owing to the influence of the Bible. What prompted us to abolish our slavery to meliorate our criminal code -to abandon our thirst for warto multiply the means of popular improvement? Was it not the silent, but resistless power of the Bible? Who are the greatest philanthropists of the age? the men who are struggling to lift up the masses from their present degeneration, and whose influence is felt for good to the very ends of the earth? Are they not such as have received all their most generous impulses from the fountain of revealed truth? Look at the history of modern civilization in the West Indies, in Africa, in the South Sea Islands, and say whether the friends of the Bible have not been its projectors, and its patrons! If you see man, in any quarter of the globe, rising into a higher condition of social and moral development, it is an indisputable fact, that the Bible, and the influence of the Bible, are the main agents at work in the happy progress towards a more improved phase of the human race. Such is a truthful, but very imperfect sketch of some of the main characteris tics of the Bible; and I would fain hope that it will tend to enhance its value, and to endear its contents, to those who have listened to it. The more you look at the character and history of this book, the more you will feel that it has no rival, and can have no competitorwould that we could add, that it has had no opponents! But, alas! there have been-there still are.-Morison's Lectures to Young Men. THE VOICE OF GOD TO THE PROSPEROUS, WHICH THEY ARE IN DANGER OF NEGLECTING, AS REGARDS BENEVOLENCE. THE design of God, in blessing, is to make us blessings, and if He have largely endowed us with worldly good, it is that we may minister to others. Indeed, none are exempt. The blessedness of giving, so much greater than that of receiving, is not confined to a few. All may enjoy it, and He who noticed the widow's mite will estimate our gifts, if we be poor, according to our poverty, as well as if we be rich, according to our riches. Yea, they that cannot give need not be deprived of this luxury. They may get the power, "working," as Paul says, "that they may have to give." And if God has prospered us, so that we have more than we require for ourselves, do we not hear him say, "Be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate?" The very means of riches, the common way and method of getting rich, should teach this lesson. Why has God appointed commerce? Why made it necessary? Why given to men different faculties and spheres? Why made them dependent on each other? Is it not all designed to impress the doctrine of brotherhood, and to draw out affections and promote deeds in keeping with it? Does it not say, "No man can live of himself; all serve one another of necessity; there is mutual indebtedness: therefore do good, by love serve one another, be ready to every good work ?" And when we look at the gospel, is not this truth and duty made solemn and tender beyond all the thoughts of men? Do we not there see that we are stewards, stewards of God, and that for the poor, the wretched, the lost? Do we not there see that to "occupy" till Christ come is the nature and term of our possession? Do we not there see that immense importance will be attached in the day of judgment to the manner of our occupa tion; that charity to souls and bodies will be one of the chief tests of charac ter, and conditions of recompense? Do we not there meet with the argument for liberality derived from Christ being rich, and becoming poor to make us rich? Are we not there taught that to love and minister are the essential principle and service of the gospel; and that without them we cannot know God's grace, nor do God's will, in giving us prosperity? The prosperous Christian should be a liberal Christian. It is not enough that he continue his gifts; he must increase them. Proportion is God's rule. He estimates what we part with according to what we keep. Alas! many give not more, but less, as the means of giving are augmented. The temptation of prosperity is selfishness. The desire to amass is strengthened by gain. Acquisitiveness grows, like other passions, by exercise. The love of money is fed by money. The opportunity and power of accumulation draw out the disposition to accumulate. Many who care not to he rich, while they are poor, become anxious to be so when a beginning has been made, and success proves as a little water down a dry pump. The thought is suggested, the wish is excited, by the possession of the means. Then, also, the prosperous are apt to be removed from the pressing claims of sorrow and need. They get out of the way of distress; and this is one reason why the poor are often the kindest to the poor. Others know less of the poor; and are tempted to think, amidst their own sufficiency, that their brethren cannot but be better off than they are. So it comes to pass, that men often keep up no proportion between their acquisitions and their gifts. The poor and middle-classes give, as a rule, far more than the wealthy, as all our charitable and religious societies can testify-give far more, that is, in proportion to their means. But so it should not be. And if religion were a vigorous principle, so it would not be. A healthy saint will delight in being able to relieve his brethren, and one of the chief charms of prosperity will be the power it gives him to be a minister for good. His first care will be "his own," the needy kindred whose trials he may soothe by generous gifts; or whom he may more worthily and wisely serve by enabling them to serve themselves. His next will be the welfare of those by whose assistance he has succeeded. He will not think his duty done by a mere payment of wages; by giving only what he is obliged to give and they to take; but he will feel that 66 their claim on him, as a Christian, is much larger; and by manifold kind devices he will seek to promote their physical and mental and moral well-being. And beyond these he will look to the world," doing good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith," rejoicing