evident, from certain passages, that testimony was given, while the prophets required, like other men, to inquire respecting the meaning of the oracle. Not only is God said to have spoken to the fathers by the prophets, but that the inspired men themselves "searched what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, did signify when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow." Man, indeed, had no will in the matter; for "the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke, moved by the Holy Spirit."

So was it with the Apostles. Not merely was it promised them that the Spirit would guide them into all the truth; not merely did God reveal unto them, by the Spirit, the hidden wisdom; not merely had they received the Spirit which is of God, that they might know the things freely given to the saints by God, but "these things," says Paul," also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Spirit teacheth."

The Spirit of prophecy, or of inspiration, is thus clearly stated to be a teacher, not of ideas, nor of wisdom merely, but of words.

This did not, indeed, supersede the natural intellectual functions of the inspired men. It was still left to them, as it was to others, to compare spiritual things with spiritual," and, indeed, to employ all the powers of mind common to man. It is, therefore, not implied that everything they spoke was inspired, but only that what they did speak by inspiration was, and is the very word of God.

This apprehended, we have not only clear views of what we ought to understand by "the inspired writings," but also to allow, without any sacrifice of our faith in said Scriptures, whatever philological research may prove respecting the Bible.

Keeping in view the definition of inspiration just submitted, we are quite prepared to be told whatever the objector or sceptic may have to say against us as most surely believing in divine revelation. He may tell us that much in the Bible is mere history, not requiring such inspiration to its being placed on record. Be it so. He may say inspiration is an impossibility; but to say so is not to convince us that it is impossible for that God who gave man the powers of speech either to speak to him or by him. He may point us to inaccuracies manifold in our English Scriptures, but we have simply to remind him that this does not affect the question. Nay more, that in view of the inspiration contended for, such inaccuracies as he can point out are precisely such as are to be expected, and would not, though twice as numerous, affect the credibility of the record as authentic as regards history, and inspired as regards revelation. To account for all that can justly be charged against the Bible in this respect, the three causes, transcription, transmission, and translation are amply sufficient.

Be it ours, then, to give the most earnest heed to that verified word of prophecy which shines as a light in a dark place. Be it ours to realise that the Holy Scriptures are able to make wise unto salvation, through the faith which is in Christ Jesus. Be it ours to remember that all these Scriptures, given by inspiration of God, are profitable even to the extent of perfecting the man of God, and of adapting him for all the good work to which he is called. ED.

THE REFORMATION did not restore the Church to New Testament order. This remains to be done. Paul's command reads, "Keep the ordinances as I delivered them to you." Calvin's admission reads, "The Church did since the beginning grant unto herself the liberty to change the ordinances."

T. H. M.

MODERN EVANGELISTIC EFFORT IS DEFECTIVE, in not leading the inquirer into a Scriptural position. The action of the present day implies that the procedure of the Apostles in carrying out the Saviour's commission was wrong. The modern preacher refuses to act upon Mark xvi. 16, and Acts ii. 38. He arouses the careless to inquiry, but declines giving the inquirer the answer given by Peter on Pentecost. The result is one of three things; either a relapse into indifferency, or a state of mental distraction, or a doubtful and imperfect peace.

T. H. M.

CONVICTION IS NOT CONVERSION.-It is questionable whether any man is without convictions of sin. The fact is "All have sinned," let men disguise it as they will, and "conscience the meanwhile accuses or excuses. But to be convicted or convinced is one thing, and to be converted is another. Conviction, doubtless, is necessary to conversion; but conviction is no more itself conversion than are the plans of a house the house itself. Yet many imagine that because of their passing through seasons of more or less deep convictions they may conclude themselves converted; as well might a man think himself a soldier because he had some thoughts of enlisting. Conversion in the Apostolic sense is the personal turning of the sinner to the Saviour; it is his surrender to the Lord Jesus to be saved, protected, guided, and governed by him. It is not a turning to a human party, sect, church, or system, but a personal turning to the one personal Saviour of men-the Lord Jesus Christ. Hence, it is said of the first converts, a great number believed and turned to the Lord." They not only believed upon him, but turned unto him; they believed and were baptized. T. H. M. PRAYER FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT.-"Men ought always to pray;" but let him that prays "ask in faith." Let him seek " access with confidence by the faith of Him" who said, "No man cometh unto the Father but by me," for "how shall one call on him in whom he has not believed?" The truth is, Christian prayer is the exclusive privilege of the disciples of Christ; they alone can "draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having their hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and their bodies washed with pure water." "Through Jesus they have access by the Spirit to the Father." They have "received the Spirit of adoption by which they cry Abba, Father." Having received the Spirit, it is not theirs to pray for the Spirit; they are enjoined not to grieve, not to quench the Spirit; but they are nowhere taught to pray for the Spirit any more than they are instructed to pray that the Saviour may be sent to die for them. Since, "after they believed they were sealed with the Holy Spirit," they are not to pray that others may receive the like gift while unbelieving and disobedient. It is theirs to bear in mind that the Saviour kept his word and will keep to it, when "he spoke of the Spirit which they who believe on him should receive," saying "Come unto me and drink," and to those who did believe, "keep my commandments, and I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot

