time, will sink thee into hell, is increasing every hour upon thee, although thou feelest not the load-the chain of Satan daily becomes more strongly fettered round thy soul; that chain which binds thee in servitude to him. Thy justice and goodness are but as a whitened sepulchre, the sight of which (if thou hast believed in its purity) will strike thee with horror, when the touch of Him who knoweth the hearts and trieth the reins of the children of men shall reveal its corruption before thee and the assembled nations, at the great and terrible day of the Lord. True, thou wilt never be punished for crimes which thou hast not committed. Thou, perchance, art not a drunkard, nor what the world calls dishonest; then, thou wilt not be punished for those and other sins which others round thee indulge in; but, remember, the thought of evil is as though thou hadst committed that evil, and the holy God abominates iniquity.

"All have sinned and come short of the glory of God," therefore trust not to your own righteousness, for it will fail you when you most need it.

The man, who in the parable built his house on the sand, doubtless thought it was a very respectable house; perhaps compared it with his neighbour's (which was built on the rock), and was well satisfied with the comparison; but, oh! what was the end?

"The rain descended and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it;' while the man who built his habitation on the rock had a safe refuge; mighty though the storm and furious the elements, his house stood secure; for the foundation was good.

Oh! see to it that thou art not building upon the sand; for a while all may seem to be well, but will it stand the last great storm? and, "How wilt thou do in the swellings of Jordan?”

You may, perhaps, now see little difference between yourself and the christian, whose daily life you can scrutinise; but if, when before the judge of the whole earth, you have to cry to the rocks to fall upon you to hide you from His presence, while they whom you love soar upward with delight to meet their King, you will see what makes the difference then.

Would you know some of the marks of

distinction now? They have been sinners as you are, far from God by wicked works; but having felt and lamented their sin, they have sought pardon, where none ever seek in vain, of Jesus the Crucified. Washed in his precious blood and clothed in the spotless robe of his righteousness, they no longer seek by their own merits to answer the solemn question, "How can man be just with God?" but trusting alone to his finished work, and looking to him as the Author and Finisher of their faith, they know, for the Word of God (which can never fall to the ground) and also the witness in their own consciences, assure them that "there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit." Little do ye know how they, having found these riches, earnestly desire to see you blessed as they are.

Besides those who are comforting themselves with the delusive assurance of peace-peace where there is no peace; some also may read this who, although having godly parents or sisters or brothers, are a grief to them; and by their outward conduct disgrace and grieve those who love them. Pause and consider: What will the end be? What ye sow now ye shall also reap, and in an eternity of anguish you will prove that, though heaven and earth shall pass away, not one jot or tittle of God's Word shall fail. And although, perhaps, you laugh now at the words of the Christian, yet the day will assuredly come when you fain would have them-but they cannot-bring a drop of water to cool your parched tongue. O God grant, if it be his holy will, that you may be brought to repentance, that your hard heart may be broken, and that you may be led to the footstool of mercy, crying from your soul's need, "God be merciful to me a sinner"!

O do not think that we who love the Lord care not for your souls. We know how great is the danger which you yet are ignorant of; we can see the awful depth of the precipice along the edge of which you gather your flowers, and we tremble. Many indeed are the earnest prayers which arise for you to him whom we love; for salvation can only be "not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts."

A. L. H.

66

WE endeavoured in our last paper to set forth the evidence which compels the belief that the writers of the books which compose the New Testament were, like the Prophets of the Old Testament, directly inspired by God, in both the matter and the language of their written communications. But this is far from conveying the whole truth respecting them. If the important mission entrusted to them by the Lord from heaven, the explicit declarations and promises which he made to them, and the remarkable gifts which he conferred upon them, be attentively examined, the conclusion is irresistible, that they were more than prophets." If the "Acts of the Apostles were the continuation of the ministry of Christ upon earth, their words were the prolongation of his voice among men, and their writings form his written communications to the nations of the world to the end of time. Christ is present still in the writings of the New Testament. He reveals himself in them, speaks to us by them, and though the pen may have been in the hand of John, or Paul, or Peter, the words are the words of Christ to his churches. In the case of the Epistles to the churches in Asia, he himself declares it to be so, "To the angel of the church at Ephesus, write; and though this superscription is not formally affixed to the Epistles of Paul, or Peter, or John, they are not the less written in Christ's own name, and every sentence they contain inspired and prompted by his Spirit. In this light, how full of interest does every passage become.

Those which we are wont to esteem as casual and unimportant, are lighted up with meaning, when we read them as Christ speaking to us in them, and conveying to us by them, some lesson of practical import. We cannot too frequently remember that "All scriptura is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, or instruction in righteousness. The several Epistles are full of personal details, relating to the writers themselves; their journeyings, and their trials, the opposition they met with, and the messages they wished to be conveyed to their friends and co-workers. But Christ is not absent here. He appointed all that

TESTAMENT.

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- (Continued.)

his Apostles did and suffered, and every detail of their work and its results was directed by himself and developed by his providential rule, as the head of the church. And if the facts were thus ordained by him, the record of those facts was equally under his inspiration and control; indeed, the records given in the Epistles form the greatest fact of all, since they are designed to be the permanent standard, not only of christian principles, but of christian life and practice, to the end of time.

