from the beginning? What, in studies in history, in morals, in human relations, in jurisprudence and law; in principles of equity and right; in the well-being of states, and in the mundane destinies of mankind? Has the Christian code any thing to apprehend from all this? Is it not rather the great storehouse of all which is true and certain on all these points? What, again, in beauties of thought, forms of truth, and ideas and sentiments, whether expressed in prose or poetry,-didactic speech or ornate language? Have the books of scripture any thing to dread from a comparison with any, with all, of the productions of either ancient or modern times? We have said nothing about inspiration, prophecy, miracles,—those things which are taken generally as the proofs of divinity. But a divine system must be true and immutable, independently of the external manifestations which make it known as such. These are only the outward coruscations of God; the voice which the truth uses to make known its own claims, not the truth itself: they are, so to speak, the hand-writing upon the wall,-not the essence, the qualities, the glories, of the spiritual and the invisible Being, who holds out that hand, and inscribes the characters. The Christian religion is God, is the glorious Trinity,-is the spiritual world,is the essence and truth of all being, as well as a mighty and merciful remedy for the evils of sin, and the miseries of the human race. It is just as possible for infidelity to blow up the universe by its puny malice, as it is to uproot Christianity. Then the teachers of our religion need not fear any thing from knowledge, from investigation, from the advancement of science and literature. But has not religion much to gain as to the character of outward developement; if all its ministers, instead of employing the language of complaint, came forward, and, as was the wont in the best times of antiquity, made themselves the high priests of knowledge, of light, of progress? These, it seems, are the notions of the ministers and people of the Methodist church in America. The establishment of their collegiate institutions indicates their desire to place their church-progress abreast of the advancing light of the age.

But these efforts to establish a good and useful system of education must give the American Methodist church a status in the country, which nothing else could possibly do. In despite of system and theory, human society must have its aristocracies; and scholarship creates a sort of aristocracy in the United States. No people on

earth, not even excepting the French, are better hero worshippers than the Americans. Their great men are their gods. Political leaders, and the chiefs of war, it is true, create more excitement than any others; but learning comes in for its share of public applause. It is difficult to estimate the real amount of intellectual culture existing in the country; but the idea as to its value has undoubtedly gone forth, and is universally entertained.

In this state of public feeling, it is impossible for any church to possess any thing like an honourable standing in the country, without recognising the necessity of scientific and literary instruction, and making provision for its attainment.

Indeed, it is clear, in a nation where all the offices of law and the professions, all the dignities and honours of the State, are open to all classes, the fact that none can enter upon them but those who have been previously prepared, will, of itself, be an inducement to exertion. Hence the position of a church must be infinitely advanced by its progress in knowledge. What we see in these fine countries is only the beginning. But from these foundations must, as time progresses, grow up great establishments. Nothing is to be despised in which a principle of life is found, however feeble in its present state. Give it time, scope, and the means of growth, and it is certain to develope itself. This must be the case with these schools. They are in their infancy, but they possess vitality. The progress of events, the increase of population, the accumulation of wealth, will bring with them multiplied demands for instruction; and these rudimental colleges must grow into great universities.

On the whole, then, this western church is a fine illustration of the power of the grace of God; of the energizing character of divine truth; and of the indefatigable zeal, industry, and piety of its founders.

What is to follow, no one can tell. But it is to be hoped that the same mercy and power which enabled the fathers of the work to lay the foundations of a structure so noble, will continue to be manifested in carrying on the building through all succeeding generations.

IV. THE MISSISSIPPI LINE.

WE now enter upon a perfectly new route, the line of the Mississippi. The discovery of the "father of waters" was effected by Frenchmen, Jesuit missionaries from Canada. The following is Bancroft's eloquent narrative of this important event :—

"The long-expected discovery of the Mississippi was at hand, (1673,) to be accomplished by Joliet, of Quebec, of whom there is no record, but of this one excursion, that gives him immortality; and by Marquette, who, after years of pious assiduity to the poor wrecks of Hurons, whom he planted near abundant fisheries, on the cold extremity of Michigan, entered, with equal humility, upon a career which exposed his life to perpetual danger; and, by its results, affected the destiny of nations.

