connection with the supervision which provides for the verification, miracle reveals the almighty power of God sealing the heritage of truth and the testimony of life. There are some things too volatile, and others too massive, to be held in the chains of a definition. Miracle seems to fall under the latter class, for although the bulk of earnest Christians are of one mind concerning the substantial thing under question, yet as soon as ever they begin to define, they begin to disagree. We will not attempt precise definition, but gradually approximate towards the reality of the case. a prison, where its author and builder was bound with chains of his own fashioning. But if God has reserved to himself his glorious power and energy of working, then every display of it must necessarily be different both from natural operation and human agency. Where Godhead discovers the necessity for his intervention, his action will resemble divinity. The life-stream of emanation will shine with the glow of the uncreate fountain. 4. Nature is of necessity the best theatre for the display of supernatural credentials. The abiding spectacle of nature noiselessly pursuing the will of God through manifest stand 2. Miracle certainly manifests superhuman and supernatural powering ordinances, has great power over that is, energy higher than human power or natural agency. Still there has been, and may be, manifestations of such a character, which are prodigies rather than miracles. Before we can say that such a work is a miracle, there must be a moral purpose declared, and an avowed or evident connection betwixt one and the other. Hence the miracles to which we appeal as evidence, were performed at the instance of some prophet of God, or apostle of Christ, to endorse the teacher, and establish the divinity of his mission. The connection between the power of the worker, and the truth of the testimony, will appear in the sequel. man. Greater power than his consciousness testifies to him in ordinary periods. As soon as he remarks a deviation from ordinary rule-a result accomplished without natural and common means he is startled and aroused into intense life and intelligent observation. Solemnly is the matter pondered in the deeps of the awakening soul. Why is an order of things, so stately and regular, disturbed? or why do higher spiritual law and power reveal themselves to humanity among ordinary phenomena? Such an answer has always been ready, as served to prove that the mission was urgent and glorious, which put forth such astonishing testimonials. When God draws near to man for personal communion, he has tidings for him of profound interest and everlasting importance. 3. After all the objections of the sceptical, it may safely be declared, that if God ever act in support of truth, his action must necessarily be miraculous. Man cannot transcend his own sphere. Within his own range his agency can always be recog-ness of such evidence. nized. So, likewise, the operations of nature, or ordinary natural law, can easily be distinguished by their uniformity. Must we affirm that the Creator has exhausted himself in his original creation, leaving himself no power for independent or immediate action? This would be a monstrous conclusion, turning the universe into 5. Humanity, in a sound condition, freely acknowledges the conclusive"We know that thou art a teacher come from viction and frankness of testimony. Nicodemus could perceive both divine power and divine wisdom-a present God dwelling in the Great Teacher. The Lycaonians brought oxen arrayed with garlands, and would have of fered sacrifice to the descended divinities. Such a dramatic spectacle, however painful in one aspect, was grand in another, as a striking testimony to the majesty of miracle. The necessity for such evidence was no disease nourished in Roman Judea, but belonged to the very constitution of humanity. Hence Moses dared not approach the gates of Egypt without credentials of an acceptable kind. 6. Miracles were not intended to exercise converting power. We do not desire to affirm that they contain ed no moral element, or appealed only to the logical faculty. But principally they served to startle from the slumber of selfishness and bigotry, and thus secured a favorable hearing for the truth. Especially was this done by those miracles which revealed pity and benignity in combination with creative and life-restoring energy. But it was the truth concerning a crucified and risen Saviour who had established a mercy-seat and opened the gates of immortality, which poured fresh life into the soul. The Father was revealed in the life and death of the Son, as a sin-pardoning God, opening wide his arms of compassion to embrace returning prodigals, in the shelter of an eternal home. 7. Manifest benevolence is not an essential character or attribute of miracle. All God's dealings with men are benevolent on a large scale. Yet severe treatment, austere retribution, are an essential element in his government. The mission of Moses was unquestionably divine, yet his credentials were not obviously beneficent. His demonstration of power sounded like thunder, peal on peal deepening, and darkening into the glooms of the Red Sea tragedy. He proved himself an ambassador from heaven, but his apocalypse was terrible as the lightning, which illuminates and destroys at the same time. By the time that conviction penetrated the Egyptian mind, the land was well nigh a ruin. Barren fields and mourning houses attested the dreadful struggle betwixt divine power and human depravity. Hence the demonstration of divine power, on the part of the Christ would not have been less complete in fact, had his works been mingled with penalties. Nevertheless his miracles of benevolence are more efficient in opening the sluices of the human heart. Where all the grandeur of celestial power comes before us in service of love-where the plenitude of supernal majesty flows in streams of mercy and healing to body and spirit-there the affections and the convictions are in unison. The heart endorses the conclusion of the understanding, and we bow before a God and a Father. 