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his own church, and the next hour to an assembly at forty miles distant. And surely there could be no valid objection to trying the effect of an invisible preacher on a Christian audience. On similar principles, an apparatus might be constructed for augmenting the strength of the human voice, so as to make it extend its force to an assembled multitude composed of fifty or a hundred thousand individuals ; and the utility of such a power, when the mass of mankind are once thoroughly aroused to attend to rational and religious instruction, may be easily conceived. In short, intelligence respecting every important discovery, occurrence, and event, might thus be communicated, through the extent of a whole kingdom, within the space of an hour after it had taken place.

Let none imagine that such a project is either chimerical or impossible. M. Biot's experiment is decisive, so far as it goes; that the softest whisper, without any diminution of its intensity, may be communicated to the distance of nearly three quarters of a mile; and there is nothing but actual experiment wanting to convince us, that the ordinary tones of the human voice may be conveyed to at least twenty times that distance. We are just now acting on a similar principle, in distributing illumination through large cities. Not thirty years ago, the idea of lighting our apartments by an invisible substance, produced at ten miles distance, would have been considered as chimerical, and as impossible to be realized, as the idea of two persons conversing together, by articulate sounds, at such a distance. It appears no more wonderful, that we should be able to hear at the distance of five or six miles, than that we should be enabled to see objects at that distance by the telescope, as distinctly as if we were within a few yards of them. Both are the effects of those principles and laws which the Creator has interwoven with the system of the material world; and when man has discovered the mode of their operation, it remains with himself to apply them to his necessities. What the telescope is to the eye, acoustic tunnels would be to the ear; and thus, those senses on which our improvement in knowledge and enjoyment chiefly depends, would be gradually carried to the utmost perfection of which our station on earth will permit. And,

as to the expense of constructing such communications for sound, the tenth part of the millions of money expended in twenty-two years' war in which we were lately engaged, would, in all probability, be more than sufficient for distributing them, in numerous ramifications, through the whole island of Great Britian. Even although such a project were partially to fail of success, it would be a far more honorable and useful national undertaking, than that which now occupies the attention of the despots on the continent of Europe, and might be accomplished with far less expenditure, either of blood or of money. Less than the fourth part of a million of pounds would be sufficient for trying an experiment of this kind, on an extensive scale; and such a sum is considered as a mere item, when fleets and armies are to be equipped for carrying destruction through sea and land. When will the war-madness cease its rage! When will men desist from the work of destruction, and employ their energies and their treasures in the cause of human improvement! The most chimerical projects that were ever suggested by the most enthusiastic visionary, are not half so ridiculous and degrading to the character of man, as those ambitious and despotic schemes, in which the powers of the earth in all ages have been chiefly engaged.-But on this topic it is needless to enlarge, till more extended experiments shall have been undertaken.

In the preceding sketches I have presented a few specimens of the relation which the inventions of human ingenuity bear to religious objects. I intended to have traced the same relation in several other instances; in the invention of the electrical machine, the air-pump, mills, clocks and watches, gas-lights, chemical fumigations, inventions for enabling us to walk upon the water, to prevent and alleviate the dangers of shipwreck, &c. &c. But, as my prescribed limits will not permit farther enlargement, I trust that what has been already stated will be sufficient to establish and illustrate my general position. From this subject we may learn

1st. That the various processes of art, and the exertions of human ingenuity, are under the special direction of Him who arranges all things "according to the counsel of his