"The enterprise projected by Marquette had been favoured by Talon, the intendant of New-France, who, on the point of quitting Canada, wished to signalize the last period of his stay, by ascertaining if the French, descending the river of the central west, could bear the banner of France to the Pacific, or plant it side by side with that of Spain, on the Gulf of Mexico.

"A branch of the Potawatomics, familiar with Marquette as a missionary, heard with wonder the daring proposal. These distant nations,' said they, 'never spare the strangers; their mutual wars fill their borders with bands of warriors; the Great River abounds in monsters, which devour both men and canoes; the excessive heats occasion death.' 'I shall gladly lay down my life for the salvation of souls,' replied the good father; and the docile nation joined him in prayer.

"At the last village of the Fox River ever visited by the French, -where Kickapoos, Mascoutics, and Miamis dwelt together on a beautiful hill in the centre of prairies and magnificent groves, that extended as far as the eye could reach; and where Alloüez had already raised the cross, which the savages had ornamented with brilliant skins and crimson belts, a thank-offering to the Great Manitou, the ancients assembled in counsel to receive the pilgrims. 'My companion,' said Marquette, is an envoy of France, to discover new countries; and I am an ambassador from God, to enlighten them with the gospel;' and, offering presents, he begged two guides for the morrow. The wild men answered courteously, and gave in return a mat, to serve as a couch during the long voyage.

"Behold, then, in 1673, on the 10th day of June, the meek, the single-hearted, unpretending, illustrious Marquette, with Joliet for his associate, five Frenchmen as his companions, and two Algonquins as guides, lifting their canoes on their backs, and walking across the narrow portage that divides the Fox River from the Wisconsin. They reach the water-shed; uttering a special prayer to the immaculate Virgin, they leave the streams, that, flowing onwards, could have borne their greetings to the castle of Quebec; already they stand by the Wisconsin. The guides returned,' says the gentle Marquette, leaving us alone, in this unknown land, in the hands of Providence.' France and Christianity stood in the valley of the Mississippi. Embarking on the broad Wisconsin, the discoverers, as they sailed west, went solitarily down the stream, between alternate prairies and hill-sides, beholding neither man nor the wonted beasts of the forest; no sound broke the appalling silence, but the ripple of the canoe, and the lowing of the buffalo. In seven days

'they entered happily the Great River, with a joy that could not be expressed;' and the two birch-bark canoes, raising their happy sails under new skies and unknown breezes, floated gently down the calm magnificence of the ocean stream, over the broad, clear sand-bars, -the resort of innumerable water-fowl,-gliding past islands that swelled from the bosom of the stream, with their tufts of massive thickets; and between the wide plains of Illinois and Iowa, all garlanded as they were with majestic forests, or chequered by island groves and the open vastness of the prairie.

"About sixty leagues below the mouth of the Wisconsin, the western bank of the Mississippi bore on its sands the trail of men; a little footpath was discovered, leading into a beautiful prairie; and, leaving the canoes, Joliet and Marquette resolved alone to have a meeting with the savages. After walking six miles, they beheld a village on the banks of a river, and two others on a slope, at the distance of a mile and a half from the first. The river was the Mon-ingon-e-na, or Moingona, of which we have corrupted the name into Des Moines. Marquette and Joliet were the first white men who trod the soil of Iowa. Commending themselves to God, they uttered a loud cry. The Indians hear; four old men advance slowly to meet them, bearing the peace-pipe, brilliant with many-coloured plumes. We are Illinois,' said they, that is, when translated, 'We are men;' and they offered the calumet. An aged chief received them at his cabin with upraised hands, exclaiming, 'How beautiful is the sun, Frenchman, when thou comest to visit us ! Our whole village awaits thee; thou shalt enter in peace into all our dwellings.' And the pilgrims were followed by the devouring gaze of an astonished crowd.

