THE LADIES' REPOSITORY. JANUARY, 1846. VIEW ON THE SUSQUEHANNA. (SEE ENGRAVING.) THE river Susquehanna belongs to Pennsylvania, and runs almost its whole course in that state; but has its rise (the eastern rather than the western branch may be so considered) in the state of New York, in Otsego Lake, in the county of the same name, and runs its course between some of the richest counties in the state-Delaware, Chenango, { Broome, and Tioga, and passes, at latitude 42°, into Pennsylvania. This river, though large, is not considerable, in its proper sense. We are told that it is navigable only five and a half miles, at its mouth, before it enters the Chesapeake. It is generally shallow, and much broken and narrowed by rocks, and ripples, and banks. It was stated by a board of commissioners who examined it, that every obstruction to its navigation could be removed, up to the mouth of each branch, for the sum of twenty thousand dollars, which was never awarded to the object. } and "napping," perchance, and sunset drives, and calls, and moonlight strolls; or, within doors, reading, talk, friendship, and all the rights and rites of good neighborhood, with interludes of music, vocal, instrumental, and sylvan-a "busy idlesse;" and now to prayers and praise, and so to bed. The scene before us, though varied in its features, is one of peculiar harmony and repose-the very landscape looks contented! The windings (we will not have them either "tortuous" or "serpentine") of the river are pleasing and picturesque; and how snugly is that little "delta" of an island ensconced in its watery bed! Here are habitations enough for succor and civilization; for the rest, have we not the wooded hills, the lawns, the vales, the pensile shores { of the island. We know not the projectile scale of this delineation; but something about it gives the impression that the real view (apart from its life) is far more beautiful than the draught. No landscape is as attractive at noonday as at any other time; not beBut it is quite refreshing, in these days, when the cause our own ideas are not so lively as in the mornwhole world is cut up into railroads, turnpikes, ca-ing, nor so pensive as at evening; but in itself the nals, and "viaducts" of one sort and another, to aspect of the sun is not as good. The size of this find one sequestered spot, one quiet nook, where, "fairy isle" it is rather difficult to guess by the eye indeed, is the possibility of retreat, and of rustica- alone; but as this river measures, at its widest, near ting for a season-of enjoying at ease, under the the mouth, but one and three-fourths of a mile, and heats of summer, a remission from crowds, gossip- this is situated pretty near its rise, "above Owego," ing, and dress! Yet not for selfishness, indolence, (in the state of New York,) we may conclude that or churlishness' sake would we come here; but for its three angles may be each from three-fourths of a sake of rationality, health, mental acquirement, and mile to a mile in extent. But we see it is just the equanimity! One can be heartily thankful and de- "right size." vout amidst the scenes and breathings of naturesimplicity, innocence, the riches of the field, the orchard, the harvest, with health and self-possession-immunity from hurry, and worry, and dust, and musquitoes! Amidst these things, what can one do but think of one's self? Emancipated from them, what can we not endeavor to do in thank-site. And when arrived, mark the hurrying, nofulness? thought, silly, simpering process of the hours and days. It is an abomination to reason. At this season the city droops for want of air; but here, in the breath of heaven, do they plume their wings, and dedicate a temple to folly in the bosom of na Yet it is no ascetic devotion-no hermit's cell, that the reader would desire; but a familiar household, with early hours, and early walks, simple repasts, and work, and housekeeping performances, with noonday lounging, and "looking on the Book," VOL. VI-1 Yet somewhere on this very stream, at the "eastern branch," is a retreat-a watering-place, we suppose-that enormity of gregariousness. However, the whole innocent river must not come under ban for that for the sins of its idolaters. They come not here for bathing, or for health, but for its oppo ture! 2 SPIRITUAL ENJOYMENT. WHAT is meant by it? That delight which springs from communion with God. There are many who scout at the idea of such an intercourse, regarding it as a dishonest pretension, or the illusion of a disordered fancy. But the doctrine is based in philosophy no less than in Revelation. Nor is it new: it did not spring up with the Wesleys of modern times, nor with the Mystics (of earlier ages.) It was taught by the ancient philosophers, the most distinguished of whom maintained that no man could do any good thing without God's (afflatus) breath. Indeed, it seems to have descended from Paradise, and spread over all the abodes and generations of