appeared a great degree of timidity -an apprehension of some nameless evil in advance-the more de cided form of apparitions; mental manifestations were more and more perverted; articulation became difficult, and finally not to be understood: and this long train of evils was closed by childishness, imbecility, and sudden death. Coincident with these deepening shades of mental change were headache, sluggishness of the bowels, a loss of correspondence in the axis of vision of the two eyes; an impaired state or entire successive abolition of sight, hearing, taste, smell; deepening torpor of all the bodily functions; great susceptibility to cold; increasing feebleness; loss of voluntary power of the most distressing character; inability to command the muscular system; intense paroxysms of headache of short duration; convulsive attacks; gradual extinction of the power of volition; interruption and embarrassment of the vital functions, soon terminating in a fatal catastrophe. Dissection exhibited the most extensive organic disease of the brain which I have ever seen, and fully explained every symptom which had occurred in that which during its early progress had been an obscure malady.

Several inferences arise from the foregoing narratives. —

First: The more we become acquainted with the phenomena of the nervous system, the more are we lost in wonder and admiration at the secret mechanism by which these movements are accomplished.

Secondly Disorders of the nervous system, and especially those which are occasioned by any disturbance of the function of volition, are peculiarly such as will be recoverable by nervous excitement; by powerful impressions acting vehemently upon the brain or nervous system.

Thirdly: These impressions may be bodily or mental, but the latter

are much the more powerful in their influence, particularly if they involve the more deeply operative passions of our nature.

Fourthly In organic structural diseases of this system, nervous excitement will only accelerate a fatal termination.

Fifthly: That form of malady which involves the idea of apparitions has been clearly traced back to the effects of disordered nervous function.

Sixthly: The necessity of charity in judging of disordered mental manifestation. In contemplating the extensive structural disease, and its tremendous ravages, in the case last mentioned, one deeply painful reflection was occasioned-namely, that of unfeigned regret that I had harshly judged him during life; that I had attributed to indolence and inactivity that which arose from disease; that I had imputed to him the want of sufficient motives for a degree of exertion that it was impossible for him to make; and that, therefore, I had harassed him with attempts to enliven the function of volition, when the more the will was excited the greater must necessarily have been its loss of power, the more extensive and fearful the inroads of disorganization.

While we are careful to avoid falling into a notion of the omnipo tence of bodily structure, or disordered function upon the manifestations of mind, and especially upon human motives; let us be desirous of taking the chaste light of Christian charity to guide our way in the examination of those motives. None sees the heart, but God only; and may we be desirous of leaving judgment in His hands, who knoweth the end from the beginning.

From the whole of this discussion we draw an inference unfavourable to the existence of modern miracles, because their limits seem to be confined to those cases in which any powerful excitement of the nervous system would supersede its morbid tendencies and disordered

function, but to possess no influence over the darker shades of organic malady and structural alteration or disorganization.

(To be continued.)

AMERICAN CRITIQUE ON WILBERFORCE'S PRACTICAL VIEW. (Continued from p. 92.)

"IN the third place, this is the only kind of religion which perceptibly advances the soul in the life and likeness of God. They who sensibly commune with God, and keep their hearts alive to the excellency of divine things, from day to day, cannot but become more and more assimilated to those glorious objects. These objects, operating upon susceptible and affectionate minds, must make upon them their own impression and image; and that image must at length become too resplendent in the spirit and life, to leave it doubtful whether there has been progress and growth in grace. Men of spiritual religion, therefore, must be advancing, as time passes, towards the measure of the stature of a perfect Christian. In their views, feelings, and conversation, they must be rising nearer and nearer to the just made perfect.' The beauty of holiness must be gradually brightening upon them; and their affinity and relationship to heaven, must be becoming increasingly manifest. It must be so, by the very laws of such intercourse as they maintain with heavenly objects: and that it is so, in fact, no one can be ignorant. These men, of whatever country or age, do advance in moral worth and loveliness, as they advance in years. Time invigorates them in all the prínciples, and beautifies them in all the graces of holiness. Even while their outward man perishes' -while the animal vivacity and vigour of their earlier years decay,

they are renewed in the inward man, day by day.' Was it not thus with all the spiritually minded,