"At the great council, Marquette published to them the one true God, their Creator. He spoke, also, of the great captain of the French, the governor of Canada, who had chastised the Five Nations, and commanded peace; and he questioned them respecting the Mississippi, and the tribes that possessed its banks. For the messengers who announced the subjection of the Iroquois, a magnificent festival was prepared of hominy and fish, and the choicest viands from the prairies.

"After six days' delay, and invitations to new visits, the chieftain of the tribe, with hundreds of warriors, attended the strangers to their canoes; and, selecting a peace-pipe embellished with the head and neck of brilliant birds, and all feathered over with plumage of various hues, they hung round Marquette, the mysterious arbiter of peace and war, the sacred calumet, a safeguard among the nations.

"The little group proceeded onwards. I did not fear death,' says Marquette; 'I should have esteemed it the greatest happiness to have died for the glory of God.' They passed the perpendicular rocks, which wore the appearance of monsters; they heard at a distance the noise of the waters of the Missouri, known to them by its Algonquin name of Pekitanoni; and when they came to the most beautiful confluence of rivers in the world,-where the swifter Missouri rushes like a conqueror into the calmer Mississippi, dragging it, as it were, hastily to the sea,-the good Marquette resolved in his heart,

anticipating Lewis and Clarke, one day to ascend the mighty river to its source, to cross the ridge that divides the oceans, and, descending a westerly flowing stream, to publish the gospel to all the people of this New World.

"In a little less than forty leagues, the canoes floated past the Ohio, which was then, and long afterwards, called the Wabash. Its banks were tenanted by numerous villages of the peaceful Shawnees, who quailed under the incursions of the Iroquois.

"The thick canes begin to appear so close and strong, that the buffalo could not break through them; the insects become intolerable; as a shelter against the suns of July, the sails are folded as an awning. The prairies vanish, thick forests of whitewood, admirable for their vastness and height, crowd even to the skirts of the pebbly shore. It is also observed, that in the land of the Chichasas the Indians have guns.

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"Near the latitude of 33 degrees, on the western bank of the Mississippi, stood the village of Mitchinganua, in a region that had not been visited by Europeans since the days of De Soto. Now,' thought Marquette, we must, indeed, ask the aid of the Virgin.' Armed with bows and arrows, with clubs, axes, and bucklers, amidst continued whoops, the natives, bent on war, embarked in vast canoes, made out of the trunks of hollow trees; but, at the sight of the mysterious peace-pipe, held aloft, God touched the hearts of the old men, who checked the impetuosity of the young; and, throwing their bows and quivers into the canoes, as a token of peace, they prepared a hospitable welcome.

"The next day, a long wooden canoe, containing ten men, escorted the discoverers, for eight or ten leagues, to the village of Akansea, the limit of their voyage. They had left the region of the Algonquins, and, in the midst of the Sioux and Chichasas, could speak only by an interpreter. A half league above Akansea, they were met by two boats, in one of which stood the commander, holding in his hand the peace-pipe, and singing as he drew near. After offering the pipe, he gave bread of maize. The wealth of his tribe consisted in buffalo skins; their weapons were axes of steel, a proof of commerce with Europeans.

"Thus had our travellers descended below the entrance of the Arkansas, to the genial climes that have almost no winter but rains; beyond the bound of the Huron and Algonquin languages, to the vicinity of the Gulf of Mexico; and to the tribes of Indians that had obtained European arms by traffic with Spaniards or with Virginia.

"So, having spoken of God, and the mysteries of the Catholic faith; having become certain that the Father of Rivers went not to the ocean east of Florida, nor yet in the Gulf of California; Marquette and Joliet left Akansea, and ascended the Mississippi.

"At the 38th degree of latitude, they entered the river Illinois, and discovered a country without its paragon for the fertility of its beautiful prairies, covered with buffaloes and stags, for the loveliness of its rivulets, and the prodigal abundance of wild ducks and swans, and of a species of parrots and wild turkeys. The tribe of