eousness. and yet, it is somewhat remarkable that in the essay no very distinct stress is laid upon the value of such training for the future. But why not? If they trained an upright populace to sincerity, purity, an honesty which stands to-day amid widespread defections, why supplant those beliefs with what has been confessedly inefficient to outdo them in producing rightAll through the war time, and since, we have had esthetics, decorous worldliness, religion as a fine art, yes, even "the categorical imperative" and the Boston literati. But they have not saved us. The good old gospel-I speak from the Atlantic Monthly-on looking over our American life for goodness, that gospel is the only thing discernible as having a saving product worth the mentioning. Further, by this elaborate shewing, it is clear (1) that it is a "dangerous tendency" to be without religion; (2) that the power to tone a national morality high has been known only under a strong religious belief; (3) that the decay of religion is not only a decay of national glory, but a loosening of the common safety; (4) that one of our most fearful outlooks is the masses under impulse rather than under principles, and such principles as the Christian religion brings to bear on mankind; hence our conclusion is, that our main hope of a national regeneration lies in that everlasting gospel, with its everlasting sanctions. It has proved itself the savor of life unto life, to every people holding it, in the meaning of it. In the light of this essay, it takes no stretch of moral courage to say, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God, unto salvation, to every one that believeth." 3. For all that has been said against our American life, and its tendencies, we are not to lose heart concerning it. And this for two reasons, yes for twenty more, but especially for two evolved from the gloomy essays reviewed. (1.) Had the semiomniscience at play on the gloomy aspect of our life, been cast athwart its better aspect, as full a development of righteousness we believe would have been discovered, as of the unrighteousness here detailed. The fact is, the righteous are not hunted by the telegraph, branded daily in the papers, and made the "gaze and show of the time." While we acknowledge that there is much to distress, there is more to preserve us from des pair. Even when things religious, ethical, and political are not to our mind, nor to our prayer, claiming conviction for ourselves, we cannot deny that more "liberal thinkers" have convictions also, and so we sing: "The years, with change, advance, If I make dark my countenance, And men through novel spheres of thought, Still moving after truth long sought, Will learn new things when I am not." (2.) We are not to lose heart for our country, because “The Lord reigneth." Our people may rejoice in that, for under His reign, nothing has happened to us but what is common to man. "The volume of the book" containing His will has forecast all the ill that has come upon us. We doubt not that many, trained in their knowledge of human nature by the Bible, have had its "old beliefs" made new and progressive thoughts to them in reading this Atlantic essay. They have heard from its smoothly turned paragraphs, the old and rugged wail: "The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot, even unto the head, there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment." They have heard the outspoken prophet say, "I, even I only, am left;" and we trust they have heard the assuring God, that he had thousands that his despairing servant knew not of. The valley of dry bones has come into vision again, more than once as we have read, and the "breath of the Lord" has been a better hope, for life to them, than all the manipulations of the anatomists on the surrounding heights. We hear in this widespread wandering, the Lord's old "controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. By swearing, and lying, and killing, and committing adultery, they break out and blood toucheth blood." But the Lord did not forsake. Nevertheless, the foundation of God stood sure; and he has too abundantly shown his intention to renew, and redeem, for us to give up the hope of future interposition. Indeed by all we can learn, this is His way to teach us the bitterness of sin, the majesty of law, the helpless hopelessness of humanity without God in the world. And yet, we are free to own that since divine providence has changed, divine grace will likely take other than the old channels to pour its favors over us. Since he has let us grow active in our own behalf, it is likely that he may help us most by our own helping of ourselves. We do not think that a new set of Athanasian decrees will be His way; the military theology of Cromwell evidently would not suit us; not even the philosophical theology of Jonathan Edwards may suffice for the twentieth century. But the Lord will find a way, and men to walk in it, to lead us on. Even if it be by terrible things in righteousness, yet we are confident it will be done. Most heartily do we believe in a coming deliverance. It may be known by the ease with which the weary heart will turn from its own unrest to God, saying, "Our Father who art in Heaven . . . thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven," glad enough to reach its peace, in final and fundamental truth. As we read our life there must be such truth, for an anchor to the soul, sure and steadfast, else we are helplessly adrift forever. Let us have a brave heart. God remains; the eternal right re mains; man's need of Him remains; so that when baffled now and bewildered then, he can turn and exclaim, "To whom can we go but unto Thee, for thou hast the words of eternal life." And what heart ever did that in vain? ARTICLE VII.