whose names we have mentioned, or of whom we have ever read or heard? But the same cannot be truly said of men of other kinds of sentiment. They are, in regard to religion and holiness, little better at one time than at another. Take them when you will, in the middle of life, or in old age, they are not, so far as man can see, much improved in spirit. Their hearts do not seem to be more in heaven; their affections do not appear to be more spiritual; their devotedness to God and His interests does not seem increased. Call to mindinstances of the customary sort of religion-think of those whose religion is of this kind--and consider. whether these remarks are not exemplified in their conduct. Do they present themselves to our thoughts, as Christians advancing in the life of God? Are they evidently holier men now than some years ago? Do we feel more confident of their final salvation at this moment, than we did when they first professed conversion? Is it more certain now-more certain to themselves or to any others-that they will be saved, than it was then? Alas! it is well if the probability of their final salvation is not diminished. Professed Christians who have not a spiritual and affectionate religion, often degenerate, but seldom improve. It is not praying, or reading, or hearing that profits the soul, but just feeling towards the objects with which the soul converses, or should converse, in prayer, reading, and hearing. These exercises are nothing except as sensibility pervades and animates them. It is by sensibility that God and our own spirits come into union and fellowship. It is by sensibility, that our souls mingle with the invisible things of the sanctifying Spirit. Two lifeless masses are not more inoperative on each other, than the unseen world on the human character, if sensibility towards that world. is wanting. We may speak, and read, and think, but we shall never be made better, if we do not feel.

"Now when we remember what the Scriptures teach concerning the essential progressiveness of true grace in the heart,- that it is as the little leaven which leaveneth the whole lump; and join with this the fact, that professed Christians who are not spiritual in their feelings do not visibly advance in the divine life, can we rest satisfied with a religion like theirs? Is it by any means certain that their religion will save the soul?

"In the fourth place, spiritual religion is far more useful than any other. Usefulness depends on three things; power, readiness to use it, and using it in a proper manner; and no kind of religion includes these things in so eminent a degree, as the spiritual religion of which we now speak. There is more power in this than in any other sort of religion. Knowledge is power in religious concerns as well as every other; and there is no religion so favourable as this, to the acquisition of Divine knowledge. Men may be led to pursue such knowledge by curiosity, ambition, and other motives; but the attainments so made will be superficial, when compared with the illumination shed down from the Holy Spirit, into the mind and heart of the spiritually discerning and inquiring Christian. How sure and substantial, how deep and endearing, is the knowledge of the spiritually-minded, in comparison with theirs who know every thing in speculation only! And ordinarily, their knowledge is greater as well as of a better kind. They meditate more on the Scriptures, they reflect more, they pray more; and the relish for Divine things which inclines them to do so, makes them quick of spiritual understanding, and thus becomes the means of a more rapid growth in Divine knowledge, than would otherwise be possible. And as the religion of which we treat, joins to greater knowledge, greater grace and holiness,-which likewise is the highest kind of power, it must, in respect to its

intrinsic strength and efficiency, be incomparably superior to every other. "But not only have the men of this religion more strength, they are also more disposed to use their strength than others. It is a false notion of spiritual-mindedness, that it inclines men to a secluded and inactively contemplative life. It had not this tendency in Christ and his apostles, or the prophets; the influence of whose untiring labours is felt over the world to this day. Spiritualmindedness ever promotes a living and efficient benevolence duly awake and active. From the secret place of the Most High in which it dwells, it looks abroad upon the sensual world with a self-sacrificing, self-devoting compassion, like that of our blessed Saviour; and is ever ready to go forth in his spirit and strength, to every work of faith and love. Customary religion, and even principles of natural kindness, have led men to practise some forms of benevolence; but it is spiritualmindedness that has cared for the bodies and souls of men on the largest scale, and has wrought miracles of mercy and love, the record of which will endure longer than the sun and the moon.

"But the religion here recommended is pre-eminent, as we have already said, not only in power and in aptitude to use that power, but in the excellence of the manner in which it uses it. It is both in labours more abundant, and in wisdom and propriety of action more perfect. It does its work aptly, skilfully, prudently, with a spirit congenial to its ends; a spirit of meekness and love, and dependence on God. In the highest instances and sorts of benevolent labour, men of little spirituality would not find themselves in their proper element. The unsuitablenes of their spirit and manner would make their work irksome, and mischief might be the result. How much out of place do such men find themselves under remarkable effusions of the Holy Spirit; when the accessions to the happiness of the

universe are as the clouds, and as when doves fly to their windows.' It is spirituality alone that can make men 'as polished shafts' to the consciences of their fellow-men, at such seasons. It is only this, indeed, which can ensure a right and successful way of fulfilling any of the offices of the holiest and noblest order of well-doing. These things demonstrate the superior usefulness of the spiritual kind of religion. Observation also confirms this conclusion. One spiritual Christian in a church is often more useful than an hundred ordinary professors. How many hundred Christians of the common kind, would be required to make, in point of usefulness, one Baxter, or Edwards, or Martyn! These, it is true, were men of powerful minds; but it was their superior spirituality that made their power the means of exalting the ages in which they lived. There were other professed Christians of minds as powerful and of learning as great as theirs, who did very little towards advancing the cause of holiness in the world. If our readers then would pass their days in the most useful manner-if they would give the church and their generation the greatest reason to bless God for their existence, let their religion be of the spiritual kind.

