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Faith, On. By the Rev. John Macfarlane,
369.

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H

"Habitation, The, not made with hands," 574.

Hale, Sir Matthew, Biographical Sketch of,

115.

Hall, The late Rev. Robert, Biographical

Sketch of, 419.

Heart, The folly of a Man trusting in his own.

A Discourse, by the Rev. R. S. Candlish,

A.M., 56.

-The World in the, 256.
Hearing the Word, 416.

Heathen, Obligation to Preach to the, 223.
Number of the, 320.

Experience of the. By the Rev.
John A. Wallace, 509, 637.

By Mrs J. B. Patterson, 624.

The Joy of, 143.

The Reward in, 223.

Preparation for, 367.

The Doctrine of Recognition in. A
Discourse, by the late Rev. William Paul,
520, 536.

A Home in, 528.
Hebrews, On the Theology of the. By the
Rev. R. Simpson, Minister of Kintore,
645.

, xii. 18-29, Metrical Version of, 688.
Herald, To the Scottish Christian. By the

Rev. Duncan Grant, A. M., 32.
Herod, On the Character of. By the Rev.
Robert S. Candlish, A.M., 205.

Hervey, Rev. James, 304.

Hey, Wm. Esq., Biographical Sketch of, 562.

Heywood, The Rev. Oliver, Biographical

Sketch of, 595, 611.

Hido, A Worshipping Assembly at, in the
Island of Hawaii, 261.

Hildesly, Bishop, 176.

Hill, The Rev. Rowland, Biographical Sketch

of, 195, 211.

Hillel, Or the Destruction of Sodom. By
Professor Tennant, 590.

Hindoo, The Discourse of a Poor, 208.

Female, A, 432.

Holy Sepulchre, A Description of the, 588.

Fire, The Miracle of, 318.

Be, 687.

Honestus; or the Man that cried, "Who
will shew me any Good!" By the Rev.
Robert Lee. 85.

Honesty, Real, 496.

Hope, Final, 160.

Hottentot Boy, A, 528.

Howard, John, Biographical Sketch of, 354.

- The Tomb of, 251.

Huntington, Mrs, Biographical Sketch of, 227.
Human Merit as a Ground of Salvation, Re-
liance on. By the Rev. Henry Duncan,
D.D., 433.

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The. By the Rev. R. Whyte-

head, 696.

Morning Star, The, 144.

Mortality, Thoughts on. By the Rev. Wil-
liam Nicolson, 497.

Mortar, Danger of Daubing with Untem-
pered, 336.

Mortifying Sin, Best Mode of. 176.

Moses, They Sing the Song of, 128.

Mother, Have you a, 272.

Mother, The Blind Girl to her, 64.

Motion, Laws of. By the Rev. James Bro-

die, Minister of Monimail, 613.

Mountain Hymn. By the Rev. Alexander
S. Patterson, 208.

Much Labour, but no Profit, 224.
Mysteries? Is it a Valid Objection to the

Truth of Divine Revelation that it con-
tains. By the Rev. Peter Curror, Mi-
nister of St. Martin's, 609.

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The Danger of Quenching the.
Discourse, by the Rev. E. B. Wallace,
584.

Spiritual State, The Test of our. A Dis-
course, by the Rev. J. Henderson, 136.
Depression, Hints on. By the Rev.
William Muir, D.D., 161, 353, 401, 481,
529, 625.
Stanzas, 352.

Written among the Ruins of a Vil-
lage Church. By Robert Gilfillan, 544.

Stars, Ode to the, 560.

Stevenson, John; An Ayrshire Christian of

the Seventeenth Century, 371, 397, 413.

Story, An Eastern. By the Rev. James

Proudfoot, 478.

Susan, Old, 284.

Temple, The Church of Christ a Living, 686.
Temporals and Spirituals, 672.

Temptation, Triffe not with, 303.

Terrors of the Lord. A Discourse, by the
late Rev. James Martin, A. M., 168.

Testament, A Single New, 96.

Theology, Natural, Review of Dr Chalmers'

Work on, 28.

Thief, The Penitent. By the Rev. J. A.
Wallace, 344.

Tillotson, Archbishop, 448.

Time? What is, 512.

Value of, 95, 143.

Redeeming the. A Discourse, by the

Rev. William Menzies, 376.

-, Improvement of, 464.

Transgressor. The Lost, 262.

Treasures, Hid. By the Rev. R. Jamieson,

118.

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Warfare, The Christian, 143, 655.
Wealth, On, 381.

Welch, Rev. John, Biographical Sketch of,
659.

Mrs, Notice of, 188.
Welsh Peasants, The, 416.