in being permitted to comfort and assist the members of Christ's body. And when he looks to those that are without," he will mainly care that they may be saved, saved through "the belief of the truth" which he possesses and can dispense, not however forgetting that they "are in the flesh," nor failing to imitate his example who fed the body while he taught the soul. He will not waste his money by thoughtless distribution, nor think it enough that he dispenses-but be "wise to do well;" and, as selection is inevitable, he will do most of that which is most needed, always"devising liberal things, and by liberal things shall he stand." In conclusion, let me beseech the prosperous to lay these things to heart. If what has been said be true, or anything near the truth, their position must be one of great responsibility and peril. Let them not look at that position in the light of human judgments and practices; let them estimate it according to its relation to the soul, eternity, and God. Thus regarded and judged of, how melancholy is the state of multitudes who are the envy of their fellows! The world pronounces the rich blessed: Christ says, "How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." Make what you can of the words - reduce them to the weakest possible sense; still they are fearful words. Who would infer the fact which they express from the conduct and maxims of mankind, fro.n the customs and conversation of the church? Behold their eager pursuit of worldly wealth, their vehement joy on its acquirement, their deep tribulation on its loss, and must not the natural and necessary inference be the very reverse of this! Must it not be, "How hardly shall they that have NOT riches enter into the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a POOR man to enter into the kingdom of God?" Beware how you contradict the Son of God. And, if you have been prospered by his providence, be moved by his solemn warning to special prayerfulness, aud vigilance, and self-control, that you may escape the evils of abundance, and make it a blessing to yourselves and many of your brethren also.-Morris's Religion and Business. "THE LATE REV. ALEXANDER HARVEY, OF CALTON, GLASGOW, AND THE BIOGRAPHER OF MR. MAITLAND MAKGILL CRICHTON.” TO THE EDITOR OF THE CHRISTIAN JOURNAL. SIR, I received by this day's post the August No. of your Journal. It has been sent to me with the evident intention of bringing under my notice a communication to you, from a correspondent in Hawick, the title of which is prefixed, in which the writer animadverts upon the account which I have given of the discussion betwixt Mr. Harvey and Mr. M. Crichton, at Anstruther, on Church Extension. A desire to secure justice to the dead seems to be the high motive which has swayed your correspondent in his communication, and to such an honourable feeling respectful acknowledgment is due. The explanation which I subjoin will, I trust, be satisfactory to him. 1st. The materials from which I prepared the account which the biography contains, appeared to me to be the most reliable I could have had. They were the note-book and papers which Mr. Makgill Crichton made use of on the platform during the discussion. Among these papers I found a copy of the note which I have inserted in the biography, which begins, "will Makgill state to this meeting," &c., and which I have used the freedom of designating "an uncourteous note." My attention was all the more directed to it from the circumstance, that the discourteousness of the note is pencilled down by Mr. Makgill Crichton himself as the subject of remark. Beyond this note-book, with its accompanying papers, and converse with a gentleman who was present at the discussion, I had no means of informia tion. I was most desirous to obtain a copy of the published discussion, and made sundry efforts to acquire one, bat without success. For all that I have stated, my vouchers appeared incontestable; but had I been acquainted with the disclaimer which Mr. Harvey made, and which your correspondent quotes, I would certainly have avoided employing the objectionable term of uncourteous.' I penned the sentence under the impression, which your correspondent has convinced me is a false one, that Mr. Harvey had been wilfully neglectful "of the proprieties which should be observed in the correspondence of gentlemen." 2d. If your correspondent supposes that I prepared the account with any unfriendliness of spirit towards Mr. Harvey, he is mistaken. At that time all that I knew of Mr. Harvey was, that he had been a minister in Glasgow, and Mr. Makgill Crichton's opponent at Anstruther. From what I have since learned, I believe him to have been all that your correspondent describes him, and well worthy of the vindication which your correspondent makes. Even the account in the biography, short as it is, speaks approvingly of Mr. Harvey, for the open and honourable method which he adopted of assailing Mr. Makgill Crichton's extension views. This may go its length in evidence that the mind of the biographer is not so hopelessly jaundiced as some reviewers would represent it to be. 3d. Had I known what your correspondent tells regarding the friendly as against your correspondent's communication, either in its spirit or substance. On the contrary, I feel obliged by its being sent to me, as it has given me an opportunity of making these explanations.