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to God; and you still attend your places of worship, where souls are occasionally overpowered by Divine grace, and where many a cheering festival is celebrated.

But whilst I am endeavouring to prove to you that "the acceptable time" still shines upon you, a melancholy feeling steals over me, lest that happy period should be already on the wane. But I will say no more; and however inquisitively you may look upon me, I conceal no secret, except that of my mysterious grief,-my sorrowful foreboding. But "the Lord will provide." Suffice it to say, that the present may still be called an "accepted time;" but a more acceptable period has already passed. Abundant grace has been vouchsafed to you. It would be dreadful if you had received it in vain. I know, alas, respecting not a few amongst you, that the drop-pings of heavenly dew have fallen only on a heated stone, and the solar ray of Divine beneficence has only met with closed doors.

Yes, you need the apostolic exhortation, "We, then, as workers together with Him, beseech you, also, that ye receive not the grace of God in vain." I look upon those amongst you, who saw the stream of blessing to which I previously alluded, rush past them for years together; but their feet alone were moistened by it,-their hearts remained untouched. I fix my eyes on others amongst you, who have listened to the invitations of ardent love, and to those sacred and solemn admonitions which, for years together, proved a witnessing spirit amongst you; but the inward death, which you brought with you into "the accepted time," you also take with you out of it. God be merciful to you! I think also of those who were favoured with being spectators of the rich series of delightful festivals of adoration and triumph which, at one time, bloomed among us, but whose knees have never bent before the Lamb. Oh, that they may not for ever remain unbent! I look likewise upon you who have witnessed so many wonders of Divine grace and spiritual revivals amongst us, but never vitally experienced the reality of that life which is from God, nor of union with Jesus. Oh, how often did the net of Divine truth close around you? but ye rent it, because you "preferred darkness to light." How often did the arrow of conviction pierce you? but you violently wrenched it from your breasts, and healed the wounds with the deadly salve

of wilful self-deception, or with the darkness-causing spirit of worldly lust! Oh, how often has the lightning flashed over the abyss, on the edge of which you sleep? How frequently has the fire-bell rung in your ears, and yet your feet are still walking as before, on the road that leads to the eternal flame? You have received "the grace of God in vain ;" and worse than this could not have happened to you. Oh, awake, even now, from your lethargy. An evening ray, and perhaps a parting one, of the day of salvation, still falls upon your heads. Grace still invites! Oh, "kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way!"

"GOOD NIGHT, MOTHER."

Little Willie was a most beautiful child. Strangers, as they met him in the street, stopped Sarah, his nurse, to ask his name and that of his parents. They called him "a noble little fellow," but those who knew him shewed their appreciation of something beyond the wondrous beauty of his infant face, for they always called him "Dear Willie."

His bright, fearless eye, and pleasant smile, and more than all, his frank hearttoned voice, were sure passports to the affections of all. His parents lived in a small village on the banks of the M.

of which his father was the pastor, and every body in the whole village, even the poor old ladies who lived in the almshouse behind the hill, and the workmen who toiled all their days down in Mill Valley (as the district round the factory was called) all knew and loved Willie. Whenever his little green waggon was seen, being slowly drawn over the smooth grass of the common, you might see one white gate after another open, and some one coming out, to wait and see "Willie" when he went by. Sometimes it was a little girl with a flower, which she had just had especial permission to pick for " Willie:" sometimes it was a young lady with a new book for "Willie" to read: sometimes it was an old lady with an apple, or else with something she had been knitting, for "Willie " or for "Willie's" mother: sometimes it was one of the grey-headed old deacons, who would stand leaning on his staff, and look down in the child's placid face, till a tear came in his eye, then with a low "God bless that boy," he would turn away.

But as the little waggon was drawn back again, with its load of gifts, up the hill, and down the lane by the church, at a low brown wicket, half hid by struggling lilac bushes, was ever to be seen one, whose heart yearned for the return of the petted child. This was Willie's mother. With a happy heart and a smiling face, she would meet her first-born and her only, and snatching him from the arms of his nurse, would bear him, and the tokens of love which had been given him, lightly up the carpeted staircase, till she paused at a carved oaken door. Her light tap and Willie's shout were answered by a "right welcome all," in the deep tones of her student husband, whose eye kindled with that pleasure which words cannot tell, as it rested on the two beings which were life, Soon Willie and love, and all to him.

would fall asleep from the fatigue of his ride, and they went together to lay him on the little couch, which his father would have placed in one corner of his study, in a corner where the sunlight rested warmly, and near the window, through which looked, in spring, the bright eyes of the cherry blossoms. While he slept, his mother sat beside him and sewed, while her eyes were resting, first on her boy and then on her husband, and her heart was full, more than full, of bliss. Thus was "Willie" loved.

