tem needs no name of man or angel: and, when taken as the titles of philosophical systems, they must be placed on the common level of all such systems, and submitted to the ordeal of rational investigation.

XLIII. The vital and conservative power of the doctrine of Justification by Faith and its co-ordinates, is strikingly exhibited in the history of the Romish church. Within its bosom there have been found men of undoubted and eminent godliness, who held the absurd doctrine of Transubstantiation, paid respect to relics and the crucifix, invoked the saints and the virgin, prayed for the dead, frequented the confessional, performed penances, and acknowledged the supremacy of the Pope. Amid this mass of errors, by holding steadfastly to the great central truth, they still had life and salvation, and dwelt in the radiance of the Divine communion. The Father of mercies compassionated and bore with their follies and weaknesses during the ages of darkness, while they had the pure faith, if only as a grain of mustard seed. Such men were Thomas à Kempis, Fenelon, Pascal, and the Port Royalists. Shall not this teach us a lesson of charity towards all Protestant brethren holding the great central truths, and abjuring all the above-named errors?

XLIV. The peculiar mission of Protestantism is to give every man the Bible in his own language, with an unlimited privilege of reading it for himself. It gives freedom to thought, and freedom to conscience, under that divine light by which thought and conscience may be guided aright.

The numerous sects which sprung up with the Reformation formed but the symptom and the consequence of religious freedom. The human mind, when first released from its long imprisonment, unaccustomed to the open sunlight, and to the motion of unchained energies, saw, in connection with the true and the real, many strange sights, and fell into some uncouth vagaries. But he judges with narrow-mindedness of the great struggle of human nature to find the truth, and has no insight into the blessedness of free thought, and no prescience of its glorious and triumphant end, who suffers himself to be offend

ed by this. Let Protestantism be true to its great principle. Let every encouragement be given to independent thought and investigation. Let us not be surprised and filled with wrath, when new opinions, or even new sects arise. Let the trial and conflict of thought have free course. Let every difference be fully expressed. Let every difficulty be considered and disposed of. Let no opinion be met with heat, bitterness, or calumny, but be calmly weighed in the balance of reason; if it be not of God and of truth, it will, sooner or later, perish; if it be of these authorities, it can never perish. Thus the triumph of Protestantism will be the triumph of freedom, of charity, of truth, and of the Gospel, which embodies them all.

ARTICLE IV.

THE WEST AND WESTERN ELOQUENCE.

By Rev. JOSEPH F. TUTTLE, Marietta, Ohio.

"WESTWARD the star of empire takes its way," said a far-sighted man, and the results of the last half century have singularly verified the prediction. The Genesee and Red Stone countries once were called the Far West; then the wave of population rolled on, successively covering Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois. But none could say to these mightier than the waters of the ocean, "hitherto shalt thou come and no farther, and here shall thy proud waves be staid ;" and sweeping over Wisconsin, they burst across the Father of Waters, and subdued Missouri and Iowa. well attempt to drive back the flames, like fire-demons rushing over Western prairies, as withstand this peopled wave until it reaches the Pacific. An "old man eloquent" once thrilled an audience with this thought. "I have followed the duties of my calling forty-four years, and Oh! what changes have taken place! Some of my friends had gone to the West on

As

Only to the Genesee The West! it is rushing

horseback; and where was that? country. But how different now! toward the Pacific; and I, who saw the Genesee settlers starting for their 'Far West,' am myself at Cincinnati. And when are we to overtake this population sweeping westward? It was the custom in my native town, if a man saw a whale in the harbor, to swing his jacket and shout the news. One morning I heard the shout and rushed to the shore. A single man was wanted to man the boat. Without a word I leaped in, and we pushed off. "Pull, pull, my lads," cheerily cried our helmsman, "we are almost up with the whale!" And we did pull, and that right heartily, for the whole forenoon, but the whale was still far ahead of us! So with the Far West; we have pulled, and pulled, but it is still far ahead of The chase has been fruitless as pursuing the horizon !" On the same occasion another clergyman elicited a burst of applause by an anecdote. "A short time since," said he, "I met a gentleman on one of our steamboats, who told me, that when he should reach Marietta, he would be two thousand miles from his starting point, far up the Missouri. I remarked, 'You must live out at the Far West!' 'No, sir,' was his rejoinder, I live where they fit out expeditions to go West!'"

us.

