dents forbid us to hope that they are in possession of some of the most im portant of these requisites. "Want of missionary spirit is a melancholy symptom in a Church. But there are other signs that excite more alarm and diminish the prospect of any great or extensive revival. There is a spreading dissatisfaction with oldfashioned and scriptural Christianity. There are many who are tired of the monotony of manna, and long after some of the more stimulating viands of Egypt. Hence, some turn back to the ceremony and symbolism of Rome, and the sentimentalism of Mariolatry. Others here, as well as on the Continent, explain away the essential doctrines of Christianity, such as inspiration, vicarious sacrifice, justification by faith, the resurrection of the body, and seek a new theory more ideal and more philosophical. There is a decided and extensive movement amongst Dissenters, as well as Churchmen, led on by men of great powers and attainments, apparently the antipodes of Popery or High Churchmanship, but as much opposed to evangelical doctrine as Popery itself, and more indulgent to scepticism than to orthodoxy. "Hitherto we have only reasoned from the past and present to the future. But there is something more certain to guide us in looking into futurity, and calculating the results of present activity. The New Testament describes the nature of the present dispensation, and the circumstances of the great consummation. It speaks of the present as only of an election-dispensation, and portrays its character, as such, from the beginning to the end. The ministry of the Son of God proved effectual only to a few. His promises are to a little flock. His prediction is, that the gospel shall be preached in all nations for a testimony. St James' expectation from God's mercy to the Gentiles was, that He would take out of them a people for His name.' St Paul's experience was, that his preaching of Christ crucified was to some a stumblingblock, to others foolishness, and only to them that were called, the power of God and the wisdom of God: to some a savour of life unto life; to others, of death unto death. Even when whole nations became nominally Christian, the majority were not more spiritual than if they had remained heathen. And such is the case at present. And the New Testament tells us that such it shall continue, or rather become worse, as the time of the end approaches. Christ describes the whole Church as in a state of slumber at the time of His advent-all the virgins asleep, but half of them altogether unfit for His kingdom. He declares that men shall be as careless and unaware of coming judgment as in the days of Noah and Lot. Paul told the Ephesian elders, how grievous wolves should enter in among them, and not spare the flock. He warned Timothy that in the last days perilous times should come, and that one characteristic of the defection should be the form of godliness without the power. Peter foretold that there should be in the last days false teachers, and ungodly Christians, as well as scoffers, walking after their own lusts. St John draws a picture still more gloomy, when he says, that all whose names are not written in the book of life shall worship the beast. The New Testament makes no announcement of the world's deliverance, or the Church's perfection, brought about by the gradual progress of preaching and similar agency; but, on the contrary, speaks of the last days of His dispensation as the worst, and the end similar to that of the antediluvian, the patriarchal, and the Jewish. The thing that hath been is the thing that shall be.' "It has pleased God in times past to make use of the Jews as the depositaries of His oracles, the instruments for conveying blessing to the world. He has preserved them in long ages of dispersion and unparalleled calamity. He ordained that their fall should be the riches of the world. He has promised that their receiving again shall be as life from the dead. He is not a man that he should lie, nor the son of man that he should repent. Hath he said, and shall he not do it? hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?' The Church of the future is the Church of Jerusalem; the destined regenerators of the world are the converted Jews. They shall be as the dew amongst many nations, and fill the face of the world with fruit. What, then, is our duty as Gentile believers? May it not be said that, if we are not to convert the world, all our Bible societies and missionary institutions are useless? Far from it. Our duty is just that of the apostles them. selves our calling that of the Son of God-to preach the gospel and help to gather in the remnant-to remember that the soul of one sinner is of more value than ten thousand worlds, and could be redeemed with nothing less than the blood of the Saviour-to persevere with all diligence in doing the Lord's bidding, to preach the gospel to every creature, and especially in calling the Jews to repentance and faith, and to leave to the Lord the measure of fruit which He will vouchsafe to our labours. Thankful to be instrumental in saving one soul from hell, though it should have involved the outlay of thousands of gold and silver; but assured that the Word of