ADAM THE FIRST REVELATION OF THE SON OF MAN. 37

of Deity in man. It is the genesis or generation of Christ in the son of man, and the two angels were as man and woman, or as husband and wife, together one flesh, or one temple of the eternal Father, and symbolical of the first marriage of the primary, uncreated, unbegotten, self-existent parents. Thus Adam and Eve were as husband and wife in one Christ, symbolical of the grand union of spirit and matter, in one nature.

If all mankind were constituted immortal souls in this account of the generation or genesis of Christ in the Adam of dust-formed man, then the entire statement is a confused illogical, and most perplexing jumble; and the lie of the serpent seducer would have been no lie at all when he told the woman that theology of good and evil would not ruin them, but make them immortals or gods, constituting them beings who are morally, that is theologico-morally, responsible to Deity from being made conscious of the fundamental antithesis of absolute good (Ormuzd) and absolute evil (Ahriman) in the universe.

But this account in Genesis, which states that man exists by inspiration a living soul, speaks also in the 30th verse of the very same chapter, of "Every beast of the earth, and "every fowl of the air, and every thing that creepeth upon "the earth, wherein there is a living soul." So that if man be immortal from possessing a living soul, equally are beasts, birds, and insects immortals, since they also possess living souls, and all exist by the inspiration or inbreathing of the same imponderable spirit of life that is inextricably interwoven with the aqueous and gaseous atoms of the universe. And if the beasts are mortals, though temporarily possessing living souls as attributes of a material organization, in like manner must mankind be mortals, since they are animated by the same vital spirit or soul.

The recent discoveries of geologists have demonstrated the fact that the cosmogony conventionally supposed to be taught by Moses in Genesis is not true, and that all the labour and pains of Drs. Kurtz and Chalmers, of John Pye Smith, of Hitchcock, Hugh Miller, and their camp followers,

are so much stuff and time wasted in fruitless attempts to square the circle of theological assumptions, flatly contradicted by known natural phenomena.

The real secret of the great anxiety exhibited by sacerdotalists is simply this, that they find themselves bound to satisfy sceptical pupils that the great foundation stone of immaterialism, which underlies their scheme of the atonement, and the dogma of man's free will, rests upon biblical authority, for it is man's own claim to inherit the reversion of immortality that is so hotly contested. It is a farce to pretend that it is genuine zeal for Deity's glory that is the animus, for those who truly reverence Deity are content with their lot, whether they are destined to obtain the gift of eternal life, or whether they must quietly perish. Theists of the super and preternatural seek in the Bible authority for certain assumptions, not proved by science, viz., that the human mind is an immaterial entity that can exist apart from a natural or material organization; that there are rival beings of good and evil in the universe; that all mankind have descended from one paradisiacal pair whose fall involved the eternal misery of the entire human race, and that an atonement by proxy is needed to restore what an evil spirit contrived to destroy, in defiance of the care of divine omnipotence.

That which underlies all theistical contentions is the philosophy of creation, as to what creation really is; whether it reveals one solitary or a bifold cause, whether it is fabrication out of nothing as a mechanical operation of one designer, or whether it is not merely another term for generation, that is of Two uncreated entities conjugating plurality. The bulk of the modern tower of Babel may be valued by sampling from a few bricks, that is books, for the ancient babblement was constructed by linguistic and theistical babblers out of books to reach the high heaven of immortality. It was not made of clay, for bricks could never carry the dead to life in heaven, however high the tower was piled up.

Here are the lectures of a clergymen of repute, the

REV. H. CHRISTMAS' LECTURES.

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Rev. Henry Christmas, whose essays are dated from Sion College, February, 1848, delivered to a society of young men interested in the establishment and extension of missions for propagating theistical science at home and abroad. The subject of these lectures is," The connection between Natural "Philosophy and Revealed Religion," and it is remarked, that this connection may be made available for religious purposes, inasmuch as many persons may be induced to see the beauties of theology if indirectly drawn thereto, who would lay aside with neglect the most eloquent of professedly spiritual works. The reverend lecturer is right, for of all the soporific decoctions that the press ever retails, nothing is more repulsively mind-confusing and brainaddling than these professedly spiritual works. Paganini's solos upon a one-stringed fiddle were endurable, so it is said, but these attenuated fiddlings, with their involuntary variations, have for the major part not one redeeming quality; exceptions are rare indeed, and what man, valuing sound judgment, would weaken and confuse it by such spiritual studies as metaphysico-theological meanderings into the origin of evil, the endless disputes about water-baptismal regenerations, promises, pledges, sacraments or signs of grace, and postponed performances, together with ten thousand and one hashings and mincings of doctrinal palavers, about predestination to election of life everlasting and damnation, about rationalism, high, low, or loose, and broad churchism, antinomianism, and hell-fire.