"This kind of religion, in the fifth place, will best sustain us under evil. He who is accustomed to converse affectionately and delightfully with God to lay open his heart to the influence of His excellent glory' and of eternal objects, will acquire a capacity of enduring evil, altogether peculiar to himself. His frame of spirit, and the blessedness of that intercourse, make him in a manner invulnerable to evil. The day of evil to the man of the world is insupportable; because, besides his unholy spirit, he has no counterbalancing good in prospect. Past prosperity cannot be recalled; the future is unknown, and may be worse than the present. The unspiritual, unexercised professor of

religion, too, may not be prepared for that day. The hope which now supports him, may fail him then. He will then need other evidences of the Divine favour, than those on which he is accustomed to rely-evidences which may not be afforded him then, as they are not sought for now. But the spiritual Christian is not thus forlorn in heart when his time of trial comes. The feeling towards God expressed by the Psalmist, 'Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee,' having been habitual with him even in the days of prosperity, he will not be desponding and heart-smitten now; for God, his chosen portion, remains the same, and his delight in God is the same also. And how small a loss can befal that person, how little can he be injured by any calamity in the whole creation, whose happiness was not in the creation, but in its infinite Author? Besides, if there is a man to whom the Father of compassion will shew himself especially gracious in the hour of need, that man doubtless is the spiritually minded Christian. Who is an heir of the promises, if he is not? Whom, if not him, does God love and delight in? There may be room for doubt whether other sorts of professed Christians-all other sorts-may not be deceivers or deceived; but who doubts his piety who lives a spiritual and heavenly life? Such persons, then, are assuredly the children of God, whom God will not forsake in times of trouble. The night of their affliction shall be as the brightest and best of their prosperous days. They shall glorify God in passing through the fire; their end shall be peace, and they shall depart, leaving mankind impressed with the certainty, that whoever may find their hope of ultimate happiness disappointed, these men were more fit for heaven than for earth, and have passed through the gates into the city of God.

"These are some of the considerations which shew what manner of

persons we all should be, who call ourselves by the name of Christ. But there is one objection which we fear will weigh more with some persons than all these considerations, however solemn and conclusive. It is this, that the religion we recommend, is not a practicable one. It may do perhaps for a very few peculiarly favoured and peculiarly situated persons, like clergymen, but it will not answer for the generality of mankind-it is too refined, too elevated, too difficult a religion for the mass of the people. It is not, we suppose, the import of this objection, that this is a different religion from that which the Scriptures teach. Of the scriptural certificate to this religion, let all mankind judge. If there is a religion on earth that corresponds to the very religion of the Bible, it is unquestionably this. What but this was the religion of Abraham and Moses, of David and Daniel, of Paul and John? Other religions may not be scriptural, but no one can doubt whether this religion is either scriptural or true. The evidences of its genuineness are like the sun's meridian beams. The conscience of the world decides that it is genuine--the religion of the Bible-the religion of God -the religion which God has revealed to man as the sure way to heaven. But has God bound his creatures to an impracticable kind of religion? Or has he prescribed a religion for all the world, which cannot be practised by more than one man in a million? If then the objector means, that the religion which, beyond all others, has the best claim to be received as the religion of the Scriptures, is strictly and in plain truth an impracticable religion to the bulk of mankind, his objection is profane and reproachful to the Divine goodness and wisdom, and can hardly find a welcome lodgment in any other than an unholy breast. No! The fact that this religion is practicable by one man, proves it to be practicable by any and every other man. If any one man has ever exemplified this religion, the matter is

at rest: man may exemplify it: it is a religion for man, and a religion which every man is bound to exemplify. It should be considered by those who make this objection, that they are limiting, not merely the physical capability of man, but the resources of the Holy One himself. The question as to practicability-the true question-is, not whether I, in my own strength shall succeed in practising this religion, but whether the Spirit and grace of God can enable me to practise it. We are not to do any thing in reliance on our own strength, which truly would fail us, even for the exercise of a good thought. On the contrary, we are warned against self-confidence as the certain way to be ruined, and are directed to him for strength in whom it hath pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell;' and certain it is that destruction awaits us, if we do not go to Him, and put our exclusive trust in the provision made for us in Him. The question is this, Is there not a sufficiency for us in all the fulness of the Godhead? Can we not do all things included in this religion 'through Christ strengthening us?' Is there a man on earth whom Christ cannot strengthen to live the life of a spiritual Christian? Let this be demonstratedlet the arm of the Almighty be shortened-and then may it be affirmed that the religion we contend for is not a practicable religion. The truth is, that the generality of professed Christians never strive for, never aim at, this kind of religion. It is not in their hearts deliberately to purpose and intend that this religion shall be theirs. They content themselves with what is customary; and this for the most part, as to religious duties, is that which expediency or personal convenience may dictate. What labours, what pains-taking do they practise, to keep themselves in the love and fear of God all the day long? What care do they exercise not to grieve the Holy Spirit? What aspirations of soul have they for eminent holiness of heart ?What