the place and the proportion which is given to it in the inspired volume.

The subject divides itself into two parts-salvation in its purpose, and salvation in its accomplishment.

I. Salvation in its purpose. This chiefly regards the Almighty Father. The fact and the cause are both matter of revelation, and must for ever have been a secret, but for such revelation. The fact of choice is intimated to us in a great variety of phraseology. The cause is also made known, if not so frequently, yet not less certainly. Of this cause there are two explanations: one maintains that though the election precedes repentance and faith, these are the conditions on which it hath pleased God to elect men. He chose them because he foresaw that they would do so: the other maintains, that on the contrary, it is of his mere good pleasure that he elected his saints; and that as elect he gives them, at the appointed time, repentance towards himself, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, as a part of the system of means, which his wisdom has appointed for the accomplishment of the end to which they are elected. It need hardly be said, which of these views are those held by the Writers in this Magazine. They most firmly believe, that this choice was from eternity; and that it had no other cause than the sovereign pleasure of God, -that his decree comprehended the great end, and all the means which led to its accomplishment; so that repentance, faith, and the graces of the Spirit, are not the foreseen cause of the decree but the effect of it, or a part of its accomplishment. All that enters into the affair of salvation is a part of the Divine plan. He has determined both the end and the means; and those means are under his control; he reserves the blessing which leads to repentance and faith, in his own hand, and thus all things are of God, who "worketh in his saints both to will and to do of his good pleasure." Let us now look at

II. Salvation in its accomplishment. In this there is a mixed instrumentality. We find that the thing itself, originating with God the Father, must be traced from eternity till we reach the region of time, and then appear two other persons of the Godheadthe Son and the Holy Spirit. "The sanctification of the Spirit" is a phrase which means the whole work of the

Spirit, from the regeneration of the soul and upwards till it be arrayed in all the beauties of holiness. It signifies the complete renovation of the whole man, the end to which every thing else is but the means. It is a restoration to the image, love, and service of God. The "sprinkling of the blood of Christ is an expression most significant of the atonement made by the Lamb of God. The idea is derived from the right of legal purification by sprinkling of sacrificial blood. This rite of sprinkling with blood points to the blood of our Lord, as the only ransom of souls. This sprinkling served two purposes-to expiate guilt, and to cleanse the soul from its defilement. "The wages of sin is death," so that here we have death for death. The medicine for soul disease is the blood that was shed in death. The death of Christ made atonement for our guilt, and his blood cleanses from all sin. This guilt and that sin cleave to the whole human family. This woful leprosy is not an outward but an inward spot; and as the outward leprosy was purified by the effusion of blood, so is this of the soul. Christ, our Great High Priest, at once intercedes and satisfies. This satisfaction he made by his death; but that he may purge us, his blood must be applied; and hence it is declared, that it must be sprinkled. "So," saith the prophet, "shall he sprinkle many nations." This teaches us how deep-rooted depravity is in the soul. Men are not easily to be convinced of this; and so we may account for the diversified reception with which the Gospel meets. “There is a generation pure in their own eyes; they despise the blood of Christ, while they profess a reverence for his laws. But David says, "Wash me, purge me with hyssop." The robes of the saints are "washed in the blood of the Lamb." This blood of Christ is that which purges the conscience from dead works to serve the living God. If, then, this blood be of such value, and if it be a gift, what shall we think of the Giver? The blood of one body to be sufficient for unnumbered millions! How dignified the person of Jesus Christ! How high his claims to our homage and our service!

The right contemplation of this glorious doctrine fills the heart with love to God the Father, for the love he hath bestowed upon us. Here we are

taught the eternity of his love-its sovereignty-its wholly unmerited character, as well as its unchangeableness. The reason of the choice was wholly in himself, so that no man may glory in his sight. He was graciously pleased to ordain a portion of his creatures to eternal life. These he foreknew; this is the first link of the chain. He has determined to bring them to heaven: this is the last. Effectual calling is the middle link. The two extreme links are in God's hand in heaven-the middle is let down into the hearts of men, and thus it is that God and man, earth and heaven are united.

