Instead of pondering the discoveries of nature, and anxiously inquiring what God requires of him, he perversely shuts his eyes against the truth which would guide him, and "loves darkness rather than light, because his deeds are evil." If you follow not any highly-wrought theory, but mingle with mankind as they are, and look at the stern reality, you will be unable to deny the correctness of this statement. Leave man then to find his way by the light of nature, and he will infallibly lose it. Or tell him in a circuitous, indirect manner what is his duty, and he will never perform it. Assure him that history and providence prescribe a course of virtue, and he may probably answer that his passions, which it is perfectly natural to obey, urge him in the path of vice.

He needs some authoritative message which he cannot dispute, to put an end to his quibblings and his sophistry. He needs some weighty motives which he cannot withstand to impel him to the performance of what he knows to be right. He needs some irresistible moral power to conquer his will, purify his desires, and elevate his taste. Without these, history and nature will never develop the elements of beauty and holiness which lie buried in his soul; but passion and temptation will develop all the seeds of evil, and hurry him along a course which is dark with wretchedness and ends in death. The dreams and theories of philosophers will never teach him who is accustomed to do evil to seek to do well. As duty is pressed on his attention, it must be enforced by the solemn assertion, "Thus saith the Lord." As his stubborn will and proud spirit are plied with arguments, the sentence of the All-true must come and clench the whole, "he that doeth well to the resurrection of the just, and he

that doeth evil to the resurrection of damnation." As his heart is assailed with reasons why it should willingly yield to its Author and Father, and cheerfully do his bidding, this omnipotent appeal must point all the rest—“ Herein is love, not that we loved him, but that he first loved us, and gave his Son to be a propitiation for us." And as the soul long wedded to sin hears the warning voice, but feels no disposition to abandon the forbidden pleasure, some gentle, yet omnipotent power, must be applied to conquer its reluctance and bring it to a stand. This only the gospel can do: it comes with the authority of the Supreme; it exhibits truth in matchless beauty and glory; it presents motives of infinite weight and solemn sanction; it wields a moral power such as the universe does not furnish beside; it promises the Eternal Spirit to subdue the will and to implant the principles of a heavenly life. And when the advocates of the new theories of the day tell us of the capability of man to learn the truth from self and society, nature and science, genius and philosophy, and affirm that he needs no other light to guide him, but under this is pressing on to perfection, and yet in answer to our challenge can point to no large and general results which support their assertions, we will triumphantly direct them to the Chinaman and the Hindoo, the African and the Tahitian, to man in every clime and under every circumstance, when brought under the influence of the gospel; will show that then he is really enlightened, purified, ennobled, blest; and will adopt as our own the solemn determination. of the apostle, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of my Lord Jesus Christ, whereby the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world!"

EFFECT OF THE MINISTRY.

"AH!" said Simeon, as he delivered back the adorable Babe into the arms of his mother, "this child is set for the falling and rising again of many in Israel." The same may be said of the destiny of this young minister. Some― O that it may be many!-some will hail the hour they heard him when they come to die, and the memory of it will delight them through all eternity. Others -may you all go home and ask, “Lord, is it I?"-others will execrate the day he arrived among them. Of all the objects that will haunt their wretched imaginations hereafter, the chief will be the figure of this pulpit; and of all the food for the worm that never dies, and the fuel for the fire that never shall be quenched, the principal will be the serImons which he has delivered in vain from it. His ministry cannot be neutral: it must be a blessing or a curse. It cannot be inefficient: it must either kill or cure-save or destroy. "For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish. To the one, we are a savour of death unto death; and to the other, the savour of life unto life; and who is sufficient for these things?"-Jay, in an Ordination Sermon.

LOOK HIGHER.

A LADY applied to an eminent philanthropist of Bristol, Richard Reynolds, on behalf of a little orphan boy. After he had given liberally, she said, "When he is old enough, I will teach him to name and thank his benefacter." "Stop," said the good man, "thou art mistaken. We do not thank the clouds for rain. Teach him to look higher, and thank HIM who giveth both the clouds and the rain."

FASHIONABLE MANNERS.

THERE is a set of people whom I cannot bear the pinks of fashionable pro

priety-whose every word is precise, and whose every movement is unexceptionable; but who, though versed in all the categories of polite behaviour, have not a particle of soul or of cordiality about them. We allow that their manners may be abundantly correct. There may be elegance in every gesture, and gracefulness in every position; not a smile out of place, and not a step that would not bear the measurement of the severest scrutiny. This is all very fine; but what I want is the heart and the gaiety of social intercourse-the frankness that spreads ease and animation around itthe eye that speaks affability to all, that chases timidity from every bosom, and tells every man in the company to be confident and happy. This is what I conceive to be the virtue of the text ("Be courteous"), and not the sickening formality of those who walk by rule, and would reduce the whole of human life to a wire-bound system of misery and constraint.-Dr. Chalmers' Sermons in Posthumous Works.

