intactuality is a matter not to be doubted. It consists, as we have seen, in the imputation of the propitiatory righteousness wrought out by Jesus. And it is "imputed where there are no works," but where there is faith. It is bestowed in despite of the utter wretchedness of the present and previous character of him who seeks it. All unrighteous, he is made imputatively as righteous as the Saviour. But the gracious imputative righteousness is not retrospective only. It does not stand in the place of that righteousness which ought to have been wrought out prior to the moment of believing, while it is inefficacious for the unrighteous future. It is prospective as well as retrospective. It is equally valid, equally saving, equally justifying for the period of life subsequent to the justifying act as for that which is antecedent to it. It thus stretches over the whole probationary career. So long as the faith by which it was first secured is retained, so long is its gracious operation sustained. It will, then, I cannot doubt, be respected and treated as a reality when the work of the second justification will be entered on amid the solemnities of judgement. There as here, then as now, all believers, be they what they may in respect to the degree of their sanctification, will, in virtue of their faith, have that perfect righteousness imputed to them. Their first justification will be valid, all through the final ordeal and whatever its issues. But if so, what about the second justification? The discussion seems ripe for settlement.

The first justification confers the indefeasible title to glory; the second ascertains the believer's moral meetness for it, and especially the degree of that meetness. And as it does, it seems manifest that the Great Justifier will find scope enough for the different awards which he may deliver on the character of believers by assigning to each a corresponding degree of that glory. It is in the idea of degrees in the reward of glory that, as I suppose, the conciliation between the two justifications is effected. There are all gradations in Christian faith; there are all corresponding gradations in Christian character, for ultimately character is determined by faith; and there are again, I apprehend, all like gradations in the complacency which the divine justifier entertains with regard to the different degrees of sanctification of character; and these gradations of the divine complacency will find adequate expression in the gradations of heavenly glory which will, I cannot but think, be allotted by the Saviour to all those whom he will justify by the second and final process. Indeed, the measure of the sanctification of character is the exact measure of the capacity for the enjoyment of the reward of glory. It is then in the correspondence between the degree of holiness acquired and the degree of glory awarded, that the varying degrees of the Saviour's approval can be appropriately displayed. And the second justification is seen to be, in a certain important sense, a justification by works, while it is also seen that it is inseparably connected with the first justification, and that it is, in fact, essentially dependent on it.47

If in the course of perusal you should be pleased to allow the editorial

47 We think that our correspondent has in this concluding paragraph admirably expressed the reality of the case.

pen to drop a marginal note of correction, expansion, or of illumination, here and there, 48 as the editorial judgement may dictate, you will, I am sure greatly favour some at least of your readers, but none more than,

Rev. Dear Sir,

Yours very truly,

INQUIRER.

MAN'S UPWARD RELATIONSHIPS.

Ir is a moral necessity for man to realise his upward relationships in the great universe.

Were it not for the realisation of these relationships, he would feel greatly shut in upon himself; and thus confined and cabined in his own littleness. He would be in danger of growing intensely selfish, seeking only the gratification of his own desires. His thoughts and emotions would not float out from him, as feelers, in quest of things greater and better and grander than he can get in himself. Aspirations after the endlessly progressive, and the infinitely lofty, would

cease.

Refuge he would have none,-refuge in distress,-refuge in bereavements, refuge in disappointments,-refuge in the midst of triumphant persecutions, and refuge in the last struggles and agonies of death.

He would, too, be entirely destitute of an absolute rule of right and righteousness, whereby to regulate his moral conduct, and whereby to estimate the moral procedure of others.

Man needs to feel that he does not stand alone in the universe, as an intelligent and moral being. There is a necessity in his nature for relationship to beings stretching up beyond himself, and especially to a Being of beings,-an infinite, all-perfect, all-glorious One, standing at the head of all other beings, and sitting on the throne of universal empire.

When we look beneath us in the world, we find living creatures stretching away down from us, lower and lower in the scale of contrivance and complexity, until we reach, apparently, the first elements of life. Viewed from these first elements of life, we ourselves stand high up in the scale of being. But when, on the other hand, we look aloft, and consider the innumerable stars or suns which stud the outspreading vastitudes of space that overarch us, we are constrained to feel that we are but very little things in the great universe. Hence we long to realise that we are members of a mighty family of worlds, and that there is over all one great and most fatherly Father, who loves all, who desires and seeks the weal of all, and whose will is the standard of the duty of all.