But if the doctrine prompts to the love of the Father, not less so does it to the love of the Saviour. The love of the Father, Son, and Spirit, properly speaking, may not be viewed separately as their object is one, so is their essence. "We love God," says John, "because he first loved us.' The end of the Gospel, with everything therewith connected, is, to produce this love; and this love is the source of all that the Gospel requires. Praise, thanks, adoration, service, consecration, the dedication of soul, body, and spirit, of all we have and are, is, simply, the offspring of this love. On the part of God, therefore, the Gospel presents a unity towards man, and on the part of man a unity towards God. We cannot preserve too great a simplicity in our views on this subjectsimplicity of faith, simplicity of experience, and simplicity of dedication. Nov. 1855. APOSTOLICUS.

GOD ACKNOWLEDGING HIS
PEOPLE.

It seems strange that the wicked should glory in that which constitutes their shame; and that the righteous should be ashamed of that which constitutes their glory! Yet so it is. We believe at this moment-if the matter could be sifted by actual appeal-that there is incalculably more shame endured by the people of God in doing good, than on the part of the world in doing evil! This was the case at an early day; and hence the Lord himself, in his own personal ministrations, makes particular provision for conquering the emotion of shame in the breast of his people, by pointing out the special danger which would follow therefrom, and the penalty which he would attach to it. We find Paul declaring, in his epistle to

the Romans, that he was "not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ," a circumstance which clearly implies, that there was something about it which tended to engender shame. He also states, that while his devoted friend from a distance came from Rome, he "sought" him out with diligence, and was "not ashamed of his chain." Let us for a moment look into this subject.

The origin of the Gospel is attended with circumstances calculated to excite shame in the heart of the natural man, and even in hearts where grace is still but imperfectly developed. Christ was pure, and so were his Apostles. Christ was ultimately despised and persecuted, and at length slain. Thus, too, it was with his Apostles, and, to a considerable extent, with their first converts. Their adherents consisted largely of the poor, and, whether poor or rich, all true penitents were deemed demented; and they "who turned from iniquity were accounted mad; and made themselves a prey to the persecutor. The assumptions of the Gospel were so derogatory to the pride of man, and its doctrines so humiliating, that they were intolerable to the natural taste. At an early period, too, so deeply, and at length diabolically, perverted was the Gospel of Christ, and so iniquitous the admixtures which were connected with it, that the reasons for shame were indefinitely multiplied. This ground of shame still exists both at home and abroad. Much is called Christianity which is essentially antichristian; and true Christians have to bear the brunt of the indignation and the scorn of natural reason, which rises against the idea of such a system coming from the God of truth and righteousness.

There are circumstances connected with the profession of the Gospel also, which materially subject Christians to contempt. It is deemed hostile to patriotism. Christians are pusillanimous, because they breathe a spirit the reverse of the spirit which is idolised amongst men, a spirit of revenge and destruction! It is deemed at variance with personal bravery, while bravery is the idol of the unrenewed heart. Christian holds it better to forgive an offence, than to punish it; and this "gentlemen" and the world consider mere cowardice-base poltroonery! It is further represented as destructive to friendship and society, because Christians recoil from the friendship of

The

'this world, and eschew its cherished pleasures. It is in various other respects viewed as abhorrent to human welfare, to the dignity of the individual, and the honour of the state. Hence politicians, and warriors, and philosophers all unite to frown upon it. These frowns, for the most part, however, are far away, and could be borne with tolerable equanimity. But proud and ungodly parents blush for the altered state of their converted sons and daughters, whom they sometimes expel from under the parental roof, and even disinherit of their share in the parental estate. Husbands, proud and impious, are ashamed of their wives-wives sometimes of their husbands; and the results are alienation, cruelty, persecution, and occasional separation. The same spirit descends to sisters, and brothers, and other relations. These are the quarters in which shame is most intensely felt, and most painful to bear. A. P. Y.

AGONY ON BEHALF OF LOST
SOULS.

