so many years, were we not assured that the Holy Spirit had undertaken to bring all things to their remembrance. Christ had promised to them the gift of the Holy Spirit for this purpose, and not for this purpose only, but that he might lead them onward into all truth. By the aid of that Almighty Helper they would be sure to recal correctly the sayings of their ascended Lord, and, under the guidance of that All-wise Leader, they were equally sure of being conducted onwards with unerring steps in all the paths of truth. In this its first stage our argument therefore stands thus:-If Christ did not give and fulfil this promise to his apostles, we have no sufficient reason to rely on the correctness of their report of his sayings, and, consequently, no infallible guide in Christianity at all; but if he gave and fulfilled the promise concerning the Holy Spirit, then his own sayings are correctly reported by his apostles; and they, being infallibly guided into all the truth, become to us infallible guides into the truth. We conclude, therefore, that the sayings of Christ as reported by the apostles, and the words of truth which the Holy Ghost teacheth, as written by the apostles, are of equal authority. II. WE MAY BE FURTHER ASSISTED IN FORMING A RIGHT CONCLUSION ON THIS MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION, BY CAREFULLY OBSERVING THE AMOUNT OF AUTHORITY WHICH CHRIST HIMSELF ATTRIBUTES TO THE ANCIENT SCRIPTURES OF MOSES AND THE PROPHETS. In the outset we may here, perhaps, be met by the objection, that Christ repealed or modified some of the laws given by Moses, and this demonstrates his authority superior to that of the Jewish legislator. That Christ personally was infinitely superior to Moses admits of no question. That he expunged the false interpretations given by Jewish rabbis is true; but that he repealed or even modified any of the Divine laws given by Moses, otherwise than by their fulfilment, is another question, into which at present we cannot enter. But we maintain, that the repealing of a law does not imply greater authority than its first enactment. The British Parliament, in repealing any former act, does not claim an authority in the least superior to a former Parliament, by which the law was passed. Christ plainly acknowledged and maintained the authority of the Old Testament Scriptures, declaring that one jot or one tittle should not pass away from the law until all was fulfilled. He manifestly recognized the Holy Spirit's teaching by the sacred writers as of paramount authority. Our opponents, we believe, admit that, when any declaration is introduced with "Thus saith the Lord," or, "The Lord spake, saying," &c., it is unquestionably a Divine oracle. But the manner in which Christ quoted the Scriptures proves that he did not deem the oracular authority confined to such declarations merely. Moses, in his farewell address to Israel had taught them that God intended to show them that man doth not live by bread alone, &c., (Deut. viii. 3), and Christ quotes this saying in repelling the tempter as a saying having Divine authority, the same as the command, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve." Let anyone that hesitates in regard to the authority which Christ attributed to the ancient Scriptures at large read and carefully examine John x. 34, 35:— "Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? If he called them gods unto whom the word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be broken," &c. The quotation here is from Psa. lxxxii, which is a psalm of Asaph, not introduced by any superior claim to oracular authority, a psalm in which the writer asserts the supreme government of God, and warns the rulers of the world, and closes with prayer. Yet this psalm the Lord Jesus very correctly calls law, according to the original import of the word. He speaks of it as the word of God, and emphatically asserts its immutable truth and authority as SCRIPTURE WHICH CANNOT BE BROKEN OR ANNULLED. Surely no higher claim could be made in behalf even of those awful words uttered by the Most High out of the dark clouds which enveloped the summit of Sinai, than that they are the law-the word of God, which can never be annulled! If such is the authority which Christ attributes to the inspired writers of the Old Testament, and to those holy writings which through them the Holy Spirit gave to mankind, can we suppose that Christ, when intending to give the last, the clearest, and fullest manifestation of the Divine character to the whole world, would leave his special agents devoid of that plenary ii. 4.) 5. He furnished them with the Holy Spirit to become their Guide into all the truth, charging them, as we have already heard, not to depart from Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high. "Howbeit, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all (the) truth." This promise, so soon amply fulfilled, we must never overlook. (John xvi. 13.) inspiration and irrefragible authority | Ghost according to his own will." (Heb. which he himself claims for the ancient Jewish bards and prophets? Were those men employed to set up the heavenly kingdom-those men of whom Christ affirmed the least to be superior (no doubt | meaning, superior in spiritual knowledge) to the greatest among all the Jewish prophets,- --were those chosen servants of Christ after all left so deficient of spiritual guidance that their writings can bear no comparison with the writings of Moses and the prophets? There seems an absurdity in the apprehension that the men of the worldly sanctuary and their writings can so far surpass the men of the heavenly sanctuary, and the Scriptures written by THEM. III. LET US ENQUIRE CONCERNING THE AMOUNT OF AUTHORITY OR SPIRITUAL POWER WHICH CHRIST CONFERRED ON THE APOSTLES. If we search for the items of their qualification in establishing and extending the spiritual kingdom of the Saviour, we find, 1. He sent them forth as the Father had sent him. "Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you." (John xx. 21.) 2. He appointed them to be his representotives-his witnesses upon the earth after his bodily presence departed. "That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name, &c. Ye are witnesses of these things. And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high." (Luke xxiv. 47-49.) 3. He promised to them his abiding presence and special aid in times of special need. "Lo, I am with you alway unto the end of the world." "I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist." (Matt. xxviii. 