contemplate all such speculations. At the same time, the Christian, in confuting the infidel, whatever cast his infidelity may assume, whether he be an open blasphemer or a reasoning pseudophilosopher, should take especial care not to assume that the truth of Revelation is really a matter of debate.

Death-bed Scenes, and Pastoral Conversations. By the late JOHN WARTON, D.D. 2 vols. 8vo. Second Edition. London. 1827.

THE ministers of Christ would act wisely, if they more assiduously cultivated the arts of conversation; not to give laws to a little senate of listeners, but to sustain their spiritual character, by repeating the lessons of the Sunday in the social intercourse of the week. As they generally enter into every class of society, it would be well if they were able to meet alike the philosopher and the rustic; and while they live as not of the world, and least of all of what is called the gay world, yet to understand enough of its language and living manners to know how to act, should duty lead them for inclination surely never ought for a moment-within its dangerous circles.

Neither does an ability to do this imply any extraordinary measure of talent or cultivation. An average share of intellect, improved by the usual course of a liberal education, and a general acquaintance with the current habits of mankind, are the only necessary mental requisites for this part of the duty of an officer of the militant church. We do not say but that higher powers of mind, and more extensive acquirements, would increase the address of their possessor, and pioneer his way in certain cases of difficulty; but we are exceedingly jealous of being betrayed into any idolatrous admiration of the demigod Talent, at whose shrine so many of the present generation offer their inglorious homage.-The Gospel is a great leveller, not indeed of the social, but of the intellectual, system of mankind; and it puts to shame the pretensions of such highly-gifted and accomplished masters of theology and of eloquence, as take the

field against infidelity and heresy, without possessing the moral requisites necessary to their success. To the external equipment of the soldier of Jesus Christ must be added the spirit of the great Captain of his salvation. Without this, the exertions of the learned and of the illiterate will be equally inefficient ; and the wise and the foolish must sink to the same degradation. We say not this to the disparagement of learning, or to the praise of ignorance; but to remind those who aspire to teach others, that they themselves must be first taught of God.

It is, in the mean time, an evidence of the energy of personal religion, that ministers of very moderate talents and acquirements, but acting under the influences of the spirit of holiness and of God, have been the blessed instruments of turning many to righteousness; not only by their public ministrations, but by introducing their principles into the table-talk of domestic life. If this were generally attempted by all who are bound to make the experiment, we should not hear such heavy complaints about "dark lanthorns "-meaning, by that phrase, such lights of the world as shine weekly in the pulpit, but hide their splendour under a bushel, till the morning of another Sabbath. There is, indeed, such a thing as clerical pedantry, which is as useless and insipid as the affectation of the mere scholar, or mere geometrician; and equally unconnected with the spiritual improvement of mankind. Of this violation both of good taste and Christian feeling, no parochial clergyman will be guilty, if he converses with the social circle as with a party of immortal beings placed under his own care; and feeling himself responsible not to neglect any means that may by the blessing of God conduce to their salvation. In cottages,