While Christianity exerts so powerful an influence on the secular affairs of man, it does by no means refuse to acknowledge its own relations to secular occupations, inventions and discoveries. In the city of Strasburg, on the eastern frontier of France, there stands in the principal square, a large bronze statue of Guttenberg, the inventor of the art of printing with movable types. It is a full length figure of that fortunate individual, with a printing press at his side, and an open scroll in

a his hand, with this inscription: And there was light. Upon the several sides of the high pedestal on which the effigy stands, are four tableaux in bas relief, designed to represent the effect of the art of printing on the general progress of the world. In one, stand the names of the most distinguished scholars, philosophers, and poets of all times; in another, the names of those who have been most eminent for their acheivements in the cause of human freedom; conspicuous among which, is an allusion to our Declaration of Independence, with the names of Washington, Franklin, Hancock, and Adams. On the third side, is a representation of philanthropy knocking off the fetters of the slave, and instructing the tawny children of oppression in useful knowledge; and on the fourth, is Christianity, surrounded by the representatives of all nations, and tribes, and people, receiving from her hand, in their own tongue, the word of Eternal Truth. Christianity! Heaven-born Christianity! Divine philosophy; look down with indifference or disdain on that bearded man, at work with tools in his shop, away on the Rhine! Affect to overlook and undervalue him as a mechanic? A mechanic! why, out of those bars of wood and pounds of metal, and ounces of ink, he is constructing a machine to make the nations think. The inventive thought and manual skill of that workman of tools, convert him into a greater preacher than was Paul, or Ambrose, or Augustine. He is constructing wings for Christianity herself, which shall bear her with the music of her silver trumpet, to all the abodes of men. The secular is transmuted into the religious; for the press gives power and progress to religion, and Christianity rewards with grateful smiles all art which aids her advancement.

Near the city of Genoa, there stands a cottage which claims the distinction of being the birth place of Christopher Columbus, over the door of which is this inscription :

Unus erat Mundus : dạo sint, ait iste : fuere,

" There was one world; there may be two, said he; there were.” That one thought of the Genoese sailor does not stand by itself, a matter of mere secular geography, or maritime adventure, or commercial enterprise. If Christianity herself did not inspire the thought, (for evidence is not wanting, that religious enthusiasm had much to do with the discovery of a new field for religious propagation*) the Author of Christianity, the God of History reveals, in his august providence, the presidency of one mind, the progress of one plan, in the wonderful conjunctions of the adventurer's voyage, and all the past and prospective history of the Christian Church. What would have been the condition of the world, had this continent been discovered and possessed centuries before it was? Had Grecian argosies passed the Pillars of Hercules, and planted on this Western Hemisphere the irradicable seeds of Pagan mythology? Or had Saracen enterprise, at the time when Saracens were the only men alive, spread the masculine superstition of Asia, with the mosque and the crescent, on all our shores and hills; or had Norman chivalry, reaching already the snows of Muscovy, and the sunny waters of Antioch, hung its castles on all our cliffs, and spread its semi-barbarism over this vast continent ? So it was not to be. The mystery of the ocean stretched itself out, as a barrier to progress; these rivers ran silently to the sea; these spacious harbors waited in solitude, for a future commerce; these prairies and savannas stretched in silent and solitary beauty, under the eye of God, reserved for a coming population. Meanwhile, the wars of opinion were surging and raging in the Old World; great principles had been smelted out by the fires and furnaces of affliction; History had reached its right revolution; the time at length had come; the world was ready; the men were prepared; when the veil of the sea was lifted up, a second ark was seen floating on the astonished waters; and Christianity, pent up, imprisoned, fainting, persecuted, found a strange path prepared for herself through the sea, in which to flee, with the stars in her hand, to plant her institutions on a virgin soil, unfold a new page of history, and develop an unknown power for the reformation of all that was superannuated and effete in remote and ancient continents.

So it is that all things act and re-act, the religious on the secular, and the secular on the religious; and we come to see that those things which pass under different names, are in fact, but related parts of one system. While Christianity reveals her own presence and power by all the arts, enterprise, and freedom, by all the various sciences and pursuits which spring up in her path, like verdure after the rain, all the politics, commerce,

a

• The manuscripts of Columbus, preserved with religious care in the museums of Europe, bear this signature:

Xto FERENS, S. A. S., i, e. Servus Altissimi Salvatoris.

a

jurisprudence, and enterprise of the world, are designed to aid the promotion, development and triumph of Christianity. By this relation, every study, every pursuit, everything, if it be a true thing--if it be not true it is a nothing" at all becomes invested with a mysterious importance. No man can tell the effects which will follow the smallest fact which science discovers, or art performs. Natural philosophy and theology might seem to have nothing in common, to be of all things remote. But the one in her appropriate work, discovers a power by which a little piece of steel is made to vibrate on the face of a dial-all which you might imagine was a toy for a child. A little thing to be sure, which science has picked up by the way; but it is no small thing at all. It is a great religious power; it circumnavigates the great globe; discovers new continents; reëstablishes Christianity; advances the Church; brightens all the prospects of the world. Sit and think, thou student of nature! The world counts your thinking dreamy idleness, as thou dost watch at the fire-side, the bubbling steam, and wonder what processes and powers are at work in that stupendous engine, a tea-kettle. At last thou hast hit it. Once out, you will never get the mighty

unii under the cover of that small prison again. You have subsidized a power which, by the stroke of a piston, will diffuse knowledge, civilization, freedom, Christianity, along the Bosphorus, the Tigris and the Caspian, where walked the fathers of

