Thus upheld by the good hope of the gospelthus having displayed in lovely concord the diversified grace of the Christian profession-thus having been abundantly refreshed by the consolations of Christ-this blessed sufferer-this ransomed sinner -this victorious believer fell asleep in the arms of her Saviour and her God. She heard, and gladly obeyed the call of her Lord, "Come up hither.' Lay down the cross, and take the crown.'

"TO HIM THAT OVERCOMETH WILL I GRANT TO SIT WITH ME IN MY THRONE, EVEN AS I ALSO OVERCAME, AND AM SET DOWN WITH MY FATHER IN HIS THRONE." 1

1 Rev. iii. 21.

CHAPTER VII.

REMARKS.

THE Writer, in bringing this interesting sketch to a close, ventures to crave further indulgence of his Reader in drawing out a few points of important and suitable application.

I. The review of Miss Graham's painful, though temporary, apostacy marks the great moment of being well-grounded in the elementary principles of the Gospel. A few hints may be here suggested to the inquiring and serious mind. First—the danger of a cavilling temper. Here lurks the first rising of the spirit of infidelity. Miss Graham's natural character was specially open to this temptation. Indeed this is the fleshly indulgence of every intellectual mind undisciplined by the principles of the Gospel. It gratifies the love of distinction. It is the worship of self, that worst idol, that most subtle enemy of vital religion. "Vain man would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass's colt" 1-is the Divine

1 Job xi. 12.
0 5

and pointed illustration of the folly and littleness of this natural principle of the heart. Solid satisfaction and rest in the Scriptural revelation will only be found in cultivating what Calvin wisely calls

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a kind of learned ignorance”—a well-instructed contentment to be ignorant of what God has foreborne to declare. But to begin with the speculative instead of the practical truths of Revelation, and to insist upon an explanation of its difficulties as a pre-requisite to the acknowledgment of its authority, and personal application of its truthsthis spirit resists faith, the appointed medium of Divine light; and thus gives to infidelity all its force, and leaves the heart the unconscious victim of its own delusions. The more we are disentangled from speculative inquiries, and occupied in the pursuit of Scriptural truth, the more settled will be our conviction of the genuineness of the testimony, and our consequent enjoyment of its privileges. Let us not therefore trifle with temptation, by suffering the objections of a cavilling infidelity to "lodge within

us."

Let

Let us instantly bring them to the test of conscience," to the law and to the testimony." us "resist the devil, and he will flee from us. Secondly-we would inculcate an implicit faith in the Divine Record. And here we trace the source

1 Instit. Book iii. chap. xxi. § 2. In a subsequent allusion to the subject, he justly denominates the eager appetite for hidden knowledge to be a species of madness,' c. xxiii. § 8.

2 Isa. viii. 20.

3 James iv. 7.

2

of all the sin and misery that have deluged the world for nearly six thousand years." God's unchangeable declaration-"Thou shalt surely die"was diluted to an uncertainty. Thus when confidence in the word of God was weakened, Satan's lie easily prevailed. On the other hand, how fully did Miss Graham's unreserved reliance on the promise" Ask, and it shall be given you"-recover her fine mind to its true position; entrenched upon the supreme authority of Scripture; prostrate in a sense of her ignorance; honouring her God, and honoured by him, in a trembling reverential submission to his word. How many cavilling questions arise in the defect of this spirit! The difficulties which cannot be presently explained are considered reasonable grounds for unbelief. Man, under the pretence of a desire to satisfy his doubts, rebels against what he does not understand, and begins to "reply against God."3 But herein consists the important difference between the caviller and the sincere inquirer. The one questions, speculates, and is dissatisfied. The other in the consciousness of his "blindness," is willing to be "brought by a way that he knew not, and to be led in paths that he had not known."4 He follows under the guidance of the Spirit of Truth, like Abraham under the direction of Providence, step by step in implicit faith.

5

'Gen. ii. 17. iii. 3.

2 See chap. ii. and comp. Isa. lxvi. 2.

4 Isa. xlii. 16.

3 Rom. ix. 23.

5 Heb. xi. 8.

He asks not "How can these things be?"— But-" Thus saith the Lord"- determined all his difficulties without gain-saying. And this practical acknowledgment of the supremacy of Scripture is the just demand of God. We must not, according to the principles of Neology, degrade the authority of his word, by subjecting it to trial at the bar of reason. We must not descend from our high vantage position of faith, to the lower ground of disputation. At once admitting the Divine claim of Scripture, we must yield to it our unreserved homage. The question is not- What thinkest thou?'-but- -" how readest thou?"2 This is the humility of faith-the child-like spirit of the gospel-the evidence of the conversion of the heart to God. "Whosoever shall" thus "humble himself as a little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven."3 The enriching light of Divine teaching, dispels many difficulties of the reasoning mind. "If the eye be single, the whole body shall be full of light."4 "Sitting with Mary at Jesus' feet," and " learning of our meek and lowly" teacher, we shall find"-instead of uncertainty, confusion, and wretchedness-"rest unto our souls."5

1 John iii. 9.

3 Matt. xviii. 3, 4.

2 Luke x. 26.

4 Ibid. vi. 22.

5 Luke x. 39. Matt. xi. 29. We are tempted here to give one further quotation from Miss Graham's Mathematical Manuscript. Speaking of Locke's Doctrine of Intermediate Principles, (i. e. principles established upon acknowledged