this faith. Though unperceived by their bodily senses, his presence, in their view, is as real and substantial as the invisible malaria that engenders disease, or the malignant infusion that propagates contagion. So long as Christians resolve their conflicts with the devil into a war of opposing principles, as of heat and cold or of darkness and light, they are too fleshly, too remote from the spiritual world to have a revival. Their faith is not that which gives substance to unseen truth. Did you ever know a revival to exist among those who denied to the devil a personal existence? No; such men have not implicit reliance upon God's word. They can realize nothing till they have passed it through the alembic of materialism. They do not accept the statements of the Bible on this subject in their simple plain sense, but mystify, distort and explain them away to suit them to their gross conceptions. Satan instigating the first sin; satan assembling with the sons of God in the days of Job; satan provoking David to number the people; satan tempting our Lord in the wilderness; satan instigating Judas' treachery; satan filling the heart of Ananias and Sapphira to lie to the Holy Ghost; satan desiring to have Peter that he might sift him as wheat; satan, of whose devices the apostle says Christians are not ignorant; must all be reduced to poetry and

allegory, before they can be accepted by these fleshly believers in revelation. How then can God honor with revivals those who thus dishonor his word ?

Are not all who have been greatly distinguished as revivalists, been remarkable for their literal acceptation of the Bible on this subject? Who was ever more sensible of being harassed by the devil, than John Bunyan? and who ever preached the word with more awakening effects? The splendid eloquence of Robert Hall had no power to move the spiritual sentiments, compared with that of the honest tinker. Luther, also, and Knox and Whitefield and Wesley were as remarkable for their conflicts with the devil, as for their transcendent power in revivals. And the same is true to this day. Whenever such a work is in progress among a people, they are always sensible to the counterworking of satanic agency. If we have not faith enough to literally accept God's word on this subject, we have not enough for a revival.

When we have this faith, O how real it will appear to us, that the impenitent are sinking to hell by hundreds and thousands! What energy will it impart to our exertions for pulling them out of the fire! What confidence shall we have in the electing love of God, and the certainty that the preaching of Christ and him crucified,

will turn to the salvation of some of them! We know that Christ must see the travail of his soul, and that the means which he has appointed for this purpose, must prove effectual. They cannot fail of being the power of God unto salvation. We take firm hold on the promise, that the heathen shall be given to him for an inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for a possession. We rest upon the omnipotence, of God's revealed truth over the spiritual elements of man's nature, and are sure that his word cannot return to him void. Hence, we speak with authority, like men that expect to be believed. How real, also, is the crucifixion of Christ to

us!

Never can the writer of these pages lose the first impression upon his mind of this great central fact in the history of redemption. It came like a note from eternity, a note of infinite love; the adorable Lamb of God dying that he might live! And is not this the experience of all who have tasted the good word of God? How much force is there in that language of Paul to the Galatian converts, Before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, cruci

fied among you. Though many miles from the

scene of the crucifixion, and not hearing of it till long after it took place; yet their faith made it as real as an event passing under the observation of the senses. How many millions have

had a like view of Christ upon the cross, a view that had all the effect of an event in which they had a personal interest! Yea, seeing the crucifixion with the bodily eyes, apart from the faith to take in its spiritual connexions, could do no more for us, than it did for those who actually surrounded his cross. It is the faith that takes in these connexions, that gives the crucifixion its vast influence in the spiritual world. It makes those who have it, feel that they have been guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. Nor is it possible for a revival to exist in a community where this feeling does not to some extent prevail. The church and its minister must have their hearts melted to tenderness in view of the cross; sinners must thence derive the repentance that needeth not to be repented of; and the burdened soul must thither come, before he can realize the joys of pardon and immortal hope. Now, the same arguments that go to show that Christians may, at any and all times, be filled with the Holy Spirit, go also to prove that they may combine the internal elements of a revival; for the latter arise from the former.

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OF SUCH A WORK.-CONCLUSION.

HAVING seen the state of mind necessary to enable an individual or individuals to propagate revival influences in a community, we come now to notice its outward developments. Here we suppose there is latitude for endless variety to suit the social habits, mental culture and moral tone of a people. To adopt in all cases the same mode of procedure, is like a general, under all circumstances, disposing his forces in the same order of battle. Whether protracted meetings and evangelists, for instance, should or should not be admitted, is not a subject for controversy. God decides that question by the different kind of men whom he brings into the ministry. If an individual who is altogether deserving of confidence for his piety and devotion to the work of the Lord, can do more as an evangelist, or in protracted meetings, what are