We make these remarks because some would sharply divide, between the irreligious truth, and the narrative details, which the writings of the New Testament contain, assigning to the latter a different degree of inspiration, to the former. But besides the impossibility of separating the inspired writings, in the manner described, and the impossibility also of conceiving of degrees in inspiration properly so called, we contend that those who would thus lower the character of much of the New Testament, deprive themselves of the power to perceive the divine meaning of the portions they thus depreciate. Having denied them the rank of full inspiration, they no longer read them in the character of docile learners. Having assumed the position of judges they cannot put themselves into the posture of disciples, which is the only attitude for the reception of divine lessons from the scriptures of truth. But when we read them sentence by sentence as "Christ speaking in them" (2 Cor. xiii. 3.) we are impelled to seek with dilligence, to understand what he intends to convey, and the most incidental reference, and casual detail become full of interest, bright with meaning, and fraught with lessons of admonition, exhortation, consolation, and guidance.

Two passages especially, have fallen under the remark of those who deny the verbal inspiration to many parts of scripture, and may be taken as specimens of the class of passages, which they would place in a lower rank, as neither requiring, nor allowing of the full inspiration which they assign to other portions of the sacred writings. They are, 1 Tim. v. 23. "Drink no longer water" &c.;and 2 Tim. iv. 13. "The cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou

comest bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments."

Upon these passages, so good a man as Dr. Doddridge has suffered himself to write thus: "I leave the verbal inspiration of these statements to be defended by those, if any such there be, who imagine that Paul would need an immediate revelation from heaven, and a miraculous dictate of the Holy Ghost, to remind Timothy of his cloak and writings, and to advise him to mingle a little wine with his wator." But it is evident, that this is beside the mark, since the real question is not whether the inspired writers might not have known, or written, many passages without inspiration, but whether they did, or did not, record them by inspiration. So far from these two points being opposed to each other, we contend that they are in perfect harmony. The Holy Spirit inspired them to commit to writing many things which they knew before, but which he, for all-wise reasons, deemed it needful and right to have recorded for the benefit and instructions of the Church to the end of time. the objection does not in fact touch the question of verbal inspiration, though the advocates of that sentiment are usually twitted with it, since it touches the matter of Scripture, though, if carried out, summarily disposes of the greater part of the Bible.

But

Dr. Carson, than whom no one has a greater right to be heard in the domain of theological truth, says in reference to the passages under consideration, "The question is not at all, whether the Apostle Paul needed inspiration to enable him to give such directions, but whether it was without inspiration that these directions form part of a book, all of which comes to us as the word of God. If All scripture is given by inspiration of God,' the reference to Paul's cloak is as much given by inspiration, as those which declare the way of salvation; the question being whether the most trivial thing said to be inspired can be inspired in any other sense than things of the utmost moment." Now it is boldly affirmed that such passages are inspired in a different sense and degree to other passages of greater importance, on the ground of their being mere incidental allusions, and not fundamental truth; and that it is unworthy of the Holy Ghost to suppose that he is the author of such insignificant and unimportant details. We question whether this ir

reverent objection, is not akin to those which have been urged by certain sceptical philosophers, in reference to many objects in nature. Certain creatures, in insect and reptile life, have been deemed too insignificant, too repulsive, or too worthless, to be worthy of the creative skill, and power, and wisdom, of the God who made the heavenly bodies, the sea, and the dry land. In both cases, it is the creature sitting in judgment, on the works and acts of the creator. The part which true wisdom suggests is reverently to study the use, and the place, of that which appears anomalous, either in the works, and the words of God; resting assured that, approached in this spirit, they will reveal themselves in their meaning and design, to the devout and diligent inquirer. The class of passages referred to, are embedded in the structure, and interwoven into the texture of scripture; and cannot be eliminated from what is called its religious truth, without leaving disjointed and disordered fragments, where before, was symmetry, and connection, and order. The narratives and the doctrines of the Bible, form an harmonious whole; the latter spring from the former; and while the fundamental doctrines of the gospel rest upon a basis of solid facts, there are doctrines also, though of comparatively less importance, which flow from the minor facts and details, with which the word of God abounds; for "ALL scripture is given by inspiration of God," and is therefore, "profitable" for correction, instruction, and guidance.

It

Take, for instance, Paul's direction respecting his cloak, his books, and his parchment. It was written, as we know, in prospect of an approaching trial for his life, and probably of his speedy martyrdom; so that there is a degree of levity, as well as impiety, in treating it as an insignificant, or trivial detail. tells us of his enduring hardships as the follower of him who had not where to lay his head; of his poverty; of his faithful adherence to his principle of making his promulgation of the Gospel without charge, and refraining from using his liberty to require support from others, that it might not be evil spoken of. Deserted by men, in a cold prison, in the winter season, the great Apostle is waiting with undaunted energy, "ready to be offered," and to give his life for the cause of his master. Herein we see our Lord's