THE great and glorious Head of the church, looking forward to the redemption of his people, said, "I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened until it be accomplished!" What words are these! What a combination of zeal and love, desire and pity they indicate. Paul, ever true to his Master, represents himself as "travailing in birth" for the Galatians until Christ was found in them. In these two facts, then, we have illustrated the idea of agony on behalf of lost souls. In proportion as men have drunk into the spirit of their Master, they will feel the same longing desire, and pour out their hearts within them for a descent of the power which can alone extricate the lost. The literature of the church in our own land abundantly exemplifies the presence and operation of this spirit in the breasts of men "of whom the world was not worthy,"-men that were the lights of the times in which they lived. The following are examples :

It is said of the learned John Smith, "that he had resolved very much to lay aside other studies, and to travail in the salvation of men's souls, after whose good he most earnestly thirsted." Alleine, author of the "Alarm to Unconverted Sinners," it is said that "he was infinitely and insatiably greedy of

Of

the conversion of souls; and to this end he poured out his very heart in prayer and preaching." Bunyan said, "In my preaching I could not be satisfied, unless some fruits did appear in my work."

"I would think it a greater happiness," said Matthew Henry, "to gain one soul to Christ, than mountains of silver and gold to myself. If I do not gain souls, I shall enjoy all other gains with very little satisfaction, and I would rather beg my bread from door to door than undertake this great work."

Doddridge, writing to a friend, remarked, "I long for the conversion of souls more sensibly than for anything besides. Methinks I could not only labour, but die for it with pleasure."

Similar is the death-bed testimony of the sainted Brown, of Haddington: "Now, after near forty years' preaching of Christ, I think I would rather beg my bread all the labouring days of the week, for an opportunity of publishing the Gospel on the Sabbath, than, without such a privilege, to enjoy the richest possessions on earth. Oh, labour, labour," said he to his sons, "to win souls to Christ."

Rutherford could assure his flock that they were the object of his tears, cares, fears, and daily prayers; that he laboured among them early and late.

Fleming, in his "Fulfilment of Scripture," mentions one John Welch, " often in the coldest winter nights rising for prayer, found weeping on the ground, and wrestling with the Lord on account of his people, and saying to his wife, when she pressed him for an explanation of his distress, "I have the souls of three thousand to answer for, while I know not how it is with many of them."

Brainerd could say of himself, on more than one occasion, "I cared not where or how I lived, or what hardships I went through, so that I could but gain souls to Christ. While I was asleep, I dreamed of these things; and when I waked, the first thing I thought of was this great work. All my desire was for the conversion of the heathen, and all my hope was in God."

Such, we conceive, is the spirit in which the Gospel of mercy ought to be dispensed by parents, heads of families, Christian Instruction Visitors, Sunday School Teachers, Pastors, and Missionaries; and so dispensed, it will not fail, in the end, to prove the power of God to salvation.

SELF-BURDENING.

There is something very appalling in the thought that Britain expends, every year, fifty millions of money on intoxicating drink. We often complain of our high taxation, and we often grow nervous at the thought of our enormous national debt. But here is a tax for which we cannot blame our rulers-a tax self-imposed and self-levied-a tax for which we can only blame ourselves-a tax which would pay the interest of our national debt twice over-and a tax as large as the revenue of these United Kingdoms. We thought it a great sum to pay in order to give the slave his freedom-we thought the twenty millions given to the West India proprietors a mighty sacrifice; and certainly it was the noblest tribute any nation ever paid to the cause of philanthropy ;-but large as it looks, half a year of national abstinence would have paid it all... But tremendous as are the fifty millions which, as a people, we yearly engulph in strong drink, the thought which afflicts and appals us is, that this terrible impost is mainly a tax on the working man. The lamentation is, that many a working man will spend in liquor as much money as, had he saved it, would this year have furnished a room, and next year would have bought a beautiful library; as much money as would secure a splendid education for every child, or in a few years would have made him a landlord instead of a tenant. Why, my friends, it would set our blood boiling if we heard that the Turkish Sultan taxed his subjects in the style that our British workmen tax themselves. It would bring the days of Wat Tyler back again; nay, it would create another Hampden, and conjure up a second Cromwell, did the Exchequer try to raise the impost which our publicans levy, and our labourers and artisans cheerfully pay. But is it not a fearful infatuation? Is it not our national madness, to spend so much wealth in shattering our nerves, and exploding our characters, and in ruining our souls? Many workmen, I rejoice to know, have been reclaimed by teetotalism ; and many have been preserved by timely religion. In whatever way a man is saved from that horrible vice, which is at once the destruction of the body and damnation of the soul, therein do I rejoice, and will rejoice. Only you cannot be a Christian without being a sober man, and the more of God's grace you get, the easier you will find it to vanquish this most terrible of the working man's temptations.-Hamilton's Happy Home.

