paragraphs written and published, nay we are credibly informed, sermons and even prayers uttered in the presence of numerous congregations, the drift of each and all of which has been, that the above mentioned gentleman has fallen a victim to persecution.

Now, the writer of this happens to be well acquainted with the parish of Canobie. He has also been not inattentive to the events which led to Mr. Innes' settlement there, and the subsequent history of his congregation. Fully cognizant therefore of all the facts of the case, he has no hesitation whatever in denying the truth of the statements on the subject made by Free Church organs and affirming that a grosser imposition was never attempted to be practised upon the public. With a view to prove this, the following facts may be specified, which no inhabitant of the district will venture upon controverting.

1. Mr. Innes was not in the habit of officiating in the open air, or in any way exposed to the inclemencies of the weather. The Canobie tent was erected before his settlement in that parish. Its situation is one of the snuggest imaginable, encompassed with trees, and, from the nature of the ground, completely sheltered from every wind that blows. There have the Free folks been permitted to erect their tent, and it is their own fault if it is not impermeable by rain.* But, indeed, we never heard a single complaint from any of the inhabitants of Canobie on this score. On the contrary they all know that, in point of comfort-both in summer and winter-it is infinitely to be preferred to the parish church. To allege therefore that Mr. Innes owed his death to preaching in an uncomfortable place, is unfounded and ridiculous. Had he been minister of the parish, and bound to officiate in the parish church, there might have been some small reason for advancing such an allegation. But in actual circumstances there is none.

2. During the whole of his residence in Canobie, every thing was done to promote the health and comfort of Mr. Innes. He was always much of an invalid-often, in consequence, absent from his ministerial duties for six or eight weeks at a time. But it is impossible to conceive circumstances in which a person of his weakly constitution could have been more favourably situated. The tent is not ten minutes walk from the place of his ordinary residence, and that residence was in the house of the only medical gentleman of the district. Nay, every one who has the pleasure of knowing Mr. and Miss Weir, or had the opportunity of witnessing their unwearied efforts to promote Mr. Innes' comfort, must be ready to certify, that greater attention could not have been paid him any where else in Scotland, and to wonder that so little allusion should be made now to their long continued, and, it may be truly said, unrequited kindness. But a martyr behoved to be made of the young man, at all hazards, and for the benefit of the Free Kirk. Accordingly we are now called upon to believe that Mr. Innes was killed by preaching in a far more comfortable place than a large proportion of the parish churches of Scotland, and in the midst of attentions to his temporal and bodily welfare which fall to the lot of not many country ministers, whether Dissenting or Established! Let Free Kirk bigots do this who are ready to subscribe to anything their leaders choose to utter, but there is not a man in Canobie but knows the reverse.

3. The true cause of Mr. Innes' death was a consumptive constitution,

*We have heard it alleged of the Canobie tent that it was so cold that the benches within it have often been covered with hoar-frost. It has been said of liars that they ought to have good memories in order to enable them to escape detection. It may also be added, that for a similar purpose they would sometimes require a little acquaintance with the prin ciples of natural science. Let any Meteorologist say whether under a stout canvas tent, hoar frost can be formed at all.

which would have carried him to a premature grave in any other circumstances whatever. This was all along known in the parish. He came to it a perfect stranger, from some chapel in the north of Scotland; and not one of his hearers but felt, and some of them were not slow to say, that a vacancy would soon happen in their congregation, and that in the ordinary course of things. No reflecting person indeed could look upon his thin, consumptive countenance, in the very first days even of his ministry in Canobie, without acknowledging that the sentence of death was written there, and drawing the conclusion that he was much more likely to die in four months than after a ministry of as many years. It is not true, therefore, that he lost his health by the exposures and persecutions of Canobie; for his health was affected before he presented himself there. But it is true that he himself-a perfect stranger in the district, and having no special connection with it-did voluntarily, and as we are informed, eagerly, even with all the consciousness he must have had of his infirm constitution, accept of his appointment to this station. And it is also true that it was the Committee in Edinburgh who sent him to officiate there. Did the idea strike any of the Free Kirk Patrons, that by sending so weakly a plant to the stormy soil of Canobie, they might have in due time another martyr, with the detail of whose sufferings and death they might garnish their sentimental and disingenuous harangues ?