The lecturer says:

"To meet this difficulty, some well-intentioned persons "have written religious novels, and this class of fiction has "increased in amount year by year to the present day." But he doubts, he says, "Whether this plan is in itself "expedient, because to inculcate spiritual truth by means of "fictitious narrative, has been called in question, and the "mass of religious novels have two great and valid objec"tions, for in addition to the want of literary merit, there "is another and stronger ground of objection to the generality of religious fictions, being essentially tractarian,

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"if not popish, in their nature and tendency, amidst much "apparent meekness and humility, they breathe the very "spirit of pride and intolerance;" he thinks that "Perhaps, "the cause of their failure was to be found in the bad "principles as well as in the poor execution of these "novels." Well, perhaps it was, whoever has perused any of these puseyite productions for the confusion of useful knowledge, will doubtless remember the æsthetic and ascetic ideas, and the thaumaturgic principles sought to be inculcated in catlap of the most attenuated description. Such plots, such characters, such priests, men, women, and children, it never was my poor fortune to have seen; these tales are not confined to penny tract twaddles, they are circulated in substantial novels, where the heroes are hobbledehoy curates, who backbite absentee rectors, for ball-room haunting, theatre-going, port-wine drinking, and continental travelling indulgences, and who avail themselves of their superior's absence to talk "high" views to lackadaisical women, impregnating rustics and chawbacons with perplexing theories about "real presence" in consubstantiation, and inoculating milk maids with the efficacy of baptismal regeneration; well, fortune favor the brave readers of these extraordinary books, for surely Baron Munchausen was a fool to what some of the saints in the calendar of these priests are reported to have achieved. Mr. Christmas suggests Two causes for their failure; two causes indeed, style abominable, and doctrine atrocious! why one would be sufficient to call down sentence of damnation from sensible folks, to say nothing of the brimstone odour of the doctrines complained of.

Justice however compels us to say that the evangelical clique cannot plead guiltless to the charge of writing twaddling theological books. Some of these low, or rather loose church effusions, are a scandal to any nation professing to understand the art of logical reasoning. It is odd that the objection to novels, as channels for conveying theistical speculations, was not found out until the evangelicals had been beaten at their own trade.

The "Index expurgatorius," belongs to all systems of

RELIGIOUS NOVELS.

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sacerdotalism, and is no way confined to the Roman section. It has been much used of late by protestant evangelicalism, which has shewn itself to be as rabidly tyrannical a cur as ever slunk away howling from the sight of clean water.

So when Mr. Christmas finds that the loose church party have lost the exclusive use of novels, he ventures upon speculating in a little adventure of pseudo scientific lecturing, remarking that—

"The glorious discoveries of astronomy, and the magnifi"cent but perplexing theories of geologists, will be fraught "with interest to minds which regard the disputes of "theologians with unmerited contempt."

And it is argued, that this amalgamation of science and sacerdotalism presents a vast platform whereon priests and secularists may meet, compare their theories and discoveries; and where the first may have their creeds systematized, and scientific folks have their discoveries theologised to mutual advantage, a good exchange being no robbery. Moreover, in addition to the great advantages that this conglomeration possesses of attracting and bird-liming shy birds, it is gravely stated to be absolutely necessary for a right understanding of the Scriptures themselves.

Then the lecturer names eight departments of science that the Bible is competent to teach, namely, astronomy, geology, palæontology, natural history, philosophy, history, geography, and antiquarian records.

Now if there is any truth in the saying, that poetry serves genius as a vehicle for conveying sublimest verities, its flashes opening up new regions of thought, then the poetic imagery of the Bible may, in like fashion, teach scientific revelation; for all discovery, all invention is revelation, which is only another mode of expressing exalted intelligence, an elevation of mental conditions to clear the reflecting mirror, to image, in a brighter form or Adam, that which exists. But as for the Bible teaching science in accordance with the style and usages of modern nomenclature and classification, it is as mischievous as it is rash to assert that it does so.

First of all, we are told that the love of science and genuine