48 We have complied with our correspondent's desire, we trust to his satisfaction, and to the satisfaction of our readers in general. We have read our correspondent's letter with the greatest interest, and rejoice exceedingly to find mind elaborating itself-inquisitively-into the beautiful symmetries and harmonies of thought.

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SONS OF GOD,

ON THE GOSPEL PLANE OF THINGS.

Ir is a glorious designation; and, if legitimate, it is almost as magnificent as the imagination can conceive. It is certainly as exalted as any creature-heart can reasonably desire. Sons and daughters of the King of kings and Lord of lords! Sons and daughters of the Monarch of the universe, who "humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven" as well as the things that are on earth! Spiritual princes and princesses in the most exalted sphere of royalty!

But are there such sons and daughters of God on earth? There are. For we read of some on earth whom God "hath begotten," (James i. 18), and who are "born again," (1 Pet. i. 23), and who cry to Him "Abba, Father," (Rom. viii. 15). When they speak to one another, they realise whose children they are, and they say,-"Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called sons of God!" (1 John iii. 1.)

Who, then, are these sons and daughters of the Lord God most high? Are they the exalted inmates of our great terrestrial courts ?-the court, for instance, of Great Britain; and the court of France; and the courts of Prussia, Russia, and Austria; the court, too, of Rome, and of Spain, and of Turkey? Not necessarily so. Alas! we fear that the sons and daughters of God, the heirs of his royal glory, are not often to be found in such high places of the earth. Not many of these mighty and nobly-born are called. How hardly shall such rich ones enter into the kingdom of heaven!

Who, then, are those sons and daughters of God, whose home is in heaven?-Who? They are those, and all those, whose hearts are in heaven, and who have heavenliness in their souls. They are those, and all those, who look up to God with love, and say, "My Father." They are those, and all those,-however humble their circumstances, however mean their garb, however obscure their terrestrial parentage, who have associated themselves, in spirit, with Jesus, the Great Son of God, and who are resolved to have, as the motto of their life-"To me to live is Christ," and as the watchword of their soul in death, "None but Christ." All these are the sons and daughters, the heirs and heiresses, of the Lord God most high. "To as many as receive Christ, to them gives he power to become the children of God, even to them that believe on his name." (John i. 12.)

BOOKS.

The Pestilence; why Inflicted? Its Duration, and Desolating Character. By James Biden. Gosport: Legg. 1866.

An extraordinary production. The composition is nervous throughout.

In the first page it is exceedingly pointed; and the thinking corresponds. As the reader advances, however, he begins to feel that he is in the hands, not only of an earnest man, but also of a very strange thinker, who is nevertheless remarkably familiar with some parts of the Old Testament Scriptures. By and by he discovers that Mr. Biden has published several other works, which, however,—as he candidly avers,-have been "little read." One of his books is entitled, The True Church; another is, The Only Sacrifice; another, Truths Maintained; and another still, Punishment, the Conceit of Men's Minds. The title of the last of these books was given to him, he says, "in a dream." The Only Sacrifice, too,-not merely its title, as it would appear, was presented to him in a dream ;" and it is, he assures us, marvellous little book." As for Truths Maintained, published in 1854, it, he tells us, "fulfilled the prediction contained in the first part of Ezekiel's chapter v. 1-4, by dissecting the religious opinions of "Christendom, and taking from them all vitality." It is that very book, he informs us, which was prophesied of, when "the Son of "Man" was enjoined "to take a sharp knife, to take a barber's razor, and "to cause it to pass upon his head and upon his beard; then to take "balances, and weigh and divide the hair." The other work which we have specified, The True Church, is also, it seems, of high significance. Ezekiel, or rather the Spirit who inspired him, had his eye resting upon

