Osiris, destroyed in battle by Typhon, (the evil principle,) and also exhibiting his resuscitation (or resurrection) as Horus; while Isis laments his death, and searches for his mangled remains.

We have no reason for supposing the Egyptians ignorant of the original history of mankind, however it had been corrupted and altered by ages; and we have still less ground to conclude that they invented a slain deity (a contradiction in terms, as viewed by man's natural reason); the grief of the earth, or universal nature, for his loss; and his final restoration under a form of immortal youth.

If these were the doctrines set forth in the mysteries, whether of Isis or Ceres, we must allow that they have sprung from the tradition of a Deliverer to come, and that the archbishop, if he imagined the mystery of godliness" to have been adapted, in any manner, to them (in accordance with his other views which we have specified), put the cause for the effect, and the effect for the cause.

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It appears to be the fact that the mysteries came from traditions of primeval truths; not that Christianity was adapted to, or made to comply with the love of mankind for mysteries in religion. This latter idea, and indeed the whole of Tillotson's scheme, is founded on what Spearman quaintly calls the notion that hath too long prevailed, that man, from the beginning, was left to hammer out of his own head what God and religion must be.' But the prelate here takes an incorrect view of the subject, for an older writer has observed, that' man was not left to reason for so much as one day.' 'God taught him in Eden-all his descendants had equal access to the same natural source of information, their fathers' JUNE, 1838.

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wisdom; and thus onwards, from generation to generation, until man's wilful ignorance and perversity brought on the earth the judgment of the avenging and purifying flood. Then the system recommenced; the second father of the world taught to his children the same truths, and nothing but voluntary forgetfulness could cause them to be ignorant.

Thus, however debased and deformed by careless or ungodly men, the notions of the ancients came originally from the same source as revelation (or Christianity) itself, and the similarity between them is no longer a matter of surprise.

I do not mean to say that the mysteries of Egypt or Greece, which were most probably engines of political priestcraft, were set up because there were mysterious things in the divine plan of salvation.

The apostle, no doubt, does allude to them in the passage quoted by Tillotson; and he intends to throw contempt on them, by saying, “without controversy great is the mystery of godliness; as though he had said, ' many opinions are extant as to your heathen mysteries, some admire, some despise them; some think them wise, others foolish; some view them as divine, others as diabolical; but I challenge all men to controvert or deny that God manifest in the flesh, which is the mystery of godliness (or Christianity) is indeed a mystery, a great mystery; great in wisdom, great in mercy; great in its invention, great in its execution.'

I only mean to state what I have already endeavoured to prove, that the heathen mysteries were derived originally from revelation, and that revelation was not could not be, in any way adapted to them. There is that in their extreme absurdity, impurity,

and idolatry, which the God of holiness would abhor, would abolish: but which we cannot think he would ever condescend to countenance, so far as to use them for stepping-stones, to help mankind to a reception of his own sublime plan for their salvation.

X. Q.

UNAUTHORIZED CONCLUSIONS.

MADAM,

IFULLY concur in a sentiment which is found in your last number. It is this, 'The importance, the great importance and responsibility to the writer, of writing on religious subjects:' and having no doubt that your magazine has for its object the glory of God and the salvation of men, I am grieved to find any thing in its valuable pages calculated to derogate from the one, or impede the other. I allude to a fact related in 'Sabbath Musings,' the death of young N―, a Cambridge student, of whose salvation the writer has no doubt, because a text of scripture was applied to the mind of his mother, which in that awful extremity she interpreted as an assurance that mercy was extended to her son. In order to support a fact we must supply evidence, and though the powerful impression on the mind of the mother is given as such in the case before us, yet it is an unscriptural mode of deciding on the safety of the son; for religion is a personal thing, and one man cannot be saved by the faith of another. Before we take encouragement from any promise, we must carefully

examine whether it is intended to meet our state and circumstances, as it is a common device of Satan to suggest a text to the mind, that, by being interpreted apart from its context, he may lead us into presumption. There is nothing from Genesis to Revelation, that can encourage a hope that any soul can enter heaven without a title to and a meetness for its glory. The thief on the cross gave the most indubitable proofs of his faith in Christ and of the renovation of his heart; but here we are told of a young man following in life the course of this world, without ever bestowing a thought on a better, and though he left no evidence in death of repentance towards God, faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, or of a new birth unto righteousness, we are assured "that his happy spirit is among the redeemed." Now has not such a statement an evident tendency to induce the light, the giddy and the gay to turn the grace of God into licentiousness, and to make his uncovenanted mercy a motive for deferring the care of their souls? There are many, I fear, who if they read such a history would profanely bless God and take courage in their pursuit of sin and vanity, and be glad to risk their salvation on the efficacy of a mother's prayers in their last hours.

I remain, madam,

Your faithful servant, in the gospel of Christ,

C. X.

[IN candor we must confess that on reading over the paper referred to, we were much inclined to take the liberty of expunging the concluding anecdote; and afterwards seriously regretted not having so done. Our valued friend, M. F. D. will, we think, on mature

consideration, agree in the view taken by C. X. Individual feeling must not be indulged at the expence of that scriptural view which it behoves us all to take, and to uphold. We could not, ourselves, have built the slightest hope upon such a supposed private revelation, unaccompanied with any token of a saving change in the object of the most awful and painful solicitude that one human being can feel respecting another; therefore we would not recommend, or seem to sanction it.—ED.]

WE cannot fully understand a single attribute of Jehovah, nor form any more comprehensive idea of that vast system he is pleased to carry on in the universe, from the small portion of it before us, than we could of the immensity of our globe, from a single blade of grass gathered on its surface. In this, our imperfect state, we have only to receive what is in mercy made known to us, and to remember that as a reluctant will must obey the commands of God, so a reluctant reason must receive his revelation, not because of the matter, but of the author, whose inscrutable designs will be developed to the new faculties of our glorified souls, when the glass through which we now see darkly shall be withdrawn, and heaven's pure light shed upon the mysteries of godliness, become to our admiring eyes, the interpreter of its own designs.-Walker, of Truro.