we have one party at variance with the other, as to the matter and modes of gospel truth. The simple and the finished—the artless and the scholarly styles, of preaching are set up each against each, as if the one contained no spirituality, and the other no philosophy. But we claim a world-wide scope for Christian truth. "All things" are those things of Christ, of which the Spirit takes, to show to the enlightened understanding of the church, and we are glad to see pressed into the service of the Saviour, the great, the good, the beautiful, the right, the true, from all sources, natural, intellectual, or moral.

“The subject of the inspiration and authority of the Word of God, is exciting, we think we may say, a growing interest both on the Continent and in our own country."* We regret that it has still room to grow, whilst we fully sympathize with the cheering tenor of this sign of the times. It seems, we must confess, somewhat anomalous, to be laying the foundation of our faith after it has been built upon for eighteen centuries! Paul thought it high time in his day to "leave the first principles of the gospel of Christ, and go on unto perfection;" but we seem to be not even assured of the rudimental doctrines of the Bible; if we are only "growing" into the belief that they have something to rest upon.

This deplorable position of things is sufficient to show how little has been done by the pulpits of the old school to ground men in religious truth-to " 'stablish, strengthen, settle" their convictions; and give them the same assurance in the things of God, as they are ready enough to require in those of the world. It has been left for our own century to produce the masterly and beautiful work of Professor Gaussen-a work somewhat impaired, perhaps, by an excess of zeal towards the lively oracles, as noticed in our last volume. We there stated (p. 471) our opinion that its author had taken up an untenable position; and we are glad to find he is now inclined to think so too, as regards the strictly-literal theory of Inspiration.†

So low, up to the present period, has been the standing

• Evangelical Christendom, November, 1850.

† See his "Letter to the Editor of the Record," dated Geneva, 12th October, 1850, copied in "Evangelical Christendom," for November last, with some admirable comments by the Rev. J. Jordan, of Enstone.

E

*

assumed for our Holy Scriptures, that unworthy comparisons have been instituted between them and the pseudo-sacred. books of heathen antiquity. Various have been the grades and shades of opinion as to their relative merits, but by almost all who have touched upon the subject, the one all-important point of antiquity has been shamefully, and without the slightest shew of reason, conceded to the false Vedas and Pouranas and Shastres of India, or the crude cosmogonies of Phoenicia, of Chaldea, of Persia, or of Egypt. It is high time that these "blasphemous fables and dangerous deceits" should be exploded, as we are sure they must be, if fact and induction only be followed in the investigation. We hold the notion that any extraordinary antiquity attaches to the sacred books of India, for example, to be of all dreams the most baseless and visionary, as we have already hinted in a former volume. Great expectations have heralded the appearance of the RigVeda-Sanhita, of Professor Wilson, now before the English reader; but the advocates for the great antiquity of this work are doomed to signal disappointment: its age is still as uncertain as ever, or, if any thing respecting it be proved, it is simply this-that it belongs to a period many centuries later than has hitherto been supposed. Its learned translator first assigns it to the fifth and sixth centuries B. C.-then to the seventh or eighth; next to the twelfth or thirteenth, and finally to the fourteenth. Yet, afterwards he remarks, "All this is to be received with very great reservation; for, in dealing with Hindoo chronology, we have no trustworthy landmarks, no fixed eras, no comparative history to guide us."† In other words, it is entirely guess work; and the man who estimates the age of these much be-praised books at five hundred years, is as likely to be right, as he who claims for them an antiquity of as many thousand.

When we find such indifference prevailing in our pulpits, as to the very "pillar and ground" of our faith, we can scarcely wonder at the widely-spreading errors of Rome-foreign, and Rome-english. One word makes all the difference between Popery and Gospel-truth. God-given Christianity, and manmade Theology, are the only religions in the whole world.

See Youth's Magazine for 1847, p. 76, et seq: + See Athenæum, Dec. 1850.

If ours be of God only, we are in the right; if of man, we are in danger of waxing worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. If Michael, the archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, "The Lord rebuke thee!”—what have we to do with invectives against the Pope or Popery? Let us only contend manfully for the faith delivered to the saints—not for the dogmas invented by the "priest"-himself a monstrous invention under the Gospel dispensation-and we need fear no evil.

