scanty closet, so as in fact not to need his comfort-loving neighbour to disturb his children by rising! The poor Widow, by the strength-inspiring process of wearying the unjust Judge, must be represented as, gradually at least, becoming conscious of such Sampson powers as to be able to retort on the heartless magistrate-Unjust Judge! I will ask thee no longer to avenge me of mine adversary; I am now able to punish him without thy help!' If it be, however, an essential feature in each of these parables respectively that the child's bread is the Father's actual gift; that the Host's supply has been positively obtained from his friend's store; that the Judge himself brings meet vengeance on the Widow's adversary-then the Lord unequivocally teaches prayer to be a real transaction, in good faith, between his Father in heaven and his brethren on earth;-according to his supreme authority, prayer does not create its own answers, bnt verily waits on God for them as his own rich and free gift. 4. Scripture Examples.-But how shall we make a selection from a treasury so munificently furnished? We cannot forget the patriarch Jacob, and his wrestling with the Angel, recorded in Gen. xxxii. 24-32. How incomparably graphic and eloquent Hosea's rehearsal of that hoary triumph of prevailing prayer! "He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God: yea, be had power over the angel, and prevailed; he wept and made supplication unto him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us; even the Lord God of hosts; the Lord is his memorial,' ch. xii. 3-5. It would be like holding the candle to the Sun to make any other comment on this princely prayer. Later on a remarkable instance of prayer attracts our eye, viz., that of Hannah praying for a son, 1 Sam. i. 27. For this child I prayed; and the LORD HATH GIVEN me my petition which I asked of HIM.' No reverent reader will deny the Lord's hand in this answer to prayer. Such a denial, were it conceivable, would render the very name Samuel, (viz. heard of God) a perpetual lie. Idle, indeed, were the question, was this not a miraculous answer to prayer? Pray tell us precisely where the miraculous begins; precisely where the hand of God takes hold of what are called natural laws; precisely what Deity can and cannot do without suspending ordinary laws and influences? But even then, remember, the question now discussed is not, are there now miraculous answers to prayer? but, are there now real 6 answers to prayer? And for the rest the most reasonable faith can best believe that it is a law (i. e. custom) of God, most natural, moral, spiritual, gracious and immutable, to answer the accepted petitions of His believing and obedient people It remains but to add the instance taken from the passionscenes of our adored Redeemer by the author of the epistle to the Hebrews-ch. v. 7, 8. Who in the days of His flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared. Though he were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered.' Here, under the solemn shadow of the cross, let us burst the last fetter that would restrain us from true prayer to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think. And here, too, let us pause for the present, being fully assured that if Scripture words, teaching, illustrations, and examples in their various meanings and powers conspire to sustain the Reality of Prayer, we may truly come with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.' Let the inquirer hasten to obey the Gospel, that he may have access to the Father through Jesus by the Spirit; and let the beloved brethren endeavour for another moon to ply with increased vigour the privilege and power of prayer; and then, if it seem needful, we can return to our theme and demonstrate that those reflex influences of prayer which some would exaggerate, are dependent for their existence on that direct prevalence with God which we have sought to evince immediately from the oracles of Divine truth. Liverpool. J. B. R. APOSTOLIC EXHORTATIONS. INTRODUCTION. In this series of short papers we hope in some measure to answer a twofold end; primarily, to inculcate on all the brotherhood the hortatory injunctions given by the apostles to the churches; and subordinately, to offer some small contribution to the brethren as to mode in exhortation. We do not propose to insult them with 'skeleton discourses,' nor by seeking their imitation; but we know that there is almost universally prevalent a radical mistake as to what constitutes scriptural exhortation. Current practice would make it appear that to exhort is to offer some prosy, mongrel com position, as like a modern sermon as possible. But nothing could be farther from the truth. Nelson's famous watchword-England expects every man to do his duty!' and Wellington's—' Up, guards, and at them!' are true exhortations, though by no means apostolic. But it is in sentiment only that the exhortations of the apostles differ from these. Brevity is an invariable characteristic of an exhortation; › extended length defeats the very intention of hortatory address. The intention always is to excite to action; but, as every one knows, this is best done by the sharpness, directness, and instantaneousness of the mental fire. Let any one scrutinize the apostolic letters, and he cannot fail to be struck with the unvarying illustration of this remark. Take the following examples :-'Let love be without dissimulation;'Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good ;' 'My beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord;' Examine yourselves whether you be in the faith; prove your own selves; know ye not your ownselves, that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates. Short as these are, they are not the shortest. Now why should these models be so entirely departed from, as that by the departure not more than one or two brethren have opportunity of addressing the church at a gathering? How many brethren, especially the young, are prevented speaking to the edification of the body by this pernicious deviation from all scripture rule and example. Let there be a return in this as in other articles of the faith, and no brother of any gift, however diffident, could excuse himself from the command to provoke to love and to good works. It will be said, that while this is true of exhortation strictly considered, yet as teaching must be combined in address, it necessarily becomes somewhat lengthy. There are no such necessities. There may be exhortation so manifest in itself as to render teaching or exposition simply ridiculous; and exposition, if it be what it should, ought to carry its own lessons. The mischief complained of arises from no necessity, but most commonly from using a text or theme drag-net fashion, gathering everything within reach into it, as if a host were to serve up us in one dish flesh and fowl, roast and boil, pudding and tart, so to satiate instead of satisfying? ED. Cloud of WitnesSES. HINDRANCES.