20; Luke 6. He gave them authority to execute his laws by absolving the penitent and excommunicating the hypocritical. "He breathed on them and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them: and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained." (John xx. 22, 23.) 7. And finally on this matter, Christ gave them a short but most comprehensive commission, and then ascended, having informed his faithful apostles they should be baptized in the Holy Ghost not many days hence. "Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." (Matt. xxviii. 19, 20; Mark xvi. 15, 16). Did not Christ by all these qualifications render them safe and infallible leaders in the way of truth? Did he not thus place them on spiritual thrones, as judges of the true Israel, and unerring expounders of his laws? If ever men on earth were fitted to teach the way of the Lord to perfection, surely those men were the chosen twelve. But we suppose it will be conceded that the apostles were qualified to publish the great facts of the gospel with infallible accuracy. But we would ask, Is preaching the gospel confined to the bare statement of those facts? J. H. (To be concluded in the next.) GERMAN RATIONALISM VIEWED IN THE LIGHT OF CHRISTIANITY. IN examining the subject appointed for this evening, allow me to state that I do not intend to perplex or annoy you by a useless exhibition of the metaphysical subtleties, the startling paradoxes, or the unmeaning verbosity which characterize more or less the whole school of German Rationalists; but my aim will be to exhibit that school in those more prominent features in which it stands opposed to the vital and unchangeable principles of the gospel of Christ. That gospel we are taught to regard both as "the power of God and the wisdom of God" upon that Divine system depend the hopes of man for a blessed immortality, and to that gospel alone are we to look for the instrumentality that shall raise our fallen world to life, to liberty, and to happiness. It is of the first importance, consequently, to preserve that gospel unimpaired; to watch with untiring vigilance every human system that would mar its simplicity and lessen its usefulness, and so to preserve in their original purity its doctrines, its precepts, its spirit, and its design, that we may hand it down to posterity as vigorous and efficient as when the last communication which it contains was made by Him who is "Head over all things to the church." Happy they who thus faithfully discharge their duty to the Saviour and to the world! It is this view of our combined duty that has led to the selection of the present subject; for if ever the Christian system was in danger from a covert attack-if ever the foe assumed the mask of sincere friendship-if ever error the most pernicious appeared in the garb of a specious plausibility-the present is that period of danger, of false friendship, and treacherous pretence. The dry intellectualism of Germany has already invaded the most influential departments of our popular literature, and is gradually working its insidious way to the very heart of our theology also. It has in a large number of instances infused its venom into our magazines, our reviews, and our Biblical expositions; and it will not rest until it has subjugated the pulpit to its undisputed control. It is also tampering to an alarming degree with the devotions of the sanctuary, and threatens to supply us with the means of "teaching and admonishing one another" in a new version of "psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs," from which the cross of Christ and the Spirit of grace shall be carefully excluded, to make more ample room for creation, providence, reason, and moral virtue. Under the plea of an improved criticism or of a more refined scholarship, it is sapping the foundation of all that is distinctive in the gospel of a crucified Redeemer, and rapidly paving the way for the religion of a cold intellect that abjures the warm affections of the heart. In one word, it is actively at work to introduce a theology in which faith shall have no share, but where dogmatism shall reign triumphant in a region of frigid negations, exalting mere nature and providence to the office of a paramount revelation-where human scholarship shall constitute the oracle of the sanctuary, and the "new creature in Christ Jesus" shall be regarded as the figment of a disordered brain. Believing this to be a correct description of the chief tendencies of the present period, we deem it an incumbent duty on all who value "the truth as it is in Jesus" to do their utmost to put the Christian church on its guard, and by a timely exposure of the danger, at least to prevent its further spread, should nothing more be effected. It devolves especially on those who assume to be watchmen upon the walls, to sound an alarm as soon as they descry the distant foe. The cry will be raised too late when that foe is once within the gates. We avow, then, the Christian system, or, in other words, the Divine truths of Christianity as our sole starting-pointthe first great principle to which every other must submit. In this avowal we secure no mean advantage, for we have at least a starting-point that all may under they admit Christianity to be a Divine gift, manifestation, or disclosure, only in the sense in which every other thing that is good and useful is so, and therefore may be said to be from God. So the invention of steam engines, of gas-lights, or any of the convenient and beneficial arts of life, may very properly be said to be from heaven. They are all unquestionably gifts of God, parts of his plan of providential bounty. It is only, therefore, to convey this general idea, that the persons to whom I allude employ language which, though true as far as it goes, is essentially defective in meaning, and in the intention absolutely fraudulent. These are the principles which are delivered from many of the professors' chairs in the Protestant universities of Germany, and which are thence transfused into numerous parochial pulpits. stand-a first principle about whose cha- | if you were to ask them in what way and racter there is no kind of ambiguity. In by what means, it would turn out that every question affecting moral existence and human destiny, it is of unspeakable consequence to have a first principle in which we can place unwavering confidence; and this is undeniably