more probable that God inspired him with it for that purpose. If he did, it amounts to a proof that he does not overlook, but on the contrary, much notices such little partialities and kindnesses to his dumb creatures as we, because we articulate, are pleased to call them." It would be easy to show how entirely this spirit of humane and tender consideration for the happiness of animals, under all its forms, pervades both the Old and New Testaments. It is everywhere recognised, or taken for granted, as a religious duty of the strongest obligation. An inferential argument prevails amidst the simple and majestic imagery which the prophets, and which Christ himself employs, for the purposes of instruction and reproof. What an exquisite poem is the twenty-third psalm!" The Lord is my shepherd." We feel ourselves, as we proceed, in the midst of eastern scenery; the shepherd and his fold impart a living charm to the picture; the dangerous wilderness, the deep ravine, the dark valley of the shadow of death are before us; but the shepherd's care is incessant to defend, to sustain, to lead, and to cherish. rod and his staff are with his flock; at sultry noon, he conducts them to the shade; in the chilling

His

damps of night, he leads them to a place of safety, or braves for them and with them, inclement seasons and ravenous beasts of prey.

The prophet's description, and the Messiah's appropriation of this character, must be in the recollection of every reader,-"He shall feed his flock like a shepherd, he shall gather the lambs with his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young. I am the good Shepherd, I go before them, my sheep know my voice, and they follow me. A stranger they will not follow."

How striking is the allusion to the duties of a shepherd, in God's animating address to the degenerate priests in the prophet Ezekiel! "Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel, that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks? The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them."

Incidental facts are sometimes far more powerful than logically constructed arguments; at least, they often make their way to the heart when reasoning utterly fails in convincing the understanding.

When, at the repentance of Nineveh, which had been threatened with destruction, God was pleased to afford it a reprieve from that sentence, it was thus that he argued with the prophet, who was angry that his predictions had not been verified:"Should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left; AND ALSO MUCH CATTLE?" It was not merely the men and women of the city, nor its children only whom the Lord viewed with compassion; the poor animals, who would have shared in the universal ruin, were also the objects of his

mercy.

The predictions contained in the Jewish scriptures, which paint in glowing colours the social felicity of the millennial age, and of which all living nature is to participate, we shall introduce more appropriately when Christianity and its final results on earth pass under our review. Indeed,

the subject of Christianity, as bearing on the rights and claims of the inferior creatures, is now opening before us, and we only pause to observe in the conclusion of our notices from the Old Testament, (which still embodies the religion of Judaism,) that to the honour of the descendants of Abraham, they still conscientiously adhere to the rule of duty laid down in their law with regard to the treatment of animals, especially to the merciful requirements of inflicting death in such a manner as to cause the least possible pain, and never inflicting it but at the call of necessity. Until Christianity is taught with the same reference, and the claims of animals are urged from our pulpits, and through the medium of our sacred institutions, and infused into our laws, and recognized by those who administer them, it will always, in this department of its moral influence, be far less operative than Judaism; and thus be liable to a reproach which it deserves not; and which ought to fall, not on the religion, but on those who practically misrepresent it.

The grand distinguishing principle of Christianity, established by all its facts and doctrines, is that of mercy, lavishing its regards upon an inferior race of creatures; every step of its pro

gress is a descending movement, to bless, to ameliorate, and to save. It is the transmission of Divine benevolence, of holy charity, from the ranks and orders of the blessed in heaven, to a species of lowly origin, the children of the dust, the organic atoms of this nether world, which itself, in comparison with the universe, is but an imperceptible trait on the ample bosom of nature : this first principle of Christianity we gladly recognize as the foundation on which we rest our solicitude for the well-being of all the species below us. We also would be benefactors; we, too, would participate in the graceful movement of condescension; and as God has blessed us, we would be a blessing to those, who, though incapable of receiving the redemption which we enjoy, may yet be made happier by virtue of its communication. There is not a little singing bird that warbles in the grove, nor a beautiful insect that plays in the summer beam, that should not be gladdened by the mediatorial responsibility of Jesus of Nazareth, who holds in his omnipotent hand, and for the purest purposes of benevolence, a world that sin had doomed, and who is the Alpha and Omega in the strangely wrought song of time and its spheres.