Heed not the laugh of the world which disdains your toil, yon chemist, in thy smoky cell. The sudden flash and quick report, which startled the silence of your work over that sulphurous grain, proclaimed the birth of a power, sadly to be perverted it may be, yet necessary still, by which civilized society is to be guarded from all incursions of barbarism, and the relations of power are to be so modified and restrained that the great civilizer of the world shall have its way. Toil away at thy humble handicraft, child of labor ! thou art planning only for thy daily bread, when fumbling over those rags, ropes, and rushes; but thy craft is the hand-maid of all wisdom. Let them burn their Alexandrian libraries; the repositories of knowledge shall never be consumed again, for paper, "the veriest rag which man uses,' perpetuates and propagates in the world, the teachings of the Son of God, the splendors of immortal truth. Stretch out thy giant arms, and strike deep thy “gnarled and unwedgeable roots, oak' of the forest." Something more than dull and dead matter, a religious power art thou; for skill shall hew thee into timber, and thou shalt float on the waters; Commerce shall spread her sails over thee, augment her speed, and mindful or unmindful of her high destiny, she is opening a path along which Christianity will go, on her glorious mission. Roll on, thou deep and mysterious sea! something more art thou, than so much water, salt, and chemics—more than a home for all fishes and monsters ; thou art God's agent, employed to separate the nations when Christianity was not yet ready for the world, but now a high way of emerald and sapphire for his beneficent footsteps. Remote as the law of relation may seem, the true import of all art, science and action, is to advance the cause of Christ. Put a ball in motion any where in these concentric circles, it rests not till it finds the common centre. The ultimate design and use of all pursuits, is to aid and honor Christianity; while Christianity imparts its own energy and life in aid of all that which subserves the good of man.

It is obvious from this relation of things with reference to one system, that there can be no such thing as conflict and contradiction between true science and Christianity. Two truths never can cross each other, like right lines. Truth is never angular, but always concentric and harmonious. The first pretensions of physical science sometimes appear to conflict with Christianity, but her sober results alway harmonize with it, as frightful comets, when first appearing in the sky, create consternation by their lurid flames, but, instead of burning the world, they wheel at the right instant in their orbit, obedient to the laws of a common system. Science, summoned by infidelity, threatens to destroy the Christian system ; but time goes on, and she assmues her proper place, taking and giving glory in the light of the central sun. Geology puts her crowbar beneath the rocky foundations of the earth, and timid men fear lest Christianity will topple aud be buried in ruins; the science advances, and Christianity receives from it the confirmation of her ample testimony. The lamp still hangs by a rope, in the Cathedral of Pisa, the regular pendulations of which, one day, set in motion the mind of Galileo, concerning the law of mechanics. " The world is in motion," cries out the delighted philosopher. "Imprison the heretic," was the decree of the Vatican. But the world kept rolling round, popes and cardinals with it. The demonstrations of Newton succeeded; and the laws of science, and the faith of Christianity are seen at length, in beautiful conjunction and harmony. The palace of all the Muses was on Mount Olympus; and the Mount of God, where piety pitches her tabernacle for the soul's transfiguration, is the central point from which to observe, not merely one radius or segment of truth, but with serene satisfaction, to admire the relations and harmonies of all truths and things. The relations between saintship and scholarship are far more numerous than strike the common mind. Wisdom is greater than knowledge; it is the end and object of all knowledge. Truth then may never be feared, come whence, or where, or how it may; from the laboratory of the chemist, the observatory of the astronomer,

the research of the historian, from physiology or pscychology, we will not despise it, we will not forswear it, we will not fear it; for all truth is related, consistent, and harmonious.

In some parts of continental Europe, particularly in France, the men of science, and of progress, on the one hand, and churchmen on the other, are in open antagonism; a fact not to be employed to disprove Christianity, as if opposed to science, but simply an evidence that Christianity, in its native simplicity and truthfulness, is not there. Most fortunately, in our own land, the reverse of all this is true. However it may have been in times subsequent to our revolution, (for a glance at the system of theology by President Dwight, shows that his eye was upon an educated infidelity, then holding possession of all the learned professions), it certainly is true now, that Christianity has her ablest advocates in all departments of intellectual and physical science, and her firmest believers among the intelligent friends of popular progress. The reason of this felicitous conjunction is, that Christian theology, liberated from ancient bondage and abuses, is here thoughtful, studious, free, open to the sun, promoting rational inquiry and independent action; and scattering her blessings on every hand. Scholars and statesmen, men of thought and men of action, have gradually been working their way to the conviction, that the Christian religion is the grand patron and ally of all secular improvement and progress; and whatever is done, to give to the institutions of religion a broader basis, is a sure pledge of all national prosperity. All that can be done to strengthen such sentirnents is undergirding the great social experiment in which we are embarked. And frequent gatherings of men of literary and scientific pursuits, are something more than an opportunity for the indulgence of pleasant sympathies; a great practical power and promise. There is profound truth in the remark of M. Arago: “It is the men of study and thought who, in the long run, govern the world; and the spirit of union among men of science is the certain presage of the union of nations and the good of the world."*

Many, we know, are accustomed to look upon the life of a student as a busy idleness, far removed from the useful and the practical. The practical! “Thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.” Some seeds are protruded from the ground, on the

' top of their own sprouts, like Anchises on the shoulders of Æneas-the product appearing to bear the cause; and great actions often seem to be the origin of great thoughts, when, in fact, it is the thinking which originates the acting. Your great revolutions begin in the closet of the student. It is the little plank, out of sight, under water, which turns the big ships hither

Speech at Edinburgh.
THIRD SERIES, vol. III. NO. 4.

2