PREVALENCE OF SIN.

THERE are two ways in which iniquities may prevail against the Christianthe first is in the growing sense of his guilt, the second is in the power of their acting. This prevalence cannot be entire, for sin shall not have dominion over them; but it may be occasional and partial. There are two ways, according to Scripture, in which God purges our transgressions; and they always go together. The one is by pardoning mercy-thus David prays: "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean." Thus the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin. The other is by sanctify. ing grace: "I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean." And this is as much the work of God as the former. He subdues our iniquities, as well as forgives them.-Jay.

PARDON OF SIN.

GOD never pardons one sin, but he pardons all; and we dishonour him more by not trusting in him for complete forgiveness, than we did by sinning against him. Christ took up all our sins, and bore them in his own body on the cross; and God cannot punish twice, or demand a second satisfaction to his justice. "Nothing can pacify an offended conscience but that which satisfied an offended God," says Henry; and well may that which satisfied an offended God pacify an offended conscience.Adam.

A SOLEMN THOUGHT.

READER, you may die any moment, and you are as near to heaven or hell as you are to death.-Rev. J. A. James.

THE ROOT OF THE EVIL.

THE moralists of our age, whether in lessons from the academic chair, or by the insinuating address of fiction and poetry while they try to mend and embellish human life, have never struck one effective blow at that ungodliness of the heart which is the germ of all the distempers in human society.-Dr. Chal

mers.

LOOK UP!

A LITTLE boy went to sea with his father, to learn to be a sailor. One day his father said to him, "Come, my boy, you will never be a sailor if you don't learn to climb; let me see if you can get up the mast." The boy, who was a nimble little fellow, soon scrambled up; but when he got to the top and saw at what a height he was, he began to be frightened, and called out, "O father! I shall fall; I am sure I shall fall; what am I to do?" "Look up, look up, my boy," said his father, "if you look down you will be giddy, but if you keep looking up to the flag at the top of the mast, you will descend safely." The boy followed his father's advice, and reached the bottom with ease. Learn from this little story to look more to Jesus and less to yourselves.-Christian Treasury.

THE EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

A PERSON discovering the proofs of the Christian religion, is like an heir finding the deeds of his estate. Shall he officiously condemn them as counterfeit, or cast them aside without examination?-Pascal.

THE CROSS OF CHRIST. THE cross of Christ is the sweetest burden I ever bare; it is such a burden as wings are to a bird, or sails to a ship. -Rutherford.

VOL. XXVII.

410

THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

BY THE REV. JAMES GILBORNE LYONS, LL.D., OF PHILADELPHIA.

(From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal.)

Now gather all our Saxon bards,

Let harps and hearts be strung,

To celebrate the triumphs of

Our own good Saxon tongue;

For stronger far than hosts that march
With battle-flags unfurled,

It goes, with FREEDOM, THOUGHT, and TRUTH,
To rouse and rule the world.

Stout Albion learns its household lays
On every surf-worn shore,
And Scotland hears it echoing far

As Orkney's breakers roar-
From Jura's crags and Mona's hills
It floats on every gale,
And warms with eloquence and song
The homes of Innisfail.

On many a wide and swarming deck
It scales the rough wave's crest,
Seeking its peerless heritage-

The fresh and fruitful West;
It climbs New England's rocky steeps,
As victor mounts a throne;
Niagara knows and greets the voice

Still mightier than its own.

It spreads where winter piles deep snows
On bleak Canadian plains,

And where, on Essequibo's banks,
Eternal summer reigns:

It glads Acadia's misty coasts,
Jamaica's glowing isle,

And bides where, gay with early flowers,
Green Texan prairies smile.

It lives by clear Itasca's lake,

Missouri's turbid stream,

Where cedars rise on wild Ozark,
And Kanza's waters gleam:
It tracks the loud swift Oregon

Through sunset valleys rolled,
And soars where Californian brooks
Wash down their sands of gold.

It sounds in Borneo's camphor groves,
On seas of fierce Malay,

In fields that curb old Ganges' flood,

And towers of proud Bombay:
It wakes up Aden's flashing eyes,
Dusk brows, and swarthy limbs-
The dark Liberian soothes her child
With English cradle hymns.
Tasmania's maids are wooed and won
In gentle Saxon speech;
Australian boys read Crusoe's life
By Sydney's sheltered beach:

It dwells where Afric's southmost capes
Meet oceans broad and blue,
And Nieuveld's rugged mountains gird
The wide and waste Karroo.

It kindles realms so far apart,

That, while its praise you sing,
These may be clad with autumn's fruits,
And those with flowers of spring:
It quickens lands whose meteor-lights
Flame in an arctic sky,

And lands for which the Southern Cross
Hangs its orbed fires on high.

