more earnest heed to the things which he writes, that we also may be partakers of his intelligence, his character, his spirit. In the passage referred to above, (Gal. ii. 19) he comes to say, "that he through law had died to law." It had killed him by passing sentence upon him, being a transgressor of its precepts, while its sacrificial offerings were insufficient to take away sin and purify the conscience. "But God, who is rich in mercy, for the great love wherewith he loved us, even us who were dead in trespasses, he has made alive together with Christ". 66 quickened by the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus." Says he, I am crucified" together with Christ," rigid observers of its ritual, because in his own eyes, and in the popular judgment, "concerning the righteousness of the law (he was) blameless," should nevertheless come to see, on learning Christ, more clearly into the nature of that elementary institution than all the rest, and be divested of his Jewish peculiarities and prejudices more thoroughly than any of them, and to speak in terms more strongly reprobatory of his former pride and imaginary immaculate standing thus: "But the things which were gain to me, those I have counted loss for Christ yes, indeed, on this account also I count all things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord; for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do" on whom was laid the iniquities of account them mere refuse that I may us all;" "nevertheless I live, yet not gain Christ." Yea, to see him who I, but Christ liveth in me." By forstood the foremost as a Jew, and more giving me all trespasses, I am freed exceedingly zealous for the traditions by him from the condemnatory senof the Fathers, have to tender a re-tence of law; and not only free, but buke even to Peter-a pillar, honor-made alive to righteousness and to ed of Christ with the keys of his king- God, being brought under the condom, first on the list of apostles-be-straints of that love which passes all cause of his Jewish leanings, and for understanding. Thus "I live, yet a retrograde step that he took which not I, but Christ liveth in me; and involved a dereliction of principle the life which I live in the flesh, I from the simplicity of God's plan of live by the faith of the Son of God, justifying the ungodly through faith, who loved me, and gave himself for putting no difference betwixt the Jew me." Drawn by the cords of love he and the Greek, and introducing them cries, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to equal privileges as his people to do?" and all his commands he now (Gal. ii. 11-17.) To him the law carefully observes with cheerfulness had now answered its end-and delight. So that Christ and him crucified had become HIS LAW, HIS LIFE, HIS JOY! "Which was but given : And seeing Paul was constituted the Apostle of the Gentiles, and one so eminently endowed with knowledge in the institutions of both law and gospel--and having the experience of the working of both in a high degree in his own person, and withal full of the Holy Spirit-we ought to give the Now what was the experience of Paul must be the experience of every true Christian in a greater or lesser degree. He is a pattern of the true genius of Christianity; and being a man of like passions with us, we have in him a bright example of what man is capable, and what the religion of Christ can do for us and make us. These things are written, not for his, but for our sakes, to stimulate us on in learning Christ. But as it happened in days of old to the people of the Jews under the Law institution, | Now as gospel means good news or glad tidings, and as these glad tidings were to be published to mankind universally, we are taught by the apostolic commission, that a provision for the wants and exigencies of man was contained in that gospel, as ample as the human family was numerous. Its gracious aspect towards all men, and the amplitude of its blessings, correspond, too, with the abounding goodness and philanthropy of its great Author. Is he the God of the Jews only, and not of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also. God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son, that whoever believes on him may not perish, but obtain eternal life; for God has sent his Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world may be saved by him. "God was by Christ reconci who by mistaken conceptions of the nature and end of that law, failed to derive the benefit it was intended and calculated to impart, so it has happened to many under the Christian institution, who by the doctrines and traditions of men, deprive themselves -or suffer themselves to be deprived -of special advantages intended by its all-wise and benevolent Author, all should freely derive from it. Now we are persuaded, and we think no one need doubt it, that a fatality of this kind a large proportion of the community suffer, arising from a too easy credence being given to the doctrine of election, and the ideas represented by the words personal and absolute or unconditional attached to it, together with the doctrine of limited atonement necessarily growing out of it, which come in direct colli-ling the world to himself, not countsion with the words of Paul above referred to, who speaks of being brought under the quickening, sanctifying, and controling influence of the love of Christ—as if he alone he had loved, and for him alone he had died. And it is manifest, that unless the apostle had been able to make such an appropriation of the love of Christ, and the benefits of his death, to his own self, he could not have felt its animating and controling power in the same manner. And so it may be said of every one else.. Seeing, then, that the life and consistent behaviour of every believer depend upon being able-which no one is, unless he has