perpetual miraculous interposition, as the seal of God's sanction, and as confirmed by witnesses of high credibility. It can falsify, and alter, and suppress profane history. It can deny the testimony of God's Providence against its own system, in the ignorance and brutality of its priest-ridden people, and audaciously asserts that Spain and Italy contain a happier and more favored population than Scotland and New England. It has its own editions of the classics, its mutilated versions of important authors, its own translation of the Scriptures, which claims to be infallibly inspired of God.

And what is of still greater consequence, Infidelity and Romanism understand how to use their learning so as to produce a strong and deep impression on the people. They do not lock it up in libraries, nor confine it to books which scholars and recluses only will read; but they can make it intelligible and attractive to the common people. Audacious theories which turn the Old Testament into ridicule, and the New into a mythic nothing, translated into English as vigorous as Cobbett's, and so illustrated and enforced that they sink deep into the minds of men of plain but strong sense, and half shake the faith of the devout believer. The Rationalism of Germany is served up in forms which make it attractive to the American mind, with enough of logic to satisfy its fondness for argument, enough of learning to flatter its self-complacency, and enough of sneering to please a coarse and vulgar taste. The stuff out of which these strong and invidious snares are woven, is furnished by profound and extensive reading in philosophy, in history, in criticism and in the learned languages. The places where this stuff is originated, and whence this raw material is derived, are the libraries of continental Europe. The materials out of which the answers to their works are to be framed, must come from similar quarters. Learning must cope with learning. We have at this moment on our table a pamphlet written in English by a German immigrant, which was prepared in Missouri and printed in Boston, and which was evidently designed for general circulation at the West. This tract was clearly designed for the common mind, and is admirably fitted to influence and sway that mind; but it can be answered thoroughly by no man who does not know the sources from which its arguments are brought, and who is not a master of the same sort of learning out of which its web of sophistry is woven.

D'Aubigné's History of the Reformation was prepared, and has been circulated as a powerful agent, learned and eloquent, in the service of Protestantism. No sooner did it appear, however, than an answer to it was immediately prepared which has the aspect of acute criticism, and of profound and extensive reading. Lives of Luther and Calvin are issued, which contradict

all the pre-conceived opinions which Protestants hold concerning their character and principles, and which by an artful suppression of certain facts, and an unfair prominence given to others, leave a clear and strong impression on the mind. Hardly a fact can be appealed to by a defender of Protestantism, which is not denied in some book made ready for popular circulation. The Romish Church circulates its own histories, both of the State and of the Church. The Romish child is taught from his infancy to believe that Luther was nothing but a sensual monk, Calvin only a stern and bloody bigot, and that the massacre of St. Bartholomew's was an accidental outbreak for which " the heretic," and not the Church, is solely responsible. Let uneducated or half-educated Protestants think as they may, the learning and the logic of Romanism is not an antagonist that is to be despised, or that sleeps at its post.

The Western mind is peculiarly fitted to be influenced by learning enlisted in the service of error; especially is superficial erudition, when worked up with art, and urged home with declamatory force, an influence that is mightier at the West, than it is at the East. At the East, the whole structure of society, and even the atmosphere of public sentiment, is formed and fixed by established opinions, which, whether right or wrong, are not easily shaken. The truth is secured, not merely by sound argument and accurate knowledge, but is also defended by old recollections, by long established habits, and even by inveterate prejudices. Error often meets with a cold reception, simply because it is new. But it is not so at the West. There the motto is always, "we will hear both sides." If the freest discussion is not allowed, men will become infidels and Romanists, nay, even fanatics and fools, in the name of freedom of opinion. Nothing is to be held as settled in government or religion, only till the next debater comes upon the stage; but everything is perpetually to be argued over again, from its very foundation principles. Such a community is especially exposed to be led astray by the show of knowledge. To the tastes and habits of such a community, the friends of error are far more ready to adapt themselves than the friends of truth. They are more unscrupulous, more artful, and more energetic. As they are well aware that their resources are few, they know how to make the most of each. Often, too, they have the art and cunning in the use of these resources, which have been taught by the controversies of past generations. The success of error depends on a one-sided exhibition of a few facts; while the truth is to be learned from the comparison of a greater number and variety, slowly gleaned from a more extended field. Hence the defenders of error have in all this a means of power with a population that is rapid in its inferences, hasty in its conclusions, and impetuous in its partisanship. Of all the communities on the face of

the earth, the one most exposed to sophistry and superficial knowledge, is such a one as is growing up into an army of millions, with minds half-informed, and worse disciplined, and yet intensely active, and self-relying. Ignorance is likely to be despised, stupidity cannot be endured; but a little learning with great parade is exactly adapted to flatter, to delight, and to control its active, self-confident and bold population. The bold, but cunning infidel, and the mild, but crafty Jesuit, can here find ready hearers and make ardent proselytes.