Refreshing is it, in these times of rebuke and blasphemy, to turn from the blatant bitterness of those who, holding but a slippery creed themselves, are loudest in their denouncements of the Papal usurpation. A little volume forces itself upon our notice at this crisis-" The Core of Creeds, or St. Peter's Keys," by the Rev. D. Thomas, of Stockwell, *- -a work in beautiful keeping with the times; and one which foreshows a new era in pulpit-work. Eloquently, and yet in strict accordance with the rules of logical induction, is the great question put before us, and pressed home to "the business and bosoms" of all who need direction how to withstand the cunning craftiness of men who would make the commandments of God of none effect through their traditions.

The subject, unlike most pulpit themes, is argued on a worldwide basis. It addresses men as men-not as religionists or sectaries; and thus lays claim to carry every thinking mind along with it. The importance of ideas is thus first urged:

"Of all the forces the force of an idea is the most important. Impressions move the senses, ideas the soul. Public sentiment has never yet attached sufficient importance to ideas. The man who has faith in them as such, it has ever stigmatised as a visionary enthusiast; or an utopian dreamer. Whilst on the other hand, the machine-man-who has no theory of his own, who arrogantly contemns the theories of others, and moves on in the same routine of practical operations as our forefathers pursued-it readily compliments as the real practicalist, and the true utilitarian. It is time for this vulgar prejudice to be

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crushed. It is the chief of the false prophets among the people. In it despotism has its stronghold, and human progress finds its chief barrier. As thinking men, we can scarcely overrate the importance of ideas. They are the seed of character, and the soul of history. They lift the savage to a sage, and turn the sinner into a saint. They create the difference between the wild man of the woods, and the Newton of the stars. They are the pathway from the kingdom of darkness into the empire of gospel light-the steps by which a sanguinary persecutor rises to a paragon of meekness, and an apostle of love. They are our masters. The absolute autocrats. As they move, the world moves."

The attack is well followed up. Of all ideas, none are shewn to be so important as the religious. Of all religious ideas, a right idea of Christ is urged to be the chief; and this idea represents him as the Redeeming God.

Having thus argumentatively led the mind home to its only true Rest, we find in this Redeeming God a subject of Divine communication, independent of all appliances of flesh and blood, an element of personal blessedness, a basis for all true and lasting union; and a qualification for the highest office. Thus learning Christ, then, we are clad in panoply for all warfareaggressive or defensive. He is all and in all, being made unto us of God, wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption.

These are the ideas, and this the manly reasoning which sanctify the pulpit. Not that we are anxious to hear only philosophical preaching. Our hopes hang, after all, on Christ crucified In Him only we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory; and unless our whole souls burn within us under his own heart-heard voice, we leave his house cold, hungry, and unsatisfied. But why can there not be both mind and heart, intellect and love, light and warmth, in one and the same ministry? He who gives all utterance, and all knowledge, enriches also with "every thing;" so that we come behind in no gift. Let us then adorn our profession of the gospel, by pressing into its service the manifold riches of all worlds, and find in Christ those treasures of wisdom which the gospel tells us are shut up in Him.

THE BRIDGE.

THERE was once a beautiful city which stood upon the slope of a hill; it could be seen from a great distance, and the fame of it was such that many people came from far to admire it, as well as to talk with its inhabitants, who were said to be a very wise race of men, skilful in all the arts of life, and constantly making new and great inventions.

One evening, a long time ago, a stranger came to this city. He had travelled a long way, and seemed weary, but he had heard so much of the city and its wise inhabitants, that he allowed himself little time for rest before he set out to inspect the streets, and admire the large squares with their long lines of over-shadowing trees, the fountains springing up and tumbling into their deep marble basins, the tall graceful spires, and the clear windows shadowed with sweeping curtains, and filled with flowering plants.

The more he saw, the more he was delighted. The city was as beautiful as he had expected, and the people were wise and kind. Some of them were rich, and had houses like palaces, others were poor; but the rich were very good, and had built schools for their children, where they taught them the peculiar learning of the place, with various arts and trades, by which the boys soon learned to get their own living, and the girls to practise needlework and other useful arts, besides which they had them instructed in the laws which had been made by the King, and so well were the children taught on this point, that many of them knew as much about the King and his laws as their richer neighbours who had founded these schools.

The stranger thought this such a pleasant city that he wished to remain in it for awhile, that he might observe the manners of the people, and how they employed themselves. So he went about, from day to day, and observed how industrious the men were-how they built houses, and wove cloth, dug wells, and made bread—and how the women spun and knitted, and took care of their children, and of their houses. He was pleased, too, to see the children going so regularly to their schools; and when their tasks were over, he often followed them into the meadows to see how happy they were, gathering flowers and playing about in the long grass.