observed, seated closely opposite to me, a tall stout man, whose weather-beaten countenance betokened his occupation to be connected with the deep. At first there was in his demeanour an appearance of restlessness, as if the mind were ill at ease; by and bye, he sat calm and gazed full in my face, listening with eager avidity to the remarks made, while the tears stole fast and thick down his furrowed cheeks. His heart was evidently touched by the appeals made from the word of truth. From subsequent information, I understood his life had been of a hardened character, and of a careless cast. At the close of the service, contrary to his usual custom, he remained behind till the congregation had left the place. On coming up to me, he seized hold of my hand, and weeping like a child, said, "Good bye, sir, God Almighty bless and reward you for all your interest in us." Here we had hoped was an evidence of fruit first making its appearance. My companion, on our homeward journey, said, “Let us thank God and take courage."

It was one of those days early in the spring, when stormy weather generally prevailsa day more like summer than winter appeared. Nature seemed to smile, and the usually restless sea of the wide Atlantic, raging round our northern shores, was calm and unruffled-no breeze disturbed the surface of the waters. Stretching slowly on her homeward voyage, a large ship appeared an hour or two before the sun went down, and solicited, by her signal, the aid of a pilot. The boat was manned by five of my regular hearers, including him whose case I have introduced. The others were his two sons, brother, and brother-in-law. Allured by the mildness of the day, and making no allowance for the sudden change of weather peculiar at the season of the year, they hastily launched their small boat to reach the vessel.

Scarcely had they left the shore, when, as in a moment, the clear, unclouded sky gave indications of a rapid change. A small black cloud suddenly appeared and rapidly flew across the sky, and filled the air with intense coldness, accompanied with dismal darkness. As quickly rose the wind and waves, the rain descending in torrents. The aged mother of the subject of our tale, together with anxious relatives of the helpless crew, stood trembling on the sea-bound cliffs to see, if possible, how they fared. A momentary ray of light permitted them to see the boat struggling powerfully with the waves not far from the ship. Their hopes were raised that yet they might have reached the vessel. The darkness of night set in -the morning came; but no boat or her crew appeared. Fear was now predominant; still there was room for hope, as all might have got safe on board the ship.

The hope was not realised; as, when the raging storm had ceased, communication with the opposite shore revealed the sad, melancholy fact, that their boat was wrecked, and all on board had found a watery grave.

Having on the previous evening divided my subject into two parts, and taken up only the first, this narrative certainly furnished a solemn commentary on the great importance of being prepared to meet God in the hour of death.

Instead of meeting in our usual place, circumstances compelled us to meet in the open air; and there, under the wide canopy of heaven, I again addressed the words of eternal life, under feelings of a deeper responsibility than ever I felt before. There, in sight of that place which had, as in a moment, engulfed so many of my fellow immortals, I felt the importance and necessity of working while it is called to-day, for the night cometh in which no man can work. -Scottish Congregational Magazine.

REMARKS ON JOHN iii. 5.

EDITORIAL REMARKS.

Though at the farthest remove, we trust, from belief in editorial infallibility, yet we think our readers may wish for our views on a passage which has been discussed in three of our numbers, our own opinion not

quite coinciding with any one already expressed. That there is no allusion to baptism, on the one hand, and that baptism as a confession is the meaning, on the other, appear to us equally to come short of a natural interpretation of this much disputed passage. Calvin led the way in the first

interpretation, and has been followed by many evangelical commentators since; with him the water and the Spirit are identical; the latter explains the former; "water is nothing else than the inward purification and quickening of the Holy Spirit" (see his Commentary on John). Grotius took a substantially similar view, regarding the expression as an inverted hendiadys (expression of one thing through two), "the Spirit purifying as water;" he has, perhaps, shared with Calvin the vast majority of evangelical interpreters. The interpretation of a direct reference to baptism, dates, if we remember right, amongst commentators, from Chrysostom onwards to the present day. Of course, believers in baptismal regeneration are very strenuous for this view. Manning, who contends for its reference to the necessity of confessing Christ, takes, of course, quite different theological grounds, though he coincides critically with the interpretation of regenerationists.

Mr.