THE DEW DROPS.

Let us attend for a moment to the cause of this descent of the dew, and to the way in which it seems to select, as it were, the spots on which it will fall. All bodies on the surface of the earth radiate, or throw out rays of heat in straight lines-every warmer body to every colder-and the whole earth itself is continually sending rays of heat upwards

through the clear air into free, cold space. Thus, on the earth's surface all bodies strive, as it were, after an equality of temperature (an equilibrium of heat), while the surface as a whole tends gradually towards a cooler state. But while the sun shines on any spot this cooling will not take place, for the surface there receives for the time more heat than it gives off; and, when the sun goes down, if the clear sky be shut out by a canopy of clouds, these will arrest and again throw back to the earth a portion of the heat which escapes by radiation, and will thus prevent it from being dissipated. At night, then, when the sun is absent, the earth will cool the most-on clear nights also more than when it is cloudy; and when clouds only partially obscure the sky, those parts will become coolest which look towards the clearest portions of the heavens. Again, the quantity of vapour which the air is capable of holding in suspension is dependent upon its temperature. At high temperatures, in warm climates, or in warm weather, it can sustain more-at low temperatures, or in cold weather, less. Hence, when a current of comparatively warm air, loaded with moisture, ascends to, or comes in contact with, a cold mountain top, it is cooled down, is rendered incapable of holding the whole of the vapour in suspension, and therefore leaves behind, in the form of a mist or cloud encapping the lofty summit, a portion of its watery burden. The aqueous particles which float in this mist appear again on the plains below, in the form of streams or springs, which bring nourishment at once, and a grateful relief to the thirsty soil. So, when the surface cools by radiation, the air in contact with it must cool also; and, like the warm currents on the mountain side, must forsake a portion of the watery vapour it has hitherto retained. This water, like the floating mist on the hills, descends in particles almost infinitely minute. These particles collect on every leaflet, and suspend themselves from every blade of grass in drops of "pearly dew."-Professor Johnston's Chemistry of Common Life.

SLIGHT CIRCUMSTANCES.

Sir Walter Scott, walking one day along the banks of the Yarrow, where Mungo Park was born, saw the traveller throwing stones into the water, and anxiously watching the bubbles that succeeded. Scott inquired the object of his occupation. "I was thinking," answered Park, "how often I had thus tried to sound the rivers in Africa, by calculating how long a time had elapsed before the bubbles rose to the surface." It was a slight circumstance, but the traveller's safety frequently depended upon it. In a watch the mainspring forms a small portion of the works, but it impels and governs the whole. So it is in the machinery of human life, a slight circumstance is permitted by the Divine Ruler to derange or alter it; a giant is killed by a pebble, a girl at the door of an inn changes the fortune of an empire. "If the nose of Cleopatra had been shorter," said

Pascal, in his epigrammatic and brilliant manner, "the condition of the world would have been different." The Mahommedans have a tradition, that when their prophet concealed himself in Mount Shur, his pursuers were deceived by a spider's web which covered the mouth of the cave. Luther might have been a lawyer, had his friend and companion escaped the thunderstorm at Erfurt; Scotland had wanted her stern reformer if the appeal of the preacher had not startled him in the chapter of St. Andrew's Castle; and if Mr. Grenville had not carried, in 1746, his memorable resolution as to the expediency of charging "certain stamp duties" on the plantations in America, the western world might still have bowed to the British sceptre, Cowley might ever have been a poet, if he had not found the" Faery Queen" in his mother's parlour; Opie might have perished in mute obscurity, if he had not looked over the shoulder of his young companion, Mark Otes, while he was drawing a butterfly; Giotto, one of the early Florentine painters, might have continued a rude shepherd boy, if a sheep drawn by him had not attracted the attention of Cimabue as he went that way.-Asiatic Journal.

