Here is an empire to be reared under auspices more favorable than have ever attended the rearing of an empire before; here the whole commonwealth is free as no commonwealth ever was free before; here all nations flow together as nations never flowed together before; here every individual mind has full opportunity for self-development as individual mind has never had opportunity before; here the religion of the bible has a fair unencumbered field for the full manifestation of its power such as it has never had before. All depends on what is now done. This is the crisis. The prize is put into our hands, and here is employment enough to use up all our superfluous activity, without chasing after the hallucinations of a Hegel or of an Ignatius Loyola, or of any of the brood of Ignatiuncula, his feeble imitators, with which even Protestantism now abounds. We have enough to do for a long time to come within the limits of revelation, and where revelation can help us, before we get beyond it into transcendentalism or ecclesiasticism; and if we are wise men, if we are benevolent men, let us do with our might what our hands find to do, or very soon it will be forever too late.

And what do we want for our country, and especially for the West? and toward what point should our labors be directed?

For one who has been brought up amid New England institutions, who has witnessed the influence of these institutions on the great mass of the people, and has contrasted the New Englanders in respect to intelligence, activity, thrift, and prevalent morality, with the inhabitants of other lands, there can be but one answer to this question. We want for the West a more extensive and permanent establishment of New England institutions, a larger infusion of the New England spirit, than is now to be found there; and toward this point ought the most strenuous efforts of New England men to be directed.

It is a fact universally acknowledged by the political philosophers of the old world, a fact well known among the intelligent statesmen of our own land, that most of that which

is peculiar in our national development, which characterizes our institutions, political, educational, and religious, is mainly of New England origin and growth. The present tendencies of civilization throughout the world, the tendency to the equalization of rights, to the elevation and the comfort of the many, to the annihilation of privileged orders, to universal education, to religious liberty, to a free press and an open Bible, owe, if not their origin, at least their most fresh and healthful growth, to the fathers of New England. These are now the prevailing tendencies of civilization throughout the world; and in our Western country, had there been no large foreign immigration, this tendency would have been at the present moment the prevailing and unrivalled one. But foreign immigration has brought in the opposite pole of civilization, the civilization of Rome, which is, in all points, the antipode of the civilization of New England. Weakened and discouraged in Europe, it acquires fresh strength and boldness in the new and fertile. districts of the Western States; and the intention of the French government, centuries ago, to command that whole Western valley, by a chain of forts from the Gulf of Mexico to the great lakes, was not a whit more manifest than is the present design of the powers of Rome to command the same region by a chain of ecclesiastical and educational establishments, permanently located, richly endowed, and strongly manned. Very well. We give them full liberty to build their churches and their schools, to preach, and print, and publish, to their heart's content; and while they use only fair and honorable means we object not to their efforts; in this, giving a most striking illustration of the difference between their civilization and ours, for, wherever they have the power, they prohibit all rivalry; a church or a school or book opposed to them is crushed as if it were a poisonous viper in their path; and good old Pope Gregory, while he avails himself of the universal liberty here enjoyed to plant his religion in every nook and corner of our land, and calls us bigoted because we choose to have our own Bible read by our own children in our own schools, so far from reciprocating our liberality, is beyond

measure indignant, because some American citizens have had the audacity to send a few books and tracts into Italy; and he sends his bull to tear away every copy of the Bible in the vulgar tongue that may be found in the hands of any Catholic in the United States. Behold the difference, and take your choice. If the people of the United States, after so long an experiment, are tired of intellectual, civil, and ecclesiastical freedom, and desire again to put themselves under the control of an absolute and infallible master; if they grow weary of the civilization of New England, and Scotland, and Northern Europe, and sigh for the beauties of the civilization of Austria and Mexico and Italy, I see not why I am particularly interested to make any strenuous opposition to the change. But if there be any thing valuable in the principles for which our forefathers suffered so much; if the very idea of individual responsibility in religion and political equality in the state be not the figment of a mischievous imagination; if it be a privilege to speak and write, to print and read, and have a free intercourse of thought and views; if all that has been called progress for the last three hundred years be not absolute retrogradation instead of progress; then must Protestantism be awake, and the Eastern States arouse themselves, or the whole Western country will slip away from their control. And whoever controls the civilization of the Western States, sways the destinies of this country; and whoever holds the United States, has eventually the controlling influence over the civilized. world.

This is not a conflict of physical power, and its resources are not forts and arsenals. It is a conflict of mind, of opinion, and its resources are permanent religious and educational institutions. Without these all other efforts are transient and evanescent; and in such a contest as this we cannot afford to waste our strength.

As Rome makes permanent establishments with regular plan, in reference to an influence over the whole region, so we must do the same; as Rome throws herself back on the resources of older states, and draws her supplies from Austria

and France, so we must throw ourselves back on the resources of those who sympathize with us, and draw our supplies from New England and the Atlantic States.

The wealth of the Western States is, as yet, mainly prospective, and their literary and religious institutions must, to a great extent, be supplied with men and money from older communities.

Let none be backward to aid where aid is so much needed, where such tremendous consequences are depending. As the East values her own safety, let her take care of the West; for the Roman Catholic Bishop expressed a thrilling truth. when he said: "Give us the WEST, and we will soon take care of the EAST."

ARTICLE V.

AN EXAMINATION OF JOSHUA 10: 12-15.

By Rev. T. M. HOPKINS, Pastor of the Presbyterian Church, Westfield, N. Y.

IN the Biblical Repository for October, 1833, an article will be found" on the standing still of the Sun and Moon, at the command of Joshua," supposed by the editor to have come from the pen of Prof. Hengstenberg, of Berlin, which takes the ground, that the above passage is only a quotation from a book, or a volume of poems, therein cited; and that consequently the so-called miracle of arresting the sun and moon never took place. The author, whoever he may have been, expresses the wish, at the close of his essay, that what he had done might lead others to a deeper investigation of the subject; and, if his views were wrong, correct them; if right, confirm and develope them. Whether the following article shall do either of these, is left for others to determine. No one, we think, can read that article, which, in a certain sense, originated this, without feeling that it is too short, and THIRD SERIES, VOL. I. NO. I.

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that it leaves in an unfinished state a subject of vast importance, the investigation of which had been happily commenced. This was the feeling in our mind when we read it ten years ago, and it has remained unchanged in this respect ever since.

The ground which we have taken, and that which we shall endeavor to sustain, is, that Joshua 10: 12-15, is an extract, or a quotation, from a work to which it refers; and that, consequently, it forms no part whatever of the Sacred Record. The main point in which we shall differ from the writer referred to above, will be, in supposing that the passage under consideration found its way into the text, at a period much later than that which is fixed upon by the learned Professor, hundreds of years after the occurrence of the events recorded in the context. This, of course, denies that any miracle like that of stopping the sun and moon, as represented in the extract, ever occurred.

The passage reads as follows: "Then spake Joshua to the Lord, in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day. And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the Lord hearkened to the voice of a man. For the Lord fought for Israel. And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, unto the camp to Gilgal."— Joshua 10: 12-15.

The following, therefore, is the only question with which we are concerned: Is this passage any part of the Sacred Record? Is it written by him who wrote the book of Joshua? Or is it a paragraph introduced by some one who, perhaps, was engaged in transcribing the sacred writings; who, having a copy of the ook of Jasher before him, and recollecting the manner in which the writer of that book notices the victories of Joshua, saw fit to insert it in the words of the author, taking