but it is a privilege, which, the more the humble-minded and teachable Christian reflects upon, the more he will cherish as his richest treasure; and the more he will delight to meditate on it, as exhibiting the exceeding riches of the grace of God.

The very greatness of the blessing, however, and the acknowledged mysteriousness of its character, may account for the fact, that it is so little realised, and so little enjoyed by the generality of Christians. Even in the infant Church, during the time that the presence of the Holy Ghost was manifested by supernatural gifts, by signs, and wonders, and divers miracles, even then it seems that Christians might forget this their highest privilege. The interrogatory form of address adopted by the apostle in the text conveys a severe reproach on the Corinthians for forgetfulness of this great truth. In the beginning of this chapter he reproves them for their carnal mind, so that he was compelled to address them, not as spiritual, but as carnal; for, says he (ver. 3), "Whereas there is among you, envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? I wish to draw your especial attention to this last expression: they are reproved for walking as menor, literally, according to man, xarà äv‡рamo-that is, as if they were not in possession of more than human power -as if they were mere men, with no more than natural principles to guide them, and natural power to animate them. And were they, then, more than men? Yes, in one most important sense they were. They were men inhabited and influenced by the Holy Ghost, uniting them to a risen Saviour, whence they were to derive a higher than any natural life, a greater than any human strength. "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?"

If, then, the Corinthian Christians had need to be so reproved, and thus reminded of their high and exalted privileges, even in that age of the Church, how much more have we need to watch against falling into the same error-how much more likely that we should fall into forgetfulness of this glorious privilege of the Christian Church, and should walk as men, instead of living and endeavouring to act under the conviction of our being temples of the Holy Ghost? How much more are we in danger of lowering the standard of action, and the ground of expectation, to the limited capacities of our mere human nature, instead of raising them to what ought to be the capacities of men inhabited and empowered by the Spirit of God? Thus we dishonour this divine agent. We make allowances for our conduct, which would be

reasonable enough if we were men merely actuated by human principles, but which ought not to be made, and which it is dishonourable to the Holy Ghost to make, when Christians are regarded in that light in which the text places them.

I shall now devote the remainder of this discourse to illustrating this position in some particulars.

In the first place, then, let us observe the point on which the apostle adduces this doc. trine in the passage before us. He is, as we have seen, blaming the Corinthians for their schism and divisions; and in order to shew the extent of their sin, he reminds them that the Spirit of God dwelt in them, obviously intimating that the Holy Spirit dwells in Christians as the SPIRIT OF UNION, to bind them together in one body, to bring them to oneness of faith and practice, "till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ; that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; but, maintaining the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ." Now, I am well aware, that to some it ap pears to be a most unreasonable position, when we hold out unity of doctrine as the standard of Christian orthodoxy, and represent the differences existing amongst men as culpable; it seems unreasonable, especially in this age styling itself liberal, to hold out an expectation, that all those who confess God's holy name will ever agree in the truth of his holy word." The minds of men are so variously constituted, they differ so much in natural temperament, education, in advantages of many kinds, that it were in vain to expect, and it is altogether fruitless to urge, a unity of faith and doctrine. So long as men are men, it will be said, they must and will differ. The most perfect, the most comprehensive, the most judicious exposition of the Divine will, must fail to enlist all men in one confession, and bring them to strive together for the faith of the Gospel.

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This mode of arguing is unanswerable, regarding man merely as man. It is, indeed, in vain to expect that either by any effort of their own minds, or by any persuasion addressed to them from others, men will emancipate themselves from prejudice, and come to agreement in that truth, which can only be ascertained by a humble and diligent application of the right means of knowledge, under the teaching of God's Holy Spirit. But then

the apostle's mode of dealing with such arguments proceeds upon this very ground, that those who use them and allow themselves to be influenced by them walk as men; and their force is altogether evaded and destroyed when men are addressed not as men, but as the temple of the Holy Ghost, as men in whom dwelleth the Spirit of God. The question, then, whether there may be union and agreement in the Church, resolves itself into this. Is any thing too hard for the Lord? If the Holy Spirit, as the Spirit of Christ, dwells in us, is there any impossibility that Christians should relinquish their prejudices under his teaching-that, by this divine and omnipotent agent, the differences arising from habit, and education, and variety of disposition, should be overcome? This, surely, altogether alters the question, and all the impediments to union seem to be as nothing. What, then, is the fact, my brethren? It is that we dishonour the Holy Ghost, as the Spirit of Jesus, by not expecting from this precious gift that which God has expressly attached to it. We give up in despair the attainment of that which Christ has expressly promised; for he says, "When "When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you into all truth." And some will even insult God, and throw contempt upon his word, by appealing to facts-facts of their own creating-in order to prove that such an end is unattainable. Look, they will say, at the Christian world, torn by divisions and sects, and yet all equally claiming the gift of the Holy Spirit; and where is your boasted union? Yes, and no wonder that, if we do not honour God, God should not honour us; that if we dishonour his Spirit, by esteeming human impediments too great to be overcome by his power, we should not see them to be Overcome. We are disunited, not because it is impossible that we should be one; not because the impediments are too great to be overcome; but because we do not in good earnest seek to be one; because some will not see the necessity or even desirableness of union; because we do not yield ourselves to the good motions of the Holy Ghost within us, who, according to our Lord's promise, would guide us into all truth, and make us to be one, "as the Father and Christ are

one."