-AFGHANISTAN AND THE ENGLISH. THE struggle which has lately arisen between the British. and the Russians for the possession or control of Afghanistan has taken the civilized world by surprise. It is a wonder to those who cursorily examine the position and capabilities of that region, and learn the character of its inhabitants, why either of these powerful rivals wants it, or what practical use it will be to the one who gets it. It is our present object briefly to describe the situation, productions, and peoples of this kingdom, and give a summary of its history during the past century, in order to satisfy the reasonable inquiries of our readers regarding the nature of the impendiug conflict. Like that of all Asiatic kingdoms, more than is the case in Europe, its boundaries have varied very much at different epochs. At the beginning of this century its eastern frontier came as far as Sirhind and Lahore, or within 150 miles of Delhi, and extended about 800 miles westward to Merv and Meshed in Persia, reaching south to the ocean, and covering an area of nearly 600,000 square miles. At present, its borders are measurably defined by mountain ranges on three sides, and a sandy wilderness on the western, which give it rather a rectangular shape, measuring about 600 miles from north to south Cats 28° 30′ to 36° N.), and 450 from east to west (longs. 60° to 71 E.). This is computed to measure 278,000 square miles, of which perhaps two-fifths are utterly waste and untillable. An American will get a clearer idea of its size and position by comparing it with Texas, whose surface of 274,000 square miles. lies within nearly the same degrees of latitude reaching from Corpus Christi to the borders of Kansas. Of the two, Texas is the most fertile, level, and accessible; Afghanistan the most healthy, hilly, and picturesque. In a topographical view, it is somewhat like the roof of a house. The eastern frontier lies along the snow-clad heights of the Hindu-kush and Pushti-khur, where the Oxus rises, some of their peaks rising to 20,000 feet, thence branching into the Suleiman mountains, which form the western watershed of the Indus down to Kelat. From this side going west, the surface gradually descends to 1300 feet about Herat and Lake Seistan. The northern side of this slope is the southern watershed of the Oxus; it is a prolongation of the Hindu-kush in three ranges under the names of the Koh-i-Baba, Ghor Mountains, and Safed-koh. It is a wild region, and possessed by the Hazara tribes, which refuse submission to all control, and make it difficult for an invading force to reach the basin of the Cabul river. On the southern frontier, the Suleiman mountains turn westerly from the Indus valley in several low ranges, till they are mostly lost in the desert region of Lake Seistan. The division between the small plateau of Khelat and the chiefship of Candahar, consists of two or three ranges of arid hills, the southern of which is the watershed of the River Lora, in the Pi-sheen valley. The wilderness on the southwest and western frontiers has formed an impassable barrier for ages to all attacks from that quarter, and compelled invaders to go northeasterly towards Herat. The singular character of the whole area can perhaps be best understood by stating, that if the ocean rose over it as much as 4,000 feet above low tide, only a triangle in the basin of the Helmund, having Lake Seistan as its apex, would be covered. If it rose 7,000 feet, a line of two hundred miles would pass thirty-five miles west of Cabul, and twentyfive miles south of Ghazni, defining the exposed surface. It will thus be seen that Afghanistan is almost another Switzerland enormously developed. It presents a succession of bare mountains and fertile valleys, arid wastes and verdant bottoms, with plateaus, defiles, and snowy peaks, unequaled in any other part of the globe. It is sometimes disturbed by earthquakes, especially in the northeast towards Kunduz; General Sale reported that one hundred shocks were counted at Jellalabad in February, 1842; but this was unusual. The climate varies as much as the surface, for the latitude furnishes no guide to the temperature, which depends on elevation. The Emperor Baber's remark, that within twenty-four hours' travel from Cabul, one may reach a spot where snow never melts or one where it never falls, still furnishes an index to the great range of climate in this region, which on the whole is a healthy |