It would be out of place to enumerate all the varieties of explanation which comWe mentators have presented us with. agree most nearly with that of Tholuck, in his excellent little Commentary on John's Gospel, which well deserves translation. We think the basis of the expression is the contrast between John's baptism in water unto repentance, and Christ's baptism in the Holy Spirit which opened the eyes of believers to all the heart-quickening glories of the new covenant. We should bear in mind the Evangelist John's view of "the Spirit;" he did not regard it as necessary to repentance; John the Baptist had already successfully preached repentance and water baptism; yet John asserts (vii. 39), that "the Spirit was NOT YET given, because Jesus was not yet glorified." In the 1st chapter, too, he represents John the Baptist as teaching emphatically that he baptized in water, but that the Lamb of God was to baptize in the Holy Ghost (verses 26,31,33). Believing also, as we do, that Jewish prose-lyte baptism was then in use, and that Nicodemus must be well acquainted with that as a rite of initiation into the Jewish family, and, of course, with John's baptism as a rite of preparation to enter Messiah's kingdom (being himself probably baptized), let us consider the force of our Lord's expression under these circumstances.

In the preceding chapter, mention is made of some to whom Jesus could not commit himself, because "he knew what

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was in man." In contrast with these men, John proceeds, "But" (so in the original) "but there was a man," &c.; one to whom, though timid, or cautious at least, he could, as to a sincere enquirer, who would not, as the future showed, abuse his disclosing to him truths repugnant to the prejudices of a Jew, "commit himself." He announces, therefore, to this honest, but as yet unenlightened son of Abraham, that even he, a devout Jew, must be born again, to enter the kingdom of heaven! Nicodemus replies, as we may with Tholuck, I think, fairly paraphrase it, "Be born again! in the strict sense you cannot mean; how is it to be understood?" To which our Lord replies, that "except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." In continuing his answer, our Lord speaks so exclusively of the Spirit, as to make it quite clear that that word is the one on which he laid the stress. Now, we conceive that Nicodemus, acquainted certainly with John's baptism (and we think with proselyte baptism, too), would surely understand "the water as meaning that he, though a son of Abraham and a devout Pharisee, yet needed to enter the kingdom of God by an entire purification from past sins, and repentance for them, as much as proselytes, or the mass of the Jews to whom John preached. But this was not all. John's baptism in water unto repentance was, indeed, an indispensable negative preparation for the kingdom of heaven, but in regard to knowledge of the hitherto secret things of God, things which eye had not seen," &c. (1 Cor. ii. 9, 10),-things which God "had prepared for those that love him, but revealed unto them by his Spirit,”—in regard to these things, "the least in the kingdom of heaven was greater than John," the greatest of all who preceded its full revelation. That Spirit which was to be given after Christ was glorified, was indispensable to comprehending the glorious mysteries of the kingdom of God,-to animating the souls of believers with a "lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." We would therefore sum up our Lord's meaning in a paraphrase, thus: "You must be born again, not only of the water, by which purifying emblem proselytes from the Gentiles become Jews, or Jews avow themselves penitents, purified unto the coming of Messiah, but you will ́5 also need a new Spirit from on high, reno vating your whole inward man with a higher

1.

and divine life." We conceive, then, baptism (i.e. John's, for christian baptism was not then in existence) to be alluded to, and alluded to only,-that the words say nothing of the necessity of christian baptism,-that the expression "water" happily expressed to Nicodemus the most humbling and entire change of which a son of Abraham and a Pharisee could conceive,-and that thus the evangelical view of the new birth, as taught by this passage, is quite correct, while the natural allusion to that mode of

using water for purification, which stands almost alone in the New Testament, is not, passed by.

The same principle applies, we think, to the other noted passage, Titus iii. 5; he saved us through a washing (by bathing) of regeneration, not a mere ceremonial one, nor one of merely negative import, like John's baptism unto repentance; the Holy Spirit himself was that in which we were baptized, and which became unto us and in us the principle of a new life.

THE BRITISH CHURCHES IN RELATION TO THE BRITISH PEOPLE. BY EDWARD MIALL. 8vo. London: Arthur Hall and Co.

SECOND NOTICE.

