Martyrology," though, I fear, I can do little to promote its success in Edinburgh. I am completely overdone, and am obliged to take flight into the retirement of the country.

ume,

66

I hope you see Mr. Bickersteth occasionally-for I should like that, the first time you met him, you would deliver this message from me. When I wrote him last, I had only entered on the perusal of his work on Prophecy," and not proceeded far in it, and certainly, from the beginning of his volI understood that he was doubtful on the subject of Christ's personal reign, in which sentiment I stated that I agreed with him. I now find, however, that he is decidedly for that opinion, and I am very far from being decidedly against it. But I have not yet got beyond Mede upon this question, who certainly left it indeterminate, though I am now far more confident than I wont to be that there is to be a coming of Christ which precedes the millennium-a millennium to be ushered into the world by a series of dreadful visitations, for which, I fear, we are fast ripening-in the train of which all our present structures, whether civil or ecclesiastical, will give way, that room might be made for a universal empire of truth and righteousness.

I beg my most grateful regards to Mrs. Bridges; and if Miss Wakefield be still with you, I would offer her too my best acknowledgments. Ever believe me, my dear sir, yours most cordially, THOMAS CHALMERS.

As

No. CCLVII.-LETTER TO THE REV. HORACE BONAR. EDINBURGH, 9th January, 1847. MY DEAR SIR-Would you allow me to suggest “Alexander on Isaiah" as an admirable book for your review. fas as I have looked into it, it seems a work of extraordinary merit. The author is an American professor at Princeton. I feel quite assured that your brother, were he to address himself to the work, would go through it con amore. I can not close this communication without expressing my entire satisfaction with the doctrines and the progress of what I call your

South Country School, of whom I hold yourself, Mr. Purves, of Jedburgh, and Mr. Campbell, of Melrose, to be the trio of its representatives. It is not of your prophetical, but of your theological views, that I now speak, though to the former, also, I approximate much nearer than I did in my younger days. But, speaking of the latter, nothing can be more

* Ps. l., 1–6.—"This is a remarkable psalm, and the subject of it seems to lie within the domain of unfulfilled prophecy. There has been no appearance yet from Mount Zion at all corresponding with that made from Mount Sinai. And I am far more inclined to the literal interpretation of this psalm than to that which would restrict it to the mere preaching of the Gospel in the days of the apostles. It looks far more like the descent of the Son of Man on the Mount of Olives, with all the accompaniments of a Jewish conversion, and a first resurrection, and a destruction of the assembled hosts of anti-Christ."—(Posth. Works, vol. iii., p. 51.)

Ps. lxviii., 18–35.—“ Mixed up with all the literalities of the typical, the great antitype shines forth in this high, sacred composition. We have positive evidence for Christ in this psalm in Eph., iv., 8, after which we need be at no loss for objects in the future triumph and victory of His cause adequate to the loftiest expressions which we here meet with. . . . There is every likelihood of allusions here to the great contest of the book of Revelation.. But God has in reserve for His people still another restoration. He will bring them again, as of old, from Bashan and the Red Sea to their own land. His people will 'see Him whom they have pierced,' perhaps when His feet stand on the Mount of Olives, and Jerusalem will again become the great central sanctuary by becoming the metropolis of the Christian world.". (Ibid., p. 69.)

Isa., lxv., 17-25.-"It is delightful to mark how an expression so general as that of the new heavens and the new earth, and therefore of the great and general renovation, should be blended with the expression of God's special kindness to his ancient people, proving that the Jews are to bear a prominent part in the establishment of the next economy. We are greatly wanting in the details of the miellnnium, and perhaps from the want of scriptural data for the determination of them. We can not think of those who bear part in the first resurrection that they will again die; but will none of the righteous die? if not, what is meant by the child dying a hundred years old? in contrast with him, the sinner, who, though he should live a hundred years, will be accursed. We doubt not that there will be two contemporaneons societies at that period—the righteous and the wicked, who are without, and will not be permitted to hurt or to destroy in all God's

And

And

precious than the manner in which you expound the things that are freely given to us of God. I feel assured that no other doctrine will regenerate the world. Give my kindest regards to Mrs. Bonar, and ever believe me, my dear sir, yours very truly, THOMAS CHALMERS.

LETTERS TO DR. JAMES BROWN.

No. CCLVIII.

EDINBURGH, 30th August, 1833.