the human race. It is upon this universally prevalent doctrine that every temple is erected, every censer kindled, every altar crimsoned, and every prayer uttered to the heavens. And here let us ask, Whence this general belief? To one of three sources must it be ascribed: either to a principle interwoven with our moral nature, or to a conviction of the necessity of such intercourse, founded upon the weakness and wickedness of man, or to a tradition originating with the parent families of the earth and regularly transmitted to all future generations-a tradition so important and impressive, that centuries of accumulated guilt, and folly, and ignorance could not efface or weaken it. Whichever of the above hypotheses the objector may select, he will find himself impris oned within the doctrine: he will be no less a captive if he attempt to devise any other explanation. philosophy when he said, "In him we live, and move, "He warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze, To some, these expressions may savor of Pantheism; but their authors were not Pantheists. They separated, in their notions, the great original Cause from other existencies-regarding Him, though present and active everywhere, as, nevertheless, distinct from the creatures which he animates and preserves. Look where you will-at things upón a small scale, or things upon a large scale, whether animate or inanimate, vegetable or animal-you see not only matter, evincing God's existence; skillfully wrought, evincing God's intelligence; but moving, evincing God's presence. Do you survey the orbs which swim in space, you see them wheeling their appointed courses. Aided by the microscope, do you examine the world whose minuteness evades the natural eye, you see a multitude of restless atoms. Do you explore the vegetable kingdom, you see the juices circulating, the buds expanding, or the fruit maturing. So in the animal kingdom, the heart perpetually pulsates, the lungs continually move. But one may say, these operations can all be explained without reference to God's omnipresence: attraction and im But the pseudo-philosopher may say, how absurd to suppose that He who "weighs the mountains in scales," "taketh up the isles as a very little thing," and "hangeth the earth upon nothing"-he who maketh darkness his pavilion, the clouds his chariot, and who walketh upon the wings of the wind-that he who created and garnished this vast, if not bound-pulse explain the phenomena of the heavens; the less universe, whose dimension no mathematics can compute, no human imagination conceive, should concern himself with the petty cares and anxieties of a mortal man? Similar was the question of a narrow Pagan philosophy, "Will the gods descend to the petty fields and vines of individuals? or if blight and hail has done injury doth this require the notice of Jupiter?" A question, though apparently founded in humility, in reason, and in religion, at once false to nature, to philosophy, and to God. What is the Almighty? A blind Deity, who having created the universe retires into his distant heaven-absorbed in the contemplation of his own attributes-careless of the work of his hands; or a universal father, no less concerned for the welfare of his creatures than the glory of his name, and whose presence is coextensive with his works? The heathen poet, quoted with approbation by Paul on Mars' Hill, expressed a true various forms of affinity account for the wonders of the laboratory, while sensibility and contractility utter their explanations over all the phenomena of vitality. But to what does the explanation amount? What are attraction, chemical affinity, sensibility, contractility? They are the laws of the universe. True; and what is a law? Primarily, and in a moral sense, a rule of action; secondarily, and in a philosophical, a generalization, that is, a certain fact or a certain relation, or, as one expresses it, a mode of existence, or an order of sequence. Taking law in the first sense, can it account for any result? Does law produce effects? Who ever saw a law leap from the statute book, and arrest, try, condemn, execute the criminal? It is the officer, acting under the law as his authority, and by the * Romans xi, 36. SPIRITUAL ENJOYMENT. law as his guide, who does all this. Taking law in the philosophical sense, it is equally inadequate to explain effects. Is the description of a mode of existence an explanation of that existence? Is a statement of a certain order of sequence an account of the cause of such order? It is power that produces effects. The laws of the universe are merely the appointed modes in which the divine Agent moves; and as they are seen everywhere, and as no agent can act where he does not exist, God is everywhere. Now, if God is around, and about, and within us, is it absurd to suppose that he can commune with us? Our own spirits, enveloped in their prison-houses of clay, can hold intercourse with each other. If thought, sentiment, feeling, can be exchanged and commingled by distant, though kindred, finite, trammeled spirits, shall not the universal, infinite, unembarrassed, all-pervading Spirit, the father of all spirits, be able to hold intercourse with the souls of his creatures. But though it be granted that he may, and that it is reasonable to expect he will, the question arises, have we any evidence that he does? The Christian has. 1. It is implied in the Christian graces. Look at faith. I presume every Christian admits that this may be carried to "assurance." Isaiah tells us, assurance is the "effect of righteousness;"* and the apostle exhorts us to draw near to the throne of grace in “full assurance of faith."