power to produce a peaceful conscience-by its subduing influence over the hateful passions of men.

4. To Good Morals. By keeping in sight the character of God-by unfolding the claims of his holy law, by creating a distaste for unlawful pleasuresby creating a public sentiment that frowns upon immorality-and, through that sentiment, causing wise and effectual laws for the suppression of vice and crime.

5. To Piety. By causing a right view of God to prevail-by constantly pouring on men's minds those great elements of piety, the divine truths of Revelation-by thus generating all right affections toward God and man-by shadowing forth and pointing men to the Sabbath of heaven, the rest that remaineth for the people of God.

Therefore the Sabbath is the Friend of the nation-the family-every man's friend, and never fails to repay true and devoted friendship for it with the most precious blessings for time and eternity.-Traveller.

PERPETUITY OF CHRISTIAN LIFE.

The tendency of the renewed nature is to be uniform and unwavering, like the truth on which it feeds and the Spirit which gives it life. The bent of the affections, too, is the immediate cause, in the hand of the Spirit, of obedience; and obedience reacts to add vigour to the affections. Perpetuity, then, is the law of Christian life; and that state of the affections at any one time, which secures the performance of the statutes, is the evidence that such a law is reigning in the soul. The apostle recognizes this law when he says, "if they had been of us, they would have continued with us."

A temporary religion, then, is a religion without a root, which derives no nourishment from the Divine Word through the heart, but is sustained, while it continues, by something which is consistent with the reigning power of sin. It may be built upon hopes, and may have the form of a conversion for the groundwork of those hopes; and may look to God with joy and thankfulness as the author of the pleasant feeling which it entertains; and may cherish some kind of sympathy toward the people of God; and besides influencing the feelings, may exert some slight power over the temper and moral character. But in a little time, when the fire has gone out which made such a blaze, and the life has left the tree which seemed so fair, the worthless nature of such religion is manifest to all men; for all men of a sound mind estimate the value of religious character by the faithful performance of the statutes; and argue, from the short-lived existence of such religion, that it was not of the true kind.-Pres. Woolsey in Nat. Preacher.

THE UNBELIEVER'S CREED.

I believe that there is no God-but that matter is God, and God is matter; and that it is no matter whether there be any God or no.

I believe also that the world was not made that the world made itself—that it will last for ever, world without end.

I believe that man is a beast-that the soul is the body, and the body is the soul, and that after death there is neither body nor soul.

I believe that there is no religion; that natural religion is the only religion, and that all religion is unnatural.

I believe not in Moses-I believe in the first philosophy-I believe not the evangelists.

I believe in Chubb, Collins, Toland, Tindal, Morgan, Mandevilles, Woolston, Hobbe, Shaftesbury. I believe in Lord Bolingbroke-I believe not in St. Paul.

I believe not in revelation-I believe in tradition-I believe in the TalmudI believe in the Koran-I believe not the Bible-I believe in Socrates-I believe in Copernicus-I believe in Sanchoniathan—I believe in Mohammed—I believe not in Christ.

Lastly, I believe in all unbelief.-Bishop Horne.

THE

PRESBYTERIAN MAGAZINE.

AUGUST, 1851.

Miscellaneous Articles.

ARE WE WALKING WITH CHRIST?

WHAT evidence have we that we are "with Christ ?" The mere circumstance of our bearing the Christian name, does not prove that we are Christians in heart. Nor does the participation of Christian ordinances make it certain that we are enclosed in the bonds of the everlasting covenant. Some people say, and no doubt really think, they have always been religiously disposed. But there is danger of mistaking a constitutional sedateness, or sober temperament of mind, for a gracious heart. It seems plain, from Scripture, that, if we are really and heartily with Christ, we have been renewed in the spirit of our minds. "Old things are passed away, and all things are become new." The change designated by these and the like expressions, in holy writ, pervades the whole soul. The understanding is enlightened, the will subdued, the affections purified, and the heart softened. Can any one be the subject of such a change as this, and not be, in some measure, conscious of it? "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."

2. If we are with Christ, we have believed in him, and are relying on his merits alone for salvation. They who are with him in heart, submit to his authority, and repose entire confidence in his power, truth and faithfulness. We never yield ourselves voluntarily to the disposal and protection of any one whose veracity we suspect, or whose ability to fulfil his promises we deem questionable. Hence, a true faith in Christ includes a full belief of his gospel, and an unhesitating persuasion of his infinite merit and eternal Godhead; for no thoughtful man will resign his soul, and his immortal interests, to the care and keeping of a mere creature, who must himself be VOL. I.-No. 8.

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fallible and dependent. A genuine faith in the Redeemer regards him as omnipresent, and all-sufficient; listening to our prayers, sympathizing with us in our sorrows, supporting us by his grace, and able to deliver us in seasons of temptation, and bear us through the toils of life and the terrors of death to unceasing rest and glory. Do you believe in Christ as ever present with you, and mighty to save? Do you depend on him, rejoice in him, and prize communion with him above all earthly enjoyments? Then are you with him, and he is with you, and will keep you, by his power, through faith unto salvation.

3. If we are with Christ, we shall take pleasure in keeping his precepts. "Ye are my friends, says he, if ye do whatsoever I command you." This is a safe criterion by which to test our Christian character. To real believers, the yoke of Christ is easy, and his burden light. Every ordinance of his appointment, every precept, every injunction, every prohibition, is good, and wise, and merciful. The self-denial which he demands, so far from being arbitrary and needless, is indispensable to our good; it is an essential link in the long chain of his redeeming love. His genuine disciples feel this to be the fact; and, therefore, do not regard him as a hard master. In the presence of his excellence, the glory of the world withers and loses its charms; animated by his Spirit, and cheered by the comforts of his grace, we "forget the things that are behind, and reach forth to those things which are before, pressing towards the mark for the prize of our high calling." If you really take delight in the ways of wisdom, and make it your constant endeavour to obey Christ, from a principle of love, he regards you with divine complacency, and will be to you "the author of eternal salvation."

