and they grow like trees by the rivers of water, bearing immortal fruit. By this nurture they are prepared for the glorification of their sanctified nature on the revelation of the king. Through church fellowship and ordinances of life, the man who has spiritual faculty builds up the internal kingdom, and ripens for the everlasting. The first empire developes the second, and prepares material for the third. With a determination to finish my defence in another short letter, I am, &c. G. GREENWELL.

NOTES OF LECTURES DELIVERED BY A. CAMPBELL.

MATTHEW, chapter first, read. The first verse in this chapter, is the preface to the entire book of Matthew and no more. It is necessary in all books to have a preface, stating the object of the work-this does that fully and fairly. A word on terminology. It is necessary to have a proper terminology, in all our schools. We have a natural theology in nearly all, and ought to have a revealed in theology all. These, with ethics in all its departments, would comprehend man in all his relations. The progress of teaching these has not kept pace with the other departments of science. Revealed theology is the most important of all studies, as it respects man's origin and destiny. It is being considered favorably, and I hope, will soon be admitted into all schools. It is as much superior to common studies, as the ratio between time and eternity. Of all follies, this caps the climax, to think that men should spend so much of their time in learning how to live three-score years and ten, and so little to learn how to live for eternity to live through ceaseless ages. I hope these things will be considered in the light in which they deserve. This College is the first Institution in the world that has adopted this course, that has made the Bible a text book.

The Bible as you all see, is divided into two departments, called the Old and New Testaments. By Beza and Tyndal they were called the Old and New Covenants: this last title is fast gaining ground. Think of the title, "The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." It would be derogatory to our Lord, if he had made two Testaments; for Testament means will; hence it implies that he made two wills, and you know that there can be but one valid in law-it was even so in Paul's time, as you may learn from his letter to the Hebrews. The Old Testament can be written on the palm of a man's hand: that is, the ten commandments -the will proper. But this is not all the book contains; hence it is more than a will. The New Testament can be written in less space than the Old. There are two great chapters in these books, that reveal to us things most important-God and man. The constitution of a state is but a small thing compared with its laws-so the wills occupy but a small space in this volume. The name of this book is, "The Writings of Moses and the Prophets," for the Old Testament, and "The Writings of Apostles and Evangelists," for the New. Remember that the names this book now bears, were given by monks in the dark ages, and are but the opinions of men; but that the book itself contains a Revelation from God.

This book contains sixty-six treatises, and had forty different writers. Eight wrote the New Testament, six apostles and two evangelists. The Old Testament had sixteen prophets, twenty-four historians, (admitting the Hagiography,) and one lawgiver. Each one of these writers can be identified by his own peculiar style. This book was fifteen centuries in

being written. This is an important fact, and enables us to form an esti mate of its authenticity, when we take into account the iudividuals by whom it was written, viz. kings, shepherds, husbandmen, fishermen, &c. They have all spoken in one spirit, though the men, and times, and languages were so diversified; yet, it is a perfect unit. There is no other volume whose antiquity is so great as this, or has a tithe of the evidence of its own authenticity this one has. There is no other book whose unity is like this. The greater part of this book is history and prophecy-prophecy is but history, at least it all becomes history. It is the book of facts-it contains facts upon which precepts are based, and from which promises flow. Besides these, there are a few explanations annexed, but they are like marginal notes. This is a book to be believed-for the facts are veritable, and its internal and external evidences are more numerous than those of any other book of ancient date.

(The first line of Matthew was here read in Greek.) "The book of the generations of Jesus Christ." Some think this ought to be the title of this book. What is the reason that we have a genealogy of Christ in the first book? Why not as well of Moses? It seems there was a necessity for it, and that his genealogy was of importance to the world. He was the only person who could trace his genealogy, or origin, back to Adam, and he had the land-marks for doing so. The reason why his genealogy is given in preference to any other is, that his birth was foretold from the very fall of man. First, The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head. Second, The Lord God of Shem. Third, A son of Abraham ; of his sons, he was to come through Isaac-of his, Jacob-of his, Judah— then of David, a particular branch of Judah. So you see that it is indispensably necessary, that we have an account of his genealogy, that we might identify him. This is the reason why the evangelists have given us such an accurate one. Matthew gives us one by his father's side, Luke by the mother's; thus giving every man the power of testing whether he was the person foretold or not. This is not, however, the only criterion they had for identifying him. It was foretold that he should appear in the time of the second temple, and one of the prophets even named the village in which he should be born. The great fault of sceptics is that they have not got patience to dig deep enough to the sub-basis, for the foundation of Christianity is laid deep. Now if Christianity is not true, it is worth nothing --if true, it is worth the universe. Truth is older than error, it is the first born of heaven. When God spoke, truth was born. I will now give you a summary of the predictions concerning the Messiah. The first mention made of man's deliverancce is, "The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head." This is a general prediction--a solitary ray-a single star to guide the destinies of the world. After the flood, Noah, by divine inspiration, foretells the destinies of his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet-distinguished men. Japhet was to become a family of nations: Canaan shall be subordinate to him; not his slave or servant, but simply to be in subordination to him. "And blessed be the Lord God of Shem." Who is this? Who is "the Lord God of Shem?" David makes use of a similar phrase in Psalm cx. "The Lord said unto my Lord." The Saviour quotes this saying of David, when the Jews on one occasion endeavoured to entangle him. He asked them, how this person could be David's son and his lord? They had told him that the Messiah was David's son-thus far he told them they were right; but the second part of the question they could not answer. Peter afterwards explained it to them in the second chapter of the Acts.

