with the spirit of Apostolic Christianity feels that the sensuous ritual of Rome is, apart from the other more serious errors which it involves, out of harmony with the general character of the Gospel. But pomp and ceremony of ritual are not necessarily symbolism, which latter rests upon a theory, and implies dogmatical tendencies of erroneous character. The ultimate principle on which symbolism in the Christian Church rests is, that the Church is the representative, or, as modern Romanists are fond of terming it, the continued incarnation, of Christ; the true meaning of which is, that Christ Himself is not present amongst His people, in His word and by His Spirit, but has retired from the administration of the spiritual kingdom, having first delegated His powers, priestly, prophetical, and regal, to the Church, that is, to the clergy. Wherever this dogma gains an entrance, we have drifted far away indeed from Apostolic doctrine. And symbolism is connected with it. The parts of a cathedral, the dresses of the officiating ministers, the holy furniture, represent Christ and the truths connected with His work; they are a substitute for an absent Saviour, just as the Jewish ritual was necessarily symbolical because Christ had not as yet come. But as God Himself abolished the ceremonial law when Christ appeared, so the return to such a system can never be rendered compatible with Apostolic Christianity. It brings us back to the dimness

and imperfection of the elder economy; it belongs to a lower stage of religious knowledge, than that which we are supposed to possess; it contemplates Christians as children, not as men, in spiritual understanding. And experience shews that it has not only given rise to an undue depreciation of the word of God, as the great instrument of edifying the Church, but is intimately associated with the sacrificial system of Rome, and its train of unscriptural doctrines and practices.

The subject we have been discussing is not without its practical bearing, especially in reference to those of us who are either actually engaged in the ministry, or look forward to undertaking the sacred office. Beware, my younger brethren, of permitting any object, whether it be the Church, or the Sacraments, or human mediators, to intervene between the Saviour and those whom He came to redeem the effect will be an instantaneous chill of Christian feeling, which will make itself felt in your ministrations, and fatally check the progress of the work of God among your people. Recollect, that justification by faith only, one of the great scriptural truths recovered at the Reformation, implies, not merely the gratuitous nature of salvation, but the directness of the Christian's access to God in and through Christ; "he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life," and waits not for the intervention of the

I John iii. 36.

Church to confirm, or withhold, the blessing. Let it be your aim to present directly to the eye of faith a crucified and ascended Redeemer, present to bless and to sanctify, "a very present help in time of trouble," the great refuge and sanctuary of sinful man.

The temptation has always presented itself to the clergy to magnify their office in forbidden. ways, and by unscriptural claims. Magnify it too much we cannot, but it must be on proper grounds. Ambassadors for Christ, we bear the message of reconciliation to a fallen world; we are intrusted with a ministry which angels might desire to discharge, with interests which are commensurate in importance with eternity; our trials are more severe than those of our brethren, our supports and consolations, if found faithful, proportionably great. What more do we need than such a discharge of these high functions as shall be answerable to their importance, to secure for our office the estimation that rightfully belongs to it? But if we rest our claims to the respect and attachment of our flocks upon the sacerdotal theory; as if the sacraments, from being administered by us, possessed a validity which would not otherwise belong to them, or as if we occupied a mediatorial position between man and God; we not only tread upon unscriptural ground, but run imminent risk of alienating from us those who constitute the pith and sinew of our Church. For nothing is more

T

certain than that the great body of our lay brethren are strongly, and not without reason, opposed to the recognition of any such sacerdotal claims.

Let us be cautious too, how we permit the revived taste for ecclesiastical architecture and decoration, characteristic of our times, to divert our minds from the infinitely more important object of adding spiritual stones to the Christian temple. A movement, praiseworthy in itself, may become, especially to refined and imaginative minds, a snare: the present one will become so, if the objects of it occupy other than a very subordinate place in our regards. A frivolous Christianity is the most vapid of all things; and what can be more frivolous than for the mind to be occupied by æsthetic considerations, as the modern phrase is, while souls are hungering for the bread of life? The Roman Emperor, indulging his musical tastes while the city was burning, is but a feeble image of such a misemployment of time and talents. Let us pray, my brethren, for a deeper sense of the value of souls, of the shortness of time, of the solemn vows we have taken upon us, of the solemn account we must give of our stewardship; and then all thoughts will be swallowed up in the desire to become the instruments, under God, of turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, and building up the stedfast in their most holy faith.

LECTURE VIII.

GALATIANS iii. 3.

Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?

To the teacher of religion, as well as to the private Christian, it must ever be the most grateful occupation to contemplate divine truth as it proceeds directly from its Author, and is contained in His word, without turning aside to examine how it has been soiled and disfigured in passing through the hands of men. Gladly would he linger in the green pastures, ever fresh, and by the still waters, deep but pure, whither the good shepherd leads his flock; and leave the arid byepaths of error and controversy to be explored by others, whose taste or vocation may especially lead them thereto. But such a choice is impossible. Christianity, in its passage through the world, has been affected by so many adverse influences, that the history of the Church is little else but a history of religious error, and of the efforts made, from time to time, by the faithful servants