conduct. This is what Pilate lacked. He was the mere creature of whim, fear, prejudice, and self-interest, and was driven about, hither and thither, just as his feelings and apparent interest dictated. He knew perfectly, from the first, that Jesus was an innocent man. He had not a doubt of it. And if the principles of justice and right had been fixed within him, he would have had no difficulty in disposing of his case. He would have settled it at once. He would have driven the persecuting Jews from his presence, and would have said to his immaculate prisoner, Go in peace. As it was, he desired, on many accounts, to release Jesus; and yet he dared not take the responsibility. And so he shuffled about, now sending him to Herod; now pleading the custom of the past; now telling the Jews to take him and judge him themselves; now scourging him for no offence, and seeming almost ready to condemn him; and then, frightened at a dream, and at the hazard of a quarrel with some of the heathen gods, instituting a new examination; and finally, in face of all consistency and justice, giving him up to death, for fear that, if he spared him, he should not stand well with Cæsar. So a man, a ruler, with no correct and established moral principles, acted, eighteen hundred years ago. So they act now. So they will continue to act. This is what has made the name of Pontius Pilate contemptible, a hissing and a by-word, in all succeeding ages. And the same reproach will fall upon us, if we follow his bad example. Let every reader then learn the importance of having early in life, and through the whole of life, what Pilate had not-correct moral principles, settled in the mind, and abiding there, to be his constant prompter and guide. Thus may he hope to walk surely, safely, honorably, consistently, through all life's dubious way, and to come, at last, to a happy end.

We learn further, from the case of Pilate, that in trying, by sinful methods, to avoid impending evils, persons often incur the very evils which they feared. This did Pilate. He was afraid that he should not stand well with Cæsar; that he might lose his office, and perhaps his life; and so he doomed an innocent man, one whom he had repeatedly and publicly declared innocent, to an ignominious and most cruel death. And what was the consequence? In a very

short time, he found that he did not stand well with Cæsar. He was summoned to Rome; he was deprived of his office; he was sent into banishment; where, in fear and despera tion, he put an end to his days.

Nor is the case of Pilate a solitary one. Instances like to it are of frequent occurrence. To avoid impending evils, persons plunge into courses of sin, which shortly bring upon them the very evils which they feared. We have a case in point in the Jewish rulers, and in reference to the very event which has been before us, the crucifixion of Christ. "What do we," they said, " for this man doeth many miracles. If we let him alone, if we do not put him out of the way, all men will believe on him, and the Romans will come and take away our place and nation." The conclusion to which they came was, that they must destroy Jesus, or their nation would speedily be destroyed by the Romans. They destroyed Jesus. And what was the consequence? The Romans did come in a few short years, and took away both their place and nation. They had imprecated upon themselves the blood of their murdered Messiah, and the Romans came, and visited upon them and their city a destruction, such as the world never witnessed.

Such is the issue of sinful devices and expedients, with a view to escape impending evils. "Let him that readeth understand." Let us all hear, and ponder, and be wise. The path of duty is always a path of safety; but when we turn from it with a view to escape some evil, or obtain some good, we are snared in the work of our own hands.

But this leads to another remark. The case of Pilate illustrates the truth of one of Solomon's proverbs: "The fear of man bringeth a snare." A principal weakness in the character of Pilate seems to have been the fear of man. He was afraid of displeasing the Jews, afraid of a tumult, an excitement among the people. He was afraid of displeasing his great master at Rome, and thereby endangering his place and his head; and so he consented and decreed that a man whom he had publicly declared to be innocent should suffer the ignominy and agonies of the cross. And thus he committed the great error of his life; one from which he never could be extricated; one which clung to him like a vampire, until it drew out his very soul; one which has

blackened his memory through all the intervening ages, and will continue to do so to the end of time; one which has wrought the ruin of his deathless spirit, and will abide upon him to all eternity. Doubtless, Pilate has learned effectually, by this time, that "the fear of man bringeth a snare."

