Lord Jesus Christ. For ourselves, however, we cannot but entertain the conviction, in regard to a few such men as Socrates and Plutarch, that they were prepared, by the gracious working of that Spirit, whose operations are so diverse, to receive the truths and the blessings of Christianity, had these only been brought within their reach; that Socrates would have hailed in Jesus Christ the Divine Teacher, whose benevolent mission and martyr-death he anticipated and described with almost prophetic exactness; that Plutarch would have welcomed in him one who could speak what he knew, and testify what he had seen, of that invisible world and that future state, of which he was constrained to acknowledge that himself and his favourite Academy knew nothing; that they would gladly have received from him, what every thoughtful man feels the need of in so important a matter, an authoritative confirmation of those hopes which they could not but cherish, but which; after all, left them to live and die in painful uncertainty; that they would have seen in his gospel what their reason could not discover,-a way in which God might be just, and yet justify the transgressor; and would have found in his truth and his grace that power, which the wisest and best men of antiquity despaired of finding in philosophy-a power to enlighten, renovate, and save the ignorant and degraded masses of mankind. And is it heresy, or is it not, to admit the hope in regard to such men, that the revelation which never reached them in the darkness of heathenism, will be disclosed to them in the light of heaven, and being already prepared, by the grace of God, to accept its provisions, they will there unite with Christians in adoring the mystery of incarnate wisdom and redeeming love?

We are too good Protestants to unite with Erasmus in his prayer to Saint Socrates: "Sancte Socrates, ora pro nobis !" We might more readily join with others in styling Plutarch the Christian philosopher of pagan antiquity. There were "eformers before the Reformation." There were "devout men," men of Christian spirit, before the coming of Christ. They came out of every nation to Jerusalem. They were found Jews and Greeks, Romans and in the Roman army, by our Lord and by his apostles, at Capernaum and at Cesarea, in the city and in the wilderness; even as the missionaries of the cross in modern times have found some of those, to whom they have been sent, in all the various stages of providential preparation to receive them; from the Sandwich Islanders, who had cast away their idols, to the Karens, who, as if under a special divine impulse, stood waiting for the messengers of Heaven. Why may there not have been such, taught by the Providence and the Spirit of God, at Athens and at Charonea? It is to be feared there were

few such. Few gave evidence of being such in their writings or in their lives. But why be so uncandid as to reject, or so disingenuous as to deny, the evidence, where it does exist? Why seek to put out the lesser lights that rule the night, when, of themselves, they all pale and fade away before the great light that rules the day? There is too much of this indiscreet and patronizing defence of Christianity, especially in professed treatises on the Christian Revelation. Nothing tends more directly to cast a shade over its unequalled brightness. The ark of God needs no such unanointed hands volunteered for its preservation.

Neander speaks of Socrates as the forerunner of a higher development of humanity; and the Platonic Socrates, as coming, like a John the Baptist, before the revelation of Christ. For ourselves, we love to think of all ancient history as preparatory to, or, as Edwards viewed it, a part of the history of redemption, and all the great men of antiquity, as in some sense the forerunners of Christ. Sacred and profane history, providence and revelation, the natural and the supernatural in the divine government, though palpably distinct, are not at variance with each other. They have the same author-God. They conspire to the same end-truth and goodness, the instruction and salvation of men. The three great historical nations of antiquity all bore an especial and important part in preparing the world to receive its Saviour and King. The politics of the Romans, the literature of the Greeks, and the religion of the Hebrews, are so many distinct lines of light, all converging towards a common centre, the introduction and propagation of Christianity. The tendencies were, for the most part, unseen or misunderstood. to a great extent, unconscious of their mission. were far from comprehending what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, did signify. But, conscious or unconscious of their work, prophets sung the promised glories of the Messiah's reign; kings, from whose loins he was destined to spring, if pious, looked and watched; and, if not pious, reigned and toiled for the establishment of his kingdom; rich men built synagogues, wherein the gospel was to be first preached in all the principal cities; and rabbis ruled them in a manner, which passed at length into a pattern of government in the primitive churches. And as in Israel, so in Grecian and Roman history, while Alexander diffused the Greek language the language of the New Testament and of the long-established version of the Old-over large portions of Asia and Africa, and Julius Cæsar subjected the known world to his sway, and Augustus hushed it into a profound, an almost unheard-of peace, to welcome the birth of the Prince of peace; Socrates lived and died

The men were, Even the prophets

a martyr to truth and virtue, for his country and mankind; and Plato embodied in his immortal dialogues a more pure and spiritual philosophy; and Cicero inculcated in his Offices a lofty and beautiful code of morals, and in his Tusculan Quæstions, and his De Natura Deorum, many just views of God and immortality. Accordingly, when the Lord appeared, he came "the Desire of all nations;" the world was waiting to receive him. Nor does this parallel cease with the coming of Christ. Paul not only preached every Sabbath in the synagogue, but disputed daily in the school of one Tyrannus. While the Apostles were rapidly spreading the gospel among the masses of the people, the disciples of Plato were silently and unwittingly preparing the way for the first accessions to the Church from the ranks of learning and philosophy, without which, unhappy as their influence in some respects was, we do not see how Christianity could have won a universal dominion. And to this day, while we read in the histories of Josephus the Jew, and the Roman Tacitus, the recorded fulfilment, in the most minute particulars, of our Lord's prediction touching the destruction of Jerusalem, we behold in the philosophico-religious writings of Philo Judæus and the Grecian Plutarch, no obscure types and shadows of some of the most sacred truths and mysteries of the Christian religion.

