it debased and paganized by the corruptions of the Romish apostasy.

Thus, then, it appears that it would be difficult to point out among the nations of the known world, in the time of our Lord, any who could more emphatically be said to be "last" than were our predecessors and ancestors of that age, in the opportunity or probability of enjoying the blessings of the Gospel. They were last, as farthest in space-last, as lowest in the social scale-last, as people known only to be despised, and hated, and feared-last, as worst in the character of their worship and religion.

But now, have not the last become first? Without arrogating to ourselves a secular pre-eminence among the nations of the world, which however could be disputed by one nation alone, or by others in favour of that one, we may confidently assert that no nation possesses, or ever has possessed, such a combination of all things that make a people powerful and great. Put together our widely-extended dominion, our military and naval resources, with our success in war, the magnitude and universality of our commerce, our manufactures, our arts, our literature, our constitution, and our civil and religious liberty, and it will clearly appear that, since in some of these elements of national dignity we are confessedly superior to all the rest of the world, and in none of them far inferior to any, we occupy a position, among all nations of former times and the present, which, if it be not the very first, is certainly second to none. Nor can any people venture to claim precedence over us in regard to religion. The Word of God, the pure Gospel of Christ, has for a long time had free course among us, and is abundantly glorified. Multitudes of devout worshippers throng the Christian temples of our land, and the proportion of those who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, and exemplify that love in their lives and character, to the whole number of professing Christians, is perhaps greater than in any other country. The vitality, and power, and prevalence of the true Spirit of the Gospel among us are testified by the countless noble institutions, directly religious in their object, or Christian in principle, which are the glory of our age. Blessed with unprecedented opportunities and advantages for the propagation of our holy religion among mankind, we have availed ourselves of them, if not to the utmost, yet to an extent far beyond that which has been attained, or is attainable, by any other people. Our colonies plant Christianity in the remotest, and those which are destined to become the most populous, regions of the world; our missionaries, by hundreds, proclaim the Gospel of the Redeemer among the heathen; our united efforts as a Christian people circulate annually more than three

million copies of the Holy Scriptures, the oracles of God, in nearly all the languages of the human race. What nation, rather than our own, can at the present day claim the high privilege, and accept the heavy responsibility, of being first in the kingdom of God?

And now it becomes a very momentous question of inquiry— Must this state of exaltation and pre-eminence be necessarily perpetual? Is there no probability, or danger, that the dignity to which we have attained, the privileges which we enjoy, the trust with which we have been invested, may be lost or withdrawn? There are certainly not wanting very significant indications of a Divine intention to make our nation and race the chief instrument in diffusing the highest blessings-material, social, civil, and religious-over the whole world; and we have good reason to believe that the improved opinions and principles which are prevalent among our statesmen and legislators, the enlightened and successful efforts of our philanthropists, the widening and deepening interest in the subject of religion, the increasing zeal and efficiency of religious teaching in all Christian communions, and the general advance of society, notwithstanding many drawbacks and encumbrances, all tend to qualify us more and more for our great mission. And this mission we cannot execute unless our position in the world and in the Church be maintained. But, on the other hand, the sense of the Divine declaration, which is our subject of discussion, is apparently general. And it is placed on record to be a warning, as well as an encouragement; an excitement to watchfulness and exertion, as well as to thanksgiving and praise. There are many who think that they who are now last shall become first. It is possible that they who are now first may become last. And the analogy of God's dealings in accordance with this prediction leads us to conclude that the loss of spiritual would be attended with the loss of secular pre-eminence and power. We have noticed that there was an association of temporal with spiritual promises in the prospects held out to the Jewish people, as connected with the advent of the Messiah; they might have been first, or among the first, temporally as well as spiritually. There was a marked association of worldly loss and ruin at the first, and has continued ever since, with their spiritual downfall and degradation; they have become last temporally as well as spiritually. National inferiority and debasement, in the lowest degree, were associated with the infinite wretchedness of the spiritual condition of our ancestors in the beginning of the Gospel age; they were last temporally, as well as last spiritually. The prophecy has been fulfilled in us by the association of the highest national prosperity, power, and glory, with the choicest religious blessings, the noblest spiritual

graces and gifts. Having become first spiritually, we are also first temporally. Hence we may, with much probability, infer a law of the providential government of the nations of the world, and of the Divine arrangements for the maintenance and extension of the Redeemer's kingdom. It seems to be the intention of the Lord of all the earth, under the present dispensation, to associate the highest secular interests with the highest spiritual interests of a nation. And he teaches us, in the case of the Jews, that if a nation neglects, or despises, or betrays its own spiritual interests, it is in danger of the ruin of those which are secular and temporal. The lesson for us is, that if we wish to maintain the superiority and advantage of our national position in the world, we must be faithful to the responsibilities and privileges of our national position in the Church.

Let us, then, consider what were the elements of unfaithfulness and disobedience in the religious system and practice of the Jews. What fatal errors were prevalent among them which led, or pre-disposed, them to the rejection of the Gospel, and so occasioned their own rejection from the Gospel, and from the kingdom of God; and from being the first, caused them to become the last? For, if such errors and elements of evil can be discovered among ourselves, it is plain that in them consists our chief weakness, and our chief danger.