One night, a cold night in March, a low stifled cough from Willie's crib awoke both Almost his parents at the same instant. immediately they stood by his side, and with emotions which can be felt but not described, saw that he was suffering with a severe attack of croup. Medical assistance was soon procured, but it was too late. Willie's little limbs were already cold, and the glaze of death on his bright blue eyes. He could not speak distinctly, and his mind was clouded, but with a seemingly confused idea that he was going to bed at night, and with an expression of perplexity on his pale brow, as if he wondered why he could not pronounce the words he framed, he looked up, smiled, said slowly, "Good night, mother," and died.

The graveyard of Mis on the southern side of a hill, on the summit of which waves a forest of pines. The sun lies serenely all day long upon the many hillocks there, and the blue violets grow wild in profusion around. In one corner of the yard is a little grave, on which lilies of the valley bloom in the spring, and white roses and

snowy chrysantheums in the summer and fall. A path beaten and worn by the frequent tread of loving feet, leads to it from the iron gate, and in the long Saturday afternoons, little groups of thoughtless children are seen going thither and standing by the grave. At sunset every Sabbath, a graceful though bending form kneels by the little mound, and leaning upon the firm arm of her husband weeps bitterly. It is Willie's mother, but she always rises more calmly, and sometimes reads aloud with almost a smile, the simple line which is carved upon the white marble stone, "Good night, Willie."

How many of our hearts are saddened by the ever-present thought of the loved ones who are sleeping! Why do we not remember that we have but bid them "good night;" and rejoice in the anticipations of the joyous morning greetings which we shall exchange with them in the early light of the sun of immortality?

ALONE WITH GOD.

Alone with God! How solemn, how sublime the idea! How tranquilizing! how comforting! how fraught with security and strength! Yet how awful! "Jacob was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place!" And Peter was bewildered and awe-struck, while he exclaimed, "It is good for us to be here !"

But

Alone with God! Such is the attitude of the christian in prayer, "Thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray." There are heart-sorrows and plagues which the christian could not bear to tell to his most intimate earthly friend. There are fears which we dare not whisper into any mortal ear. There are hopes and joys too vast and glorious to be imparted. when the christian has hid his face in the bosom of his Father, he can breathe forth all, for when words fail, he can resort to the language of sighs and groans; for "He knoweth our thoughts afar off." "He that searcheth the heart, knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God." These "groans which cannot be uttered," are the workings of the interceding Spirit in the heart. The Infinite Spirit prompts, the Infinite can alone understand, them. Here there is no fear of betrayal, of contempt, of lack of apprecia

tion and sympathy. For we converse with God, whose name is Love, and who has told us to "pour out our hearts before him."

Wondrous privilege! Does, then, this lowly, mortal, sinful, and suffering state admit of such intercourse with God? Yes; "Our communion is with the Father." Thou mayest at any moment, even at this, in the name of Jesus, stand in the very presence of the "King eternal, immortal, and invisible;" and then make thy requests known unto God,"-sure, yes, absolutely sure, of a gracious hearing and a ready anFor he hath said, Call upon me and I will answer thee." "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to thee."

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Christian, be often thus alone with God;

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for this sweet and holy solitude, though it is much aided by occasional external silence and seclusion, may be attained even in the midst of bustle, and multitudes, and cares. Be often alone with God-and thou shalt never faint in sorrow, nor sink under duty. Happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee." Thou shalt begin heaven upon earth. For communion with God is heaven's commencement, and glory's dawn. Thou shalt "dwell in the secret place of the Most High, and abide under the shadow of the Almighty," and all the promises which follow (read and ponder them well, Ps. xci.) shall be thine, even to seeing "the salvation of God."- Christian Al

manac.

Correspondence.

THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE. To the Editors of "The Church." Gentlemen,

Deeming the article on Inspiration, in the September "Church," unsatisfactory in several important respects, and not seeing anything in the October number expressive of disapproval of it, I venture to request the insertion of a few strictures, chiefly on the first three paragraphs, in a subsequent number. My object is simply to shew, that the tone of remark on the verbal theorists is objectionable, and that the arguments adduced against the verbal theory are untenable. Brief quotations from those paragraphs will, perhaps, be the best basis of the strictures to which I think they are liable.

“Having never been able to accept those extravagant views of Inspiration which endanger, rather than strengthen, the faith of reflecting and intelligent christians.”

Extravagant views on any subject, are .views which are not authorized by evidence. But what views of Inspiration are in this sense extravagant? Those which relate to the complete, or those which relate to the partial, Inspiration of the Scrip⚫tures? Those which reach only to the import of the Divine messages, or those which extend to the terms on which that import depends? The reference to "good men like Dr. Carson," leaves no doubt of the intended destination of the friendly

epithet. But wherein does the extravagance of verbal Inspiration appear? If this had been pointed out, good service would have been done to the cause of truth. But to fail in this, and apply opprobrious epithets to the deliberately formed, and not offensively expressed opinions, of honest and competent writers, is ungenerous and mischievous in the extreme. (1)

"It is very important to bear in mind what is the real nature and importance of the question, as amongst sincere christians."

To bear in mind the real nature and importance of every question is at all times important;(2) and "The Church" is at liberty to lay before sincere or insincere christians, believers or infidels, any views of Inspiration it pleases. But it is not at liberty to take one view of Inspiration, and then condemn, and treat with contempt, writers who have given evidence in favour of another view of Inspiration. Yet this is what "The Church" of September has done, done in defiance of the laws of controversy and the voice of history. Those laws require that that evidence should be examined, and, if deficient, that its deficiency should be clearly set forth; and history's voice declares that the chief object of the Inspiration controversy has been to establish the fact rather than elucidate the nature of Inspiration; and that the treatises which have been written on its nature have been written in order logically to account

for the fact rather than curiously to pry into the modus operandi of this instance of Divine operation.(3) The is of the question is more important than the how, inasmuch as one is an object of faith, and the other is not. It is the dictum of "The Church" that the Bible is the "word of God, and is a proper object of faith." But how can faith in this object exist, if the words of which the Bible is composed be not, in some sense, the words of God? Is it possible to believe any word to be the word of one whose word it is not in any sense? Is it not literary And is it aberration to affirm that it is? not literally impossible for "reflecting and intelligent christians" to believe the affirmation? Why, then, does" The Church" pursue a train of remark which inevitably leads to this absurd result, and decry those "who contend for the Inspiration of the very letter of Scripture ?". Is anything else worth contending for? Is not this the very claim of Scripture? Does not the Divine authority of Scripture depend upon the validity of this claim? And is it not the duty of all who recognize that authority to present to the world the evidence on which it rests? There is no obligation to prove the permanent Inspiration of the writers of Scripture, but there is to prove the Inspiration of the writings themselves. With the Inspiration of the writers we have nothing to do, except in relation to the Inspiration of their writings; and, for this purpose, temporary Inspiration will an wer quite as well as permanent. The verbal theory has nothing to do with the permanent, temporary, mechanical, or dictation theories. These, and a thousand other theories, may be right or wrong for ought that concerns it. It simply affirms that there is a sense in which all Scripture is of God, a sense in which all the words of Scripture may be said to be God's words. This is fact as well as theory. If it be not fact it is impossible even for the Spirit of God to make men believe "that the Bible is the word of God."(4) In what way men "recognize the Divinity of God's word by the Spirit of God dwelling within them" is not stated in Scripture, is not explained in "The Church," and is not, in its nature, explicable on any principle which does not make it external evidence. It is true that "religion, as revealed in the Scriptures, is, to every believer, as manifestly the moral work of God as the starry firmament or

the wonders of animated creation are his natural work;" but it is not true that the "evidences" of either of the works are in the believer. The perception of the "evidences" is in him, but the "evidences" themselves are in the works. This is a truism. The evidence of every work is in the work itself, and not in the believer of the work. The faith of every one who believes in the Divinity of Scripture rests on something in, that is, belonging to Scripture, and, in this sense, "on external evidences merely and chiefly." In this matter "The Church" is on the wrong trail.(5)

It is on the wrong trail, too, in reference to its reasoning on "the unquestionable fact that the language of the books of the Bible is as various as the number of its authors."

