398 THE JOURNEYMAN. 



rise with Christ, to wear with Him the crown of thorns, 

 and to receive from Him the crown of glory. 



The idea formerly thrown out by Miller that Chris- 

 tianity suggests objections so many and so obvious that 

 common sense would not have permitted its invention 

 by man, receives in these letters its balance and coun- 

 terpart in the hypothesis that the adaptation of Chris- 

 tianity to man's wants is so exquisite and its evidence 

 so strong, that its obvious offences to mere human reason 

 tend to prove that it is Divine. 



From a biographic point of view, the letters have a 

 special interest as showing the tenacity with w T hich Miller 

 retained thoughts which had once been deliberately 

 accepted into his intellectual system. The illustration of 

 the working of the atonement of Christ, given long sub- 

 sequently in the Schools and Schoolmasters, is but a 

 slight expansion of that which he here lays before his 

 friend, and the thesis maintained, that man can appre- 

 hend facts and results in God's universe, whether phy- 

 sical or spiritual, but not the constructive principles and 

 processes by which they are brought about, is worked out 

 in a chapter on the Discoverable and the Revealed in the 

 Testimony of the Rocks, which is perhaps the most valu- 

 able that Hugh Miller ever penned. 



' Crornarty, August 5, 1835. 



'Mr IXEAR WILLIAM, 



' I need not tell you how famous Cromarty is 

 for its hasty reports, or on how slender a foundation the 

 imagination of the townsfolks sometimes contrives to 

 build. I must needs tell you, however, for the circum- 

 stance forms my only apology for now writing you, 

 that the last story current among us affected me more 

 deeply than any of its class ever did before. On your 

 late severe attack, your brother, the doctor, was called 



