then, it is said that the sinner who believes in Christ is justified by faith and not by works, there is no abrogation of the law by the Gospel of grace. There is merely something done by the Gospel, in respect to the sinner, which the law from its very nature was unable to do. Again, when it is said that believers in Christ are enabled to overcome the power of sin, and to serve God in newness of spirit, because they have become dead to the law through union with Christ, there is in reality no divesting of the law of any power which it had; but there is, as we have said, a deliverance effected by grace which it was not possible for the law to effect. Hence, if a sinner through ignorance or pride of heart is looking to the moral law for his justification and sanctification-if he imagines that by such partial obedience as he may be able to render to the requirements of the law he can secure acceptance with God, and also attain unto that holiness without which no man can see the Lord—such a person is only deceiving himself; and when he comes to a correct view of his own condition, and of the law and of the Gospel, he will be convinced that he must not look to the law for what it cannot do, but that if he would be saved, he must look entirely to the grace revealed in the Gospel-that he must die, in short, to the law, whether for his justification or his sanctification, and place all his confidence in Him who died and rose again, and through union with whom alone he can be either justified or sanctified. And yet there is no abolition of the law. It ever comes into operation in its proper place. It is ever the authoritative rule of that

righteousness to which the believer in Christ must strive to attain."

6

After reviewing other passages in Galatians and Hebrews, Dr. MacPherson says: "Most true is it, as Whately says, that the Gospel places morality on higher grounds;' for the Gospel reveals to us that love of God. in Christ which was only darkly intimated under preparatory dispensa

tions. But we must not confound the motives by which the law is enforced with the law itself; and it seems to be such a confounding of things which are distinct, that has operated as one cause at least of the erroneous opinion that the Gospel has abolished the law. We conclude, then, this momentous part of our subject in the memorable words of that Apostle to whose writings the appeal has been generally made in support of the opinion which we have been endeavouring to controvert: Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law' (Rom. iii. 31)."

We only add that while the pamphlet before us has originated in the recent agitation of this question in Scotland, its author makes no direct reference to that agitation, and does. not even name his distinguished brother, Dr. Macleod. He pursues

his argument calmly and dispassionately, apart from all local or temporary circumstances, as becomes a professor of Systematic Theology. Most heartily do we adopt his concluding words:-"We cannot refrain from expressing here the profound conviction which we entertain, and which we believe to be justified by the history both of individual Christians and of Christian communities, that our own spiritual welfare and that of every Christian Church depends, to a great

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Well, your father and I had some excuse, because we were out late last night; you ought to have been up full three hours ago, and to have been all ready, with your lessons learned. Now, what do you suppose you shall do ? "

"O, mother, do let us stay at home this one morning; we don't know the lesson, and it won't do any good for us to go."

"No, indeed, I shall not. You must go and get along as well as you can. It is all your own fault. Now, go up stairs and hurry. We shall not find time for prayers this morning."

These words struck rather unpleasantly on Mrs. Roberts's conscience, for something told her that, whatever the reason might be, it was just so. On Sunday everything was later and more irregular than any other day in the week.

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Hannah, you must boil that piece of beef for dinner to-day."

"I thought you told me you did not have cooking done on Sunday."

"No, I do not, generally. I am very sorry Mr. Roberts would get that piece of meat yesterday. We did not need it; but here it is on our hands; the weather is too hot to keep it. It won't do to let it spoil; so I must have it boiled, for aught I see."

Hannah had lived four Sabbaths with Mrs. Roberts, and on two of them she had been required to cook from similar reasoning. "For once is apt, in such cases, to become a phrase of very extensive signification.

"It really worries me to have things go on so as they do on Sundays," said Mrs. Roberts to her husband. 66 I never do feel as if we kept Sunday as we ought."

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My, dear, you have been saying so ever since we were married, and I do not see what you are going to do about it. For my part I do not see why we do not do as well as people in general. We do not visit, nor receive company, nor read improper books. We go to church, and send the children to Sunday-school, and so the greater part of the day is spent in a religious way. Then out of church we have the children's Sunday-school books, and one or two religious newspapers. I think that is quite enough."

"But somehow, when I was a child, my mother—” said Mrs. Roberts,

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O, my dear, your mother must not be considered an exact pattern for these days. People were too strict in your mother's time; they carried the thing too far, altogether; everybody allows it now."

Mrs. Roberts was silenced, but not satisfied. A strict religious education had left just conscience enough on this subject to make her uneasy.

