the conduct and government of the world. God is bestowing blessings of one kind or other upon us every moment: and, no doubt, if we could discern them as well, we should find many of them as regular as the growth of fruits, and the increase of creatures necessary to our use. The great blessings we behold are all seasonable. How steady are the returns of day and night, saith a heathen moralist, and how constant the revolutions of the seasons! If these blessings were not certain, if they could not be depended upon, if we received them at unexpected intervals, and the time of their arrival were unknown, what infinite anxiety would distract, and what dreadful disappointment would undo, the world! In like manner, let us also emulate this circumstance of the divine bounty; and the little good we have ability and opportunity of doing in the world, let us do it in the best season and in the best manner we can not slowly, or unseasonably; "not grudgingly, or of necessity; for God loveth a cheerful giver.” (2 Cor. ix. 7.) We see that even the blessings of the Almighty, how great and glorious soever in themselves, are yet exceedingly sweetened and heightened by the time and the manner of conferring them. How much more then must it be so in the mutual and social offices of humanity; where the circumstances of the kindness very frequently make the best and most distinguished parts of its character! The charity is then truly Christian and complete, when the dignity of that divine office is accompanied with all the charms of humanity, good-nature, and seasonable despatch.-Delany. CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY. Q. GIVE a few more examples of chemical affinity. 4. In this phial is a solution of sulphate of iron; (green copperas ;) and in this are nut-galls in solution: both are nearly colourless; but on pouring a portion of each into this wine-glass, see, a black inky substance is produced. A. The gallic acid of the nut-galls has a greater affinity to iron than the sulphuric acid has; the sulphate of iron is decomposed; the liberated iron combines with the gallic acid, and gallate of iron is the result. Q. Can this be decomposed? A. Yes, by finding some substance that has a greater affinity to the iron than gallic acid has. Q. What is that substance? A. Muriatic acid is one, for example. Q. Let me have evidence of this. A. This is muriatic acid. I pour a little into this black inky substance in the wine-glass. See, from the bottom upwards, the black colour disappears; and by stirring it, it is become almost colourless. Q. What has caused this change? A. The muriatic acid first decomposed the gallate of iron; then took the liberated iron into combination with itself, and formed muriate of iron. Q. Can this be decomposed? A. It can: this phial contains potass in solution; it is, like the muriate of iron in the wine-glass, nearly colourless. I pour a portion of it into the glass: see, the liquid has again become black. Q. Give me the reason for this change. A. The potass has a greater affinity to the muriatic acid, than the latter has to iron; the potass therefore first decomposed the muriate of iron, and took the muriatic acid to itself: the liberated iron was immediately seized by the gallic acid, and gallate of iron is again produced. Q. Is chemical affinity spoken of by different terms? A. When a body which consists of two parts, as the oil and the alkali, page 162, is decomposed by a third, as the creamlike substance was by the sulphuric acid, and one of the two parts is taken up by the third; this is an example of simple elective attraction. Q. What is compound affinity, or double elective attrac 4. When two bodies, each containing two parts, are presented to each other, and each of the two parts with one constituent to the other, so that two new bodies are formed; this is said to be the result of compound affinity, or double elective attraction. Q. Give me some example. A. Common table-salt when dry is chloride of sodium: let a drop of water fall on a small portion of this substance; in the salt we have chlorine and sodium, in the water hydrogen and oxygen: the drop of water is decomposed, the hydrogen of the water combines with the chlorine and forms muriatic acid; the oxygen is taken by the sodium, and soda is produced. In practice this may be seen in the preparation of sulphate of magnesia (Epsom salts). If to mothers, bittern, (impure muriate of magnesia, or by whatever provincial term this may be known,) sulphate of iron be presented; the muriatic acid leaves the magnesia to combine with the iron, and the sulphuric acid of the iron combines with the magnesia, and thus what is termed Epsom salts may be obtained. If into this sulphate of magnesia in solution, a portion of sub-carbonate of soda be poured, the sulphuric acid leaves the magnesia to combine with the potass, and the carbonic acid takes the magnesia which is thus obtained. Or by taking magnesian limestone, and decomposing it by the mothers or bittern, above noticed, of salt works; the lime takes the muriatic acid, and the magnesia of both the limestone and the mothers remains. Q. Do atoms chemically combine in any proportion, or in indefinite proportions only? A. Only in certain, fixed, definite proportions. Q. Illustrate this assertion. A. It is found, that the combinations and separation of all simple bodies are conducted in a definite and invariable ratio of relative weight and measure, as that of one part with one part; one with two; one with three; or one with four; and consequently that every change in the compound thus produced, whether of addition or diminution, is a pre that the different elementary bodies which enter into such compounds can never unite or separate, never lay hold of ar let go each other, in any other proportion. Q. Am I to understand that nature acts with such nice precision in all her changes? A. Nature acts! Allow me to ask, who or what this nature is, of which you speak? Is not this term, which is so commonly used, rather a substitute for thought, than a vehicle of thought. It is fully conceded, that there is as much of good sense, as there may be of reverential feeling, in this advise, "Nec Deus intersit," &c., "Never presume to make a God appear, But for a business worthy of a God." Yet in these days, lovers of science should be reminded in the words of Dr. S. Clarke, that what is termed nature, the works, and course of nature, "is nothing else but the will of God, producing certain effects in a continued, regular, constant, and uniform manner." "Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that He is strong in power; not one faileth. Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his understanding!" (Isaiah xl. 26, 28.) RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD. SOME will object to the resurrection, because they cannot conceive how these vile earthly bodies can undergo so amazing a change, as the Scriptures assure us they shall, from corruptible to incorruptible, and from gross to glorious.. To these I answer, that if they must never believe any thing until they are thoroughly informed of the nature and manner of it, they may doubt and deny every thing in nature; because they cannot account for any one of its least the formation of a blade of grass, or a grain of sand. Indeed every grain of sand we see, every blade of grass we tread upon, is as full of mystery as the resurrection. What would these men think of an idiot that should deny the possibility of making a watch or a clock, because he had no notion how a rude mass of coarse and rough ore or mine could be melted and refined into masses of smooth, and shining, and solid metals; and some of the meanest of those metals endowed with such amazing powers as to be able to point out the several measures and moments of time; nay, more, the revolutions and irregularities of the planets, and other celestial bodies? And yet, if they have the least modesty, they must own that there is an infinitely greater distance between their abilities, and the abilities of Almighty God, than there is betwixt the greatest artist upon earth, and the greatest idiot. Will these men tell us, how a vile clod of earth is converted into the finest flowers, and most delicious fruits in the world; or how so gross and dark a substance as common coal, is convertible into so bright and glorious a body as we behold it when inflamed? And yet our imagination is at a loss how to wish for a greater and more glorious change at the last day, in proportion to our present perfection, than we behold in all these instances. But the truth is, infidelity is the joint effect of our arrogance and ignorance. In reality, we know little relating to this world, and our own true character and condition in it, beyond the revealed will of God,-the will of God revealed in the inspired writings of his Prophets and Apostles, and in the wisdom of his works. And yet, such is our vanity and arrogance, we pronounce upon every thing, and would be thought ignorant of nothing. The true way of judging of the wisdom and goodness of God is by looking with humble attention into his will and works. One sure way of judging what God may do in another world, is to see what he hath done in this world. If we would look into the ways and works of God here below, we should soon find, that those things are done in the world every day, which |