of students of theology, as being fine specimens of dialectical skill. If the venerable Dr. Wardlaw excelled in clear, orderly reasoning, and in the power of elegant and eloquent expression, the then young Hamilton pastor was more than his match in earnest, zealous declamation, with here and there powerfully pointed home-thrusts of Scriptural argumentation, besides having, in our opinion, the best side of the controversy. Dr. Wardlaw quoted some of the texts which have been already referred to, and which have always been thought strong redoubts on the Calvinistic side. Mr. Kirk endeavoured to parry these thrusts, suggested the Arminian interpretations, and quoted as formidable an array of texts on his side. We think that he succeeded best with Isai. v. 4, "What could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it: wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?" Dr. Wardlaw tried to show that all God meant was, that he had done all that was needed among the Jews to make them accountable. But Mr. Kirk contended that God had really brought all the influence to bear upon them, which he could bring to bear upon them, in consistency with his all-wise providential arrangements, and the inviolability of that free agency with which he had himself endowed man. Again, Mr. Kirk avowed it as his belief, and the belief of his people, that they not only held the influence of means, but the influence of the Holy Ghost working by means. Dr. Wardlaw retorted, that unless they would admit also a direct, mysterious, invincible energy, or breathing, in fact, an inexplicable afflatus, accompanying the means, and rendering them in some instances effectual, he would conclude that they did not believe in the influence of the Spirit at all, but only in the influence of means. Now, this assumption, on the venerable Doctor's part, was, we maintain, wholly gratuitous. In nature, God works by means -yet he works really and powerfully, although sometimes barren ground resists his influence. And the same thing holds true in grace. For ourselves, we have always thought that the late Dr. Jenkyn's illustration of the universally diffused energy of nature, taking advantage of, and blessing the farmer's exertions-yet here and there resisted by bad soil-one of the very best types for setting off to advantage what we believe to be the real truth concerning the work of the Spirit-a universally diffused energy, which Christians, by prayer and earnest effort, can concentrate on given points in increased abundancewhich obdurate men may resist to their own destruction, but which, in multitudes of instances, will result in the conversion of souls. Dr. Wardlaw was very ill pleased with Mr. Kirk for saying that his view of the Spirit represented God as partial. But Mr. Kirk's reply was plain yet convincing. "Suppose that two men threw themselves into a river to commit suicide -you are standing by the river with full power to save both-you exert that power in behalf of only one of the two-he is saved and the other lost. Now, we ask, why is the one saved and the other lost? We do not see that we would be talking absurdity if we said, 'because you saved the one and refused to save the other.' The one is saved because you pleased to save him—the other is lost because you did not please to save him.' There is no doubt that the limitation in the Spirit's work for which Dr. Wardlaw pled just came to that: by a touch he might have saved all the non-elect, but he did not please to do it. Ninety-nine out of every hundred of candid people would call such procedure partial dealing. Dr. Wardlaw again and again urged the Hamilton Church to say why, on their principles, one sinner was saved and another lost. Thus, for example, he wrote (at p. 69): "When the truth, then, is presented to many, and of these many it is received by a few and rejected by all the rest, we must still insist upon it, that in that case the cause of the difference between the former class and the latter lies in themselves; that they make themselves to differ."". Now we never felt the force of this argument on which the Doctor repeatedly insisted and which he evidently deemed unanswerable. The judgment day will answer it. Those on the left hand—should they not have been on the right? And might they not have been on the right? If these questions be answered in the affirmative, the Doctor's difficulty vanishes into thin air. The righteous shall be on the right hand because they chose life; while the wicked shall be on the left hand because they would not have it. The righteous then "saved themselves" and "made themselves to differ?" In a most important and scriptural sense they did. God, through Ezekiel, said to the Jews, "Make you a new heart and a new spirit" (xviii. 31). And no less an authority than the Apostle Peter, and on the very day of Pentecost too, speaking under the influence of the Holy Spirit, by whom he had been newly baptized with fire, said "Save yourselves from this untoward generation" (Acts ii. 40). It will be, to all eternity, true that the saved took the step which the lost would not take; and the fact shall be to the everlasting condemnation of the latter (Heb. xi. 7.) Yet ask the shining ranks how they reached the blissful seats and they will confess that the minute and comparatively immeritorious act of decision dwindles down into mere insignificance when compared with all that the Divine Saviour by his bleeding, and the Divine Spirit by his pleading, had done for them; so that, casting their crowns at Emmanuel's feet, they shall say, "Not unto us, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake.” Our readers may be interested to see how nobly the Hamilton Church stood up for their minister, and refused to part with him. "You refer to our adherence to our pastor, as the ground on which you address us. Dear brethren, with regard to our beloved pastor, we know certainly that he has been much misrepresented. We fear he has been so to you. He has been charged with preaching universal pardon, and that man can save himself. It has been widely circulated that he denies the influence and work of the Holy Spirit. All this is utterly false. We, dear brethren, have been more delightfully engaged than in paying much attention to the cry of 'heresy' which has been raised. When our dear pastor came amongst us the great majority who now form the members of the church were living in rebellion against God. The number of members was then comparatively few. Very many of those who now address you were then living without God and without hope in the world, afraid of Jehovah, and yet not much alarmed for their condition. We were hiding, some under one refuge of lies, and some under another. Some of us, under the doctrine of election as we then understood it, were saying, "If we are among the elect we will be saved, if not, we cannot help it;" and so we lived in sin. Some took shelter in the doctrine of a limited atonement, and thought that if Jesus died for us we were safe, and if not, we could not alter our case. A great many of us took refuge under what we believe