-Working men have no peculiar fancy for the devotional services of your chapels. Very well, Paul did'nt begin his sermon on Mar's Hill by giving out the 63rd Hymn in the first book, common metre, and we'll do without singing, and prayer if needful. Working men won't listen to dreary sermons with texts. Well they perhaps will not object to listen to a lecture without a text. We give up nothing essential to the preaching of the gospel by giving up all these, chapels, devotional service, the sermon form, and the Scriptural starting point. We only fling aside accessories which we find to be hindrances. These things were established for helps; if they are proved not to be so, then to do away with them, is the true carrying out of the spirit which instituted them, and to continue them is the real contradiction to it. Boots are made to walk in; if they hinder walking, kick them off. Why should the preaching of the gospel be classed with things which are very precious and needful for the building up of the church, but which are only burdens, and a bore to the outlying masses whom we wish to reach? What diviue right in the work of preaching have darkness and stereotype? Here on the one hand are settled churches in their chapels, praying for the conversion of the world-and getting more of the masses into their buildings. Here on the other, are the people quite ready to come and listen on neutral ground-if only some things shall be laid aside, and some variety of tone and spirit be infused into the manner. If Mahommed is wise, he will go to the mountain, and leave some parts of his form of preaching safe in the vestry cupboard, till he comes back again. The Freeman. CHRIST'S ORDER.-There are manifestly three things which our Lord here distinctly enjoins his apostles to execute with regard to the nations, to wit, Mathetuein, Baptisein, Didaskein, that is, to convert them to the faith, to initiate the converts into the church by baptism, and to instruct the baptised in all the duties of the Christian life. Dr G. Campbell. CLERICISM. All the great religious movements which have blessed mankind-which have given an intellectual and a moral impulse to society, have been an outrage on the cherished ecclesiastical proprieties of the time. Religious routine, especially as represented in the clergy, has lent its whole strength to put them down. These attempts have sometimes succeeded, and sometimes failed. Where they have succeeded-as in Italy and Spain-we have rampant priestcraft, ignorance, retrogression, and national decay. Where they have failed, we have freedom, energy, religious light, and social progress. These facts read their own practical lesson, and one which has by no means yet become obsolete. Aberdeen Free Press. A FALSE PLEA.-When once the plea of impracticability is-though not avowedly, tacitly-admitted in some cases, it never fails to be gradually extended to other cases, and comes at last to undermine the authority of the whole. That this, to the great scandal of the Christian name, is become too much the way in regard to our Lord's precepts in all sects and denominations of Christians, is a truth too evident to admit of question. Dr G. Campbell. Poetry. NEW YEAR'S HYMN. WHILE the sun his path pursuing, So their lives resemble ours. Soon the leaves in verdure springing, Sweet though lark and thrush be singing, Joys and griefs alike are gone. As the river downwards streaming, Clouded now, now sunlit gleaming; Onwards to Eternity. Ye are wise, if nature's teaching Yond the scenes of rolling years, Joyful, as the prospect nears. H. M. Correspondence. THE TERMS OF SALVATION.-OBJECTIONS AND REJOINDER. MY DEAR BROTHER,-In the July No. of C. A. Vol. I. P. 127, it is written,—' The doctrine of baptism here expressly is, that its be lieving subject is saved-is forgiven. The ordinance is heaven's certificate of this.' The passages upon which these statements are founded, are Mark xvi. 16, He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved;' Acts ii. 38, Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.' These texts, I submit, do not warrant the deduction drawn. They represent baptism as an antecedent of salvation or forgiveness, and not as a consequent. If, as the Advocate states, baptism be heaven's certificate of forgiveness, it follows that forgiveness was bestowed by God, and possessed by the believer before baptism; but the passages named, indicate that baptism, as well as believing and repentance, is a prerequisite to the possession or enjoyment of salvation or remission. Nor am I aware of a passage in the New Testament upon which the idea of baptism being heaven's certificate of forgiveness can be legitimately based. But let me say, that on this subject, as on almost every subject taught in the christian Scriptures, I find great difficulty in assigning to it a definite and consistent position in the structure of Christianity. The passages mentioned, with two or three others, seem to present baptism as a condition of pardon; but from other portions of the New Testament we infer it is not. If baptism be, in the same sense as belief, essential to salvation, we should expect to find the primitive preachers invariably and perpetually uniting baptism with faith when expounding the terms of forgiveness. But no such uniformity is found. In addressing his fellow-countrymen upon one occasion, Peter said, 'Repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out. To the Hebrews |