PROVIDENCE AND POLITICS.

To punish a guilty nation, the inhabitants need only be left to themselves, and they will soon be set against one another, "Every one against his brother, or his neighbour, city against city, and province against province." Thus the righteous Lord weakens and destroys the counsel of offending nations; and their foolish expedients for deliverance involve them in still deeper guilt and misery. When collective bodies are thus divided among themselves, and either struggling for power, or aiming to preserve or recover their liberties, without regard to God, he often gives them into the hands of some foreign power, which rules over them, as a cruel lord and a fierce king: so that the true friends of civil liberty should begin by seeking the Lord's favour, and liberty from the bondage of sin. He can soon cut off those sources of national wealth and prosperity, which are looked upon as most certain; and whilst kings and nobles are forming and executing their infatuated projects to aggrandise themselves, the poor are often deprived of employment and subsistence.

But he leaves rulers to be actuated by a perverse spirit, and to bring public affairs to the utmost confusion and contempt, in order to punish the lower order also for their transgressions, and every view of this subject proves that "righteousness exalteth a nation, but that sin is the reproach of any people," and that invasions, civil wars, and the decay of trade, and the want of employment for the poor, are calls from God to national repentance and reformation!Thomas Scott.

OBJECT OF EMBALMING IN

EGYPT IN ANCIENT TIMES.

A French chemist, M. Jules Fontenelle, in a discourse pronounced on occasion of the opening of an Egyptian mummy in the amphitheatre of the Sorbonne at Paris, has delivered an opinion respecting the cause of

embalming in Egypt, that the Egyptians were led to it from physical necessity. During four months of every year the inundations of the Nile cover almost entirely the whole surface of Egypt, which is under cultivation. Under the reign of Sesostris, for an extent of territory of about 2,250 square leagues, according to D'Anville, there would be a population of 6,222 persons per square league, which would present 350,000 deaths per annum. These corpses must be gotten rid of either by burning or by interment. If by the latter, they must be buried around the inhabited spots, or in those which were inundated by the Nile, and then the decomposition of those bodies would have been a source of destruction; and for burning there was an insufficiency of wood. But the soil of Egypt abounds in springs of natron (subcarbonate of soda); and as this substance is perfectly antiseptic, the inhabitants were naturally led to preserve with it the corpses of the dead. In support of the opinion that sanitary views were the cause of embalming down to the third century before the Christian era, when the practice was abandoned, M. Fontenelle observes, that during the whole of that period the plague was unknown in Egypt, where it is now endemic.

"WHAT IS THE STATE OF YOUR SOUL, MY FRIEND?"

One day, as Felix Neff was walking in a street in the city of Lausanne, he saw, at a distance, a man whom he took for one of his friends. He ran up behind him, tapped him on the shoulder before looking in his face, and asked him, "What is the state of your soul, my friend?" The stranger turned; Neff perceived his error, apologised, and went his way. About three or four years after, a person came to Neff, and accosted him, saying he was indebted to him for his inestimable kindness. Neff did not recognise the man, and begged he would explain. The stranger replied, "Have you forgotten an unknown person whose shoulder you touched in a street in Lausanne, and asked him, 'How do you find your soul?' It was I; your question led me to serious reflection, and now I find it is well with my soul." This proves what apparently small means may be blessed of God for the conversion of sinners, and how many opportunities for doing good we are continually letting slip, and which thus pass irrecoverably beyond our reach. One of the questions which every Christian should propose to himself on setting out on a journey 18, "What opportunities shall I have to do good?" And one of the points on which he should examine himself on his return is, "What opportunities have I lost?"-James.

ANIMAL SUICIDES.

It is related in the travels of Monsieur Violet, the truth of which is avouched by Captain Marryatt, that he saw horses that had been tyrannised over by other horses, and treated by the whole herd as outcasts, commit suicide. When tired of their pariah life they walk round and round some large tree, as if to ascertain the degree of hardness required, measure their distance, and, darting with