There can be no doubt as to what those plague-spots of Judaism were. They are patent from the Gospel record; and are expressed in two words-Pharisaism and Sadduceeism. Pharisaism, which was by far the most popular form of error, holding in its bondage the majority of the people, was a system based upon tradition-the writings and usages of the Eldersrather than upon Scripture; and often was contradictory to Scripture. It unduly exalted the importance of the ceremonies enjoined in the ritual law, and added largely to their number. It inculcated austerities and asceticism, long and frequent fasting, and divers mortifications of the body. It was eminently characterised by formalism, and by ostentation and parade in worship. It attached great value to dress, and to badges borne upon the person, as indicative of religious distinction, and conducive to sanctity. It was conspicuous for its zeal for the decoration of buildings dedicated to the memory of saints and martyrs. It ambitiously and superstitiously exalted the ecclesiastical and ministerial order in society. It was odious for its arrogance, exclusiveness, and intolerance. It was essentially a religion of externals, and represented men's spiritual relation to God, and the possession of His grace, as dependent upon a succession and a ceremony.

Sadduceeism was, among the Jews, the religion of the mino

rity, of the men of education, of the schools of philosophic thought, and of the worldly and the courtly. But it also numbered among its professors many of the chief ecclesiastical dignitaries and teachers of the day. Its distinct heretical tenets were disbelief in the resurrection of the dead, and denial of the existence of angels and spirits, that is, of any spiritual beings except God and man. It is certain that the Sadducees also regarded as doubtful the existence of a future state of rewards and punishments and the immortality of the soul. They claimed the liberty of setting aside the historic reality of large portions of the Old Testament. We know, from indisputable authority, that they repudiated the doctrine of a particular Providence, and denied the administration of the material and moral world. by the immediate will of the Creator.

Such were the Pharisaism and Sadduceeism which combined against Christ and His Gospel in the ancient Jewish Church and nation. Of course, they could not prevail against Him who is Almighty, and against that to which He has given a moral omnipotence. But they ruined the Jewish Church and nation. They vitiated the Christianity even of Apostolic ChurchesPharisaism in Galatia, and Sadduceeism in Corinth. They corrupted, and for a time seemed to have displaced, the Christianity of the whole visible Church-Sadduceeism in the form of Arianism, and Pharisaism in that of the medieval and Romish apostasy. And they have their own representatives in our own day, and in our nation and Church. The delineation we have given of Pharisaism and Sadduceeism is, we trust, faithful and accurate; for every word in our account of them can be justified by express warrant of Holy Scripture, or by authentic and unsuspected contemporary testimony. And scarcely a word in our account of them need be changed to render it an equally accurate description of the erroneous systems prevalent in our time. Pharisais has its exact counterpart in the system of worship and teaching which is known by the name of Ritualism, and Sadduceeism is identical in principle and doctrines with the sceptical system which we call Rationalism. It was to be expected that Pharisaism and Sadduceeism would survive the wreck they made of Judaism and the Jewish people, and continue to exist as equally antagonistic and dangerous to Christianity and Christian nations. Else wherefore the solemn warning addressed by our Lord, not to the Jewish multitude, but to His Apostles, the representatives of His future Church, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees"? It has been the duty of His ministers, many times in the history of the Church, to reiterate His warning. It is emphatically their duty now. As true successors of the Apostles, they are bound to adopt, for themselves and their flocks, His Divine cau

tion, which is, in modern language, "Beware, on the one hand, of formalism and superstition; and on the other, beware of latitudinarianism and unbelief." These are forms of error which imperil our national religion, and also, if our interpretation of the words of Christ and the facts of history be correct, equally imperil our national prosperity.

But we must beware of them, not merely, or primarily, for the sake of great public and general interests, spiritual or temporal, but because we know and are assured that they are pernicious to our souls individually. They will corrupt and debase our personal religion, and endanger our personal salvation. Let it be carefully borne in mind that we are not only admonished to beware of Pharisaism or Sadduceeism in the aggregate, by the designation of such as a "doctrine," that is, a system or discipline; but that, by the illustration of leaven, a figure denoting their infectious and corrupting qualities, is intimated the danger of admitting any portion of either into our creed or practice. The Israelites were commanded to remove every particle of material leaven out of their houses, that they might duly keep the feast, thus representing the grace and salvation which are ours in Christ crucified. If we would realize for ourselves, and for others, the "fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ," we must get rid of every perversion and corruption which originally impaired its efficiency, and obstructed its progress. We must purge out the old leaven-of the Pharisees, of the Sadducees, and of Herod-the leaven of superstition, of scepticism, and of worldliness, from our Churches, our homes, our hearts, and our lives.

LIFE OF BISHOP PATTESON.

Life of John Coleridge Patteson, Missionary Bishop of the Melanesian Islands. By Charlotte Mary Yonge. London: Macmillan. 1874.

As we reluctantly closed these two most fascinating volumes, there was the distinct impression left upon our minds, "He followed not with us." Equally vivid, too, was the feeling, that if the question had been put to us, supposing it had been in our power to have impeded or arrested such a course, "Will you forbid him?" our answer would have been, "God forbid !" He, no doubt, held some tenets which we cannot discover any sufficient warranty for in the Word of God, and he adopted some prac