a divine warrant to make such an appropriation of the love and death of the Son of God, how important is it to know what is truth in relation to such a warrant ! The apostles were commissioned by Jesus, after being invested with all authority in heaven and upon earth, to "Go through all the world, proclaim the glad tidings to the whole creation he who believes and is immersed shall be saved; but he who believes not, shall be condemned." ing to them their trespasses; for he has made him who knew no sin, a sin offering for us, that we might become the justified of God by him." "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men- the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all." Harmonizing with this general provision, "God wills all men to be saved," and is "long-suffering towards us, not desiring that any should perish, but that all should come to reformation." Such, then, is the amplitude of the divine benevolence, and the liberality of the gospel of Christ; but for which, and the "commandment of the everlasting God made known to all nations for the obedience of faith," no one would have been warranted to say with Paul, nor even Paul himself, "The Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." But with these announcements and promises from the God of heaven before us, all are warranted, on giving credence to the gospel testimony, to make a full appropriation of its blessings to themselves, and of the individual bearing of the love of Christ, and consequently it cannot be called a divine faith, for it has no word from God to rest upon. The utmost that can be said, then, of this appropriating act is, that it is only a belief that the party himself is a believer; and this conclusion has no other basis than his own fancy, or call it consciousness, to rest upon. And still, though it were conceded to the party that he was a believer, he can have no assurance that he is certainly embraced in the number for whom Christ died, for God has made no revelation of this. Hence the doubts and fears of such converts, exhibiting a perfect contrast to apostolic converts. be filled with joy and peace in believing; and which we find to have been uniformly the case with all the converts the apostles gained to Christianity. The joy attending the belief of the truth as proclaimed by the apostles could not be suppressed, but became a matter of public notoriety, and enters as well-known fact into the history of the times, which furnishes satisfactory evidence that all who believed the apostolic gospel, understood themselves to be personally interested and individually embraced by the love of God in Christ. A gospel, then, that is not attended with joy and peace on believing it, is not the apostolic; for the same gos- The result is, seeing they cannot do pel will produce the same effects. better for their own consolation, to Hence the difficulty and the contra- make a virtue of this necessity-to dictions of those who preach that think and speak commendingly of Christ died only for a select few, and those fears and doubts, as betokening those few a secret, to get the expe- true Christian humility. And thus, rience of their converts to correspond like the Jews of old, by first conceivwith the apostolic converts. For any to ing erroneously of the law, and divertsay as Paul said, "The Son of God, ing it from its purpose, and "going who loved me, and gave himself for about to establish their own rightme," in such an atmosphere, would eousness, not submitting to the rightbe reckoned highly presumptuous, ex- eousness of God," missed the end for cepting, indeed, in the case of some which the law was given--so do these, rare individual, who (as presumptuous by their additions and alterations of as the other) had been enabled by spe- the testimony of God, make to themcial grace to put forth the appropria- selves a righteousness of their conting act of faith. Yes, the appropri- ceived orthodox faith and perverted ating act of faith! Well, let this ap-experience, and fail to attain the expropriating act be but slightly examined, and it will be seen whether it can be regarded in the light of an high attainment of an advanced Christian, whose experience so far transcends the common order. What is faith but the belief of testimony? No testimony, no faith! To believe without testimony, faith is baseless. If it were truth that Christ died only for a few, and the names of those few not put into the testimony, who could be warranted to believe that Christ died for them? Believing this, their faith transcends the testimony; and faith that transcends testimony, is without a foundation, if it can be called faith at all. Sure we are that perience of the joy, peace, and righteousness of the first converts, and which our Heavenly Father has intended that all should, on believing and obeying his unadulterated gospel. But besides, the gospel being intended and adapted as a universal remedy-and the terms of its invitations being such as to put it within every one's power to read in the whoever believes, every letter of his or her own name—there is a property in the love of its glorious Author peculiar to itself, and which meets a desire common to all to be individually noticed : he can interest himself in every individual case, and they made to feel it as much and as minutely as if they sality of the gospel publication-from Happy are all they that can in sin- HYMNS AND SPIRITUAL SONGS. "The Son of God, who loved me, and gave AND didst thou give thyself for me, Thou blessed Son of God- Didst thou for me put on, Beneath which sinners groan? engrossed it all. To what a narrow circle is human love confined in its manifestations! How few can participate, and that in a very diluted form, of the sweets of human sympathies! With our divine Saviour it is otherwise, whose presence fills hea-loved me, and gave himself for