Such is the real state of this affair. And it is little to the credit of the Free Kirk leaders that they have been making so much of it. We notice in one of the speeches adverted to, that the young man who for some months has been officiating in the tent for Mr. Innes, has been trying to get up a little sympathy on his own account, by representing his health as ready to give way under the arduous duties of the station. Did Dr. Candlish think of applying to Dr. Weir for a medical certificate on that point, before giving utterance to the lugubrious statement? We rather think not. We can better conceive than describe the air of drollery which would mantle the countenance of the medical inan when he attempted to endite such a certificate. We enter not in this article on the question of a site for the Canobie Frees. Assuredly their friends in Edinburgh, if they are really sincere in wishing them to get a site, of which we have some doubts have been resorting to the very means which were calculated to damage their cause. Slanders and misrepresentations, whether about Mr. Innes' death, or any thing else, may do very well in Edinburgh or elsewhere, but to those who are on the spot, and are connected with the district, their falsehood is apparent, the purpose intended to be served by them abundantly obvious. The fact is, there is no occasion for a Free Church in Canobie at all. The secession in that parish was so small that the communion-roll of between 600 and 700 was diminished only by about 50 or 60 names. The adjoining parishes of Langholm and Half-Morton, have each a Free Church and a Free minister; and in each there is a miserable handful of adherents yclept a congregation. Had the Half-Morton Free Church been built on the borders of Canobie, which it might have been, and which many of the best friends of that cause recommended it to be, instead of within a hopping-distance of the parish Church, all the uproar about Canobie might have been spared. But then they would have foregone a most promising theme of hypocritical declamation, and denied themselves the glory of contending with the Duke of Buccleuch, and perhaps concussing him into their views. Time was when some of the Free leaders used to style the Duke "a most Christian and patriotic nobleman," but-tempora mutantur. It may yet however be apparent, even to the convictions of the Frees themselves, that in withholding a site, his Grace was doing them a service, and attempting to save a party of rash and headstrong religionists from what they may yet feel to be a burden and a blunder.

The Rev. Mr. Macdonald, Poolewe, has sion of his moveable estate, amounting to be

received and accepted a call from the people in the united parishes of Stracher and Strathlunchlin, in Argyleshire.

The Senatus of Marischal College and University of Aberdeen, at their meeting on the 15th curt., conferred the honorary degrees of D.D. on the Rev. Thomas Macrie, Professor of Divinity to the Original Secession Church, Author of the "Life of his Father," &c., and of LL.D. on William Tennant, Esq., Author of “Anster Fair," and Professor of Oriental Languages in the University of St. Andrews.

Died, at the manse of Temple, on the 24th December, the Rev. James Goldie, Minister of that parish. Mr. Goldie was Minister of Temple for the long period of fifty-eight years, and without leaving any near relations, has, by his will, among other legacies, left L. 100 to the General Assembly's Indian Mission, and the same sum to the General Assembly's Highland Schools, and the rever

tween L.3000 and L.4000, he leaves to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. He also leaves that Institution his salmon fishings in the river Tweed, near Berwick, which are at present rented at thirty Guineas a-year, on condition that the Managers of the Infirmary pay annually, for ever, on Christmas day, the sum of five pounds to the poor of the parish of Temple." Previous to Mr. Goldie's death, he had entered into an agreement with the heritors of the parish, by which he became bound to expend L.300 in building a new school and schoolmaster's house near Texside, for the accommodation of the children at the south-east end of the parish of Temple, who are at too great a distance from the parish school. The buildings have already been erected, and, in addition to the L.300, Mr. Goldie farther agreed to purchase a perpetual annuity of L.4, 3s. 4d., to assist the heritors in making up a salary to the schoolmaster, of L.25 a year.

NIGHT-SONG.

(Translated literally from the German, and in the metre of Mahlmann.)

The Earth's at rest, but Heaven hath light;

Aloft to it, my soul!

The angel-world, a radiant sight,

Sublimely royal o'er the night

Of men doth roll.

Desires to Heaven swift-winging fly,

From care and thrall of Time;

Hope whispers; "Up Life's path doth lie,
And onwards, through the star-fields high,
To glory's clime!"

The angel, whom the dust yet stays,
His brethren seeks at length.

O Land of Home, illumed with rays,
Thy gift, when all fades and decays,
Is Peace and Strength!

A THOUGHT.

A-V.

"The moon, a softer, but not less beautiful object than the sun, returns and communicates to mankind the light of the sun, in a gentle and delightful manner, exactly suited to the strength of the human eye; an illustrious and most beautiful emblem in this respect of the divine Redeemer of mankind, who, softening the splendour of the Godhead, brings it to the eye of the understanding, so that it can thus behold the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."-Timothy Diright.

The sky was clear, and like a shield

Of molten gold, the sun,

Hung in the noonday heights of heaven,
The glorious shining one!

The flooding yellow light I saw,

Blaze o'er the earth and main-
But on himself I could not look,
For ecstacy of pain.

And yet again the sky was clear;
The moon with radiance mild,
O'er the dim earth bent lovingly-
As mother o'er her child.

Long on her sweet, sad face I gazed,
And blessed the gentler ray-

Nor since have sought to eye the sun's
Intolerable day.

Thus, when God's glance I could not brook,
Without dark eye, and dim,

He veiled his glory in his Son,

And bade me look on him.

Now on that human face divine,

Rests every saintly eye,

Blessing God's nearer-milder form-
Incarnate Deity.

LITERARY NOTICES.