Well-doing, Be not weary in. A Discourse,
by the Rev. Robert Simpson, 217.

Wesley, Rev. John, 496.

"Who hath believed our Report?" 240.

Who ought to be punished, the Devil or

Man? 208.

Which of the two is Mad? 415.

"Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and
there is none upon earth that I desire be-
sides Thee!" 153, 303, 335.

Widows in India, Burying alive of, 15.
Wight, The Isle of, Ode or Address to.
By the Rev. D. Davidson, Minister of
Broughty Ferry, 696.

Winter, An Emblem of Death, 685.

Wisdom, The Practical Effects of Spiritual.
A Discourse, by the Rev. James Brewster,

37.

Young, Addresses to the. By the Rev. W.
Stevenson, 209.

"Ye will not Come unto Me," 511.

A

AINSLIE, Sir Whitelaw, M.D., 656.

Anderson, Rev. James, Minister of New-
burgh, 280.

Anderson, Rev. John, Helensburgh, 304.

B

Barr, Rev. James, D.D., Minister of Port-
Glasgow, 24.

Begg, Rev. James, A.M., Minister of Liber-
ton, 248.

Bennie, Rev. Archibald, Minister of Lady
Yester's Parish, Edinburgh, 49.
Bonar, Rev. Andrew, 44.

Bonar, The Late Rev. J., Minister of Fetlar,
159.

Boston, Junior, The late Rev. Thomas, 348.
Brown, Rev. Charles J., Minister of Ander-
ston Parish, Glasgow, 593.

Brown, Rev. David, Minister of Roslin, 417.
Brown, Thomas, Esq., Author of " The Re-

miniscences of an Old Traveller," 258,
365, 389, 535, 647.

Brewster, Rev. James, Minister of Craig, 73.
Brodie, Rev. James, Minister of Monimail,

241, 267, 301, 327, 379, 525, 558, 613.
Bruce, Rev. John, A. M., Minister of the New
North Parish, Edinburgh, 200.
Brydone, Rev. Robert, Minister of Dunscore.
289, 488.

Buchanan, Rev. James, Minister of North
Leith, 17, 120, 687.
Burns, Rev. George, D.D., Minister of
Tweedsmuir, 264, 641, 689.
Burns, Rev. Robert, D.D., Minister of St.
George's Parish, Paisley, 296.

с

Candlish, Rev. R. S., A.M., Minister of St.
George's Parish, Edinburgh, 1, 21, 56,
69, 205.

Cowe, Rev. Robert, A.M., Minister of the
High Meeting, Berwick-upon-Tweed,
305.
Cunningham, Rev. William, Minister of
College Church, Edinburgh, 33.

Curror, Rev. Peter, Minister of St. Martin's,
609.

D

Davidson, Rev. D., Minister of Broughty
Ferry, 696.

Dimma, Rev. Thomas, Minister of Queens-
ferry, 552, 694.

Dods, Rev. Marcus, Minister of the Scotch

Church, Belford, 90, 103.

Duncan, Rev. Henry, D.D., Minister of
Ruthwell, 150, 189, 215, 433, 573,

E

Esdaile, Rev. James, Minister of the East
Church, Perth, 76, 138, 234, 332, 429,
565.

F

Foote, Rev. Alexander L. R., One of the
Ministers of Brechin, 337, 633.

Foote, The Rev. James, A.M., Minister of
the East Parish of Aberdeen, 581, 621,
652.

Fowler, Rev. J. C., A.M., Minister of Rox-
burgh Parish, Edinburgh, 385.

G

Galt, John, Esquire, 480.

Gibson, Rev. James, College Church, Glas-
gow, 105.

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Macfarlan, Rev. D., Minister of Renfrew,
14, 109, 371, 397, 413, 446, 462, 465, 605.
636.

Macfarlane, Rev. John, Minister of Collessie,
369, 545, 657.

M'Cheyne, Rev. Robert M., 10, 48, 60, 80,
94, 128, 203, 302.
M'Conechy, Rev. Archibald, Minister of
Bunkle, 272.

M'Crie, Late Rev. Thomas, D.D., Author

of" The Life of John Knor," &c., 648.
M'Gill, The Rev. Stevenson, D.D., Profes-

sor of Theology in the University of
Glasgow, 336.

M'Gilvray, Rev. Walter, Minister of St.
Mark's Church, Glasgow, 409.
M'Morland, Rev. Peter, Minister of Scotch

Church, Regent Square, London, 192.
Malcolm, Rev. William, Minister of Leochel-
Cushnie, 684.

Martin, Late Rev. James, A.M., Minister of
St. George's Parish, Edinburgh, 168.
Martin, Rev. Samuel, Minister of Bathgate,
667.

