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They suffer by fidelity, not by infidelity. When then we add, that they have been cruelly persecuted, for what was the most natural, if not the most enlightened, course, and when the obvious sense of their Scriptures is often wrested (though it has not been so to- day,) by narrowminded bigots who want an excuse for heaping up accusations, what conclusion must we draw ? Is not the fate of the poor Jews, not so much a standing argument for Chris- tianity, as a very great difficulty in its way? That predesti- nation of Christianity which has been spoken of, as involved in Judaism, at least does not lie upon the surface. I should be glad to hear the younger stranger endeavour to explain this difficulty. Nor can he well do so, without entering somewhat upon the question of letter and spirit, and explaining how far the Bible is the fixed rule of Christians in its letter, or how far there dwells in the Church or in mankind, a living spirit, and a power of discerning principles and modifying applications, by 456 faith's foundation in god. reason, or hj religious instinct. He also promised in the outset to say something about Inspiration. Nor did I quite understand what his elder friend said about a Sacrament, and its connexion ¥rith the general sinfulness of mankind. I should be glad to hear these questions, and any closely bound up with them, more fully handled. Nor would it be amiss, if he would discuss some book of the Old Testament, so as to exemplify the real connexion of the Old with the New." Thus far Saddnanda ; and Blancombe responded thus to his invitation: "I should have begun," he said, "with asking, whether you believe Divine Providence to proceed most by general laws, or by special interference in minute instances. For such a question might lead up to an explanation of your diflSculty, But unfortunately your whole system seems to deny any truly ruling Providence, since you ascribe such a thing only to the Divine agencies which flow forth from nature for a tran- sitory reign. Here then is a great gulf between us, which I know not how to bridge, unless it please the great Searcher of hearts Himself to give you such a conviction of His being and of His goodness as you seem to need. For it is by steadfast belief in Him as an Almighty Governor, that we on our own part hold more firmly the hope of a life to come. We think that He has not made us for naught, nor suffers the whole tmiverse to be an ocean of transitoriness, and void of beings with His likeness, who may know both themselves and Him. By belief also in Him we interpret the world's course, and see in it u good design. Thus our belief in God gives substance to our belief in the evil of sin, and to our consciousness of falling into it, yet also to our persuasion of its not being intended for iis, but being an evil from which we must pray to be delivered. Still more, when our conception of the Almighty Governor is raised and purified by what we see of His likeness in Christ, our moral instincts as it were are deepened, and we feel more strongly how far mankind are fallen, and our need of forgiveness, and of rising again into that which God intended us to be. Hence while I faith's foundation in god. 457 thank you for the fairness with which you have considered our answers to some objections, I am not sure that you feel the full force of our doctrines, unless you are able to see light thrown upon them in the light of God. You have rightly conceived, that our doctrines take their shape from the aspect and mood of men uttering the fervid accents in which they are embodied; but you must not forget, that these moods reflect a deeper law, and the accents are eloquent of a perpetual truth. Whatever is now doctrine, was once feeling, and the intellectual form may too often have warped the affectionate life. But it must not therefore be thought that the feeling was not a true one. Nay, it may even have been swollen to passion, and may have run coloured by imagination, but it does not follow that its source was not in a true perception of an eternal law, and in a con- sciousness of having wandered from it, and of needing return. For it is through our feelings and thoughts, as well as through our experiences of life, that our Maker seems to teach us. We become each a mirror to some portion of His law, and perhaps mankind to the whole of it. Oar faith in Him also leads us to believe, that whatever special guidance He has given was for those to whom He gave it the best. If then He has put plain words or homely images in the mouths of His servants, we do not doubt that such conveyed the truth as men were able to receive it. Nor is our faith in this respect without warrant from the shortcoming of those amongst whom the imagery of Chris- tian truth is not known or received. If any of you object to the parables of our Gospels, you have no way so eflScient of com- municating their truths ; or if you blame our associations with names, and persons, and places, you yet justify the wisdom of God in so teaching us, by the far greater darkness into which your countrymen, without such helps, have fallen. But perhaps I have said enough to shew, how even your fair appreciation of some Christian doctrines must fall short of apprehending them fully, if you are yourself not convinced of the being of that God, who is their beginning and their end. 458 GENERAL OR SPECIAL PROVIDENCE. " But even amongst those who have the fullest trust in the Giver of every good gift, there is some difference as to whether they should look upon His Providence as general or particular ; that is to say, whether it deals chiefly with the whole or with its parts, and whether it embraces all in a large design, or whether it interposes often with change and interference. We shall un- derstand the nature of their question better, if we distribute it in some instances. We see life both springing everywhere from the earth, and pervading the waters and the heavens. Does the unseen power of Deity which supplies the secret seed or prin- ciple of such life, and arranges its types by combining fore- thought, care also for each weed in our garden, and for every egg in the wild bird's nest? It is easy to say, that whoever cares for the world must care for all that is within it ; since we could not embrace a class without including its members, any more than have a body healthy, if its limbs were diseased. Yet this seems partly answered, by noticing how many things perish, both of seeds, and plants, and living things, yet the class to which they belonged lives on, and is perhaps better for their extinction. The gardener will pluck half a tree's fruit, that the remainder may have room. Even of our bodies we seem to spare something, having often to choose between beauty and strength, or between labour with health, and ease with sickness. More manifestly in nature at large we see a lavishness of beauty, which seems as if the Deity were prodigal of life, as knowing that He can bring it again out of every seeming extinction. We see also poisonous creatures, and many instruments of ruin. But look more at human affairs. A fisherman is starving in his cottage, because wind and sea are adverse. He prays to the Divine wielder of the elements, and has perhaps a prosperous time. But the same gale which wafts his little bark, sweeps also the entire ocean, and carries fleets from one continent to another, not without inconveniences possibly, and casoalities of shipwreck. Was the gale sent for the fisherman, or did it come of wider causation? Again, in passion a man mingles falsehood GENERAL OR SPECIAL PROVIDENCE. 459 with blaspliemy, and imprecates sadden death on himself if he be not speaking truth. At the moment, perhaps, his passion causes some internal rupture, and he incurs, as he deserved, the death, which he invoked. But does he die from his imprecations being heard, or from the general laws of health and disease ? So great criminals may be men of cleverness, though more commonly of brutish stupidity ; and nothing seems to escape the sagacity or cunning with which they provide against detection. Yet in the midst of their provisions some fatuity seizes them, and by a blunder so gross that it seems intentional, they drop a clue which leads justice on their track.