receive." Let it be remembered that those thus addressed did keep the Saviour's command-they did wait in Jerusalem till they received, as he said, "not many days hence," the promised Spirit. Having thus, themselves, received the Spirit, they did not continue to pray for it, nor did they pray that the unconverted might receive it, but they plainly told all inquirers that they would receive the Spirit by that submission to the Messiah which he himself ordained in these words"Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." The promise thus made, on these express terms, the Apostle affirmed, to be not only to those personally addressed, but to their descendants; and not only to the Jews of that and succeeding generaations, but "to as many as are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." God calls all by the Gospel, "as the Holy Spirit saith, To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts." Why should these laws of the new and everlasting covenant be violated? Why should the people be given to suppose that they must wait and pray to God for that Spirit which he is prepared to give them whenever they give themselves to his Son, as he has himself ordained? Reader, understand that if you have not the Spirit-the Spirit of Christ-of adoption-of a child—that by which in filial confidence you can go to God crying Abba, Father, it is simply because you have not received that Son, who gives the right to all who receive him to become the children of God.

T. H. M.

HERESY IS NOT AN Opinion, but a Sect or Party. Paul confessed himself of that Heresy, Sect, or Party, "everywhere spoken against." All men are Heretics, for all belong to some party or other, whether Christian, pseudo-Christian, non-Christian, or anti-Christian. The Lord Messiah formed his own party; and all who believed in him, and placed themselves under him according to his own law (Mark xvi. 16, Acts ii. 38), formed the Christian Heresy or Sect. Thus were his "disciples called Christians;" and thus did his Apostle deprecate the formation of Heresies, Sects, or Parties among themselves, under human leaders. But this the apostacy-Papal and Protestant-has not shunned to do; and hence, to the dishonour of the Christian name, the violation of the Scriptures, the rending of the Church, the staggering of the inquiring, and the non-conversion of the world, we hear the oft-repeated barbarism of "various denominations of Christians." T. H. M.

"COMMUNION SUNDAY" is not a Scriptural term. Every first day of the week was with the Primitive Church a communion day; i... "The disciples came together on the first day of the week to break bread;" Acts xx. 7. This was a principal, if not the principal, object of their coming together. There is no such thing in the New Testament as a Christian church meeting on the Lord's Day without breaking the memorial loaf. On Pentecost "those who gladly received the Apostles' word were baptized, and the same day were added to them about three thousand souls, and they (thus added) continued stedfastly in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and breaking of bread and prayers." All these went together, as the joint privilege of the baptized. Hence such testimonies as the following:-Calvin.-"Every week at least the table of the Lord should have been spread for Christian assemblies, and the promises declared by which, in partaking of it, we might be spiritually fed." Doddridge." It plainly appears from

the most credible accounts of the Primitive Church that the Lord's Supper was used much more frequently than with us, and that it made a part of their worship every Lord's Day." Baxter.-"It is a part of the settled order for the Lord's Day worship; and omitting it maimeth and altereth the worship of the day." Charnock.-"That it was every Lord's Day is out of all question, by the ancient writings declaring the custom of the Church," Brown, of Haddington.-"The means by which the unfrequent administration of this ordinance appears to me to have been introduced into the Church do not savour of the God of truth. The causes that occasioned its introduction appear to have been pride, superstition, covetousness, and carnal complaisance."

NEW YEAR HYMN.

