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its claims,, can scarcely be exaggerated; that for scope it 
stands without a rival, resting for its basis on Deity, and in 
its issues comprehending the entire human family; and for 
effectual working it influences the life spiritual as well as 
natural, whether in its physical, intellectual, or moral aspect, 
and pronounces judicially the destiny of every human being 
in its damnatory or exculpatory utterances, and each for 
eternity. 
I have said above, Theology as it is commonly accepted 
among us ; for we cannot ignore the fact that, whether as 
regards its component truths or their systematic treatment, 
Theology is by some altogether rejected, either as a puerility 
which the intellectual manhood of our race has outgrown, or 
as an imposture which priestcraft and its abettors wield either 
for self-aggrandisement, or to trammel the legitimate exercise 
of free thought : a simple absurdity in the estimate of the 
one class — a dishonesty, and therefore a badge of disgrace, in 
the view of the other. To write for men taking up either of 
these positions, would obviously be impertinent. We occupy 
no common ground, and could, therefore, have no room for 
argument. The Atheist, repudiating the very existence of a 
God, not only could not accept, but must complacently smile 
at a thesis which, from first to last, recognizes the Deity whom 
he ignores ; and the Infidel, whose loftiest idea of the God- 
head is of some artificer on a- mighty scale, whose laboratory 
has been submitted to our inspection and enjoyment, perchance 
to the emendations of our higher intelligence, would equally 
reject an argument based on the utterances of One whom he 
acknowledges only in creation, and even there without, as it 
seems to me, pushing his admission to its logical and legiti- 
mate consequences. This paper, then, based, as of necessity 
it is, on the acknowledgment of a living God — for to write on 
Theology without recognizing a God would be as absurd as to 
•treat of geology without recognizing our planet; and, more- 
over, not only on the acknowledgment of a God, but of the 
God of Theology, the God which Theology sets forth ; and, 
therefore, on the acknowledgment of the books which are 
esteemed as sacred amongst us, the inspired revelation of the 
Divine will — for, again, to treat of Theology and ignore its 
records would be as senseless as to treat of geology and pass 
by the Testimony of the Rocks ” and the “ Sermons in 
Stones ” of that large and deeply interesting science .-—this 
paper, as it is not written for, so it can expect to find no 
favour with, either the Atheist or the Infidel ; but to all in 
whom Atheism or Infidelity is not a foregone conclusion, who 
accept the Holy Scriptures as the Word of God (the dis- 
