"unto the judgment of the great day." Here revelation closes on this catastrophe; and here, to us, the curtain falls.

Meantime, Satan the tempter, has also become the accuser of the brethren. Hence he asked, most impiously, "Does Job serve God for nothing? Hast thou not made a hedge around him, about his family, and about all that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased. But put forth thy hand now and touch all that he hath, and see if he will not curse thee to thy face." The Lord gave Satan power against him, and though commencing with all his malice and stratagem, he failed in every assault. Job was tempted, but sinned not. So commences the history of Statan under this his appropriate name.

The empire of Satan is immensely large and powerful. He is "the god of this world." He is the prince of innumerable legions of demons; he has all the spirits of those that died in their sins, together with all the fallen angels, under his reign and government. His is the second great empire in the universe. How true it is that Christians wrestle not against mere flesh and blood, "but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, and against wicked spirits in the regions of the air."

But the great and important question is, How carries he on this government? how influences he the children of men? Paul, indeed, gives us some light on this subject, and informs us that he was not ignorant of his devices. As we sometimes say, he does not always show his cloven foot, nor make himself sensibly and visibly present with us.

We may, from all the developments of the Bible, learn that he tempts not by actual contact, but by argument and motive, direct and indirect. He has studied human nature more than all the living sons of men. He comprehends man, every man, more than any one man comprehends himself, and addresses him in perfect harmony with his nature.

Our premises, indeed, are more than sufficient for these conclusions. We have many instances of his temptations detailed in the Holy Scriptures. A few of the more prominent must and will suffice to satisfy every reasonable and intelligent inquirer. Take the case of Mother Eve, of Job, of David, in numbering Israel; of the Saviour in the wilderness; of Ananias and Sapphira; of Peter, in the last scenes of the Messiah's life.

In analysing these, we observe that the temptations were in words, actions, or suggestions, suited to the prevailing passions, infirmities, or exigencies of the tempted.

ture.

The ancient familiar companion of man, once more subtle and ingenious than any other species of the brutal race, now, since its metamorphosis into a serpent, much fallen and degraded, was wisely selected as the medium of communion with woman. Eve, already as familiar with that creature as any lady since has been with a parrot or a lap-dog, would not be startled at such a conversation as was opened by Satan, through that beautiful companionable creaHad they been strangers to each other before, Satan would but have defeated himself by employing a dumb brute, that for the first time it ever spoke, only uttered the suggestions of Satan incarnate. It was, indeed, most probably an incarnation, but the policy was to select a well known and companionable animal, whose person and language were so familiar as to be listened to without a single suspicion of guilt, of fraud, or fiction, in the case. I need not say, that Satan had already become a proficient in the study of human nature, in the person of both Adam and Eve. He, there. fore, sought an opportunity in the absence of Adam, and in harmony with the delicate sensibility and inquisitive curiosity of a woman of fine imagination and great impressibility, most eloquently addresses her on the unreasonableness of her construction, of the inhibition touching "the Tree of Knowledge of God and Evil."

He pays a due respect to the natural love of novelty-to the goodness of God in all other respects--and only questions the meaning of the oracle, insinuating a doubt not as to the goodness and truthfulness of God, nor as to the certainty and authority of the inhibition, but merely as to her construction of it. "Yea! hath God said you shall not eat of this most beautiful and charming tree! Impossible! God knows that in the day you eat thereof you shall be as a god, discerning both good and evil!!"

Suiting his action to his speech, he puts forth his hand, and, snatching the fruit, began to eat himself. On seeing him delight in the luxury, and no harm following, under the impulse of her own curiosity, beguiled by the tinsel of false eloquence, and allured by the smiles of the tempter, she hastily put forth her hand, plucked and eat. But alas! how soon her eyes were opened, and with what shame she saw the halo of glory, in which she was enveloped, fading away, and herself standing like the wick of a suddenly extinguished lamp, divested of the glory and beauty of light.

I need not dilate upon the catastrophe. She was doomed to sorrow and anguish-to travail and death; and the medium of delusive eloquence through which she parlied with Satan and ruin, is transformed into a serpent, and prostrated to wallow in the dust. Such SERIES IV. VOL 1.

31*

was the first temptation of this fallen adversary of God and

of man.

The next we shall note is the case of Job. He envied and hated this good and perfect man-one that feared God and hated evil. He was the greatest of Eastern princes, and the most prosperous of all his contemporaries. A renowned patriarch and a model saint, he was peculiarly an object worthy of his enmity.

He had also studied his character, but saw no prospect of success in any ordinary temptation. He felt himself as if challenged to assail him. His natural affection for his family, and his large estate, were the most likely means of his success, and, therefere, he machinated the ruin of these. He showed himself possessep, not only of the most crafty wiles, but of immense power over all the agents of destruction. He successfully availed himself of all these. Misfortunes and calamities are made to tread on the heels of one another, but Job maintains his piety and integrity. A deep and allpervading sense of his own unworthiness and original poverty, with a profound veneration for the justice and goodness of God, were allsufficient to his triumph over all his losses. While the temptation of Satan was superlatively crafty and wicked, the patience of Job, and his resignation to the will of God, made him triumphant in the midst of a long series of unprecedented calamities. In all his trials, "he sinned not nor charged God foolishly.”

