The Evangelists

Some of our readers there may be who find it difficult to uuderstand wby, since God has revealed to us his will in a book, orrather in a library of inepired books, as the Bi Ule trnly is, he has not at tlje same time giveu us an infallible text. How much labor would have been savcd had we possessed the autograpbs of four evangelistsl To this we answer that, had ouo such autograph existed, some branch of the Christian church - possibly every branob, ourselves included - would have made an idol of the writer's parchment while ueglecting its teaching altogether. We eau only seek to comprebeud the ways of Providence in one sphere by observing thern in another. Man is the heir of all things, yet he is sent into the world to depend for food, clothing and all the comforts and adornments of life on his wits. How greatly is he thereby dilïerentiated f rom the brutes! How immeasurably is the educated man, and especial ly the scientific investigator, raised above the savage simply as the result of his own efforts! Is it not possible that he who gave the word of life designs to quickeu our iaíerest in it by arousing afresh in each successive generation of Christians the desire to approach nearer to its sources, to remove the undergrowth of legend and tradition which has sometimes obstrncted its free course, and that we are saved froni the danger of finding it trite by the feeliug that we possess a divine treasure which, thougha gift, is not entirely independent of our own exertious for the measure in which it shall