their points of divergence from their parent channels; while these channels have been found to converge and unite in a common source." Nor is this any inconsiderable witness to the common origin of the nations which speak them. If we have good evidence of the common origin of all languages, we have good evidence in confirmation of the Mosaic account of the unity of the race.

It appears to us that there is no small temerity in the hypothesis, that there are other races of men, of a different origin from the posterity of Adam, and some weakness in the considerations by which it is supported. Its authors are too clearly under the influence of their romantic love of theory, rather than inflexible love of truth. For humanity's sake, we hope better things of human science. We are alarmed at such things, lest they prove the incipient step to a more arrogant infidelity.

We have not, in this discussion, except incidentally, designed to present the philosophical argument in favor of the common origin of mankind. Few questions have been more ably or more abundantly discussed upon the mere principles of natural science. In adverting to these discussions, one fact is quite obvious, that if we once wander from the unity of the race, we know not where to stop. Our distinguished countryman, Dr. Pickering, himself an eminent naturalist, and employed

by the government in the scientific corps of the Exploring Expedition, which sailed around the world, has written ably on this general subject, and sums up his views in the following sentence: "There is, I conceive, no middle ground between the admission of eleven distinct species in the human family, and the reduction to one;" while a still later writer affirms, that "if there be five dif ferent sources, he sees not why there must not be five hundred." The all-wise Disposer of the human race has assigned to natural causes their appropriate agency, in the varieties of our race, but he has limited their power; and when the naturalist expects to find a solution for all the varieties in the sole agency of natural causes, he finds himself at fault. There are anomalies which natural science does not account for; our true resort is to the word of God. Our convictions are continually strengthening, that the laws of natural science, on this, as well as every subject, the more they are known, confer abundant honor on the sacred Scriptures.

And on this firm basis of God's word do we rest the question. There is no safety, no true science, but in the scriptural account of the origin of the human family. The subject is one of history, and not of natural science. God is the author of the race, and he has plainly indicated its origin. He has given man a physical constitution fitted to

all climates, and fitted to produce those varieties which are adapted to their condition, their wants, and their responsibilities. Man goes everywhere, and everywhere carries with him his distinctive humanity, and therefore his obligations to God and his fellow-men.

It is a mischievous, an infidel thought, that we may look upon any portion of the human family as a distinct race from ourselves, and not entitled to our love and sympathy. There are no diversities which do not carry with them the evidence of their common humanity, and enforce its claims. Shem, Ham, and Japheth are still impersonated in the different nations of men; but they are brethren; there should be no strife between them. The weak may not envy the strong; nor the strong oppress the weak. The polished and the rude, the black and the white, the master and the slave, the rich and the poor, meet together; the Lord is the Maker of them all. The things in which they differ are neither so many nor so important as those in which they agree. All are creatures of the same God; descended from the same ancestry; fallen by their iniquity; subjected to the same wants and trials; if saved, saved by the same grace. All are born to die, destined to the same final account, and heirs of a deathless immortality. Tried by such standards, we see the true and proper value of the race; while thus

tried, all the varieties that are incidental to their existence in the present world, vanishes away. It behooves us to take heed, lest with the spirit of the first murderer we say, "Am I my brother's keeper ?" "No man," saith the Apostle, "ever hateth his own flesh." It was a powerful appeal once uttered by Wilberforce in behalf of an abused and crushed people, "Am I not a man and a brother?" Born under whatever skies, and however degraded their condition, men, and because they are men, are all linked together by these fraternal bonds. "Love worketh no ill to his neighbor." Unkindness and revenge, oppression and injury, desolation and bloodshed, do not rest in the bosom of love. There is no poison of asps under her lips; she has no venomous breath, and no deadly sting. She mingles no bitter ingredients in the cup of man, and no poison with his joys. She plants no thorns in his path, and never blights the verdure of his hopes. Nay, she knows no cold indifference and chilling neglect; it is no barren heart that beats within her warm bosom; it is light and cheerfulness beaming on the dark places of the earth, and making the wilderness blossom as the rose. She does not say to the voice of the needy, or to the sighing of the prisoner, he is an Indian-he is a poor negro-he belongs to another race. Never may men thus lose sight of the obligations of humanity, associated as they are by a common

origin, common responsibilities, common trials, and a common eternity. There is another and a better world, where the saved of all nations will meet, and the elevated will be no more elevated than their meaner brethren on the earth, and the degraded will be degraded no more. It was a rapturous vision beheld by the exiled apostle, when he said, "And after this I beheld, and lo a great multitude which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb!"