to a state of penury, and this, in the case of aged persons, widows, and others, without any hope of ever retrieving their position. Something, indeed, has been done to meet the more clamant cases; but from all accounts there is ample room, and urgent need, for a still greater effort, on the part of the Christian public, to bring relief on an adequate scale to those whose earthly all is being so ruthlessly wrenched from them; and not for their sakes alone, but for the sake of the commercial interests of the whole conntry, it is to be hoped some acceptable and workable scheme will be devised by which this shall be effected.

It is certainly matter for thankfulness, that the Lottery scheme, brought forward by influential parties actuated, we doubt not, by the most benevolent motives, has been arrested, and that we are to be spared the further humiliation of attempting to alleviate our sore distress by unlawful means-means upon which the blessing of God that maketh rich, could not be expected to rest. It is deeply to be regretted, that such a thing should ever have been seriously proposed, for coming as it did from men of high social standing, some of them officebearers also in the Church, it cannot but have proved so far injurious, even though it has not been carried out. The scheme was one essentially immoral and unlawful in its nature, and had it been carried out, must have been productive of far worse evils than the one it was designed to remove. The use of the lot for purposes of amusement or gain, is condemned by the principles of the Divine word, as involving an unwarranted and presumptuous appeal to God's providential agency, under the name of "Chance," in order to decide a point without the aid of human skill or power. All such gambling has been found, by experience, to be fraught with incalculable mischief to the interests of morality and social well-being, and so in this country lotteries have for a long time been prohibited by law. The proposal, therefore, to have recourse to such a scheme to raise money was at once dishonouring to God, hurtful to religion, dangerous to the best interests of society, and at variance with the law of the land ; and if it had been allowed to be carried out, it would have been an additional national sin and disgrace, and instead of really benefiting, would have made matters worse.

No doubt, it was brought forward as an exceptional remedy in extraordinary circumstances, and was strongly urged on philanthropic and benevolent grounds. But the end sought, however good and praiseworthy, can never justify the adoption of unlawful measures to attain it. In no circumstances can it ever be right to do evil that good may come. Before the divine injunction "to love mercy," stands the injunction "to do justly;" and to show mercy at the ex

pense of justice or righteousness, whatever it may be in man's estimation, cannot be regarded as true benevolence by Him who seeth not as man seeth, and whose approbation is of infinitely greater moment than that of men.

Those who were opposed to this scheme were charged with want of sympathy with the sufferers, and as wantonly obstructing a muchneeded charitable work. But we venture to affirm that it is with those who have been constrained to condemn this scheme, on the high ground of religion and morality, and regard to the best interests of the community, that the most genuine Christian sympathy and benevolence will be found, though in many instances they may not be able to contribute so largely as others. For that scheme would not have appealed to, and would not have exhibited, the pure benevolence of those who favoured it. On the contrary it would have made its appeal to some of the basest passions of our fallen nature—to selfishness-to covetousness-to love of money—and so in place of dis· playing and fostering a spirit of self-denying charity, it would have tended to increase that very spirit of gambling, the evil workings of which, in reckless speculation, have brought about the present lamentable state of things.

It is gratifying to observe, that as one result of the agitation caused by this movement which has been so timeously arrested, attention is being directed to those gambling practices which have so long been in vogue in connection with Church bazaars, and it is to be hoped that vigorous steps will be taken for their entire suppression. There is reason to fear that it is very largely to the pernicious influence such vicious practices have so long been exerting throughout society, under the tacit sanction of the Churches, that we must trace the eagerness with which the proposed Lottery was hailed in many influential quarters. If a lottery on a small scale-a raffle,-be not wrong, it cannot be wrong on a large scale; and if it is wrong on a large, it cannot be right on a small. The sooner therefore and the more thoroughly the Churches chargeable with such practices purge themselves of the evil, the better will it be for themselves and for society at large, and for the interests of pure and undefiled religion in both. "Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable, and perfect will of God."

NATURE AND THE BIBLE, GOD'S WORKS AND GOD'S WORD SOME ANALOGIES BETWEEN THEM.

II.

2. There is another great principle or law which is common to both records, and which affords another striking point of analogy between them, what may be termed the law of unity in diversity. There is a real unity of purpose and plan that evidently pervades both, amid the greatest possible diversity of objects and forms, notwithstanding of an endless variety and copiousness of detail. "One of the first things," it has been well said, "that will strike the mind of a thoughtful inquirer into the phenomena cf these two records, is the amazing variety and inexhaustible fulness of each. No human mind has ever been able to expound the whole system of Nature, and no human mind will ever exhaust the full meaning of Revelation." But not only is there an inexhaustible fulness, there is also an endless diversity of objects, a most amazing variety of forms presented for our contemplation in both records. It is so in nature. When we look abroad on her vast and varied field, we are at once struck not only with the great number, but also, and very specially, with the marvellous variety, the almost bewildering diversity of objects that everywhere meets our eye. We may observe this variety and diversity in every department of nature's wide domain. We see it, for example, in the pleasing variety of landscape, the beautiful and interesting diversity of natural scenery which we meet with everywhere on the surface of the earth. Here we have not a dead lifeless uninteresting uniformity, but a beautiful and most attractive variety -mountain and plain, hill and valley, lake and forest, tree and river, glen and torrent, rock and rivulet, land and sea. We see it, too, in the manifold changes produced by the revolutions of the heavenly bodies and the ever-varying states of the atmosphere, and in the manifold varieties of temperature, the many and great diversities of light and shade which these occasion on the earth. In this region, too, we have not uniformity but diversity; not a monotonous sameness, but a most pleasing variety-day and night, spring and autumn, summer and winter, light and darkness, cold and heat, the sunshine following the rain, and the calm succeeding the storm. We see the same thing in the lower world of dead inorganic matter, in the vast variety of metals and minerals, in the varied and beauti fully diversified forms of crystals and precious stones, differing greatly from each other in colour and composition and form, which are found beneath the surface of the earth. More clearly and