The phrase "Lord God of Shem," is to be understood in the same way. The next was to Abraham: in his seed were all the nations of the earth to be blessed. Then in his son Isaac, in contradistinction to Ishmael. "In thy seed," He said to Isaac. Isaac had two sons of these He picked out Jacob ; and of Jacob's twelve sons He takes Judah, who was to be "the lion of the tribe of Judah." In trying this genealogy, we must see if this person is the son of Eve, the Lord God of Shem, &c.; if not, he is unworthy of the confidence of the world, as the one foretold since the creation, the beginning of the world.

COMMUNINGS IN THE SANCTUARY.-No. XVI.

"He made darkness his secret place-his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies" (Ps. xvii. 11.)

CHRISTIANITY deals not with trifles, nor was the mission of Jesus for unimportant ends. The subjects and the purposes which are here presented to our view, are, on the contrary, of the deepest moment, and of the most absorbing interest. Rejecting the vain objects of the fleeting world, and all the idle themes which appertain to earth, the gospel embraces the things of life and death, and entering at once upon the stern realities of human destiny, dwells on those solemn truths which, from their very nature, are fitted to engross the attention of every human being.

Yet life and death, the great themes of religion, in which man is so deeply concerned, are among the great mysteries of the universe. How little we know of life, although it is every where around us, and even within us! How much less we know of death, of which we have had, as yet, no personal experience! Doubtless, however, it is this very obscurity which gives to these subjects an interest so deep and permanent. What we have fully explored and comprehended, wearies us by familiarity, and loses its attractive charm. But mystery awakens curiosity-engages attention -excites inquiry-gives activity to thought, and zest to enjoyment. How just, then, that the most important things should be the most mysterious! How proper that we should be thus led to dwell upon these with fixed attention! How natural, also, that we should be most deeply interested in the things which Christianity presents! Nature attracts us by the wonders of a life and a death which are temporal, but religion enchains the soul by the deeper mysteries of a life and a death which are eternal !

In proportion as the mysteries presented to us deepen, they approach nearer to God. He is the great mystery of mysteries, and we draw nearer to him as we approach the veil that conceals the sacred arcana of his inner temple. Life natural is to us a great enigma, and it reveals to us much of all that we yet know of God; but death, that still greater mystery, will open to the soul still nearer views of God in the world of spirits. In our investigations of nature, we may trace effects to their immediate causes, and discover important truths in regard to the divine system of material things. It is when we would seek to explain and analyze these causes themselves, that we find ourselves involved in deeper and more remote researches, and it is then, when we approach the mystery of the divine will, that we are brought nearer to the invisible Creator. It is untrue, then, that a mystery that is truly divine, can obstruct our progress or hinder our vision. On the contrary, it tends to give us truer and nobler views of the Deity, because it brings us nearer to Him, and yet veils,

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in favoring obscurity, that dazzling glory which would otherwise blind our feeble vision. Thus it is not the light of day that gives to us the most glorious and sublime view of the material universe. We then see the earth beneath us, and the blue expanse above us, with its single sun, on which, from its very brightness, we dare not gaze, and whose very light conceals from us the rest of the material system. It is when that light is withdrawn, and darkness casts her sable mantle over the things of earth, that our view, instead of being contracted, is enlarged and fixed upon the heavens. It is then that worlds upon worlds arise before us, and millions of suns appear in place of one, and distant and still more distant orbs lead us farther and farther through the regions of illimitable space, to the unresolved nebulæ of utmost vision-to the sublime mysteries of natureto the overwhelming grandeur and magnificence of the divine creation-to the infinite power and glory of the Creator. So, also, though life reveals much of God to man, it is death that shall unfold much more. It is the night of death, the darkness of the grave, which, while it hides from us the earth, shall reveal to us the heavens, and display to the soul those sublime mysteries of Deity which, though now above us and around us, are yet concealed from us by the very brightness of our day of life.