What has thus been advanced on the subject of unity, is equally true when applied to the subject of HOLINESS. It must be admitted, that when the standard of Christian action is viewed in connexion with the weakness and natural depravity of man, there is something which, if we walk as men, seems altogether unreasonable. For creatures, such as we are, to be urged to imitate Him who did no sin, who was ever holy, harmless, and undefiled;

Him who was the only begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth--that he should have left us an example, that we should follow his steps-that we should be exhorted to have the very mind that was in Him, and to bring every thought into captivity and obedience to him; all this does appear something extravagant when viewed in connexion with the weakness, and helplessness, and sinfulness, of our fallen nature. But not so when the Christian is viewed as a temple of the Holy Ghost, when he is told, that it is not he who lives, but Christ who lives in him; that God worketh in him, to will and to do of his good pleasure; then the language of an apostle does not seem extravagant, "I can do all things through Christ, who strengtheneth me." Again; we may inquire, What is too hard for the Lord? What tempers may not be overcome, what habits may not be altered, what sin may not be rooted out, by the Spirit of God working in us? To every excuse and every palliation of any shortcoming of the Gospel standard, the words of the text most strictly address themselves : "What! know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?"

But, finally, I wish especially to apply this subject to the CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. We are authorised to believe that the ministers of

Christ, rightly ordained, are not merely temples of the Holy Ghost in the ordinary sense as Christians, but are also specially endowed of the Holy Ghost "for the perfecting of the saints--for the work of the ministry---for the edifying of the body of Christ." Upon his apostles Christ breathed and said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost;" and with them, in the persons of their successors, he promised to be, "even to the end of the world." Such, then, is the true standing of the Christian ministry. It ought to be constituted of men full of faith and of the Holy Ghost; men endowed, not merely with natural talents, such as eloquence and wisdom of words, and such things as natural men prize, but with the gifts of the Holy Ghost"the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord," enabling them to preach in demonstration of the Spirit and of power; constituting them "workmen that need not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."

Now this, to those who walk as men, may seem an expectation as visionary as those which I have already named. Taking into account the present position of the Church; considering how impossible it is for man in all cases to guard against the entrance of wolves in sheep's clothing; does it not seem some

ture and system in which all things subsist are evidence to us that the intelligent power which brought them together is still abiding upon them with its original energies; and that it continues in the same action upon them which it applied in order to unite them. This superintendence and continued agency appear to be essential to the subsistence of created things, in that complexity of make, in that artificial erder in which we behold them. Their component atoms can have no properties inherent in themselves to cause their cohesion; because what is originally and essentially sole and separate until it be forcibly combined, cannot have any natural property or tendency to combine. Combining tendency is incompatible with original separateness. It must be the addition of some other agency. Hence nothing could remain in those beautiful but compulsory mechanisms, whose laws and principles have suggested and constitute all our science, unless the same power which created accompanied them in its providential agency; and by thus accompanying, perpetuated the duration of its sublime constructions and most interesting compositions.

ever

The just inference from these remarks seems to be, that supernatural agency is as necessary to the present subsistence of things as it was to produce their original formation; and that it therefore is one of those abiding and essential laws of nature to which all other laws, those material and secondary ones, which we can explore and calculate, are but its chosen associates, its appointed and subordinate instruments. The master-law and these servant-laws are operating together in their distinct lines of action; and neither, at any time, without the other. Nature is never deserted by its Maker. It was not framed as an infantile toy, to be put together for a momentary amusement, and then forsaken. It was made for the benefit of its inhabitants. It will never last longer than it is a subject of its Ruler's care. It will cease when his attention to it ceases, but will endure until that be withdrawn. Its continued existence is, therefore, a demonstration of his continuing regard and persevering care.

Instead, then, of following the fashion of some, to consider supernatural agency as an unnecessary, or as an obsolete idea, accustom your mind to regard it as the primal law of nature, the ever-dominating law, the companion of every other, the grand agent which gives energy to every other, the superintending Sovereignty which never abandons its creation, but which is always ready and resolved to interpose its assisting operations, whenever the additional interference becomes needful. This is the true philosophy of nature; and without a due recollection of this, great error of reasoning, and much imperfection and incompleteness of mind, cannot but take place. All truths have a greater or less connexion with each other; and absence of the grander ones in our intellectual treasury, will produce a great chasm, and much confusion and incongruities in whatever may remain.