These worthy people had a sort of general idea that Sunday ought to be kept, and they intended to keep it; but they had never taken the trouble to investigate or inquire as to the most proper way, nor was it so much an object of interest that their weekly arrangements were planned with any reference to it. Mr. Roberts would often engage in business at the close of the week, which he knew would so fatigue him that he would be weary and listless on Sunday; and Mrs. Roberts would allow her family cares to accumulate in the same way, so that she was either wearied with efforts to accomplish it before the Sabbath, or perplexed and worried by finding every thing at loose ends on that day. They had the idea that Sunday was to be kept when it was perfectly convenient, and did not demand any sacrifice of time or money. But if stopping to keep the Sabbath in a

journey would risk passage-money or a seat in the stage, or, in housekeeping, if it would involve any considerable inconvenience or expense, it was deemed a providential intimation that it was 66 a work of necessity and mercy" to attend to secular matters. To their minds the fourth command read thus: "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy when it comes convenient, and costs neither time nor money."

As to the effects of this on the children, there was neither enough of strictness to make them respect the Sabbath, nor of religious interest to make them love it; of course, the little restraint there was, proved just enough to lead them to dislike and despise it. Children soon perceive the course of their parents' feelings, and it was evident enough to the children of this family that their father and mother generally found themselves hurried into the Sabbath with hearts and minds full of this world, and their conversation and thoughts were so constantly turning to worldly things, and so awkwardly drawn back by a sense of religious obligation, that the Sabbath appeared more obviously a clog and a fetter than it did under the strictest régime of Puritan days.

on which I was to enter on the public work of the ministry in a town in one of the midland counties. The exigencies of the congregation were such that they admitted of no delay on my part, so that I had, without any intermission, to leave the comparative seclusion of

college life for the active duties of a Christian minister, in a sphere beset with no common difficulties. With hope and fear alternating, I reached my future home on a dark November day. Wisely and well had the deacons of the church arranged to make the following "a preparation day." Among their plans was that of a "prayer-meeting," to be held in the school-room in the evening, that the guidance and blessing of God might be sought on their young and inexperienced minister. In imagination I can live over again that hour, and realise the scene I gazed on in that room, as well as call to remembrance some of the petitions then offered, which I would fain hope have in some degree been granted. Of the individuals present many have "fallen asleep," but some "remain unto this day." Among them two especially attracted my notice, and rivetted my gaze -the one a middle-aged, intelligent lady, whose very countenance I thought shone as Moses' did when he came down from the mount, which impression after experience only deepened; and the other, an aged man, tall and thin, and meanly clad in the garb of a village labourer, with a speckled worsted cap or wig, drawn half over his manly but furrowed brow-this was "Old Richard."

The following morning, as from the sacred desk I looked around upon my auditory, the same two upturned faces greeted me, and I thought I could read in them an intimation that they had brought from the throne of grace for me pledges that the Master of Assemblies would be present. With that conviction, and believing that I realised what I anticipated, I opened my commission. Oh! how precious to the preacher of the Gospel is the consciousness that his hearers have had an audience with the "King Eternal" ere they come to constitute His audience. That consciousness never failed to possess me as I looked, and saw the beam

VOL. II.-NEW SERIES.

ing countenance of that invalid lady as she reclined in her pew, or "Old Richard's" earnest gaze from the “free seat" immediately under the pulpit.

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But I soon missed my old and attentive hearer. On making inquiry, I found that his aged partner had become too infirm to admit of her being left alone whilst he walked a distance of two miles, attended the morning service, and with slow and weary step returned to his village home. During the three or four years that followed, many a pleasant and profitable visit was made to Old Richard's" cottage. Great was the benefit derived from his Christian experience, and common sense, shrewd, and racy remarks in conversation, or during the reading of God's Word. Often would he smooth his furrowed cheeks with both hands, or, placing the palms of them together, thrust them between his legs, as if to give emphasis to what he was about to say, and then, with a bright and beaming countenance, exclaim-perhaps in the middle of a verse "There isn't that grand!" Here I may remark that he could not read, and did not even know the letters of the alphabet, although he knew almost the whole of the Gospels by heart, and much of the Epistles, could repeat the Psalms from memory, and many choice passages in the Prophets; so that he was able to compare spiritual things with spiritual," and frequently trace the prophecy to its fulfilment, the type to the antitype. The hymns of Watts and Wesley were great favourites, and you could not gratify him better than by listening to his recital of some of the more beautiful of them, and to his description of sermons he had heard, years ago, from the great preachers of the day, who I believe would have recognised in those descriptions verbatim paragraphs from their discourses. When brought to a knowledge of the truth, his anxious desire was to know the will of God, and for this purpose he frequently stopped the children returning from school, or

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