The next case is that of David. It is differently reported. In 2 Samuel, chap. xxiv. 1, it reads, "And again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go number Israel and Judah." To which Joab responded, “Now, the Lord thy God add unto the people, how many soever they be, an hundred fold, and that the eyes of my lord the king may see it; but why doth my lord the king delight in this thing? And David's heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And David said unto the Lord, I have sinned greatly in that I have done, and now I beseech thee, O Lord, take away the iniquity of thy servant, for I have done very foolishly."

God, for this, sent a message to David by Gad the prophet, offering him the choice of three evils: Seven years famine throughout the land; three months fleeing before his enemies pursuing him; or three days pestilence in his land.

But we have another representation of this matter. 1 Chron. xxi. 1,"And Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Isracl," "Joab answered, The Lord make his people an hundred times so many more as they be; but, my lord the king, are they

not all thy servants? Why doth my lord require this thing? Why will he be a cause of trespass to Israel? Nevertheless, the king's words prevailed against Joab. And Joab gave the number of the people to David." Israel had 1,100,000 warriors, and Judah 470,000 warriors; in all, one million five hundred and seventy thousand warriors.

Be it remembered, that there was no sin in numbering the people, abstractly from the motives which dictated it. In Exodus xxx. 11, it was allowed, indeed commanded. "And the Lord said to Moses, When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel, after their number, then they shall give every man a ransom for his soul to the Lord, when thou numberest them, that there be no plague among them when thou numberest them."

But in this case it is said, "God was displeased with this thing, therefore he smote Israel." Indeed, we are told that "the king's word was abominable to Joab." So that he did not number all the tribes. 1 Chron. xxi. 6-7.

To reconcile these statements to all minds, it is necessary to remark, that God, in the first statement, is represented as hostile to Israel, and as moving David to number them; and in the second statement, that "Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number them." Both God and Satan are represented as co-operating in this thing-therefore, there is no contradiction. Both are true. God withdrew his protection from the nation, and left David and them to their own counsels. But why was it so? The passage is translated by some of the moderns to indicate that "the anger of the Lord was again kindled against Israel, because an adversary stood up against Israel." Boothroyd and some others so translate this passage and 1 Chron. xxi. 1: “An adversary stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel." This is not relieving the pas sage from any difficulty. The Lord would not have so punished David, simply because an adversary stood up against Israel. It is Satan, and so understood the seventy, and translated the Hebrew Satan by the Greek Diabolos, Devil, or calumniator.

There was sin in this matter on the part of David and Israel. Joab, his great captain, saw that it was pride. If, then, the man Joab could see his uncle David sin in this affair, it must, indeed, have been palpable. "It was abominable" in Joab's eyes, and the work was performed imperfectly and reluctantly on his part. Satan's hand was in it. He hated David; and God, to chasten David, gave him into his hands. David was vulnerable in one point, and Satan saw it. He had risen to great eminence, as we say, by his

great talents. He had a long, a prosperous, a glorious reign, more than most men could endure. Satan suggested, in harmony with his condition, that he ought to know the greatness of his kingdom, and the number of the men of war within his realm; and immediately David set about it. God was justly offended at his pride and self-glorification in this way, and punished him in the very point in which he had sinned; so that in a single day he lost, of the pride of his kingdom, seventy thousand men.

So far, then, we have been tracing the wiles of Satan in carrying on his treasonable projects and malignant purposes against the sons of men. His temptations are numerous, various, and malignant.

In another essay, we may develop still farther this important subject, too much neglected and too little appreciated by the great multitude of professors. There is a silent, reserved, growing, scepticism in this age, on the whole subject of spiritual influence. With many, angels, demons, Satan, and even the Holy Spirit, are mere phantasies--creatures of fiction or of superstition. Hence the growing servility to the world that now is, to the earthly, sensual, and animal wants and enjoyments of our corruptible bodies. How axiomatic and evident it is, that "they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh;" while those "that are after the Spirit, are minding the things of the Spirit." It is a solemn and awful truth, that "the minding of the flesh is death, while the minding of the Spirit is life and peace."

A. C.

THE HOPE OF IMMORTALITY THE TRUE PRINCIPLE OF SELF-IMPROVEMENT.

Is man an immortal being? This question, involving man's accountability, as necessarily growing out of his immortality, is one of great moment. The decision of this question depends not upon the deduction of human reason; although it is thought to be abun. dantly evident, from the light of reason, as taught by a sound philos. ophy. Much, indeed, may be plausibly inferred from what is seen and known of the things around us and within us, as to man's existence hereafter and forever; but nothing so satisfactory as to make the notion a principle of conduct sufficient to influence us to deal out what is just and right to all men. In a moral point of view, the torch of philosophy would afford but a very dubious and uncertain