DISCOURSE XLIX. JAMES BUCHANAN, D.D., LL.D. THE distinguished successor of Dr. Chalmers in the chair of Systematic Theology, in New College, Edinburg, was born at Paisley in the year 1804. His father, James Buchanan, Esq., was an elder of the Church, and a magistrate of the borough. Until the time of the disruption in 1843, Dr. Buchanan was attached to the Established Church of Scotland, when he joined the Free Church, of which he may, perhaps, be called the intellectual leader. He was educated in the grammar-school at Paisley, and in the University of Glasgow; and, in 1828, ordained to the charge of the Chapel of Ease, at Roslin. A year later he came to his charge in the parish of North Leith, where he continued till the year 1840, when he was transferred to the High Church of Edinburg. Three years later he became pastor of the Free Church of St. Stephen's, and in 1845 was appointed Professor of Apologetic Theology, in New College, on the translation of Dr. Cunningham to the chair of Church History. At the death of Dr. Chalmers, in 1847, he was appointed to the vacant professorship, a position which he has filled with honor ever since. Dr. Buchanan is the author of several works; as, "Comfort in Affliction" (which has reached its twenty-first edition); "Office and Work of the Holy Spirit;" "Faith in God and Modern Atheism Compared ;" and several smaller works, such as "Address to the People of Scotland" (of which 200,000 copies were circulated), “On Tracts for the Times," and "On Church Establishments." His "Modern Atheism," in part, has recently been printed in this country, and is received with very great favor. It is one of the ablest works of recent British authorship; and, as a specimen of profound, luminous, discriminating, and conclusive reasoning upon an abstract subject, is not often excelled. A leading journal remarks, that "we have nowhere met with a more clear and complete outline of the several systems he exposes. Comte's Positive Philosophy, Oken's Theories of Development, Kant's Transcendentalism, Fichte's, Hegel's, and Schelling's Pantheism, with other similar forms of disguised Atheism, which have originated on the Continent, and thence been disseminated throughout England and America, are explained in their essential features so plainly and fully as to make them comprehensible by the most unlettered reader. He is, besides, eminently fair and just in his outline, allowing the strong points of each system to appear. His argument, in considering them, is conclusive and convincing, affording a most satisfactory refutation of these fallacious theories." Dr. Buchanan has published few sermons, as such; but we have his own authority for presenting the following as a specimen of his discourses. 702 precedent, and above Is God my God, why hast few be sufered for 1: -? It was these It is st secrated to say now, His words ar motest dari preached an i North, to the basy cities, carried in ti privations of Sun-day all at our wed to our chi!! that so wid sonable to eternal life: words of pe impression 1 these words almost comparison of the parallel passages in the Gospels of fark, it would seem that at first he had joined with the or in reviling the Saviour; for, in the one, it is said, “The ich were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth;" her, "They that were crucified with him reviled him ;" ich may indeed be interpreted generally as descriptive of me humiliation in being subjected to reproach from such a class of men being spoken of as partaking in the crime of his last moments, just as the soldiers are said to have filled a vinegar, because one or more of them did so; but if they d as applying specifically to each of the two, they are suffiw that, at first, the one who was converted was as ungodly y as the other. diately before his conversion, and preparatory to it, a change ve been wrought in the state of his mind- -a change which a deep conviction of sin, and a just sense of his own demerit of it. For when one of the malefactors railed on Jesus, the ering "rebuked him, saying, Dost thou not fear God, seeing art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for e the due reward of our deeds." The whole process was so accomplished in this case, that it is difficult to say whether, in r of time, the convictions which are expressed in this remarkfession preceded, by any perceptible interval, his cordial recepthe truth; but as, in the order of nature, conviction precedes ion, we may consider it part of his experience, while as yet he a state of transition from darkness to light. The words of his ion imply that his conscience, which, by the commission of crime, have been seared as with a hot iron, was now deeply impressed 1 sense of sin; and it was a true sense of sin-not the mere "sorof the world which worketh death," but godly sorrow, working d genuine repentance; for, although the condemnation of which eaks might be the temporal sentence of death, pronounced and exed by his fellow-men, his language shows that he viewed his guilt reference not to men merely, but to God also-to God, as the eme Lawgiver and the final Judge. As a resident at Jerusalem, or east in Judea, the seat of true religion, he had probably enjoyed some the adva carly religious instruction, and had been taught truths of Scripture; for he speaks of God, the whose name he knew and feared, although he of his law. The thought of God as a Lawvidly present to his mind; and the conception d with the inherent power, of conscience, of the most depraved, is never altogether t conviction of sin which is invariably ac God, and of a judgment to come. So ne of t ly livi d live ive G hic tin THE DYING MALEFACTOR. "And one of the malefactors railed at him; but the other said," etc.-LUKE xxiii. 