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will." As "the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, and as the rivers of waters, he turns it whithersoever he pleases;" so, all the varied schemes and movements of the human mind, the discoveries of science, and the diversified experiments of mechanics, chemists and philosophers, are directed in such channels as may issue in the accomplishment of His eternal purposes, in respect to the present and future condition of the inhabitants of our world. This truth is also plainly taught us in the records of inspiration, "Doth the ploughman plow all day to Doth he open and break the clods of his ground? When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin,* and cast in the wheat in the principal [place,] and the barley in the appointed place, and the rye in its proper place? For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him. This also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, who is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working." Agriculture has, by most nations, been attributed to the suggestions of Deity; for "every good and perfect gift cometh down from the Father of lights." It is he who hath taught men to dig from the bowels of the earth, iron, copper, lead, silver and gold, and to apply them to useful purposes in social life; and who hath given them "wisdom and understanding" to apply the animal and vegetable productions of nature to the manufacture of cloths, linen, muslin, and silk, for the use and the ornament of man. For, "all things are of God." "Both riches and honor come from him, and he reigneth over all, and in his hand is power and might, and in his hand it is to make great, andto give strength to all." When the frame of the Mosaic Tabernacle, and all its curious vessels were to be constructed, the mind of Bezaleel " was filled with the Spirit of God, in wisdom and understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, to devise curious works in gold, and in silver, and in brass." And, when the fabric of the New Testament church is to be reared, and its boundaries extended, artificers of every description, ade

* Fitches is a kind of seed frequently sown in Judea, for the use of cattle; and cummin is the seed of a plant somewhat like fen nel.

quate for carrying on the different parts of the work are raised up, and inspired with the spirit of their respective departments-some with the spirit of writing, printing, and publishing; some with the spirit of preaching, lecturing and catechising; some with the spirit of fortitude, to make bold and daring adventures into distant barbarous climes; and others, with the spirit of literature, of science, and of the mechanical arts-all acting as pioneers "to prepare the way of the Lord," and as builders for carrying forward and completing the fabric of the Christian Church.

2dly. All the mechanical contrivances to which I have adverted, all the discoveries of science, and all the useful inventions of genius which may hereafter be exhibited, ought to be viewed as preparing the way for the millennial era of the church, and as having a certain tendency to the melioration of the external condition of mankind during its continuance. We are certain, from the very nature of things, as well as from scriptural predictions, that, when this period advances towards the summit of its glory, the external circumstances of this world's population will be comfortable, prosperous, and greatly meliorated beyond what they have ever been in the ages that are past"Then shall the earth yield her increase, and God, even our own God, shall bless us. Then shall he give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow thy ground withal, and bread of the increase of the earth and it shall be fat and plenteous. In that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures; the oxen likewise and the young asses that ear the ground shall eat savoury provender, which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan. And the inhabitants shall not say, I am sick. They shall build houses and inhabit them, and plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat; for, as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them. The seed shall be prosperous, the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, and the heavens shall

give their dew; the evil beasts shall cease out of the land; and they shall sit every man under his vine, and under his fig-tree, and none shall make him afraid; for wars shall cease to the ends of the world, and the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea."* Diseases will be, in a great measure, banished from the world, and the life of man extended far beyond its present duration-agriculture will be brought to perfection-commodious habitations erected for the comfortable accommodation of all ranks-cities built on elegant and spacious plans, adapted to health, ornament, and pleasure; divested of all the filth, and darkness, and gloom, and narrow lanes which now disgrace the abodes of men-roads will be constructed on improved principles, with comfortable means of retreat for shelter and accommodation at all seasons; and conveyances invented for the ease, and safety, and rapid conveyance of persons and property from one place to another. Either the climates of the earth will be meliorated, by the universal cultivation of the soil, so that storms and tempests, thunders and lightnings, shall no longer produce their present ravages; or, chemical and mechanical contrivances will be invented to ward off their destructive effects. The landscape of the earth will be adorned with vegetable and architectural beauty; and, instead of horse-racing, demoralizing plays, routs, and masquerades, boxing, and bull-baits-artificial displays of scenery will be exhibited, more congenial to the dignity of rational, renovated, and immortal minds. For "the knowledge of the Lord," and the "beauties of holiness," will pervade men of all ranks and ages, "from the least even to the greatest."+

*Psalm lxvii. Isaiah xxx. 23, 24. xxxiii. 24. lxv. 21, 23, &c.

The various circumstances above-stated may be considered as the natural results of a state of society on which the light of science and of revelation has diffused its full influence, and where the active powers of the human mind are invariably directed by the pure principles and precepts of Christianity. That the duration of human life, at the era referred to, will be extended beyond its present boundary, appears to be intimated in some of the passages above quoted, particularly the following-"As the days of a tree shall be the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands." And, if the life of man will be thus protracted to an

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