God can never go forth in vain, and knowing that if we be steadfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. Yea, let the remembrance that the times of the Gentiles are fast hastening to a close, rouse us to greater diligence. The night is coming when no man can work—no revival of past ceremonials, or architecture, or church music, or processions, or vestments-no changes in mere external constitution, such as synods or councils, provincial, diocesan, or archidiaconal, can communicate new life or stay the progress of decay, or retard the approaching day of trouble and trial such as has not been since the foundation of the world. Let us do all we can, then, for the whole human race whilst our season of grace continues, and let us earnestly pray that, if that day should come in our time, which shall come as a snare upon the whole face of the earth, we may be able to stand, prove faithful in the hour of trial, and endure to the end that we may receive the crown of life. Let us seek for ourselves and the Protestant Churches more life, more energy, more seriousness, more devotedness and self-denial, more of the self-sacrificing spirit of St Paul, that we and they may rise above the dreaminess of philosophical speculation, the vain imaginations of the worshippers of external forms, the conventionalities of drawing-room piety. There is much for the Protestant Churches to accomplish, even though they cannot convert the world. But it is not to be done by subscriptions, or resolutions, or speeches, or by any multiplication of dead machinery. It is the living spirit that is wanted. One man with the spirit of Paul or Luther could do more than all these things put together for a revival of life. Let us, then, understand the nature of our deficiency; humble ourselves before God, as part of decaying and languid Gentile Christendom; confess our shortcomings, and pray for life, reality, power. The Lord will hear the prayers of the humble and contrite; and, as before the final overthrow of Jerusalem, He granted an outpouring of the Spirit to a Jewish Church in the devoted city, so it may please Him to vouchsafe a similar mercy to us; and if it be not permitted to us to construct the building, we may at least collect some materials, lay some of the foundation-stones of the Church of the future, and be permitted to say, Grace, grace to it, when the top-stone is brought forth with shoutings." The Sins of God's People, and the Need of Continual Cleansing in the Blood of Jesus. By the Rev. George Morris. Seeleys: 1856. THIS is an exceedingly precious volume; full of Jesus and His sufficiency, from beginning to end. We would fain have quoted at length some passages referring to the Second Coming (p. 176), which suit our pages; but our space hinders. Christianity in the Three First Centuries: Historical Lectures delivered at Geneva. Translated from the French. London: J. Nisbet & Co. 1858. THIS Volume contains in it much that is fresh and precious, both doctrinally and historically. It will repay the reader's study. At the same time we must express our decided dissent from those parts of it which give such an over-estimate of the character and usefulness of Origen, and such an under-estimate of his errors. We are surprised at hearing Dr Merle D'Aubigné call him "the greatest luminary of Christian antiquity" (p. 209). Alas! for the Church of God, when Origen, who did more than any other man of his age to pervert and distort Scripture, shall be called the Church's greatest luminary! The palliation of his errors at pp. 206 and 207, is unworthy of the pen from which it comes. The man who maintained the inequality of the persons of the Trinity, the pre-existence of souls, the restoration of all men and devils, is not entitled to the encomiums or apologies of the historian of the Reformation. Gold of Ophir. Edinburgh: John Maclaren. THERE is much fine gold in this elegant little volume, which is made up of well-selected extracts, in prose and verse, from a great variety of sources. Songs of a Pilgrim, Homeward Bound. London: Broom. 1857. THE spirit that breathes through this small book of songs is truly Christian, and the songs, though few, are pleasant as the utterances of a fellow-pilgrim. Here is one:— "Brethren of the Lord rejoice, To His saints shall soon draw nigh. Day by day let us prepare For our meeting in the air: Soon shall we our loved One see Soon like Him for ever be! Come, Lord Jesus, quickly come, "Ev'ry trial as it's pass'd Ev'ry cloud that passes by Leaves the fewer in our sky; Ev'ry storm by which we're press'd Singing with united voice, Come, Lord Jesus, quickly come, "Brethren of the Lord rejoice, Take Thy waiting people home!" Lazarus Revived: An Illustration of the Love and Power of the Son of God. By JAMES CARDROSS, A.M. London: Heaton & Son. THOUGH this precious exposition of John xi. is not strictly prophetical, yet the subject leads us to notice it here. It is a pamphlet of eightyseven pages, containing delightful views of the truth on every verse of that chapter. He begins with an interesting sketch of Bethany and the Mount of Olives, of which he says, "The feet of pilgrims from every country under heaven have climbed its sides. And