But supposing our Western boundaries already to be fixed, a glance suffices to show that here is territory broad enough for a family of nations. Pour in millions upon millions, and yet population will be sparse. Organize and admit new States, and there is still room for more. In the States already admitted, the fiftieth part of the resources is not developed. Place Great Britain, with her 25,000,000, in this valley, and at the lowest calculation, only one quarter of its prodigious resources will be exhausted. Transplant the 230,000,000 of Europe to the Great Valley, and so Egyptlike is the soil, that it is believed there would "be bread enough and to spare." Open the flood-gates still wider, and let in the 450,000,000 of Asia, that reservoir of nations, and there are some, and they not regarded as visionary, who believe that the West can afford sustenance to them all. Be this as

it may, the man who makes voyages of thousands of miles on Western rivers, or travels for months across Western plains, must needs feel the conviction, that here are resources of incomprehensible magnitude, and that numerous millions can, and will derive their sustenance here.

The laws of nature are immutable. The immense herds of buffalo, taught by instinct, rush in unwieldy columns to luxuriant and well-watered plains. Accumulating waters burst through the weakest barriers, or overleap the lowest, and pour onward until an equilibrium has been established. Just as certainly will population, accumulated and restrained by unnatural barriers, be heaved as by volcanoes, and struggle in the majesty of its deep-seated and internal energies, until the unnatural barriers are hurled prostrate, and these souls hurry forth in vindication of rights bestowed by God. Let your Columbus, La Salle, and Boon, cleave a path through unknown oceans, or sail along rivers unrecorded, or penetrate forests consecrate as God's altar, against "which no man hath lifted up any iron;" let them proclaim that a wide, extended continent, magnificent savannas, and unmeasured plains have been discovered, and are now mutely pleading for enlistment in the grand enterprise of sustaining human life; and in spite of restraints, mankind will listen to, and obey the voice of wild nature. The truth of this has been verified in the history of America, and especially the history of Western Immigration. Regard the West in what light you may, its greatness overwhelms the mind. There it is calmly reposing within its mountain walls, coursed by the mightiest rivers, embracing a most magnificent territory, with princely beneficence lavishing bread upon seven millions, and with prophetic foresight expecting the day when it may do the same to hundreds of millions. The patriotic politician is fired at the prospect, as he glances at the political elements at work, and augmenting with prodigious rapidity. The jaundiced eye of political and hierarchal demagoguism has caught a view of the same prospective greatness, and gloats over its expected prostitution to intriguing selfishness. Christian philanthropy has cast a

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glance radiant with heavenly benevolence, over the same field, has measured the mighty causes sweeping on to a destiny of joy or wo, and, startled by the ominous premonitions, lifts her tearful and earnest look to heaven, that salvation may descend. Every sincere patriot, not to say every Christian, alive to the real condition of things, cannot but eagerly inquire, Is corrupt passion here to rage like the surges of the ocean, defying restraint, and with stupendous strength rolling on to a consummation of ruin? Is this vast concentration of power, energized with demoniacal influence, Samson-like to lay hold of the pillars of society, and bury millions in its fall? Or shall it become the choicest instrumentality in hurling prostrate the brazen walls with which Satan's kingdom is begirt, and sounding the jubilee of a world's redemption?

But it is not my purpose to attempt a solution of these questions. They obtruded themselves, and could not well be passed in silence. Let us notice a few facts concerning the West, as prefatory to some remarks which it is proposed to make concerning Western eloquence. And first, consider the rapid increase of population. It flows in upon us in no measured quantities, but like the tides of Fundy, surge upon surge, rising higher and higher, with astonishing rapidity. When did the world ever before see the startling phenomena of nations almost literally born in a day? Scarce half a century has elapsed since General William Rufus Putnam and his noble associates attacked the wilderness at Marietta, and yet so wonderful has been the progress, that in 1844, in Ohio, 335,000 men wielded the energies of the ballot-box; and more than 1,000,000 throughout the West swayed the same potent sceptre. Six States, themselves kingdoms, have joined the confederacy, and another is knocking for admission. One of these States, Ohio, at the last census ranked as third in the Union; and in 1850, all believe it will be second only to the Empire State. Many a son of the "Buckeye State" is sanguine enough to believe that New-York, in spite of its metropolis, will flag in the race for supremacy; and be compelled to crown the young giantess of the West. A single

THIRD SERIES, VOL. I. NO. IV.

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