But what is true of our own life and death, is eminently so of the life and death of JESUS. How great was the mystery of the life of Christ! How thick the veil in which the divine glory was then enshrouded! Yet it was thus alone that man was enabled to approach so nearly, and to contemplate so fully, the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. It was through that mystery of the incarnation that God was indeed revealed to mortals. It was amidst the darkness of the world that his infinite love, mercy, and condescension, shone forth to the view of men. But ah! how much greater the mystery of his death! and how much more it presents to us of God! What new and wonderful developements it gives of the divine character! What awful and sublime conceptions of the Infinite One it presents to the soul! What startling thoughts it suggests of the things invisible ! What sorrowful memories of the past -what blissful fellowship of the present-what joyous hopes of the future, cluster in the broad heaven which the death of Christ reveals! Ah! it is here that we see more of God than angels knew before ! It is amidst the darkness of the grave of Jesus that new visions of God arise, more sublime and glorious than all that could precede! It is, indeed, the bright light of His presence that dazzles and blinds. It is LIGHT that renders Him inaccessible, so that no man can approach Him. It is into the thick darkness that we must enter, like the leader of ancient Israel, if we would find Him. It is when He shrouds his glory in the veil of mortality-when He partakes of our deep woes, and enters into the gloom of our dark and dreary prison, that we may presume to draw near to Him in trustful faith, to enter into a holy spiritual communion, and partake of the ineffable joys which wait upon his presence. R. R.

ADHERE rigidly and undeviatingly to the truth; but while you express what is true, express it in a pleasing manner. Truth is the picture-manner is the frame that displays it to advantage. "There is nothing," says Plato, (6 so delightful as the hearing or speaking of truth." For this reason, there is no conversation so agreeable as that of the man of integrity, who hears without any intention to betray, and speaks without any intention to deceive.

THE

BATH OF REGENERATION.

of a mere ceremony. We connect faith with immersion as essential to forgiveness and therefore, as was said of old, "According to your faith, so be it to you," so say we of immersion. He that goes down into the

that the blood of Jesus cleanses from all sin-and that he has appointed immersion as the medium, and the act of ours through and in which he ac tually and formally remits our sinshas, when immersed, the actual remission of his sins. So that he is dead by sin, buried with Jesus, and is born again, or raised to life again—a life new and divine, in and through the act of immersion. This, we have seen in the preceding essays, is the Bible import of the one immersion. In it we put on Christ, are buried with him, rise with him, have our sins re

IN shunning one extreme we are wont to run into the contrary. The Papists in former times made the mere act of immersion or of sprink-water to put on Christ, in the faith ling, irrespective of the sentiments, faith, or feelings of the subject, wash away all sins. They used the name of the "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost," or of "the Trinity," as they termed it, just as conjurors use the words of a charm. They supposed that the mere pronunciation of the names constituting "the Holy Trinity," together with two or three drops of water from the baptized finger of an ignorant priest, forgave all sins, whether "original or actual," and therefore contended, no baptism, no salvation." Because they terminated in this abominable delusion, and car-mitted, enter upon a new life, receive ried their notions to this immense the Holy Spirit, and begin to rejoice extreme, the Protestants ran to an in the Lord. equal extreme on the other side of the equator of truth; and therefore gave to baptism, however administered, no connection with the remission of sins. So much did they hate the errors of Popery, that they did scarcely name "the forgiveness of sins" on the same day on which they "administered baptism." This is not the only instance in which the Protestants were driven entirely to neglect their duty, because the Catholics ran into some absurdity. Thus, as the Romanists laid so much stress upon fasting, as to make it almost more than " a sacrament," the Protestants will not fast at all, lest they should become Papists; and therefore, although they have some days called "fast days," they take good care to eat as abundantly on those holy days as upon any other occasion. Now, methinks we are not to be scared out of our duty or privilege because of the errors or follies of others. Nor do we lose sight of the forgiveness of our sins in immersion, because Papists have made a saviour

Infidels and sceptics in general, as well as some-weak mindde Christians, object to this doctrine because it is not complex or mysterious enough. It is too easy, too cheap, too simple, to have such immense advantages attached thereto. What say they, is a man to put on Christ, to be born again, to begin a new life, to rise with Christ to a heavenly inheritance, to have all his sins remitted, to receive the Holy Spirit, to be filled with joy and peace, through the mere act of a believing immersion in water into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? I say yea, most assuredly; and request the weak Christian who objects to all this goodness and mercy, obtained so easily, so simply, so cheaply, to consider that it is just "thus and so," that God has always dealt with man in things natural and supernatural. Does not a man enjoy life itself and all its thousand joys, by the simple, cheap, and easy method of breathing atmospheric air? And is not this done with so much ease as never to interfere with eating, talking,