When the brown leaf, on autumn day,
From tree and sapling wafts away,-
And when, with course fulfilled, the year
From man and stripling passes sere,—
Give praise to Him, whose fost'ring care
The latent leafbud doth prepare;
Whose goodness bids for us appear
The germ of a succeeding year.
With genial touch His hand unseen
Unswathes the vernal leaflets green;
By His almighty power controll'd
Our budding year doth so unfold.
Praise Him who rears the sprouting plume,
Extends the shoot, expands the bloom,-
Who doth our frames invigorate,
And blossoms of the mind dilate.

Let us devote ourselves anew,

With willing hearts imbibe the dew
Which in His word distils, that so

In faith, and hope, and love we grow.
Then, not encumbering the ground,

Like clustering vines we shall be crown'd,
And, bearing fruit to holiness,

Be gathered to eternal bliss.

Cloud of Witnesses.

T. H. M.

S.

AIMLESS PRAYER.-How pointless are the prayers we often hear. They have no aim, and do no execution. It may be a time of declension or revival, a day of thanksgiving or fasting; it may be family worship or a church-business meeting; it matters not, you shall hear pretty much the same prayer. And if you come back five years after, you shall find the good man still going over his old beat, as if the Church and the world and he had made no progress, and suffered no change. A poor formalist, whose prayer was the same from Sunday to Sunday, was asked to pray with a sick woman. Hearing him begin, and aware of all that was to be gone through, she cried out "Oh, come to my case-come to my case!"

BROTHERLY LOVE should unite east and west, for the same sun which rises in the east visits also the west. In the morning the east has more light; in the evening the west has more. At noonday, east and west are equal. It remains yet for brotherly love to bring about the noonday of the church.-J. Pulsford.

VALUE OF THE GOSPEL.-About six months ago, I was attacked by a violent fever, and, in my own apprehensions, for about two days was on the borders of eternity. I never before felt my mind so calm and happy. Filled with the most overwhelming sense of my own unworthiness, my mind was supported merely by a faith in Christ crucified. I would not for the world have parted with that text, "The blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin." I never before saw such a beauty and grandeur in the way of salvation by the death of Christ as on that occasion. I am fully persuaded the evangelical doctrines alone are able to support the mind in the near views of death and judgment.— Robert Hall.

THE REFINER. Some time ago, in Dublin, a few ladies, who met together for Christian fellowship and mutual edification, read the 3d chapter of the Prophet Malachi. On coming to the 2d verse, one of them gave it as her opinion, that "the fuller's soap," and "the refiner's fire," were only different images intended to convey the same view of the sanctifying influence of the grace of Christ. From this opinion another of the ladies differed, observing that there was something remarkable in the expression in the third verse-" He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver." To this they all assented, and as the lady was going into town, she promised to see a silversmith, and report to them what he should say on the subject. She went, and without telling him the object of her visit, begged to know the process of refining silver, which he fully described to her. "But do you sit, sir?" "Oh! yes, madam, I must sit, with my eyes steadily fixed on the furnace; since, if the silver remain too long, it is sure to be injured." She at once saw the beauty, and comfort too, of the expression. "He shall sit, as a refiner and purifier of silver." Christ sees it needful to put his children into the furnace; but he is seated by the side of it. His eye is steadily intent on the work of purifying; and his wisdom and his love are both engaged to do all in the best manner for them. Their trials do not come at random, but are the wise and gracious appointments of their Heavenly Father; and the very "hairs of their head are all numbered." As the lady was returning to her friends with the issue of her interview, the silversmith called her back, and said he had forgotten to mention one thing, that he only knew that the process of purifying was complete by seeing his own image in the silver. When Christ sees his own image in his people, his work of purifying is complete. Christian reader, art thou one of his tried and afflicted people?—then hear what he saith to thee in his word :-Psa. lxvi. 10; xciv. 12. Job. v. 17. Pro. xvii. 3. Zech. xiii. 9. Dan. iii. 25-27. Jno. xv. 12. 1 Pet. i. 7 Tit. ii. 14. 2 Tim. ii. 21. 1 Cor. xi. 32. Pet. v. 10. Eph. v. 27. Heb. xii. 6-11.

Rev. iii. 19. Jude 24.

TRUE ZEAL.-What more shall I add, my brethren, to excite your liberality? Could I take you severally into some of the mansions of misery in our city, and show you the pallet where the child of want and sorrow is lying, whose former condition of life makes the idea of an alms-house afflicting, and whose distresses are cheered only by the