Avoid, therefore, all absurd prejudices theoretically against miracles. They are inseparable from existence. Creation was a miracle. Its subsistence is not less so. The true idea of a miracle is, that it is an act of Divine power-an event which the material laws of nature, without the greater law of Divine agency, could not effect. To describe a miracle as a violation of the laws of nature, is an incorrect and an inapplicable definition; for all the laws of nature are in continual violation and counteraction by each other. Fire burns, but water extinguishes it. Water is fluid, but cold converts iti nto a solid, and heat into air. It is the established course of nature, that all its laws should be thus violating each other. It is by such a violation, that we roll year's round the sun. This is the result of the attractive law, con

tinually violating the law of that propulsive force which every planet has received. These two laws are in a constant struggle, each violating the otherneither prevailing; and therefore the result of their unceasing conflict and counteraction is that forced compromise, ever resisted by each, but maintained by their very resistance, which appears in our circuitous orbit. We now go round the sun by no willing movement, instead of flying off from it, as one law urges us to do, and instead of falling into it, to which the other is always drawing us. This mutual violation of each other's law compels our planet into that elliptical circuit, which is the artificial product of this appointed contest.

A miracle is, therefore, the exerted will and agency of that Deity, who is an unexcludable part of all nature, as well as his works, who is ever superintending them, and who acts by his natural laws in the usual course of things, and by the special operation of a miracle whenever he deems it proper to do so. He alone is the judge of the necessity or expediency of such an interference; but whatever he chooses to do for the benefit of his creatures, there is nothing to prevent him from accomplishing. He has no controller, nor superior; nor does he take counsel from us as to the time, the manner, or the fitness of his interposition. Miracles are, therefore, at no time impossible: but, on the contrary, from the constant presence of the efficient cause, are always probable. The usual course of things is manifestly left to the operation of the mechanised and subordinated laws, as far as their visible causes appear. The supernatural interposition is not necessary, while the common events of nature only are to take place, and can occur. But when the manifestation of the superior power, or the production of effects to which the common laws of things are inadequate, becomes expedient, then what is specially needed specially ensues.

The Divine agency immediately acts, and produces visible effects beyond the power of natural causes to occasion, and thus evidences its own operation. That it would not thus interfere without an adequate reason is the deduction of our judgment, which Horace has so forcibly expressed; but that it will always thus interfere, whenever a sufficient occasion makes its agency expedient, our same judgment will as correctly infer; because intelligence will always act like itself, and therefore intelligently, and therefore at every period do what it is proper and right that it should do.

How it has acted in this respect before our present day, history only can inform us from human sources of knowledge. Authentic history declares that it has thus interposed but on rare, and always on great occasions, and from sufficient reasons; and thus the special interference of Divine agency in the occurrence of miracles on great occasions, and from sufficient reasons, is the suggestion of our past experience, and is the true philosophical probability.. Hence sacred history, being the history of Divine agency in human affairs, cannot but comprise the appearance, and be expected to exhibit the occurrence, of such miracles as were necessary to effectuate its objects. But I would beg you to observe, that no miracle is a violation of a law of nature. It is always the introduction and application, in the particular case, of the ever-subsisting law of the Divine agency, which adds to the result, that some usual law has occasioned another effect, which the new operation causes to succeed, and which the superior power alone could have then brought into action.

Thus, when an ordinary law had produced death, the Divine agency returned to the body the vital principle which it had as specially given to it at its human birth. No law was violated by this additional incident; the law of death had produced death; a subsequent operation reunited the separated soul.

LETTER OF MISSIONARY SWARTZ, THE AGED, TO HIS FRIENDS AT VELLORE.*

MY DEAR FRIENDS,

Ir is a long time since I had the pleasure of addressing you. Illness has prevented me. I can hardly describe to you the nature of my weakness, So great has been the relaxation of my frame, that I could scarcely stand. I felt no pain. But enough of this. Age comes on me; I have no reason, therefore, to wonder at weakness. If the mind be sound,

all is well; the rest we shall quit when we enter into the grave. That will cure all bodily indispositions. On this subject I meditate frequently. God grant me grace to number my (perhaps very few) days. Eternity is an awful subject, and should be continually in our minds.