8. Miracles have never been dese crated by the service of falsehood and impiety. The magicians of Egypt were learned jugglers, skilled and potent in the science of delusion. They are either mythical or monstrous, but speak not with authority from heaven. Indian wonders are wilder and more hideous than the awful mother and son whom Satan found watching the gates of hell. The signs which the Papal system has always held forth, were lying wonders. Not true and actual miracles in support of their unholy cause, but unreal works-legends from the brain of the monk, and shams from the twilight of the cloister. magian Egypt, nor classical Greece, nor metaphysical India, nor Papal Rome; but to Jerusalem, the city of God, do we look. There we find the divine associations which unite heaven and earth, flooding this lower world with the golden effulgence of the empyrean. We are ready to maintain that miracle is hallowed, inviolate Not to ground, never soiled by diabolical feet. That miracle is divine power, and divine power being wisdom and goodness in manifestation, there is no field-room for the working of Satan or his angels. 9. The miracles of Christ had all the features of reality. There never was any preparation made for display, but the power was manifested in secret or in public, just as circumstances seemed to call for it in the journey of life. There was no attempt made to build a reputation upon some dubious gleam, or stray scintillation, of superhuman energy; but the flood-gates of higher life were opened wide, and the manifestation was affluent and various. The works were upon such a scale, and in such diversity, that the idea of magical illusion could find nothing to rest upon. They were so benignant in fact and in consequences, that the idea of diabolic agency could only originate among the utterly vile, abandoned by heaven, and shut out from the mercies of God. Sharpsighted and rancorous enemies of Christ were spectators from time to time, but they could find no flaw in his wonders. His works were durable, the subjects operated upon remaining open to the scrutiny of all men for a considerable time. Finally, they were influential on the human mind in all stages and forms of culture, and in all the situations of life. 10. The miracles were never designed for continuance. Indeed they derived their influence from their strangeness and peculiarity. As if bright angels stood and walked among men, so stood and moved the miraculous works among the common operations and results of nature. But perpetual miracle would either become the consolidated course of nature thus ceasing its supernatural power or else, by even standing continually alongside of natural working, it would be shorn of its influence by its familiarity. When the apostle wrote to that congregation so richly endowed with gifts, and so deficient in unity, spiritual life, and moral beauty, he indicated the time when the miraculous gifts would all vanish, leaving the spiritual realities which are deathless as the perpetual inheritance of the people of God. Faith, hope, and love are abiding, and the greatest of all is love. It is the girdle, or bond of perfection, binding all other attributes and graces into unity-securing their proper adjustment and harmonious operation. G. GREENWEll. CONVERTING INFLUENCE. QUERY.-CANNOT the sinner, by applying his reason and inclination to the scripture, understand it; and having understood it, does he need to receive aid to appropriate it? In other words, Is any extraneous aid necessary to prepare the mind of a sinner for fully comprehending and appreciating the great truths contained in the word of God, so that they may produce their appropriate fruits? Or, again, Is not the that is requisite both to make a man a member word itself, heard, understood, and obeyed, all of the kingdom of Christ, and to fit him for an abode in heaven? J. R. G. ANSWER. It is certainly important that the position which the gospel occupies in the work of conversion should be clearly understood. The prevailing error, indeed, of the sectarian community, is to be found here, upon the very threshold of the divine temple of Christianity, and it has been one of the aims of the present reformation to restore the gospel to its original character, as the power of God to the believer for his salvation. In doing this, however, it is necessary to guard against the error of supposing that either the gospel or the scriptures in general possess an absolute power-an influence wholly independent of extraneous circumstances, or of the inward condition of the mind to which they may be ad It is a matter of familiar observation, that men's minds are really in these different conditions exhibited in the parable. The gospel preached to a congregation will convert a part, and will be rejected by a part. Some of those converted do afterwards fall away, from their own shallowness or the love of the world. We have thus indubitable facts to convince us of the correctness of the view presented in the parable of the Sower, and to show us that it depends upon the state of the mind, when the gospel is presented, what shall be the effect of such presentation. Hence it would be an error to suppose that, in preaching the gospel, we should take no account of the state of men's minds, or that men's minds are precisely in the same condition, and equally ready and well prepared for the reception of the truth. And it would be equally an error to imagine that the gospel has the power of putting the mind into a favorable condition, and preparing the heart for its own reception. Yet these would seem to be the confused notions which many entertain upon this subject. dressed. If this were so, every one | the minds and hearts of those adto whom the gospel is preached would dressed. be converted, as a matter of coursean unavoidable necessity; just as if a die had the absolute power of making an impression upon metal irrespective of its condition as soft or hard, heated or cold, we would find its perfect stamp upon all the pieces subjected to its action. This, however, we know is not the case with a die. The metal must be in a condition suited to its action, else it will receive no impression. Hence the power of the die is relative, since it depends upon the state of the metal on which it acts. Just so it is with seed sown. Its