We now come to the most striking parts of this impressive book. The three or four following chapters constitute, in our opinion, the value of the book. The last one, "on the Remedies," &c. the author has evidently pondered much less than the others; but we see nothing in it to raise such an outcry, even from those who are so sure that our ecclesiastical organizations and arrangements for worship are fac-similes of those of the New Testament. The 4th chapter, on the Aristocratical Sentiment, handles the subject with great prudence, faithfulness, and skill. It makes every allowance for the inevitable necessity of our closer intimacies and personal friendships being determined by similar social habits and mental tastes; while it points out accurately in what that Aristocratic Sentiment consists which is so diametrically opposed to the example of our Lord, to the spirit and reiterated precepts of his religion, and to the station of life which He honoured by his divinity, and in which He wrought his great work. The Aristocratic Sentiment Mr. M. finds in every class of British society, its simplest element being "value attached to man according to the circumstances of his worldly lot." Poor as well as rich are infected with it: and the effects of property in extenuating crimes, faults, and follies, and magnifying virtues; and of poverty, in the contrary direction, are admirably and truthfully pictured. The melancholy conformity of the church to the world, in this

respect, is forcibly stated; and the author justly observes, that the evil is so ingrained into British minds, that it is almost as impossible to awaken christians to its real absurdity and contrariety to christianity, as to make Americans sensible of the folly and sin of their anti-Negro aristocracy of skin. Its effects in casting the style of preaching into a mould little interesting to the illiterate, in ejecting from our pulpit addresses those denunciations of rich men's oppression and tyranny over the poor and needy, which abound so throughout the word of God; its retarding the hearty and practical acknowledgment of undeniable truths so long as "Respectability" stands aloof, and welcoming with zeal the same arguments if" a noble duke, a brace or two of lords, or even a distinguished baronet, patronize and advocate the unpopular doctrine;" its introducing class distinctions into the very arrangement of our pews, as if in intentional defiance of the remarkable passage in James-are mentioned with cautious abstinence from exaggeration, yet with great force and point, in illustration of its workings. It is shewn, we think with great truth, to have nullified incalculably the natural attractions of christianity for the many, and to have led them to regard what is really their best friend and ally, as belonging chiefly to the classes above them, and as a means of strengthening their ascendency. Mr. M. attributes much of the bitterness of the infidelity current so very extensively now amongst our operatives, to the workings of the Aristocratic Sentiment amongst christian professors. We quite agree with him. We have not room however to enlarge. This admirable lecture must be read and studied

to be justly appreciated. If we dissented more than we do from some lesser things in the book, we should not think ourselves justified in writing a word which might induce any to neglect a work which contained such chapters as this and the three following.

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The Professional Sentiment Mr. M. dwells upon, as it appears to us, with more earnestness than any other evil. Probably, having quitted the ministry for a secular engagement, and been severely censured by some for doing so, he has been led to observe more than many, that strange relic of popery amongst Dissenters which virtually or openly acknowledges a sacred order. We see and hear of far more of this mischievous Sentiment amongst our Independent brethren than amongst ourselves, though few will read Mr. M.'s able description of its insensibly deadening effects on the energy of church members, and on their sense of personal responsibility for the religious state of the neighbourhood around them, and on their proxy discharge of their duties to the unconverted, without a humbling conviction that they are not guiltless in this matter. His views of the constitution of New Testament churches, as having a plurality of elders, as not limiting the function of instruction to one person, nor incompatible with a minister's engaging in trade, and not being divided into separate churches in one city or locality, are, we suppose, in theory at least, common amongst Baptists; indeed, they have been briefly illustrated in earlier numbers of "The Church." Nor can it be denied, that if Episcopalians have departed from the primitive form by adding a 3rd class of church officers, we have also widely departed from it by reducing the "bishops" over each church to one. Neither is it easy for us to meet in argument that class of Episcopalians who rest their practice on expediency; since, if they use expediency in the way of addition, we employ it also in that of subtraction. Some minor things, such as pulpits, &c., Mr. M. may be thought to make too much of. Nor

do we see how he can shew us a more excellent way than enabling those who were to teach the Scriptures, to study, as Milton, whom he quotes, himself recommends, those languages in which it pleased the Spirit of God to give them. The difficulties he mentions in regard to our College system we have long felt, but think his substitute for it open to much graver objections. would, indeed, increase the requisitions of our church teachers many fold more, and instil into them earnestly, that their usefulness and standing in the church ought to be proportioned to their preparatory efforts to qualify themselves for its service, combined with the use which they make of their attainments.

We

We are not forgetting Mr. M.'s "debating school for training church teachers;" but this, with other topics, we must advert to at another time.

SOPHOCLES. A Prose Translation. Bohn's Classical Library.