me!" ven and earth "who compasseth our path, and our lying down, and is acquainted with all our ways"—who said to Nathaniel, "When thou wast under the fig-tree, before that Philip called thee, I saw thee"-who presented himself to the congregation at Laodicea after this manner, "Behold I stand at the door and knock : if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." He could say of all and every one of his numerous flock, "I know them, and they know me. The good Shepherd cares for his sheep, they are his own, "bought with a price," not with corruptible things such as silver and gold, but with his own 66 precious blood." He will not leave them in time of danger, as a hireling does: "he feeds his flock in a good pasture, and leads them beside the still waters." This individuality of notice taken by our Father in heaven, and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, is distinctly taught us by Jesus himself (Mat. xviii. 10)" Beware of contemning any of these little ones; for I assure you, that in heaven their angels continually behold the face of my Heavenly Father. And the Son of Man is come to recover the lost. What think you ? If a man have a hundred sheep, and one of them have strayed, will he not leave the ninetynine upon the mountains, and go in quest of the stray? And if he happen to find it, indeed, I say to you, he derives greater joy from it, than from the ninety-nine which went not astray. Thus it is not the will of your Father in heaven, that any of these little ones should perish." Thus, then, from the amplitude of the provision made-from the univer Wast thou for me a hapless babe Within the manger found? Thy Father's bosom didst thou leave, And lie within the tomb? That bottom has nor shore! The heavenly life I now enjoy, I through thy dying live, D. L. LETTERS FROM EUROPE. NO. XXXI. MY DEAR CLARINDA, -On the evening of the 26th we returned from Liverpool to Mollington, to recruit for the meeting at Chester, commencing the 1st, and continuing to the 3rd of October. I never enjoyed a respite more than this one. The weather was pleasant, and I rambled Samuelis Baxter-1831. In our language thus :- round the fields at Mollington as a horse turned out to pasture. But a few days only made me feel how much The Polyglott Holy Bible, containing the I had suffered from my confinement original texts and the principal versions ancientin Glasgow, and my excessive labors ly received by the Church; also the more rebefore and after. The meeting at cent versions, viz: the English, German, Chester was indeed a very pleasant Italian, French, and Spanish-prefixed are the Brethren from Scotland, Eng-the original texts, Hebrew and Greek, and of prefatory dissertations upon the literal sense of the ancient versions, by the author, Samuel Lee, Professor of Hebrew in the University of Cambridge. one. land, and Wales, were in attendance. The great question of co-operation, and of the necessity of more evangelical labors by our itinerant ministry, was kept before the minds of the brethren assembled, during much of the meeting, and some important resolutions were adopted, of which I cannot now speak particularly. Dr. Lee is also Professor of Theology, and an honorary member of various literary and theological institutions in Britain, France, and Germany. To this admirable work are added various readings of the Septuagint version of the Old Testament, and of the received text of the New, with those of the Hebrew-Samaritan Pentateuch. Of this folio Polyglott, the Encyclopædia of Religious Knowledge says "This is one of the most splendid volumes ever published, containing the Bible in the Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, Latin, English, French, and Italian languages." My copy has also a Spanish version. It cost some 70 dollars, bound and embellished as this volume is, in a style, so far as I have seen, never surpassed. A fund had been raised, much more than sufficient, to defray the expenses of our visit to Great Britain, and on our refusal to receive more than mere travelling expenses, the brethren voted one hundred pounds sterling to Bethany College, which has been appropriated to increase, with some other funds, the philosophical and chemical apparatus of the institution. We had the honor to receive very elegant presents at this meeting, presented by the brethren in Scotland. To Brother Henshall was presented an elegant copy of the English Hexapla, containing the six English versions of the New Testament, made from 1380 to 1611-Wickliffe's, Tyndale's, Cranmer's, Geneva, Rheims, and the authorized version, together with Bagster's Chronological Atlas, a complete series of New Maps, an elaborate chart of General History, with a Geographical Index and Concordance of Scripture occurrences. To myself was presented a superbly bound and gilded copy of the most elegant and valuable work ever issued from the English press- an immense folio, titled "Biblia Sacra Polyglotta Textuos Archetypos Versionesque this most acceptable token of the præcipuas ab ecclesia antiquitus re- Christian affection and esteem of these ceptas necnon Versiones recensiores my Scotch brethren, were added Anglicanam, Germanicam, Italicam, "Bagster's Chronological Scripture. Gallicam, et Hespanicam Complec- Atlas" before mentioned, with other tentia, &c." Londini Sumptibus: mementos from Dundee, which alto The reasons and occasion of the presentation of the volume as inscribed in the volume itself, in the most splendid chierography, and orally in the presence of the brethren assembled, by brother Robert Macdougale of Edinburgh, has laid me under new obligations to devote more of my time to the study of these Divine Oracles, providentially furnished as I now am, with means so numerous and various for this purpose, and pressed to it by the requests of so many brethren in the Old World and in the New. To |