distinctly still, do we see this in the higher world of organic life. It appears in the vegetable world in the endless variety of size and colour, of structure and form which appear in flowers and shrubs and trees, "from the hyssop that springeth out of the wall, to the cedar that is in Lebanon;" from the "wee modest crimson-tipped daisy," to the towering palm or the majestic oak. So is it also in the still higher world of animal life. What an endless variety of colour and size, what a marvellous diversity in appearance and structure, do we meet with in the countless forms of animal existence that inhabit the earth, the air, and the sea, from the tiny insect to the gigantic mammoth, from the infusorial monad, myriads of which can live in a single drop of water, until we come up at last to man himself. Among the objects and forms of nature, then, we do not meet with a dull monotonous uniformity, but everywhere do we see variety in every imaginable shape, diversity of every conceivable description-diversity in colour and complexion, in size and structure, in appearance and form. And yet amid all this seemingly endless diversity, in spite of all this apparently bewildering variety of objects and forms, there is still unity. Beneath and behind the diversity, the eye of the thoughtful and attentive observer can detect a real unity of plan and purpose pervading the whole. What a distinguished living writer calls the law or principle of Order runs through all nature. We see it in the orderly movements of the heavenly bodies, all of which are kept in their orbits and regularly perform their appointed revolutions in obedience to a few simple but majestic and far-reaching laws. We see it too, very manifestly, on this earth of ours, both in the vegetable and animal world. It is found, on careful examination, that amid the endless variety in outward appearance and internal structure, both in vegetable and animal forms, there is still a prevailing unity of type, some common model or pattern to which all are made more or less closely to conform, some common principle in accordance with which they have all been constructed, certain laws which they have all in common to obey. Endless variety in detail in different individuals, and yet a prevailing unity of type, a common pattern after which all are made, a real unity in the midst of the greatest diversity, this is what meets us everywhere in nature. As a familiar example of this, we might take the human face and form itself, especially the former. What a vast variety of face and feature, what a vast variety of complexion and appearance do we meet with in the different members of the human family. No two faces that you meet with in the crowded streets of a great city, no two faces that you meet with anywhere, are altogether alike. Indeed, just as it is said that no

two leaves in a great forest, no two grains of sand on the sea-shore are wholly alike, so we have no reason to believe that from the beginning of the world till now there have ever been two human faces exactly and in all respects the same. And yet amid all this diversity there is a real unity. No two faces are wholly alike, and yet all faces are made, as it were, on one common pattern and fashioned in accordance with one common type. And what is thus true of the human face and form is just as true of the human soul. What an endless variety of disposition and temperament, what a diversity of habits and tastes, of talents and acquirements, what differences in intellectual ability, in moral character, and spiritual attainments do we meet with among men. No two human souls, any more than two human faces, are altogether and in all respects alike, and yet all souls have been made after the same fashion, created after the same likeness, with the same high faculties, the same godlike powers. These are only two familiar examples of a law which runs through all nature; a law which, so far as we can see, pervades the universe-the great law of unity in diversity. This is a law, the beautiful result of whose universal action and operation is that nature with its endless variety of inorganic and organic forms, the universe with the countless number of different beings and things which it contains, is not a chaos, but a cosmos-not a heterogeneous mass of discordant materials without order or system of any kind, but one beautiful, complete, harmonious whole-a system in which, not disorder and confusion, but unity and order, everywhere prevail. "This," it has been well remarked, "is one of the most striking characteristics of nature. All its material combinations may be reduced to a few simple elements, and all these elements are subject. to a few uniform laws, which bind them together into one uniform system. The same laws which regulate motion on the surface of the earth, extend also to the planets in the sky; and the unity which is discerned amid so much diversity enables us to rise to the conception of a universe, consisting of many parts, but forming one system of created being."

Now, when we turn from nature to Scripture we find that there too this great law of unity in the midst of diversity everywhere prevails. In the Bible, just as in nature, we meet with the greatest possible variety in the materials of which the volume is made up. There too,

if we may so speak, we have an endless diversity of objects and forms. The Bible is not the product of any one mind or of any one age, but was composed by many different authors, writing at many different periods and in widely differing circumstances, and using every different form and style of composition. The consequence is