in the Latter Days, 'His feet shall stand upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem.'" Our quotations must be brief. our friend Lazarus sleepeth" : On " "I do not think it refers to the state of the unbodied spirit, or tells us aught of that Hades which, judging from all analogy-for God never works backward, unweaving his own web-must be an advance on the present. Sleep is not the word for the wonder, and rapture, and worship of the emancipated spirit, that is carried away by angels to paradise to be with the Lord, which is far better. Rather, the word takes our earthly standing point. It seizes upon the deep, sweet, beautiful, holy calm that follows death, when the long lost expression of sleeping childhood returns to the countenance—it seizes upon that calm and perpetuates it, unmindful of the 'grave's polluting worm'" (p. 37). In opposition to the new "Gospel of the Green Fields,” he remarks, that to fallen men "Nature is unintelligible, and her glorious face unmeaning: "You must tell them the all-gospel-of Christ the Son of God and Son of man, Christ the gift of the Father's love, Christ the propitiation for sin, Christ the Mediator between God and man, Christ the Lord of the universe whom we are to worship and obey, Christ the merciful who receiveth sinners, a living, present, almighty Saviour, within hearing of the faintest whisper, yea, of the unbreathed desire-who casts out none that come to Him-to whom with all my guiltiness I may address myself, to whom I may look for pardon, on whom I may roll my burden-to whom I may unbosom myself— on whose beating bosom I may pillow my head; in whose everlasting arms I may feel myself for ever safe" (p. 64). We do not know how far our brother, feeding his flocks on the banks of the Forth, has been led to study the prophetic Word; but it is plain that the Spirit of truth has been guiding him into the portions he has here expounded. "Where Ought Christ to have Suffered?” A Biblical Exercise on the True Site of Calvary. By HENRY S. BAYNES, Member of the French Protestant Historical Society. London: George John Stevenson. 1858. AN interesting but brief excursus, which does not enter into the discussion of what others have written, but brings forward reasons drawn from the ritual and prophetic symbols, to shew that Calvary must have been on the north side of Jerusalem. Dr Bonar, in his "Land of Promise," had come much to the same conclusion (pp. 225, 508). give Mr Bayne's statement: We "When, therefore, the historical and legislative records of the Jews were by Moses embodied in a written form, the symbolical rites were not only retained, but formed the chief feature of their ritual. These, although uttering no voice, were ever present to the eye of the people, day after day and year after year, like the lights of heaven. Their meaning never became obsolete. They depicted vividly the evil of sin, and, observed in faith, they tended to brighten the hopes and quicken the expectations of the Deliverer. The sinner needs pardon; the pardoned, sanctification; the sanctified, oblivion of all his guilt. But these were all to be provided in the fulfilment of the hopes and expectations that belonged to expiatory sacrifice, comprising, (1.) Atonement by the sin-offering for priests and people, collectively; (2.) Justification by the offering for the leper's cleansing, individually; and, (3.) Sanctification by the transference of sin to the scape-goat, declaratively. These rites spake of Messiah in His vicarious character. And they were all to be observed in an appointed locality. (1.) The law of the sin-offering directed, And if his offering be of the flocks, he shall bring it a male without blemish; and he shall kill it on the north side of the altar northward before the Lord' (Lev. i. 10, 11). Even the whole bullock shall he carry forth without the camp into a clean place, where the ashes are poured out, and burn him on the wood with fire' (Lev. iv. 12). 66 "(2.) The law of the leper in the day of his cleansing' is this, 'He shall be brought unto the priest. And the priest shall go forth out of the camp; and the priest shall look, and, behold, if the leprosy be healed in the leper; then shall the priest take for him that is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop. And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water. As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water and he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose into the open field' (Lev. xiv. 1--7). (3.) And concerning the scape-goat it was directed, And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the Lord, and the other for the scape-goat. And Aaron shall bring the goat upon whom the Lord's lot fell, and offer him for a sin-offering. But the goat on which the lot fell to be the scape-goat, shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make an atonement with him, and to let him go for a scape-goat into the wilderness' (Lev. xvi. 8--11). 'And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness' (Lev. xvi. 21). "Hence it appears that an appointed locality was an essential feature of those sacraments, and that the place prescribed for their celebration was the VOL. X. N |