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it, thousands of years ago. "The thirty-sixth chapter of Ezekiel," Bays Mr. Biden, "begins by introducing the controversy which has "existed between Protestants and Romanists since the fourteenth century. It appears as a bit of history out of Hezekiah's reign. The "Kings of Judah and their reigns symbolised phases of Christianity. "Hezekiah represents faithful Christians, men desirous of ascertain"ing and living up to the truth. The controversy is carried on "through this and the two next chapters, and closed by promises of "divine aid in the fulfilment of the prediction concerning the sun"dial of Ahaz, which was to be put back ten degrees; by which we "are taught that the 185,000 Assyrians, a symbolic number, were to be "reduced to 1850,00, to intimate the year in which the prophecy was "fulfilled by the publication of THE TRUE CHURCH." (p. 14.) The volume referred to was thus, it seems, in accordance with the prophecy concerning it, published in 1850.

Indeed, Mr. Biden claims to be no less than "the Son of Man," who is so frequently addressed in Ezekiel, and he adduces thirty reasons why his claim should be regarded as satisfactory. We shall give them in Mr. Biden's own phraseology, though here and there abbreviated. They are as follows:

1. He is addressed as one, to whom "a roll of a book" is sent "written within and without, and there was written therein lamen"tations, and mourning, and woe."

2. He is "a man of their coasts,"-that is, he dwells on the coasts of a maritime people, whom he addresses.

the situation of Gosport, we presume.)

(The author refers to

3. He has exhibited his skill in the interpretation of the Bible. 4. "He is a destroyer, the pen being his destroying weapon." (Ezek. ix)

5. "He is a deliverer, and comes out of Zion." (Rom. xi.) 6. He shows the true character of Zion. (Rev. xxi. 8.)

7. "He has poured out one of the seven vials of God's loving "wrath." (Rev. xvi. 4; xxi. 9.)

8. "He is a testifier." (Rev. xxi. 9-21.)

9. "He appears at the time of great tribulation." (Dan. ix. ; xiii.) 10. "At the times of the restitution of all things, one like unto "Moses is to be raised up." (Acts iii. 18-26.)

11. "He is like unto Moses." (Deut. xviii. 18.)

12. "The time is arrived when David's authority, spiritually, shall "be asserted, as predicted by his successful attack on the Assyrians in "the Valley of Salt." (2 Sam. vii. 13.)

13. "The watchman is the angel who has smitten, in the camp of "the Assyrians, 185,000. This was effected in 1850 by the publica"tion of The True Church."

14. He has rightly interpreted Isaiah x. 24.

15. "He has claimed to be a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch "out of his roots." (Isa. xi.) "Do not mistake," Mr. Biden reverently adds, "not the root of Jesse-Christ."

16. "He has claimed to be Cyrus." (Isa. xliv. 26-28.)

17. "He claims to have sprung out of the loins of Kings." (Isa. xlv. 1.)

18. "To him the crooked places are made straight." (Isa. xlv. 2, 3.) 19. "He is called by name, BIDEN (a sheep two years old, fit for "sacrifice), a Latin inscription over the King of the Jews; in Saxon, "endurance, tenacity."

20. "He alone announces a righteousness attainable here." (Isa. xlv. 24, 25.)

21. "He labours for the good of others without fee or reward." (Isa. xlv. 13.)

22. "From the bowels of his mother mention is made of his name"MESSUM,-her maiden name being the Hebrew plural form of Messiah, annointed." (Isa. xlix. 1.)

23. "He is to rule,' ""

"feet." (Isa. xli. 1-3.)

passing by a way he had not gone with his

24. "He takes the kingdom when about sixty-two years of age. "Darius symbolically represents him." (Dan. v. 31.)

25. "He arises at the time of the destruction of the fourth or Roman "kingdom." (Dan. vii.)

26." He alone declares the duration of Mahommedanism for yet ano"ther 1000 years." (Dan. viii.)

27. "He interprets truly the 9th of Daniel."

28. "He has rightly interpreted the last chapter of Daniel."

29. "He has bound Satan." (Rev. xx. 1.)

30. "He has rightly interpreted the character of the Judgement Day, "when the sheep and the goats shall be separated."

Mr. Biden thus seems to have a tolerably exalted opinion of his mission. Whether he has succeeded in convincing any other man of the legitimacy of his claims, we know not. Neither, we presume, will it be of much importance to inquire.