general sense. A few suggestions on the general subject may not therefore be out of place in this connection.

It is observable that the sense of power is perhaps the first impression made upon our minds, after we come to realize somewhat of the vastness of the universe. Before we think of the wisdom displayed in the creation, before we think of its beauty or sublimity, before we think of its exhibition of goodness, we pause to think of its exhibition of power. Indeed, it requires something of scrutiny, something of critical judgment to detect the skill of the Divine handy-work; and it requires considerable experience before we can trace the Divine goodness in the operations of the universe; but the reality of power exhibited alike in the creation, the support, and the control of the universe--the reality of power strikes our senses instantly-comes upon us, indeed, with a sudden and an overwhelming influence. This sense of power always comes as the first emotion, when the exhibition of power is on a large scale-whether the form be human or divine. In the movement of a locomotive dragging its train of merchandise a mile in length; in the dash and fury of an oceanwave upon a rocky coast; in the onward pace of a mammoth steamship against wind, tide and wave; in the ceaseless and the resistless pour of a cataract;-in such and similar examples, is not the sense of power first among the emotions stirred within us?

But the fact more directly bearing upon our present object is, that while the Divine power is the most palpable fact of the creation-the fact which we the most easily and instantly perceive-still, the nature of power is hopelessly mysterious. Not one of the five senses can identify it. The eye which so promptly and so vividly sees the effect of power, and asserts its presence, cannot see it. The operations of power are seen, felt and heard; but power itself cannot be detected by hand, ear or eye. The intellect can

not even form a conception of power in its essence. Words cannot describe it-dictionaries do not define it. It is true, we have some high-sounding words which pass for definitions. The essential thing which holds the sun in the centre of the solar system, which holds the planets in their accustomed relations, and which moves planets and satellites in their established orbits around the common centre ;what is it? We call it gravity; and we distinguish two

forms of this as centripetal and centrifugal; but what is gravity, and what the essential things to which we apply the terms centripetal and centrifugal? Plainly, none of these words define the thing-they merely describe certain effects of the thing. The nearest approach to a definition of power is to say that it is that essential quality whereby one thing effects a change in another thing. But this is merely stating an effect; the essential thing, power in itself, neither the senses, nor the imagination, nor the intellect, nor language can touch. It is at once among the most obvious and the most mysterious of all realities.

These two considerations prepare the way for a third, that all power, be its essence what it may, is spiritual-spiritual we mean in that general use of terms which considers the entire universe as comprising but two substances, matter on the one hand and spirit on the other. As power cannot be detected by any of the senses-as it cannot be touched, heard, nor seen it certainly cannot be material; for it is the object of the senses to put us into contact with things material. As invisible, as incomprehensible, as mysterious, and yet as most palpably real, power is something spiritual. True, it may be convenient to describe power according to the nature of the effect it produces. The power which propels a locomotive it is convenient to call physical power; that which compels the growth of a tree it is convenient to call organic power; that which changes the convictions of a human mind it is convenient to call intellectual power; and that which stirs a human conscience, and compels man to a life of rectitude,-if it shall appear that there is any such thing as power in this sense, it is convenient to call moral power. But in all of these cases, the essential thing is the same; in all cases, as spirit is the only opposite of matter, the power is spiritual and not material. It is true, that the effect of power as seen in the moving of a locomotive, is material, and so visible to the physical eye; but the cause of this movement-the essential power-is just as subtle, just as invisible,' just as mysterious, just as spiritual as when a human conviction is changed, or a human emotion stirred.

The fundamental truth is here; all power is of God— spiritual as he is a spirit, invisible as he is invisible, eternal as he is eternal.

We submit a fourth reflection, that power, the reality of which is so palpable, the nature of which is so mysterious, and which in all its forms is spiritual as opposed to the material, that power is the great reality in all the movements and institutions which in any way affect mankind. The reality is always in power everything else is but form. The reality of a school is in its power to instruct and train the tender mind; the reality of a church is in its power to Christianize men and women; the reality of a temperance organization is in its power to reform and save the inebriate; the reality of a government is in its power-its power to exist and compel obedience to its laws.

The regiments of martial men, in the habiliments of war, with muskets, bayonets and cartridges, daily marching through our streets, reveal to the same gaze the reality and the power of the government-reveal the reality in the power-rather show the reality of the government to be its power.