MY DEAR SIR-It is owing entirely to my having been so long from home that I have not till now requested your acceptance of my last work; and I feel very much flattered by your favorable opinion of it. This is but the second day of

my return from England.

I agree in all you say on the subject of Mr. Duncan's work, with the exception of your single remark upon its dedication, than which he could have done nothing more rightly and appropriately. It is the common feeling of us both, that whatever of the academic spirit, or of the purely academic enthusiasm either of us may possess, we are far more indebted for it to you than to all other teachers put together. Of all my living instructors, I have ever reckoned first yourself, then Professor Robison, of Edinburgh, and, lastly, Dr. Hunter, of St. Andrews, as far the most influential in the formation both of my taste and intellectual habits. I have read the Preface, and I think the book promises vastly well. My two eldest daughters, who have mastered the first four books of Euclid, are to attempt the perusal of it, and I mean to accompany them. Such is my confidence in Mr. Duncan's powers of lucid conveyance, while he at the same time sustains

holy mountain. Again, will there be a change in the laws of animal nature- -that the carnivorous shall cease being so, or are these things only figurative? The earth, with its curse fully removed, will be greatly more productive, and so as that men shall not labor in vain, as now. v."—(Ibid., p. 339.)

the purity and dignity of the science, that I have no doubt of their fully understanding him.

A

I shall do all I can for the volume, but that is little. review from your pen in the pages of the "Edinburgh" would make its fortune. With best regards to Mrs. and Miss Brown, 1 remain, my dear sir, yours most truly,

No. CCLIX.

THOMAS CHALMERS.

EDINBURGH, 16th February, 1834.

MY DEAR SIR-I agree with you in thinking that the appointment of Ivory would shed very great éclat on our University. Whether he would make a good working professor, I know not; but I shall take every fair opportunity of stating what I do know of him as an illustrious savant.

On the subject of your second note, which I presume to be yours, though subscribed only with your initials, I agree with you in deprecating the universality of popular preaching throughout the Church, if by this is meant flimsy, or vulgar, or untasteful, or irrational preaching. But there is one ingredient of popularity which I should like to see in all sermons grounded as it is on the adaptation of the peculiar doctrines of Christianity to the felt wants and exigencies of our moral nature, and to the workings and aspirations of which nature the peasant is as feelingly alive as the philosopher. For example, his conscience tells him, often more powerfully and just as intelligently, that he is under the condemnation of a violated law; and so it falls with all the greater acceptance upon his ear, that unto him a Savior is born. The doctrine of the atonement, in fact, urged affectionately on the acceptance of the people, and held forth as the great stepping-stone, by which one and all are welcome to enter into reconciliation and a new life (for a fully declared Gospel is the very reverse of Antinomianism), I hold to form the main staple of all good and efficient pulpit-work. I need not say how much my recent illness has endeared to me the propitiated forgiveness of

the New Testament—a forgiveness to which we can not resort too early, and on which we can not, if honestly desirous of conforming ourselves to the whole word and will of God, cast too confidently the whole burden of our reliance.

The interest you have taken in me inclines me to mention, that on Saturday week I received the notification from Paris of my appointment as a Corresponding Member of the Royal Institute of France. The place which they have assigned to me is in the Academy or Department of the Moral and Political Sciences. I am, my dear sir, yours most gratefully, THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CCLX.

Burntisland, 30th August, 1836. MY DEAR SIR-It is with no common interest and satisfaction that I received your kind note; and am much gratified with your remembrance of me, who have fallen so much short of my own desires, and what, had it been possible, I should have regarded as one of my most incumbent duties, that of testifying, both by my frequent calls and frequent inquiries, how deep the respect, and how cordial is the attachment I have ever felt for you. I need not say how much I am gratified by the approval you have given to my last published sermon. I have long thought that great injustice has been done to the theology of the New Testament, by the inadequate representations of orthodoxy in regard to its practical character; and that if these were more insisted on, it might serve to recommend its precious overtures of welcome and good-will; its proclamation of forgiveness; its full and free amnesty, even to the chief of sinners; its grand disclosure of pardon to all who will, through the medium of an atonement, by which the law is magnified, while the transgressors of the law are taken into full reconciliation; and so a fairer exhibition of the righteousness of the Christian system might gain the acquiescence of many in these doctrines of salvation and grace, by which so many are nauseated, because they do not perceive