ART. II-OREGON.

1. Report of Lieut. Neil M. Howison, United States Navy, to the Commander of the Pacific Squadron ; being the result of an Examination, in the Year 1846, of the Coast, Harbours, Rivers, Soil, Productions, Climate, and Population of the Territory of Oregon.

2. Journal of Travels over the Rocky Mountains to the Mouth of the Columbia River, made during the Years 1845 and 1846: containing Minute Descriptions of the Valleys of the Willamette, Umpqua, and Clamet; a General Description of Oregon Territory, &c., &c. By JOEL PALMER.

THE act of the last General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, establishing prospectively an Annual Conference west of the Rocky Mountains, induces us to lay before our readers a general summary of such information as we have been able to procure concerning the portion of our territory bordering on the Pacific. It was originally our intention to embrace in one article a view of both Oregon and California; but to do justice to the subject would occupy a greater space than can be allotted to one paper. Moreover, the boundary of California is not yet settled, and addi

tional information in regard to the condition of the territory lately acquired from Mexico, is coming in every day. We shall, therefore, devote the present article to Oregon, and present in a future number such information as we can obtain concerning the southern portion of the proposed Annual Conference.

Oregon proper extends from latitude 42° to 54° 40′ N., these parallels being respectively the boundaries of California and the Russian Possessions. It has for its eastern boundary the great chain of mountains which extends the whole length of the continent, dividing the waters which pass into the Pacific from those that flow into the Arctic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. In this great range are two remarkable gaps, one near latitude 52° N., known as the Punch Bowl, lying between two stupendous peaks, Mount Brown and Mount Hooker, which have the altitude of fifteen and sixteen thousand feet. Here, within a few feet of each other, rise Canoe River, a tributary of the Columbia, and the Athabasca, which flows N. E. into Mackenzie River, the Mississippi of the Arctic Regions. The other gap, known as the South Pass, is near latitude 42° N., and is the crossing place for emigrants from the United States to Oregon and California. Here rise, on the east, streams tributary to the Missouri; and on the west are the sources of the Colorado, which discharges its waters into the Gulf of California.

In the year 1804, President Jefferson despatched an expedition, under Captains Lewis and Clarke, to explore the Missouri to its source, to cross over the Rocky Mountains, strike the head-waters of the Columbia, and follow it to the Pacific. This great enterprise occupied between two and three years, the party spending one winter on the Missouri, sixteen hundred miles from its junction with the Mississippi, and another near the mouth of the Columbia. The instructions of the President were successfully carried out; and to these enterprising officers is due the praise of having accomplished one of the most difficult undertakings in the records of human effort. The first American citizen who endeavoured to turn to profit the resources of this great territory was Mr. Astor, who, in 1810, established a trading-post near the mouth of the Columbia, from which he was driven by the British during the last war, subsequently relinquishing his claim in favour of the Hudson's Bay Company. For a long period subsequent to the exploration of Messrs. Lewis and Clarke, this territory was left to the British traders and a few independent trappers, who found their way from the head-waters of the Yellowstone and Missouri into the Oregon Territory. To the Methodist Episcopal Church belongs the glory of being the first to carry the Gospel to the numerous tribes of

Indians in the Valley of the Columbia. The history of this mission is, we presume, well known, and it is therefore unnecessary for us to remark upon the causes of its comparative failure.

In the year 1835 Rev. Mr. Parker, in company with the lamented Dr. Whitman, was commissioned by the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions to explore the Oregon Territory, with the view of ascertaining the spiritual condition of the Aborigines, and determining upon proper sites for missionary operations. Mr. Parker's narrative gives an account of the state of affairs in the territory, containing, in addition to the information which it was his principal object to obtain, valuable notes on the natural history of the country. Dr. Whitman returned from the base of the Rocky Mountains in order to enlist missionaries to set out immediately. He returned in the following year, in company with Rev. Mr. Spalding, who established himself among the Nez Percés Indians; Dr. W. joining himself to the Caäguas, with whom he remained until during the past year, when he was murdered by the people for whose interests he had so long and faithfully laboured; thus sealing with his blood the sincerity of his devotion to his Master's work.

To those who wish to obtain a more thorough knowledge of Oregon than we can pretend to give, within the limits of a single article, we would recommend a perusal of the work of Mr. Greenhow, (although we have some grave objections to urge against him;) Coxe's Six Years on the Columbia; Sir George Simpson's Overland Voyage round the World; the Fourth Volume of the United States Exploring Expedition; the Narrative of Messrs. Johnson and Winter, who accompanied the emigrating party in 1843; the able and scientific reports of Col. Fremont; and, finally, the accounts of our friends whose names stand at the head of this article.

The Report of Lieut. Howison is a plain and sensible narrative of facts that came under his observation during the exploring voyage in which he had the misfortune to have his vessel wrecked on the bar at the mouth of the Columbia. The navigation of the Columbia is rendered not only difficult, but perilous, by the great obstruction which this bar presents to vessels attempting to ascend the river; not only is the channel narrow and crooked, but the combined action of the waves of the ocean, and the current of the river, causes the bar to shift its position; consequently, no chart can be made that will be correct for any great length of time. Until this difficulty is obviated, by stationing competent pilots at the mouth, the entrance to the river will be extremely hazardous. Having once fairly entered the river, the navigation to Fort VanFOURTH SERIES, VOL. II.—3