Menzies, Rev. R., Minister of Hoddam, 144,
184.

Menzies, Rev. William, Minister of Keir, 376.
Mitchell, Rev. David, 651.

Moncreiff Wellwood, Bart., Late Rev. Sir

Henry, D.D., One of the Ministers of St.
Cuthbert's, Edinburgh, 129, 568.

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Waddell, Rev. David, 286, 615, 679.
Wallace, Rev. E. B., Minister of Barr, 584.
Wallace, Rev. John A., Minister of Hawick,
65, 252, 344, 509, 637.

Watson, Rev. Charles, D.D., Minister of
Burntisland, 193.

Weir, Rev. Walter, Cupar-Fife, 232.
Whyte, Rev. Alexander, A M., Minister of
Fettercairn, 321.

Whytehead, The Rev. Robert, Recently ap-
pointed a Missionary to the Zoolus in
Eastern Africa, 696.
Wright, J. W., 400.

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RELIGION-A MATTER OF SUPREME
IMPORTANCE.

BY THE REV. R. S. CANDLISH, A. M., Minister of St. George's Parish, Edinburgh. THE importance of Religion, as a primary and principal element to be taken into account, in fixing the conditions or reckoning the chances of individual or social well-being, is held universally, bat on different grounds by different men, according to the variety of their own personal views on the subject of Religion itself.

1. Thus, there are not a few who look upon Religion, very much as the inhabitants of a country rimed from the sea may be supposed to look upon the wide waste of waters around them; or as emigrants in a newly cleared tract of land may look upon the wild tenants of the adjoining forest. The ocean displaced from his old domain, the savage beast dispossessed of his former home, is regarded by the new intruders with suspicion and alarm, as a mischievous and dangerous neighbour, to whose neighbourhood, however, they must needs submit, as a necessary condition of the very settlement they have got, and whose power, since they cannot rid themselves of it altogether, they must just regulate or restrain as best they may. In the same spirit, many view the religious sentiment, the instinctive feeling of veneration, which they acknowledge to be an original principle in the mind. Men, they say, are endowed with it by nature for wise ends. It is involved in that rational and moral constitution which is the disnctive characteristic of the human race, as superior to the race of brutes; and without that ptibility of reverential emotions on which Religion depends, there could be no society, no But though it be an unavoidable result of that mental organization which fits men for society-since, to be capable of social, man must be male capable of something like religious, feelings still this sentiment of religion finds no great faYour in their eyes. However indispensable to the formation of society, they hold it to be not very essential to its advancement. Indeed, considering the mighty energy of religious zeal when it poswas the soul, and the fearful ravages which un

civilization.

PRICE 12d.

der its blind impulse have been wrought on earth, they are inclined to give it just so much countenance as may serve to retain within safe limits, or guide in a safe channel, the current which they cannot wholly check. Hence their policy is to manage the religious spirit in individuals and communities, so as to render it harmless. They would flatter it by a decent profession of civilityor give it vent, as by a safety valve, in gay and gorgeous pageants, in solemn and stately formsor amuse it and lay it asleep by vague, unmeaning, but fair-sounding generalities. And just as they might coax out of an infant's hands a dangerous toy, they contrive, by smooth words of respectful acknowledgment, to avoid a direct quarrel with religion and to keep men in good humour on the subject, while their aim is to remove as far as possible away from their ordinary habits of thought and action, a class of motives which seem to them not only practically useless for the purposes of life, but even likely, unless very cautiously watched, to be positively dangerous and detrimental. We need scarcely remark that such views, however they may affect to coalesce with a religion of idle ceremony, or a religion of loose indiscriminating sentiment, are substantially infidel and ungodly.

2. Again, there is a numerous set of men, not quite so suspicious or so much afraid of this potent spirit, who take in hand not only to prevent its mischievous explosions, but even to make it a safe and quiet instrument of some little service to the individual and to the commonwealth. These persons, not content with erecting a barrier against the threatening tide, carefully open a few narrow sluices, and admit a measured portion of the water into well adjusted reservoirs and canals, where it may securely be made to minister to the commerce or convenience of the town. But still it is with so much anxious fear that they venture on such a step, and with so many precautions and such constant warnings against the risk of even an hairbreadth's excess or overflow, that it is well seen they are dealing with an unfriendly element,-tampering with a power which they dare not freely trust. Religion, according to them, or the sentiment of devout reverence and conscientiousnes, may, if duly