is a more popular, yet not less fatal error, the doctrine of partiality in the Spirit's use of his influence, and were waiting for that without which we thought we could not believe the gospel. The very men whom you now suppose to be teaching error were the instruments in the hand of the Spirit of God of undeceiving us. They exposed, and thus destroyed in our minds the lying refuges under which we were hiding. We were led by their means to flee to Jesus, the only refuge for the guilty soul. Some of us were convinced of sin, and the awful guilt of slighting God's message of mercy in the Gospel of his Son, by means of our dear friends and brethren, Messrs. Simpson of Bridgeton, Wight of Carlisle, Ferguson of Bellshill, MacRobert of Cambuslang, Morison of Kilmarnock, Morison of Bathgate, Rutherford of Falkirk and James Samson, who was with us in our pastor's absence; but the great majority of us have been brought to the Saviour, and now enjoy peace with God, by the instrumentality of our pastor. We have more still, brethren, to tell you of the labours of our pastor. The church of Bellshill took its rise from ours. church at Strathaven, consisting of about sixty members, now enjoying the labours of our respected brother, Mr. Duncanson--that at Wishawtown, about the same number, enjoying the efforts of our dear brother Mr. Cross-were both branches from this church; and the majority of the members of these last two churches have been brought to the Redeemer through the labours of our pastor. We might refer you to the conversions to God that have taken place in Cumberland and elsewhere, but we forbear. We ascribe all the praise to God, who has thus, by the power of the Holy Spirit, given testimony to the word of his grace-his free and infinite grace that flows to all through the atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ. "Did you really know the doctrine and manner of life of our dear pastor, you would not-you could not-wish us to abandon him. The "We have written to you thus fully, dear brethren, in answer to your queries, that you might be fully able to judge of our case; and now, with all our hearts we pray-" May the God of Peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that Great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work, to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. "We are, yours, in the bonds of the love of Jesus, "(Signed and Printed by the unanimous appointment of the Church, 23d June, 1844.) "JOHN NAISMITH, SEN. "ORD ADAM. "JOHN THOMSON. "CHARLES PILE. "JOHN NAISMITH, JNR. "THOMAS PURDIE." We have inserted the names of all the deacons who signed this letter, for the sake, indeed, of giving the respected signatures complete, but chiefly that we might call attention to the fourth name, "Neil Livingstone." He was the father of the renowned traveller, Dr. Livingstone. He had fully embraced Mr. Kirk's views of world-wide grace, and died in the comfort which they imparted. He was a Nathanael-" an Israelite, indeed, in whom was no guile." His son (the account of whose lamented death is published just as we write) had become distinguished before the father died; but the latter had not seen him for fifteen years, and he longed to embrace him—as Jacob longed to embrace Joseph-before his departure. the privilege was denied him. His frequent exclamation during years of weary waiting, while his valorous son was tracking the Zambesi from its source to the eastern sea, was, "O Dauvit, man, but ye're lang o' comin.'" Doubtless the happy spirits of father and son have already met in the better world, if the recent reports be really true. But In the month of December, 1844, the final letter was received by the Hamilton brethren from the four Glasgow Churches, towards the close of which they were informed that they must needs separate, and that thenceforth there would be no ecclesiastical fellowship between them. But so signal were the manifestations of the Saviour's presence at the time, that, rejoicing much in his smiles, they did not feel deeply the disownment of men-pious and excellent in many respects although they were. In the next article we will begin with the Bellshill correspondence, and we hope that we then shall be able to conclude the history of the ecclesiastical action taken by the Independent body at that period. 169 MATTER AND MIND. THE point at which men pass from the most important of all truths over to the most fatal of all error is a very sharp one. This gives an advantage to him who is anxious to avoid the passage, or who, having made the wrong step, is anxious to retrace it. The idea that there is only one substance in the universe, and that that one substance is absolutely material, is an error which blots out every trace of thought such as is worth thinking on the part of such a being as man. Where the idea fully prevails all moral as well as spiritual ideas are impossible. The notion of one's being a true first cause of his own actions, and hence responsible for such actions, is just as untenable then as the notion that a mill wheel is responsible for turning when the water is let in upon it. Hence the idea that there are two substances in the universe entirely distinct from each other, and that too in every quality or attribute belonging to them, is a momentous truth lying at the very foundation of all thought and sentiment worthy of humanity. But the point at which one may pass either way- -from the truth to the error, or from the error to the truth-is a very fine one. We In some of the most influential thinking of the present time this point is that at which, what is called "continuity," is imagined to exist in what is called again the "correlation" of forces. There are certain affections of matter on the one hand, and certain affections of mind on the other, which are fancied to be so correlated that they change or pass into each other, and hence are proved to be identical; in other words, to be changeable affections, not of two substances, but of one. must illustrate what we mean. Here then is a rod of iron and a rod of wood. What we call heat is an affection of these two rods, and passes easily from the one to the other. Electricity is also an affection of both, and not only passes easily from the one to the other, but may be electricity in the one passing into heat in the other, or heat in the one passing into electricity in the other. So with magnetism. So with light; and so with all the affections of all that we call matter. These affections include what we designate vitality, or that state in which a substance is not only heated, luminous, magnetized, electrified, or in chemical change, but alive. This is going a step farther than most physicists seem disposed to go; but it is as clear and as safe a step as any of the others. A muscle or a nerve when alive is affected in a manner perfectly distinct from all other affections as heat is distinct from light, or as any two affections are distinct from each other. Yet heat passes into vitality, as do all the other affections of matter in their proper circumstances, No. 15.] N [Vol. 4. |