4. If we are with Christ, we shall resemble him in our disposition and conduct. The resemblance may indeed be very faint at first, but it is real, and will grow stronger and more striking till there shall be a perfect conformity. "He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit "Let the same mind be in you which was also in Christ"-"As we have borne the image of the first Adam, so shall we bear the image of the second Adam, the Lord from heaven." This is a mark of discipleship, by which we who profess friendship for Christ ought to try ourselves. How is it with us in regard to heavenly mindedness, devotion, indifference to the pomp and splendour of the world, meekness, kindness, the forgiveness of injuries, compassion for the souls of men and zeal for the glory of God? What is our practice? Do we aim to walk in the footsteps of him "who went about doing good?" Is it our desire to live peaceably with all men, and to be useful to all as we have opportunity? Do we feel that time is a talent, for which we must render an account, and, under this conviction, endeavour to spend every day in such a manner as may be likely to conduce somewhat to the benefit of our families and fellow-men? Do we long, and pray, and watch, and labour for the prosperity of Zion? Are we gratified and delighted to see, or to hear of the revival and extended influence of pure and

undefiled religion? Is it as our meat and drink to do and suffer the will of our heavenly Father? Then may we indulge the hope that we are with Christ, and that we shall be blessed when the present transient scenes shall give place to the new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. W. N.

MORAL RESPONSIBILITY ONE AND INDIVISIBLE.

If we are not mistaken, there is a tendency in the public mind to sink the individual man in the aggregate mass. In our country, reasons may readily be found to account for this. Our municipal law emanates from the popular will-what the majority determine, is law; and this maxim we are in imminent peril of carrying, not into the merely positive enactments of our municipal regulations, but also into the very morality of our code. We seem to think a matter morally right, because the majority have decreed it. We too. much neglect the salutary distinction between matters of indifference and matters of positive morality. Where the thing is itself indifferent, the vox populi is the vox Dei; but to apply the maxim where the matter is an item of essential morality, is not simply to deify the majority; it is also to undeify God. The people can never make that right which God has made wrong; or that wrong which God has made right. Such, however, it is feared, is the tendency of the public mind. Toward this arrogant claim the people's omnipotence is moving, and the movement is favoured by the principle which it is the purpose of this paper to combat. We wish to raise the question, What is the effect of association upon the individual's responsibility? Do I, upon uniting myself to a corporate or social body, merge, in any degree, and lose my personal responsibilities? Are my moral obligations increased or diminished? For my acts, as a member of the social body, am I morally responsible, equally as if I had performed the same act myself alone?

This is a question of that higher morality which refers to the divine standard. It is not asked whether human laws hold the members of a social body responsible, individually and personally, for the acts of the body in which they co-operated, but does the moral government of the universe so hold them? Am I personally responsible to Him for my social acts, (i. e. such as have a moral character,) for each of them all-and for all each? Or, is the responsibility divided, apportioned out, partitioned off? So that if the body consist of twelve, a hundred, a thousand, ten millions, each man must account to his Creator, not for the whole, but only for the twelfth, the thousandth, the ten millionth part! We greatly fear that the general voice proclaims 'we are responsible individually only for our share in the action of the body, and our share is a pro rata division of the whole. Possibly some, perhaps many, from

whom such response comes would, upon closer inspection and revision of the whole case, render a different version; and it is in the hope of reaching such a result, and bringing out an answer accordant with the principles of eternal truth and right, that the question is here presented.

Let us glance at the extent of this evil before we proceed to expose its false philosophy. Can you look abroad upon society without observing its pervading influence? Who has not seen bodies of men perpetrating deeds from which, because of their moral turpitude, each of their component individuals have shrunk. The gang of young marauders from a country village, only temporarily associated, will rob an orchard which every one of them would pass by if standing upon his own personal responsibility. The mob openly perpetrates deeds which not one of its members alone will venture upon. It is not until the feeling of individual safety, arising from a vastly divided responsibility, amounting nearly to immunity, takes possession of the mass-mind, that they rush on to violence. The court of Judge Lynch is a many-headed monster, in whom the thousandth subdivision has annihilated all belief of individual accountableness.

But this monster inhabits not the region only which lies exterior to law and order. He enters the Court, the Cabinet, the Senate. The pale of the Church visible fails to exclude him. He sits in the sanctum, he pollutes the most holy place., Many a verdict has been rendered against truth and right, which would not have been rendered but for the feeling in the juror's mind that he bore only the twelfth part of the responsibility. Many a cabinet council has hurried on to a conclusion which could never have been reached through the dicta of consciences under the practical belief that not a part, but the whole resulting evils must lie upon each man's own soul. Many a vote has been given in the halls of legislation which never could have been given but for the pestilent heresy of a divided responsibility. Many an individual has been admitted to his own injury and that of the Church to full membership, when perhaps every member of the court doubted of its propriety, and would not so have acted but in view of this mischievous error. Many a candidate has been received under the care of a Presbytery, and afterwards inducted into the public ministry of the Church under the fostering protection of this same delusion. The same is true in the kingdom of the golden god. Notes, no doubt, have passed for discount in a board of bank directors, not one of whom would have received them on his own private account. But we may not farther particularize. This is practically a law of society. You have the essence of it concentrated in the popular maxim "Corporations have no souls."

Here we have one of the great vices of social man. It annihilates the public conscience; it uncreates the individual person, and creates a million-headed monster without heart or conscience. Under the plausible pretence of venerating, it abrogates the social principle, and converts society into an irresponsible mob. Place this monster