In the ordinary period of peace, an honest citizen seldom sees anything to remind him that he is a subject of human government. He may go from the cradle to the grave, and beyond the simple tax assessed upon him, be unconscious of the fact that laws exist and that rulers enforce them. But should he knowingly break one of these laws, and so find the officer of justice laying his hand upon him; in that touch he will feel the reality of the government, and feel this reality to be simply a power.

A half million of bayonets bristling from one end to the other of a loyal nation, with proud and threatening armadas upon the sea, attest that the reality of the government is in its power. A few months' experience has made the fact sufficiently clear, that a government without power is no government at all-that government exists only as it has

power.

We thus specify four leading characteristics of power considered in itself. It is among the most palpable of factsperhaps before all others in impressing itself upon the mind of man,-it is nevertheless invisible, mysterious, indefinable; -it belongs to the spiritual as opposed to the material part of the universe; and it is the reality of every movement and institution which affects mankind.

Such being the characteristics of Divine power in itself

considered, is it not presumptuous in any mortal, to assign limits to its energy-to determine in what departments of the universe it has, and in what departments it has not, a sphere of operation? That in the sphere of spirit, that is, acting upon spirit, the power of God cannot act in the same way that it acts upon matter, may be true-we think is true; but this is a very different thing from saying, that it cannot act upon spirit at all, in any way. The truth is, in the action of power upon matter, it is presumed that it acts in accordance with the laws of matter; and so in its action upon spirit, it is to be presumed that it will act in accordance with the laws of spirit. Certainly, it is a gratuitous assumption, that the laws of spirit wholly exclude the action of power upon it.

The point we insist upon-the only point we now seek to establish is that the Divine power legitimately acts upon souls for their redemption. The whole controversy turns upon this question, Has Divine power & sphere of action in the world of spirit? Can it in any way control the will of man, even on the supposition that this will is free-a point which many deny? In the greatest of all spiritual effects, the salvation of the soul from sin, has Divine power anything to do? Are men, in any legitimate sense of the term, saved by the power of God?

Now we allege, that all the characteristics we have assigned to the Divine power considered in itself, hold with unabated force, when assigned to its operations in the salvation of human souls.

Christianity is the great agent in human salvation. We allege that Christianity considered simply as a manifestation of power-we mean in the most general sense of the term, as the quality whereby one thing effects a change in some other thing is just as striking as in any material manifestation.

Nothing is more palpable in the character of Christ, than his power over souls. He bids the fishermen drop their nets and follow him, and straightway they obey. He travels over the villages of Palestine, and multitudes follow himdrawn by his power. He appears to Saul on his way to Damascus and, by his power, wrests the hating spirit from his soul, turning the greatest enemy of the church into its. greatest friend. But will any one ask for examples under this head?

The power of Christianity, even without immediate connection with the person of Christ, appears in all its early history. Take a striking example. No one denies the strength of avarice-the tenacity with which men cling to their possessions. That must have remarkable strength which overcomes in men the love of wealth-which makes them utterly indifferent to the "good things of the world." But note this historical fact. A great multitude were converted to Christianity on the day of pentecost. What did the new religion have power to make them do? They" sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need." (Acts ii. 45.) Suppose men did

such things now ;-we might differ as to the nature of the cause; we might call this insanity, or fanaticism, or something different from either ;-we should agree on one point -the cause must be very powerful.

We shall not stop to urge the points, that the power of Christianity over the souls of men is mysterious, and that in its essence, it is spiritual as opposed to material; for on these there can be no dispute. It is, however, worthy of special statement, that Christianity is not simply powerful; it is itself power-distinctively a power. It is not an offer, nor an opportunity, nor an invitation, nor a theory, nor a belief; it includes or implies all these; but in its essence it is a power. Its reality consists in its power over the souls of mankind. Who will fail in this connection to recall the striking words, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every soul that believeth? or the other similar declaration, "The kingdom of God is not in word, but in power?" or still another, "Christ, the power of God?" We could fill these pages with passages from the New Testament alleging substantially, that Christianity, in its essence, is the power of God. In all the phraseology and dogmatism of sectarian strife, we cannot recall an allegation more monstrous than the common assumption of orthodoxy, that while God may entreat human souls, he cannot control them-that Divine power, as such, is not operative in the spirit of man!

The radical mistake is in presuming that the Divine power always manifests itself in a material way-the way in which it acts upon matter. But in reality, this is the humblest sphere of its activity. As we ascend from the sphere