Translations from a foreign tongue, whether living or dead, should, we apprehend, always be as literal as is consistent with the different idioms of the two languages. It has generally been considered necessary that a poetical work should have a poetical translation; but in such a case, the sense must, to a greater or less extent, be sacrificed to sound, to the necessity of the rhyme or the metre. Pope's "Iliad," for instance, is a very fine poem, but very different from Homer's; and the latter remark somewhat qualified applies to Cowper's also. Hence we welcome translations on the plan of the one before us, with which Mr. Bohn has enriched his "Classical Library." It is well printed, on good paper, under the able editorship of Mr. Buckley, who has diligently revised the standard Oxford translation,-rendering it still more literal, removing some of the many obscurities in the Choruses, prefixing an Introduction and Arguments, and considerably augmenting the Notes. Sophocles may now become familiar to the general reader.

TRUE GREATNESS.

"I was quite surprised," said Elizabeth, as with her mother she was returning homewards, after a call which they had been

making in a neighbouring village; "I was quite surprised to find that Miss Myles lived in so small a house. Ithought we were going to a beautiful place, like the Hartlands'."

"I did not say so, my dear," quietly returned Mrs. Owen.

"No, mother; but I expected it, because I have heard that Miss Myles has a great deal of money to spend as she pleases; and, of course, I supposed she would have lived in a very nice house."

"You are difficult to please," said Mrs. Owen, with a smile. "I think that Miss Myles's cottage is remarkably pretty, besides being in a most delightful situation."

"Oh, yes!" answered Elizabeth, "it is very well for a cottage; but I thought there would be spacious grounds, and a handsome entrance. Then did you notice how plainly she was dressed ?"

"I must confess," said Mrs. Owen, "that I did not observe Miss Myles's dress so particularly as you seem to have done; but I was much struck with the neatness and pleasing simplicity of her appearance."

"She looked like a lady, certainly," said Elizabeth; "but still, mother, do you not think, that if she has so much money, she might live in a larger house, and have more expensive furniture, and wear better clothes ?"

"I do not think," replied Mrs. Owen, "that Miss Myles is rich enough to purchase these things, without giving up other objects which she regards as much more important."

"What objects do you mean, mother?" "Miss Myles is very kind and charitable, and does much good among the poor people of the village, many of whom look to her as their best earthly friend. She is also a liberal supporter of several benevolent institutions, both for our own country and for distant lands. All this could not be done with her income, if she were to indulge in needless luxuries."

"Then, mother, do you think it wrong to live in a house like the Hartlands', and to have carriages and servants, and beautiful gardens, and all other delightful things as they have?"

Certainly not, my dear; provided such is the station in life which God has appointed to an individual, and if the claims of duty are carefully attended to, and the poor remembered and assisted as they ought to be. Provided also, I should add, that the heart is not set upon these earthly possessions, nor the soul endangered by love of the world and forgetfulness of God. But I will try, my dear, if I can reconcile you to Miss M.'s small house and simple attire. And here," continued Mrs. Owen, stopping to (

tap at a cottage door, "I may, perhaps, obtain some assistance towards this end from a person whom I have known for many years."

They entered and found a poor woman, evidently very ill, but sitting in an easy armchair by the fire, propped up with pillows, and with many tokens of humble comfort around her. On the other side of the fireplace was a young girl, busy at her needle. The house was clean; and there was an open Bible lying, with a few tracts, upon the table.

After a little conversation, during which it appeared that the sick woman, though greatly afflicted, was in possession of that "good hope through grace," which makes all earthly sorrows light, Mrs. Owen purposely mentioned the name of Miss Myles. Immediately the poor woman's countenance brightened with an expression of gratitude and pleasure. She spoke of her as the kind friend who had first told her of a Saviour, had read to her of his dying love, and prayed that she might be a partaker of his pardoning mercy. It was Miss Myles, too, who had provided her with a comfortable lodging in the abode of pious cottagers; and who, now that her last days were approaching, had sent for her daughter from a distant service, to wait upon her and supply all her wants. Ever since the time when she was left a distressed and ailing widow, with a young family dependent upon her for support, Miss Myles had pitied and befriended her. "The Lord alone can reward her," said the poor woman, "for all that she has done for me and mine." After some further conversation, it became time for Elizabeth and her mother to leave the cottage.

Mrs. Owen perceived that an impression had been made upon her daughter's mind; but before Elizabeth could remark upon what she had heard, they again stopped at a little low-roofed building, and lifting the latch, the door opened, and several rows of smiling, healthy-looking children met their sight. It was the village school, established and supported by Miss Myles, who gave to it, not only money, but a considerable portion of her time and attention.

Elizabeth looked at the work of the little needle-women, and examined their copybooks and their sums. Some of the older girls then read a portion of Scripture, upon which they were afterwards questioned by the governess, and their answers showed that they had been carefully instructed in