It goes with all that prophets told,
And righteous kings desired,
With all that great apostles taught,

And glorious Greeks admired;
With Shakspeare's deep and wondrous verse,
And Milton's loftier mind,

With Alfred's laws, and Newton's lore,

To cheer and bless mankind.

Mark, as it spreads, how deserts bloom,
And error flees away,

As vanishes the mist of night

Before the star of day!
But grand as are the victories

Whose monuments we see,

These are but as the dawn which speaks
Of noontide yet to be.

Take heed, then, heirs of Saxon fame,
Take heed, nor once disgrace
With deadly pen or spoiling sword
Our noble tongue and race.
Go forth prepared in every clime

To love and help each other,
And judge that they who counsel strife
Would bid you smite-a brother.

Go forth, and jointly speed the time,
By good men prayed for long,
When Christian states, grown just and wise,
Will scorn revenge and wrong;
When earth's oppressed and savage tribes

Shall cease to pine or roam,

All taught to prize these English wordsFAITH, FREEDOM, HEAVEN, and HOME.

1 Thess. v. 21.-" PROVE ALL THINGS, HOLD

FAST THAT WHICH IS GOOD."

STAND fast, prove all things, hold
Whate'er thou findest good;
If thou believest,-be thou bold,
Though by the World withstood!

Stand fast, and wherefore doubt?

What turns thy feet aside?
Doth gathering Error from without
Flow like a whelming tide?

Do ancient landmarks seem
Unworthy or unsure;
Is old profession but a dream,
No more in light t' endure?

And is the Sacred Roll

Less glorious than before, Less fitted to the faltering soul, Diminished in its store?

Ah no!-but make not Man
Interpreter of Heaven;-
Stand fast-where Faith began,
All hearts to CHRIST be given!
J. R. LEIFCHILD.

The TEN YEARS' CONFLICT. Being the HISTORY of the DISRUPTION of the CHURCH of SCOTLAND. By ROBERT BUCHANAN, D.D. In 2 vols. 8vo.

Blackie and Son.

THE great secession from the Scottish Establishment, in 1843, must ever occupy a conspicuous place on the page of ecclesiastical history. The struggle which led to it was a remarkable one: and, not only on account of its inherent interest, the attention and sympathy which it awakened at the time, and the mighty influence which, in its consequences, it cannot fail to exert on the cause of Christ; but much more for the sake of the great principles involved in it, and the valuable lessons which it teaches, it demands a distinct and imperishable memorial. All honour to the men, who, in spite of any defects attaching to their views, yet made so noble a sacrifice to conscience; and have given to the world so splendid a proof of the inherent power of Christianity,-of the living energy there is in it, when freed from the fetters of the state, to achieve the most magnificent results! Our readers need not be told that we are no friends to the connection between church and state. persuaded that it cannot exist without a greater or less sacrifice of the independence and freedom of the church, and that however modified, it must tend to cramp her energies, diminish her usefulness, and deaden her vital power. The history of all state churches bears witness to the truth of this assertion, and so does the memorable struggle whose origin and progress and end are recorded in the volumes before us. We believe that our brethren of the Free Church are now themselves so far convinced of this, that though they still adhere to the principle of an establishment, they have no hope of seeing their ideal of one realized, till the world has been converted to Christ. But even they must admit that an establishment will be unnecessary then. When the church has converted the world, she will have no need of the patronage of the state. If she can fight the

We are

battle without the aid of the secular arm, she will have no need of that arm to lean on after the victory has been won.

Dr. Buchanan, in these volumes, has given us an admirably clear and masterly exposition of the causes which led to the "conflict," and the varied aspects which it exhibited from its commencement, in 1833, to its issue in 1843. His work has, in many respects, greatly pleased us. Though written by a minister of the Free Church, who views the case from his own peculiar position, it is yet written in a spirit of moderation and fairness, while the interest of the narrative is sustained throughout. The readers of these volumes, while gazing on a conflict which was waged with growing keenness through ten successive years, will not be pained with details of ghastly wounds and slaughtered heaps and

66

garments rolled in blood," for the weapons of sharpest temper that were used in it were the tongue and pen, and the decisions of courts of law. Wielded, however, by spirits of no common mould, they will find that they were sharp enough to inflict wounds on the cause of error, which the lapse of time will be unable to heal, and to achieve a victory whose renown will be imperishable. As for the veterans who took part in the conflict, and won a triumph so utterly unlike what they expected, and opposed to what they wished; they will find them now, if driven from the tiends and glebes and manses of the Establishment, yet possessing without it an independence and a range of usefulness which they sought in vain within it, and, we trust, satisfied and happy in "the liberty wherewith Christ hath made them free." The church with which they were formerly connected could not have been called "the FREE Church of Scotland."

The Scottish people are remarkable for the strength with which they grasp a principle, and the dogged earnestness with which they seek to maintain it. It is not easy to drive them from a position when once they have fairly taken it. Then, the more one attempts to move them, the more immovable they beThis quality is valuable when exer

come.