Now we do not assert that great learning furnishes the only or the most powerful weapons against such antagonists. All that we claim is that these are indispensable. We freely grant, nay, we contend as earnestly as any one, that it is true in a sense most important, that the Bible and Protestantism furnish their own evidence; and that this evidence is so clear and so convincing, that it is more than a match for the violence and craft of its foes, even when aided by learning, when the question is tried by a community of sober men, who know nothing but the simple gospel, and have felt nothing but its power upon their own hearts. But on the other hand, the artful and accomplished apostles of error can be silenced and put to flight, only as their influence is destroyed, and their arts are exposed by men who understand how to use the same weapons which they wield, and are an overmatch for them in learning. If this agency is withheld, nay, if it be not vigorously exerted, no man can compute the evil consequences. If in every city and large village, historical statements are to be made by infidel and Romish scholars, and there shall be no Protestant scholar who has the training or the knowledge by which to refute them; if false assertions are to be hazarded, on the ground that no keen-sighted critic will detect and expose the lie; if all the craft of an imposing logic, and the splendor of a showy declamation shall be used to dress up the cause of error in attractive colors, and if the feeble attainments or the deficient cultivation arrayed against them, shall only serve to set off the attractions of error to greater advantage ;-then will it certainly happen that leading young men will be gained over to the wrong side, and a fearful bias will be given to public opinion in the wrong direction. Against this strong current in the active and thinking mind in the community, the faithful preacher must contend with striking disadvantages. However single-hearted may be his aims, and bold and untiring his labors, he will find that a plastic energy is shaping against him the youthful society about him; that it mocks his hopes by its subtle influences, and will disappoint his plans of good.

But on the other hand, let the defender of the truth have the advantages which we contemplate, and let him also be a bold, single-hearted, believing preacher of the gospel; let him be

respected for his intellect, and be seen to be well furnished by his learning for every emergency, and his influence will be mighty indeed. Nor is it a new and peculiar thing, that it is claimed that an able ministry for the West must be thus trained and furnished. It is a new thing to imagine that great preachers and able combatants against error can be trained and furnished in any other way, whether for the West or any other community. It is a grand mistake and will be seen to be fatal, to think of a community of preachers there, who shall be educated without institutions of learning and of libraries; or to contemplate any system of religious influences for the West, as at all complete, in which learned Christians schools do not fill a prominent and an indispensable place. The champions of the truth in the Reformation, were men trained in the schools, who contended with men trained in the schools, and vanquished. As fast too as the ground was gained for Protestantism, just so fast was it secured by the establishment of schools of instruction, by the advancement of promising scholars to Protestant professorships, by the editing of books in Theology and the classics, as well as by gathering libraries to serve as armories for the defenders of the Faith. Luther felt it to be indispensable to the progress and permanence of his work, that a learned teacher should be found to train the defenders of the new Faith; and he hailed his young professor, Melancthon, as a pledge of glorious triumphs which were to come. And when he heard him lecture, he could hardly contain himself for delight, at his knowledge of Greek.1

The great Puritan divines and preachers were men of extensive reading, men, too, who made constant use of their learning. Baxter and Howe, Bates and Owen, each esteemed their libraries their most valuable earthly possessions; and some of the first preachers of New England had larger collections of books than are possessed by their successors (with here and there an exception), though books are so plenty and so cheap. The history of the Reformation on the continent and in England, is full of instances of the value of learning to those who took part in those controversies. A striking instance of the value of the same kind of training for the peculiar controversies of the West, is given in the following statement, taken from an article in the Biblical Repository for 1845, by Rev. Joseph F. Tuttle. "The con

"Melancthon's appearance," says D'Aubigné, wrought a revolution not merely in Wittemberg, but throughout Germany and the learned world. The study he had applied to the Greek and Latin classics, and to philosophy, had given an order, clearness and precision to his ideas which diffused on the subjects he handled a new light and an indescribable beauty. The sweet spirit of the gospel fertilized and animated all his reflections; and in his lectures the driest sciences appeared clothed with a grace that charmed all hearers.” "Thanks to hiin," says

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a distinguished historian of Germany, Wittemberg became the school of the nation."--History of the Reformation, Vol. I., B. IV.

flicting systems of religious doctrine impose the sternest necessity upon the clergy of every denomination, to be thoroughly armed at all points, ready to act in any emergency or meet with discomfiture. This is well illustrated in the celebrated debate which took place between Mr. Campbell and Mr. Purcell.' Mr. C. sustained himself with marked ability, until he made a quotation from some rare author which proved an unfortunate one. The quotation was a centre shot at the Bishop's position; but with the utmost assurance he placed the author in question on the table, and defied Mr. C. to find such a passage. The fact was, the copy was an imperfect one [mutilated, no doubt, by the Jesuits], and Mr. C. was not aware that such articles of religious merchandize existed. He was confounded but not convinced, and sent to some Eastern city to have the matter attested. But then it was too late. The popular effect was all on the Bishop's side, and that effect was far from being nullified, by the announcement of the fact in the papers of the day. Had Mr. C. been prepared upon this point on the instant, to expose the facts, he might have expelled his adversary from the field with indignity." "Western clergymen often meet with just such instances, and are warned to leave no point unguarded. The tendency of all these things has been to make them semper parati, minute-men, ready for action at any moment; 'to do battle' with any adversary, with lance, battle-axe, or

sword."

If the man of God is to be "thoroughly furnished to every good work," he must have access to large libraries, and must be trained with the advantages which such libraries alone can furnish. If the colleges of the United States, and the colleges at the West, are to be hiding-places of power for the truth; if they are to be fortresses, stored with weapons of ethereal temper; if they are to become all that they can be made, then it is both the privilege and the duty of the friends of the truth, amply to provide for their wants in this respect.

'Roman Catholic Bishop.