And thousands like him, and among them some very good men, have learned the same lesson. Look at Aaron in the wilderness, when Moses tarried long in the mount, and the people demanded that an idol god should be made, to go before them into Canaan. The good man did not dare to breast the torrent, and stand up for Israel's God alone; and so he consented to make a calf, before which the people ate and drank, and rose up to play. Look again at Jonah, a prophet of the Lord, who was directed to go to that great city, Nineveh, and prophesy against it. Jonah received the divine command, but he did not dare to execute it. He was afraid to go to Nineveh, that great, heathen, wicked city, on such an errand. So he arose, and went directly the other way; attempting to flee from the presence of the Lord; and what was the consequence? When Jonah had been cast out of the ship, and swallowed up by the whale, and had lain three days and three nights in the whale's belly, he learned, effectually, that God was to be feared rather than man, and that " the fear of man bringeth a snare."

Let all our readers learn and practise the same lesson. What God commands, let us dare to do, and what God forbids let us dare to avoid, whatever men may think or say of us. Let us never consent to omit known duties, or to make any sinful compliances, from the fear of men. The favor of God is life, and his loving-kindness is better than life; but "the fear of man bringeth a snare."

Let us learn once more, from the case of Pilate, how vain are all human methods to escape the responsibility and the guilt of sin. When Pilate had made up his mind to pass sentence upon Jesus, he thought of an expedient, by which he hoped to escape the responsibility and the guilt of doing it. He took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying: "I am innocent of the blood of this just perSee ye to it."

son.

But could this deluded and impious man free himself from

responsibility, in any such way? No! Vain were his devices and endeavors! Not all the waters of the ocean could efface his guilt.

But in this vain, delusive effort to escape the responsibility and the guilt of sin, Pilate does not stand alone. Thousands have resorted, if not to the same methods, to others equally futile and inefficacions. As examples of these, we might refer to the rites and forms, the penances and voluntarily inflicted sufferings, which are practised the world over, in the hope of being rid of the guilt and the bitter. consequences of sin. But we have examples of the like nature nearer home, in the vain and frivolous excuses so often resorted to, with a view to palliate and justify transgres

sion.

Perhaps some one of our readers may have said to himself more than once: "I may safely perform this wicked act, to which I am so strongly tempted, as I am strictly alone, and no one will ever see it, or know it." But, remember, you are not alone. There is a Being that sees it. There is an eye upon you from which nothing can be hid, and which will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil."

Another person may have said: "If I do not engage in this wicked business, somebody else will, and will have the profit of it, and I may as well have the profit as anybody." Yes, you may as well have the profit as anybody: but remember, you must have the guilt and the damage too. Your washing will not suffice to cleanse you from that. If you go into this wicked business, you must answer for it at the bar of God, and bear the burden of it on your soul for ever.

But says a third, "I want more property than I have, and more than I can honestly get, to do good with; I will go into this gainful, though questionable course of business, and get rich, and then I can do a great deal of good." Here we have another of Pilate's devices. You flatter yourself that you wish to do good; and you plunge into sin, as a means of doing it. Are you not then one of those of whom Paul tells us, in his epistle to the Romans, who say, "Let us do evil that good may come, whose damnation is just.”

But says a fourth, "I am as good as those around me;

and I hope to be saved as well as they." But how do you know that your associates will be saved? They may die in their sins; and you, certainly, will perish in yours, unless you abjure such false excuses, and in penitence flee to the Saviour, and put your trust in him.

Innumerable are the ways in which men, while persisting in sin, endeavor to escape the responsibility for it, and conceal its guilt. But they are all delusive. They have to do with a Being who cannot be deceived, and who will not be mocked, and who has said that "without holiness, no man shall see the Lord." Let us then believe what he hath said. "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall find mercy."

ART. VII.-INDICATIONS THAT THE SEDIMENTARY STRATA WERE FORMED SIMULTANEOUSLY, NOT IN SUCCESSION. By DAVID DICK, Meadville, Pennsylvania.

GEOLOGISTS have generally assumed that the sedimentary strata which constitute in a large degree the surface of the earth, were formed successively, and by agencies that occupied vast periods. It is a fatal objection to that theory that the forces which are supposed to have wrought those effects, are wholly inadequate to their production. The strata themselves, however, present decisive indications that in place of having been deposited, one after another, at considerable intervals, they were formed together, and by chemical agents chiefly, instead of mere mechanical forces. We propose to present some evidences that such was the origin of the strata of the Mississippi Valley.

We will first state the chief conditions that are to be supposed, in order that they may have been constructed in that manner; and then show that the leading facts of the strata themselves confirm that view of their origination.

Let it then be granted that the Mississippi Valley, bounded by the Alleghany Mountains east, and the Rocky Mountains west, was at a period of the world covered by the waters of a sea.