39–43. THE crucifixion of the Lord Jesus was so ordered as to furnish a striking illustration, at once of the depth of his abasement, and the cer tainty of his reward. To enhance the agony and the shame of his death, he was crucified between two thieves, being numbered with transgressors, placed on the same level, in the public view, with men whose lives had been justly forfeited by their crimes, and subjected, in his last moments, to the painful spectacle of their sufferings; but, to evince the certainty of his reward—to make it manifest that the joy which was set before him, and for which he endured the cross, despising the shame, would be realized-and to give him, as it were, a pledge in hand that "he should see of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied"—one of the thieves who suffered along with him was suddenly converted; and, in the lowest depths of the Redeemer's humiliation-in the darkest hour of the power of darkness, when Satan's policy seemed to be crowned with complete success-this immortal soul was snatched as a brand from the burning, and given to Christ as a pledge of his triumph, and the first-fruits of a glorious harvest. While others mocked and reviled him, and when his chosen disciples stood aloof, the dying malefactor relented-his conscience awoke his heart was touched; and, amid the ridicule, and the execrations, and the blasphemies of that awful hour, one solitary voice was heard, issuing from the cross beside him, which called him "LORD," and which spake of his "KINGDOM" in accents of faith, and penitence, and prayer. And how must that voice have gladdened the Saviour's heart, and imparted to him, in the midst of bitterest agony, a foretaste, as it were, of the joy" that was set before him ;" exhibiting, as it did, a proof of the efficacy of his death, the faithfulness of God's covenant promise, and the certainty of his reward; for if, even now on the cross, and before his work was finished, the stricken spirit fled to him for refuge, and was quickened into spiritual life in the very hour of deathwas it not a sure pledge and earnest that he should yet bring many sons and daughters to glory, when, being by God's right hand exalted to the throne, he should receive the promise of the Father, and shed forth the Spirit on high? I. In reference to the state of the man's mind before the time of his conviction, nothing is recorded that would lead us to suppose that he had ever thought seriously of religion, or acquired any knowledge of the gospel until he was brought to Calvary. He is described as a malefactor, and more specifically as a thief or robber-a desperate character-fearing neither God nor man; whose crimes exposed him to the highest penalties of the law; and his own confession admits the justice of the sentence under which he suffered-" We receive the due reward of our deeds." On a comparison of the parallel passages in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, it would seem that at first he had joined with the other malefactor in reviling the Saviour; for, in the one, it is said, "The thieves also which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth;" and in the other, "They that were crucified with him reviled him ;” expressions which may indeed be interpreted generally as descriptive of Christ's extreme humiliation in being subjected to reproach from such a quarter-this class of men being spoken of as partaking in the crime of embittering his last moments, just as the soldiers are said to have filled a sponge with vinegar, because one or more of them did so; but if they be understood as applying specifically to each of the two, they are sufficient to show that, at first, the one who was converted was as ungodly and as guilty as the other. But immediately before his conversion, and preparatory to it, a change seems to have been wrought in the state of his mind-a change which consisted in a deep conviction of sin, and a just sense of his own demerit on account of it. For when one of the malefactors railed on Jesus, the other answering "rebuked him, saying, Dost thou not fear God, seeing that thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds." The whole process was so suddenly accomplished in this case, that it is difficult to say whether, in the order of time, the convictions which are expressed in this remarkable confession preceded, by any perceptible interval, his cordial reception of the truth; but as, in the order of nature, conviction precedes conversion, we may consider it part of his experience, while as yet he was in a state of transition from darkness to light. The words of his confession imply that his conscience, which, by the commission of crime, might have been seared as with a hot iron, was now deeply impressed with a sense of sin; and it was a true sense of sin-not the mere "sorrow of the world which worketh death," but godly sorrow, working toward genuine repentance; for, although the condemnation of which he speaks might be the temporal sentence of death, pronounced and executed by his fellow-men, his language shows that he viewed his guilt with reference not to men merely, but to God also-to God, as the supreme Lawgiver and the final Judge. As a resident at Jerusalem, or at least in Judea, the seat of true religion, he had probably enjoyed some of the advantages of early religious instruction, and had been taught some of the elementary truths of Scripture; for he speaks of God, the only living and true God, whose name he knew and feared, although he had lived in the violation of his law. The thought of God as a Lawgiver and Judge was now vividly present to his mind; and the conception of God's character, combined with the inherent power, of conscience, which, even in the breasts of the most depraved, is never altogether extinguished, produced that conviction of sin which is invariably ac companied with the fear of God, and of a judgment to come. So |