upon them, and turn them back to perdition? "Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again." "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?"

To fallen angels, the sufferings of Christ in the room of his people afford fearful evidence of the hopelessness of their case. If God spared not his own Son, if justice could not relax to save him, how shall it abate its demands to save them? This may account for the deep interest Satan and his demons felt in Christ's mission and work; their eagerness to know whether this Jesus was the Messiah, and whether he could be diverted from his purpose to satisfy justice, by his death; and for all their machinations to thwart his plans for leading his sons to glory.

Is Jesus a confirming head of moral influences to the holy angels and the entire universe? By confirming head is, of course, meant, not that he redeemed angels, but that his sufferings stood in such relations to the Divine government, and to them under it, as to put an end to their probation, and place them beyond the possibility for ever of falling, as Diabolus and the demons fell. Until the resurrection of Christ, the conception is, that the holy angels were in a probationary or trial state, liable individually to sin, as Satan did, as Adam did, and perish under God's wrath. But after he had finished his work, and ascended to glory, that state ceased, and the Divine power and protection henceforth secures them for ever, as it does the saints redeemed;

so that they can go no more out, and are subject no more to the dread possibility of sinning, but rest in the ineffable felicity of a full assurance of life eternal.

To the affirmative of this question my mind strongly preponderates, and for the folllowing rea

sons:

The language of the text seems to imply it. "It became Him for whom are all things.' In this precise relation, as universal Proprietor and Governor, there was a suitableness and propriety in putting the cup into his hands. But where is the ground of this propriety, if the other parts of the universe are uninfluenced by it? How could they be uninterested in the glory of their Governor? But if they are to be both influenced and interested, it is difficult to see any other way, than that this glorious transaction confirms the Divine government and them in the blessedness of its protection.

Again, this idea corresponds with the interest felt by the holy angels in the concerns of Christ and his Church. "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister unto them who shall be heirs of salvation?" Do not they watch over the camp of Israel for good, and combat the legions of hell? Did not they herald the advent of their Lord Creator as our Lord Redeemer? Did they not guard his steps from the manger to the cross? Did they not cluster in embattled phalanx there, marking with intensest interest the agony in which he died? Did they not, on wings of light, bear the glad tidings of his resurrection to the regions of immortal day? Did they not now, and for the first time, learn from

the Church below the manifold wisdom of God, and understand those things into which they had long desired to look? Let it, then, be supposed that these heavenly hosts were, till this hour, on probation, and not assured that Satan might not yet prevail, and they fall and perish; but that now confirmation came, and their destiny is for ever safe. Oh! what a moment of joy to them! With what glad emotions they hail the rising of the Sun of Righteousness! The mystery of redemption is unveiled, and the mystery of confirmation thrills through the boundless universe!

My third reason for favouring this idea, is found in its own magnificence. It seems to me the brightest ray which shines from this Sun of Righteousness. It enhances the riches of his mercy, and magnifies the glory of his cross. "Our earth's aceldama-this field of blood" becomes the battle-ground on which is decided the fate of the universe. The groans of Gethsemane, and the agonies of the cross, establish the throne of Jehovah Jesus, and put into his nailpierced hand the sceptre of dominion over the entire realm of nature, and all the creatures of God worship him. Surely "it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings."

EFFICIENCY OF CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLE.

BY

THOS. SMYTH, D. D.

PASTOR OF THE SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, CHARLESTON, S. c.

Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.—Romans vi. 13, 14.

THE first thing which demands our attention, in unfolding the meaning of this passage of the Word of God, (which is so pregnant with meaning that we must pass by any introductory observations,) is the duty which is here laid down as binding upon all men. This duty, to which we are all summoned by the authority of this inspired and divinely commissioned ambassador from the courts of heaven, is expressed both affirmatively and negatively. We are admonished what that is which we are required to do, and also what that is from which we should abstain.

It is commanded that we shall not yield our members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. The word translated "yield," means to give up to the use and control of another. "Your members," include not only the organs of the body, but also the powers, faculties, and capacities of the mind, and is

used as a periphrasis for yourselves, that is, the whole man, as composed of a living body and a reasonable soul. These members we are not to yield as instruments unto sin. Sin is here personified as a monarch, ruler, or guide, and we are forbidden to allow to sin, in any of these capacities, the use or control of our mental or physical powers. When so employed, they are perverted, abused to a purpose contrary to their original design, and alienated from that service wherein they ought to be employed. If they are so devoted, voluntarily, and by our own choice, we are guilty of robbery, treachery, unfaithfulness, and disobedience, since we are stewards of these heavenly gifts, and responsible for their proper and intended use to the righteous Judge of all. Thus to yield them, therefore, as servants to sin, is a crime of inexcusable turpitude, for which we shall be held justly responsible at the bar of heaven. On the other hand, does sin lay siege to our hearts, and by the open assaults and fiery darts of grievous temptations, or by the secret wiles of more insinuating artifices, seek to gain possession of our citadel, and reduce us to a state of subjection and of vassalage? then are we to regard him as an usurper and a rebel, as without any right or title to such authority, and as one to whom on no conditions, and under no possible extremity, are we permitted to render our obeisance. Whatsoever may be the severity of his threatenings; whatsoever the strength and power with which he storms our hearts, and to whatever straits we may be brought by his long protracted warfare, yet at the peril of our soul's salvation let us not yield unto him. He that so yields