I know and feel that I have no righteousness of my own whereupon I would dare to depend for eternal happiness. If God should enter with me into judgment, what would become of me! But blessed, for ever blessed, be the adorable mercy of God, who has provided a sure expedient for guilty man. The atonement of Jesus is the foundation of my hope and peace. Though I am covered all over with sins, the blood of Jesus cleanseth me from all mine iniquities, and sets my heart at rest. Though I am a corrupted creature, the Spirit of Jesus enlighteneth, cheereth, and strengtheneth me, to hate all sin. Yea, and though the day of judgment approacheth, the love of God comforts me so far as to have boldness to appear before our Judge, not as if we were innocent creatures, but because we are pardoned, washed, and cleansed, in the blood of Christ. O! my dear friends, an interest in the atonement of Jesus, and a participation in the graces of his Spirit,-these constitute a Christian, these cheer and strengthen the heart, these glorify God, and prepare for heaven! Let us daily come before our God through the blessed Jesus, and see that we neglect not our sanctification. Our time is short. Within some days I have sojourned in India thirty-four years. The end of my journey is at hand. May my last days be my best days. Farewell! May grace, mercy, and peace, follow you at all times.

I am, my dear friends,

Yours with affection,

C. F. SWARTZ.

The venerable missionary lived fourteen years after writing the above letter; and when treading the verge of Jordan, he was heard thus to pray:-"O Lord, hitherto thou hast preserved me; hitherto thou hast brought me, and hast bestowed innumerable benefits upon me. Do what is pleasing in thy sight. I commend my spirit into thy hands; cleanse and adorn it with the righteousness of my Redeemer, and receive me into the arms of thy love and mercy."-AMEN.

The Cabinet.

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. It is dangerous to imagine, that the work of education consists entirely, or even principally, in applying means to unfold the powers of the human mind, or in giving an increased momentum to its natural activity, If nothing more than this were done, society would be left exposed to From Dean Pearson's Life of Swartz.

a formidable conflict between ungovernable spirits, each eager to exercise his strength and inclination in the pursuit of his own object and the accomplishment of his own purpose, without regard to any general bond of mutual affection, or of moral influence. Peace and happiness, truth and justice; religion and piety, would still remain undefined and doubtful terms, or unsanctioned at least by any authority which could give them effectual sway. So far is it from being true, that by increasing the vigour and the expansion of the mental faculties, the necessity of systematic instruction in religion is superseded, that, on the contrary, in proportion as their power is thus increased, is this necessity rendered more urgent. It is not in the nature of such faculties, and so excited, to remain inactive, or to be cold and listless when an object of pursuit is offered. The first plausible theory, whether true or false, which is presented to their contemplation, will engage attention; and, if it have any captivating features, will probably take strong hold of the affections; more especially, if it partake of those qualities which most readily fall in with the solicitations of appetite or passion. The first and most essential point, therefore, is to satisfy the cravings of the mind with such knowledge as shall best conduce to its moral, as well as intellectual, strength. As the latter increases, the former must still be enabled to maintain its due ascendency; and better were it, that the one should be circumscribed, even within the narrowest limits, than that it should be suffered to range beyond the control of the other, under no guidance or direction but that of its own undisciplined propensities.-Bp. Van Mildert.

HUMILITY is the greatest, the most essential beauty of all created beings. To be conscious of our littleness, and to delight and triumph in that God who makes us what we are, is, indeed, not only the beauty, but, I may add, the bliss of creatures.-) -Howels.

THE HAPPINESS AND TRIALS OF THE CHRISTIAN. That truc religion is substantial happiness, the Scriptures clearly and unequivocally set forth. It is described as a peace of God which passeth all understanding; as a well of water, springing up into everlasting life; as joy in the Holy Ghost; as the kingdom of heaven within us. On the other hand, the believer is often represented as one who passes through much tribulation, and whose calling it is to endure hardness and affliction, to bear his cross and to suffer with Christ. How, then, are we to reconcile these apparent contradictions? How can religion be happiness, and still the religious man be exposed to so much misery? In answer to this, I would observe, that the soul, like the body, is subject to two distinct kinds of suffering. If a man is upon his bed, and feels in pain, this pain may arise from one of two causes; either from what is outward and accidental, or from what is inward, and indicative of disease. Should it proceed, for instance, from uneasiness of posture, or from any thing hard or sharp-pointed in the bed, he has only to rise, or shift his position, and all will be well. But if the pain originate in no such cause, he has then ascertained that his body is, more or less, distempered; and that, till a more radical remedy be found, he will, in spite of change of place or posture, carry his pain along with him. So it is with the soul: the happiness which religion imparts, is moral soundness and spiritual health. But there are afflictions, against which the most perfect sanity of soul is no security. The great Physician cures inward maladies; and this is the happiness which he both promises and gives to those who come to him. Nevertheless, they, like others, are born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward. The difference is, that, in the one case, there is disease within; and to whatever regions that soul may travel, it will carry with it the worm that dieth not, and the fire that is not quenched.

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