On what principle of judgment "The Church" makes this fact into argument against the verbal theory does not appear. The books of the Bible are both human and divine. This is affirmed in the Bible itself. Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. (2 Pet. i. 21.) The books of the Bible must therefore possess all the characteristics of human writings, and also supply evidence that "the impetus was divine and controlling" under which they were composed. If those characteristics and this evidence are not apparent, there is deception, not otherwise. The books assume to be both human and divine; and if they do not supply evidence in substantiation of this assumption, they deceive. But the truth of the assumption is abundantly substantiated, on the one hand, by "the exceeding variety of style and language in the sacred writers ;" and, on the other hand, by the series of statements, prophecies, and miracles, the most marvellous and sublime, which they have recorded. (6) Why, on the verbal theory, the language of Scripture should be "of the same character throughout," it is difficult to conceive. It will surely be admitted that God could move the sacred writers to write any words which he preferred, in accordance with their individual literary tastes and habits of mind. If" The Church" will not make this admission, it is time for its Biblical page to be cast in a new mould; and, if it will make it, the verbal theory is as compatible with the diversified style of Scripture as any other theory. (7)

It is hoped that "The Church," so remarkable for its acuteness and general

accuracy in the treatment of knotty questions, will be careful to base its future statements on Inspiration upon self-evident truth. The welfare of its numerous juvenile readers especially demands this. They have not all the gift of second sight, and therefore require what is evident at first sight.(8) Although a believer in the verbal theory, I am not prepared to endorse all that has been written in its defence; neither am I insensible to the difficulties with which it is beset; nor do I hold in light esteem the efforts which several eminent writers have made to render its denial consistent with implicit belief in the Divine authority of Holy Scripture. Much that has been set forth as subversive of verbal Inspiration, is not so in reality; while not a little of what its impugners have recorded in support of the Divine authority of the Bible, is valid only on the verbal theory. Pleased with the temper and tendency of the two last paragraphs of the article on which I have animadverted so freely, and hoping that whatever advantages are afforded to one class of theorists will be afforded to another in your valuable periodical,(9) I remain, yours truly,

W. J. STUART.*

(1) We mean by "extravagant," those representations which seem to place Inspiration in the same light as Transubstantiation; such a view of the subject as could, perhaps, be wrenched from certain passages, but which is so opposed to reason, or to the general tenor of Scripture, as to endanger the doctrine itself, with enquiring minds. Dr. Carson's appears to us quite of that class. If his view were essential to Inspiration, we should hardly know how to escape scepticism.

(2) Mr. Stuart is an exemplification of the "importance" of our observation; we have limited our discussion of the subject to good men, and amongst such we are confident that the only discussion is about the mode of Inspiration and not about the fact.

(3) What can Mr. Stuart mean? Can he be ignorant of the names of Coleridge and Carson, with all the intervening theo

ries, not to mention continental writers ? The declamation about "contempt," defiance of laws of controversy," &c., is not worth an answer.

(4) How to reply in reasonable space to these rambling questions we know not. The "is" of the question we, and all our readers, can well assume. We are not writing for sceptics. The "how" is an object of interest, though no matter of faith. We most fully and unconditionally believe that the Bible is the word of God. Mr. Stuart says that the verbal theory simply asserts that "there is a sense in which all the words of Scripture may be said to be God's words." Many an infidel, and all Pantheists, would say as much. We say, further, that they are God's words in a supernatural sense, hence supremely authoritative. To represent us as saying that the Bible is "not the word of God in any sense," is, indeed, "literary (or letterwriting) aberration." We have affirmed it to be not only in "some sense," but in the sense which claims implicit obedience, the word of God. There is this necessity for proving "permanent Inspiration," that if the apostles and evangelists did not enjoy it, as they rarely tell us that they write or speak by Inspiration, we should be at an utter loss to know when they did and when they did not. We do not well see how permanent Inspiration agrees naturally with verbal Inspiration. It would render the speaker a perpetual machine.

(5) If "The Church" is on "the wrong trail," our blessed Lord must have been so too when he said, "My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself" (John vii. 16, 17; 1 Cor. ii. 12, 14, 15): it is absurd even to argue about any one's possessing an internal witness to the truth of that which had no truth in itself. Every one knows what is meant by the internal evidences of chris

As we do not intend to continue this discussion beyond the year; and as Editors are expected to reply to a letter of censure in the same number in which it appears, we append a few remarks on our friend's animadversions.

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