power to grow and bear fruit is relative, and not absolute. The seed has in itself, indeed, a vegetative power; but it is a force in a state of rest, which can be called into activity only when the seed is subjected to the necessary conditions of soil, air, heat, and moisture. This comparison is a scriptural one; and, as employed in the parable of the Sower, precisely illustrates my view of the matter. We have here four different results from the sowing of the good seed of the gospel-yet the seed is the same; the sower is the same; the mode of sowing the same in all. To what, then, is the difference of result owing? Evidently to the differences in the conditions and circumstances of the soil on which the seed fell. It was because the way-side was BEATEN HARD that the seed could not enter; because the soil was STONY that it could not gain sufficient root; because the soil was INFESTED WITH THORNS that its growth was choked; and because the soil was GOOD that it flourished and brought forth fruit. Now the seed did not create the differences in the soil, and had no power to make the soil good or to prepare it for its own reception. The object of this very parable is to show that the power of the gospel is relative, and that the results of its preaching depend on the state and character of The question is not, Has the word alone, "heard, understood, and obeyed," power to convert men and fit them for heaven? but, Has the word alone power to make itself “heard, understood, and obeyed?" In answer, I need only remark that if we decide this in the affirmative, it will be the fault of the word that all men have not heard, understood, and obeyed. I fully concur with you, however, in the sentiment that when the word is heard, understood, and obeyed, it has power to make a man a member of the kingdom of Christ and to fit him for an abode in heaven; and this because, in faith and obedience, the divine promises are enjoyed; among which we find the remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. I also concur with you, that the sinner can, by applying his reason and inclination to the scriptures, understand the word and appropriate it. In such propositions there is an almost universal affirmative agreement among all parties. The controversy has respect to the means by which the sinner is INDUCED thus to apply his reason and inclination to the word. Why is it that the proclaimed word finds some hearts insensible, some partially sensitive, some surcharged with worldly cares, and some 66 good and honest ?" Luke viii. 15. What has made the latter "good and honest ?" Not the word, assuredly; for it is their condition prior to the presentation of the word -a prerequisite or preparation absolutely necessary to the proper reception of the word, and its subsequent successful progress. As respects conversion, now, this is the real question to be considered, and for the discussion of this point, and, as I think, a full and fair examination of the whole subject, I must refer you to my articles already published.* R. LETTERS FROM EUROPE. NO. XXVIII. MY DEAR CLARINDA.-On our way from Auchtermuchty to Dunfermline, we passed through the village of Kinross; from which, while refreshing our horse, we walked down to the ancient burial ground, near the residence of an absent Baron: from which we had a nearer view of Lochleven and its ancient castle, once the celebrated prison of Mary Queen of Scots. The island on which the castle stands is indeed of narrow limits, and was, therefore, a very suitable location for a stronghold, or a prison; yet it failed to secure the person of the royal prisoner. The unfortunate Mary, however, had better continued in this lonely and sequestered spot, than to have encountered all the dangers and *These articles are now in our possession, and will appear in due course. disasters which befell her during full eighteen years, consummated in her martyrdom by the command of the intolerant and haughty Elizabeth. On surveying such localities as these, one cannot but associate with them the fortunes of those distinguished persons whose history is part of theirs. The little Lochleven-so called, as tradition saith, because eleven rivers run into it, or because it is eleven miles in circumference, or because eleven species of fish compose its finny tenantry; or, perhaps, because of all three, is as famous for its relation to Culdee history as to that of the Stuart royalty. The Culdee establishment of Lochleven, or as sometimes called, THE INCH, or ISLAND OF ST. SERF, is referred to amongst the antiquities of Kinross in the following manner :— "Before the introduction of Christianity into Scotland, there existed in Britain, south as well as north, a class of men called Druids, from whom, by the testimony of Julius Cæsar in his Commentaries, the Druids of Gaul derived their origin, and who, from whatever source they derived their knowledge, it is recorded, believed in the immortality of the soul, and in the transmigration of souls. And it was not till the beginning of the 3rd century, that, in Scotland, after the spread of Christianity, this After this, till about the year 302, nothing form of worship began to fall into disrepute. certain is known, when a number of the early Christians took refuge in Scotland from the tenth persecution under the Emperor Dioclesian; and about this period, mention is first made of the Culdees, men remarkable in those days for the sanctity of their lives, the purity of their worship, and for their knowledge of divine truth. "Different explanations have been given of the derivation of the name; some giving it from the Latin, Cultores Dei, worshippers of God; others, from the Gaelic, Gille De, servants of God; and lastly, from the Gaelic, Cuil, or Ceal, a cell, a sheltered place, a retreat. And if we conjoin the two latter, the servants of God, dwelling in retreats and hiding explanation is obvious that these were refugees, places. From these, many parts in Scotland, beginning with Kil, such as Kilmarnock, Kilwinning, Kilbride, &c. derive their name. The records of the Culdees have perished, partly from the lapse of time, but principally because it was the interest of their Popish successors that they should not be preserved. |