+ How is this assurance to be obtained? The evidences of the truth of holy Scripture are probable only-not demonstrative. True, the probability is a high one, verging toward the point where doubts vanish, but it can never bear the mind up to intellectual certainty. Incipient faith is always accompanied with doubts. Though the beam turns and faith preponderates, yet the other dish of the balance is heavy, and the language of the heart is, "Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief." Now, from this nascent faith, the Christain may advance until all doubt vanishes, and his heart rests as firmly as the everlasting hills. But what can produce this state? Demonstration only. How is this wrought? God works it in the heart, according to the Savior's promise: "If any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine." Hence, Paul says, "For our Gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance."‡ Turn we to love. I suppose I may take for granted that Christian love may wax into perfect love, and the apostle says, this "casteth out fear." Think for a moment of that affection for God which dispels all apprehension of danger with reference to the past, the present, and the future. Love, in any degree, implies vision. God is seen, so far as his natural attributes, in creation: he displays his moral attributes in the revelations of his word and his * Isaiah xxxii, 17. † Hebrews x, 22. 1 Thessalonians i, 5. 1 John iv, 18. 3 providence; but in all these mirrors we see "as in a glass, darkly." Hence, when we have no further knowledge of God than they afford, our love is sub{ject to fluctuations, and our hearts to the disturbance of fear. It is only when we acquaint ourselves with God, through his Spirit, that we may attain perfect love, and its consequent, perfect confidence. And what is Christian hope? It is founded upon the promises; but the promises are conditional, and how can we know that those conditions have been complied with? By an examination of our lives and hearts in the light of God's law, we can approximate an assurance on this subject; but an approximation would be all that we could thus obtain. Hence, were this the only means of ascertaining whether we may look for the fulfillment of the promises in ourselves, our hope would be uncertain, and would be very likely to fail in seasons of disappointment and distress, or at our approach to the billows of Jordan. But what is the nature of the Christian's hope? It rises and triumphs in the darkest seasons. It is called an anchor: when the sea is smooth and the winds are calm the anchor may lie upon the bow; but when the storm rises it is cast out, and the ship rides in safety. Now I say not that we should abandon the examination of heart and life in the Scriptural light, in order to know whether the promises are ours; but I aver that in addition to the proof thus arising, we may have a concurrent assurance directly from God's Spirit. { 2. We found an argument in analogy. God often communicated with the ancients, not only by prophet, but by Urim and Thummim, and by dreams. These modes of communication, we have reason to believe, are now laid aside; but they afford an argument from analogy for intercourse between the Divine and human natures. Holy Scripture teaches us, explicitly, that we cannot become holy without regeneration through the Spirit; and this truth is demonstrated daily by all unrenewed men. Why should they who believe in regeneration by the Spirit, object to communion with the Spirit in all stages of the spiritual life? Indeed, where is the Church that does not acknowledge such intercourse in all its assemblies, by dismissing them with the apostolic benediction, in which are the words, "communion with the Holy Ghost?" 3. The experience of saints in all ages, is proof positive and ample. Much Christian experience is embodied in inspired pages. What means the psalmist when he exclaims, "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee."* He regards God as his sole and sufficient joy; in comparison with which, the present blessings of earth, and the anticipated raptures of the skies are as nothing. The destruction of the universe, the failing of his flesh, the sinking of his * Psalms lxxiii, 25. |