-Yours faithfully, J. W. TAYLOR. FREE CHURCH MANSE, FLISK, September 20th, 1854. } pect which the discussion assumed towards its close, and the letter of sympathy which the death of Mr. Harvey called forth from Mr. Crichton to the bereaved family, I should have been too happy to have rounded off my account of the debate with a record of such feelings, alike honourable to all conconcerned. I can have no ground of complaint THE FAITH OF THE FORMALIST. TRUE religion is everything or nothing. It se There is much formalism abroad in the present day. The conventionalities of society, the artistic varnish with which the finer furniture of the social edifice is filled, are not wanting. We have men innumerable who can do the parlour agreeable with great nicety. They have all the finesse and good breeding which are necessary to sparkle in the drawingroom and shine in the evening party. In this respect we are fast following our French allies. Dancing and calisthenics were long their decus et tutamen. We have transferred a few pages from their guide-books on etiquette, and conned the lessons very well. Just so is it with things more serious and sacred. As there is a mimic observance of the laws of good fellowship, without a shadow of pretension to the reality, a kind of ornamental ethics, which go no deeper than the kid gloves and fancy slippers of the man of polish, so there is a religion of show and sham which has no bone nor muscle in it to give it substance. The formalist is no fossil of a bygone epoch dug up to amuse and surprise the children of this generation. He is a creature of this hour. In one sense he is old, claiming kindred with Adam's eldest son, who thought to cheat the All-Seeing into a belief that he was as good as his younger brother. Many a protoype among the half-converted heathens of Bible antiquity he undoubtedly has. But he still retains a great amount of positive orginality. The guise he wears is of so multiform a make, so contrived and adapted to deceive the eye and the touch, that one is very apt to conclude that he is altogether a production of our prolific age. His physical history is, albeit, the same tale of the jackdaw and the peacock which the moralist told in fable, rather more than two milleniums since. He wears the dress and mouths the dialect of orthodoxy; but his heart is far away on the mountains of vanity. Formalism has many characteristics. It is like the chameleon, changing its hue to every onlooker. Sometimes it glories in "disfiguring its countenance, that it may appear unto men to fast; or it puts on the shining looks of spiritual joy, and apes the gladness which heart-religion alone can give. To gain better that he is what his profession represents him to be. The formalist in religion is what the empiric is in science. His profession is mere quackery. He holds no diploma from the Great Physician. And just as a quack in medicine finds a favourable reception when an honest practitioner would be denied a consultation, so the formalist often gets credit for being in reality what he is only in appearance. Sooner or later, however, such barefaced imposition receives its due award. A friend from America tells the following story, as illustrative of hotel hospitality in the Southern States. The law or custom which there prevails is on the side of virtue and honesty. When a Christian minister or student calls at an inn, he receives every mark of attention. The waiters wait his pleasure: posthorses carry him whithersoever he listeth. When he leaves the roof of his host, he gets a hearty good morning, without ever being asked to pay a dollar for his attendance. One day, at a certain hotel "down south," a tall raw-boned brother, with white neck-tie, made his appearance, and called for accustomed good cheer. The table was spread as usual, the servants brought him whatever was demanded. After a tarry of some days he was about to withdraw, when the ge nerous host put a small bill of fare into his hands. "Oh!" exclaimed the quasi-clergyman, “you know, I'm —” "Yes, yes, we are aware of that; but, my servants tell me that you are not in the habit of paying any acknowledgment of gratitude to God for your meals, and when you retire at night, you are observ ed to lie down immediately, on entering your dormitory, without prayeror thanksgiving. If you are what you seem to be, your conduct is quite unaccountable. To make sure, therefore, that you are what you are, as you live like a heathen, you will, please, pay like a heathen.” an end it may, at times, seem very devout, all sincerity, thorough earnestness, taking an active share in the public duties of instructing the ignorant, and reclaiming backsliders. It frequents the prayer-meeting and the sanctuary; sings with those that worship God, and stands up when his people draw near to his footstool. But its homage and devotion are all for the occasion. Let it but break loose from the moorings which detain its bodily presence in some spiritual haven, and it will drift along with the breath of every wind of passion that blows. Follow the formalist to his secret chamber-see him on his knees-what a jumble of self-righteousness and self-accusation he is pouring into the ear of the Eternal. He thinks that God is altogether such an one as himself. His Bible lies in his bedchamber, like a body-guard to defend him from the enemy. Its interior is clean and white as the freshly-printed page. Some penny serial or monthly review; some fiction, or drama, or work of art, engrosses his leisure-hours, and leaves no room for the Book of God. The poetry of the Bible is too fragrant in oriential usages: its hill and dale scenery are tame and common-place; its miracles are unbelievable except by the credulous; its narrative is very uninteresting after a first perusal; its prophets are too austere, too much of the Puritanical school. That book says that "except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." He knows full well that he is still unrege nerate. His heart is as hard and stony and uncircumcised as ever it was. The Son of God made an atonement for the sins of the world on the cross of Calvary. He has yet to learn the exceeding sinfulness of sin in order to know that the Son of God died for him. A profession of the gospel is customary among the more enlightened and influential classes of the community. It forms a kind of But having said thus much, we now passport to distinction, a certificate of ask what is the faith of the formalist? honourable mention in the Great Exhi- Has he a faith at all, or is it one that bition of daily life. He snatches at the will bear an examination? We shall document, and hands it round with the see. view of persuading those who know no Every believer in the gospel has |