regulated and controlled, be turned to a good and useful account. The morality of the Bible is their favourite theme of praise. The precepts of holiness and peace which it contains-its maxims of spotless purity and righteousness-the spirit of benignant gentleness and love which it breathes-and the beautiful representation which it gives of all the highest excellencies and the fairest graces of human character, in the person of the blessed Saviour, all these amiable features of the Gospel are felt to be conducive to the virtue and the happiness of mankind. And the doctrine of a wise Creator, a bountiful and merciful Guardian and Protector, is acknowledged to be a fit auxiliary to those sanctions of law and conscience by which men are governed and society is kept together. But as the settlers amid the forest who might desire to make use of its wild tenants and to turn their services to advantage, would scarcely dare to do so until they had been first of all tamed and subdued; so it is a Religion well tamed and subdued, and made very subservient and compliant to their own worldly principles, that these admirers of the gain of godliness prudently patronize. They encourage just so much of the religious spirit as may be useful or convenient for checking the grosser kinds of vice, and adding something of the credit of the Christian name to the superficial plausibilities of advancing civilization. But then the Christianity they recommend must be trimmed into correspondence with their views of man's nature and condition and highest good. It must be cut and fashioned so as to fit into their merely secular plans for his improvement-it must be kept in a second and subordinate place-it must observe prescribed limits it must follow a prescribed track. Not for the world would they, if they could help it, trust it loose among men, free to take its own way and wield its own influence. They dread its vagaries and excesses unrestrained. They are sensitively alive to the hazard of enthusiasm and fanaticism. They have a sacred horror of peculiar and exclusive dogmas. Thus, if they do use Religion for the purposes of life, they use it as they would use a sharp-edged tool or doubly-loaded fire-arms, with extreme caution and reserve; and while their whole plans and proceedings, arranged for the most part on earthly principles alone, prove it to be their real opinion, that the world could go on well enough without Religion at all,—the hesitation with which they let in a very scanty and doubtful influence of principles higher and more heavenly, shows how much they fear, that with Religion having its free course, the world would be turned upside down. Surely this also is but thinlydisguised infidelity and ungodliness.

3. Now, the fatal error of both these views lies in their regarding Religion merely in its bearings on the interests of men, and not as in itself of primary moment; in their preferring the question of its utility to the question of its truth. For certainly, the use that may be made of Religion is but a secondary consideration. The first is its own reality. Is there a God above us, such in character

as conscience within us attests Him to be? Has He been forgotten and forsaken, disowned and disregarded by men, his reasonable creatures, as all experience declares? Is He in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, as the Gospel proclaims? Is this Religion? and is it a reality? Then, if so, it is a reality to be dealt with as itself alone on its own account vitally important, and not merely on account of certain advantages or disadvantages that we may think likely to flow from it. It is not our servant, to do our bidding—our instrument, to serve our purposes-our property, on which we may cut and carve, and which we may form and fashion to our own liking. It is our master-it must command us-it must have us, and all that is ours, placed at its disposal-we, and all that is ours, belong to it, or rather to the God whom it reveals as reconciled. And it is when in this spirit we give to God his due supremacy, and make Religion itself, and for its own sake, our chief concern, to which all other interests must be postponed it is then only that we can know its true and actual influence on these very interests of ours; for then only do we give it a fair trial. For, to judge fairly of the effects or tendency of any plan, we must suppose its essential conditions fulfilled. Now, the very essence of the Religion of the Gospel, is the willing subjection of ourselves, and all that is ours, to God. We may fancy a Religion which does not involve such subjection, but which rather makes the fear of God subject to the consideration of our own present interests. This, however, is not Christianity-nor, in truth, is it Deism eitherfor, if there be a God, He must be in all things and over all things Supreme. The very notion, therefore, which we in that case form of Religion, prevents us from rightly estimating its power either for good or for evil-for it is a notion radically wrong and self-contradictory. But now assume the reality of such a Religion as alone can properly be so called at all, and let its rightful preeminence be assigned to it; and then estimate its blessings and its obligations. This reference of all things to God-to God sovereign and gracious, this acknowledgment of God in all thingsof God as a personal friend in Jesus,-does it not sweeten all, ennoble all, hallow all? Does it not give zest to every joy, soothe every sorrow, lighten every care, elevate every rational pursuit, and make all labour honourable? It is as if long troubled and wearied with the attempt to manage an entangled and involved estate, in which we found perpetual vexation and annoyance, we at last gave it all over to ones kilful and faithful, who, relieving us of all anxiety, provides for us in all respects far better than we were ever provided for before. It is as if the toil of dreary solitude were cheered and gladdened by the countenance and sympathy of an approving and rewarding master. So blessed a thing is it to have peace with that God who will be present in the multitude of our thoughts, and will establish every work of our hands. In the formation of character, such Religion as this alone can be influential. Other sorts

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