Letter to Lord Robertson, showing the intimate connexion between the study of Hebrew and Theology. By A LICENTIATE OF THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. Edinburgh: Myles Macphail. 1848.

If a man were gravely to maintain, that the science of Gunnery had nothing to do with the art of war, or the study of the Justinian Code with the knowledge of the Roman law, he would stand a good chance of being dubbed a fool, or, at least, a broacher of fanciful and fantastic hypothesis. Many a burlesque proposition of a similar kind has, doubtless, been uttered, and, for purposes of jest and merriment, made the subject of elaborate and ridiculous discussion. The writer or speaker found therein a theme for the exhilarating display of wit and ingenuity, and his audience tolerated the exhibition for the sake of the amusement it furnished. But, on such occasions, the interests of truth do not suffer. No one is imposed upon. Common sense estimates all such propositions at their true value, and no human being would ever dream of tendering a negative, or resorting to serious argumentation in the matter.

In the course of the discussions which the late appointment to the Hebrew Chair in the University of Edinburgh called forth, a proposition was bandied about, intrinsically of no higher order than those just specified, and made to do the work of a weightier argument in maintaining a bad cause. This is, that the connection betwixt Theology and the study of the Hebrew language, is one of a purely nominal and conventional kind. To whom pertains the merit of this rare discovery, we shall not stop to enquire: assuredly, be he who he may, his statue deserves a place in the same niche with the philosopher who will demonstrate that the density and solar distances of the planets have nothing to do with the Newtonian theory of the planetary system. Had we heard the statement a few months ago, and before the Professorship litigation commenced, we would, most certainly, have assigned its origin either to utter ignorance of the meaning of the terms in which the statement was expressed, or to a desire to amuse the public with

odd and burlesque conceits. But the proposition in question has been advanced, and apparently, at least, in sober seriousness,-in grave pleadings before the tribunal of justice, and in grave utterances from the judicial Bench. We are constrained, therefore, to examine the matter a little more narrowly, and test the force of a remark so confidently, so solemnly, and, of late, so frequently repeated.

The first form in which the sentiment has been uttered, is somewhat to this effect that the study of Hebrew has no essential connection with Theology. Hebrew is merely one of the languages which have been spoken by men, and committed to writing. What then is to hinder a man from mastering all its vocables, and comprehending all the peculiarities of its inflections, syntax, and prosody, without the remotest allusion to any doctrine or precept of the Christian faith, or any other? It is accordingly triumphantly inferred, that there is no connection betwixt Hebrew and Theology, and no injury need be anticipated to the latter, although a heretic, a schismatic, or an avowed infidel be appointed to teach the former.

Now, the Hebrew is undeniably a language, and consists of words just as the Codex Justinianus is a book, and consists of propositions; but then, just as the propositions of that book do express internal portions of the Roman law, so, in like manner, all the sentences extant in that language, and even the individual words of which it is composed, do suggest the ideas of Christian Theology and no other. It is a sacred language, furnishing, in no small degree, the terminology of Divinity, or the definitions of that terminology. It is the language in which God Almighty was pleased to clothe the utterances of primeval revelation, and, therefore, to be deemed by all Christians, as having a special fitness for being so employed. Nay, not only is the Hebrew the language of by much the larger portion of God's revealed word, and, therefore, to be studied by all who would rightly interpret that word; but the interpretation of that word is the only conceivable purpose for which the Hebrew language will ever be studied at all. What human being would be at the trouble of learning Hebrew, were it not for the purpose of enabling him to read the Hebrew Bible? No allegation, therefore, can be more preposterous, than that the study of Hebrew has nothing to do with Theology. It is theological all over. It is impossible to proceed beyond the alphabet, in studying the language, without encountering theological ideas at every step; and when from words, the learner advances to sentences, there is positively no literature in the world, but a theological one,-properly indeed, none, except the Bible and the Bible alone, from which these sentences must be drawn. To denude Hebrew, therefore, of its theological character, is a pure impossibility. The thing cannot be done, simply because every sentence and word of the Hebrew Bible, that is to say of the entire Hebrew language, expresses a theological idea. And is it not the fact-a fact which, doubtless, originated in the universal and deep feeling of the essential connection betwixt religion and the study of the Hebrew language-that both in our Scottish colleges, and in every other seminary where divinity has been taught as a science, Hebrew has been taught also, and uniformly as a part of theological study?

A second form in which the sentiment we have been objecting to, is expressed, is somewhat to this effect,-that there is nothing in the learning of the Hebrew language which renders it more theological than the learning of Greek. It is allowed, on all hands, that although the Greek is a sacred language, and a large portion of the inspired volume is written in it, yet the Greek Chair has nothing theological about it, and never, in point of fact, has been connected with the theological faculty in any of our Universities. Why, it is asked, act otherwise with the Chair of Hebrew? But the answer to this is abundantly obvious. The subject-matter of the Hebrew Professor's teaching is exclusively Theological. He must