the case with the gospel of Christ. Here, therefore, we possess an immense advantage; for while the workings and results of mere reason, and even the deductions of science to a considerable extent, are perpetually changing, the gospel remains immutably the same; and appealing as it does to the profoundest principles of justice and moral rectitude, it can never mislead its confiding followers, nor betray the trust that may be committed to its care. Consequently, we will not subordinate the gospel to human reason, how enlightened soever that reason may be, but we will ever demand that reason shall submit to the faith which the gospel requires of mankind. If the old contest between reason and faith is indeed to be renewed, we will not flinch from the position that reason must submit to faith, and not faith to mere reason. In a word, we may never concede the superiority to reason, but would strenuously maintain the great principle that faith, intelligent faith in God's system of mercy to man, shall be the guide and governor of the world. It may therefore be asked, what is that Rationalism that endangers so seriously the cause of Christian truth? Or, in other terms, what are we to understand by the Rationalism of Germany? And to this question permit me to reply in a considerable quotation from the works of a late British divine, who, for extensive erudition, enlightened piety, and liberal sentiments, has left behind him but few equals, and no superiors: I mean the learned and amiable Dr. John Pye Smith. In an admirable address upon this subject the doctor remarks:-"This system, so falsely boasting of its rationality, may be briefly described as nominally accepting Christianity to be a true religion, while all its evidences, facts, doctrines, and requirements, are twisted, tortured, and in every way artfully misinterpreted, so as to be brought down to the mere religion of nature. The parties in question will even say that Christianity is a religion given by God, and they will not scruple to call it a revelation from heaven, But "The general practice of the professors of theology in those universities is to take the Scriptures merely as venerable and interesting documents of antiquity, the curious records of tradition and opinion, and the mythic, moral, and political poetry of the ancient Hebrews. To the elucidation of the Scriptures, under this view, they bring immense stores of learning, but merely as a grammatical or historical comment; precisely as they would write a disquisition on the text of Herodotus, or Homer. For example: they take the prophecies of the Old Testament, and, with a splendid apparatus of Oriental learning, they investigate the terms, and settle what they deem to be the primary and sole signification. Having done this, they blush not to tell us that the writers of the New Testament, and even Jesus Christ himself, imagined that in these writings, called prophecies, there were many descriptions and declarations which respected themselves and the religion which they were setting up in the world. But, say these illuminators, Jesus and his apostles were mistaken, or they dexterously availed themselves of the prevailing opinions, in order to carry out their own objects. Page after page, these writers proceed in their ingenious speculations, perpetually assuming that Jesus first, and then Matthew, John, Paul, and their coadjutors, applied to themselves and their cause what never was meant to have such an application. Thus would they subvert | the whole argument from prophecy, and represent the dictates of the Spirit of Christ as nothing more than the inspiration of genius and poetic enthusiasm. scheme from the authorities and superior persons of Judea, who supposed their interests to be in danger from the elevation of the multitude, and entertained perhaps unnecessary apprehensions from the rigid "When we come lower down, to the jealousy of the Roman government, By times of the Lord Jesus and the setting their instigation Jesus was apprehended, up of his kingdom, we find the same sys- brought to trial, condemned, and led forth tem of conjecture, illegitimate inference, to execution. He was, indeed, fastened surmise, assumption, and, at the favour to a cross; but he had secret friends in able opportunity, bold assertion; and all the great council which had condemned converging to the same point, of repre- him, as Nicodemus, Joseph, and perhaps senting Christianity to be a wise and be- others. By their good management orders nevolent, but purely human contrivance, were perhaps given to the executioners to for the promotion of virtue and good hurt him as little as possible. He was morals; while, upon the admission of this taken down in a swoon, laid in a sepulsystem, the authors of the contrivance chral cave, and there the utmost care and were atrociously violating the first prin- skill of his friends were employed to checiples of morals, in giving to the world a rish the still existing spark of life. Suctissue of deliberate and persevering false- | cess ensued, and he was in due time reshoods. They represent Jesus as a very tored to health. Now, however, he thought excellent man, far superior to the gene- it unsafe to expose himself again to pubrality of his countrymen in the benevo-lic gaze. He, therefore, kept in conceallence of his disposition and the enlarged-ment, and frequented only the society of ness of his mind. He saw the degrading his faithful friends, to whom he more amsuperstition and bigoted ignorance into ply expounded his system of doctrine and which his countrymen were sunk, and he observances, and engaged them in a reconceived the grand idea of a general re- gular plan for extending it as far as posligion, which should be stripped of every-sible among mankind. After a few weeks, thing local and temporary, and be adapted to the condition of mankind in all countries and periods of time. He found great obstacles to his endeavours for the introduction of this system of pure and simple morality. Those hindrances arose partly from the ignorance of the multitude, and partly from the pride and dominant interests of the higher orders. Therefore, say these modern speculatists, he with a wise and benevolent artifice, adapted his measures to conciliate prejudices and bend popular opinions to his own purposes. Finding, in the books held sacred by his countrymen, passages which were supposed to be prophecies of a great personage who was to arise and be their deliverer from bondage and evil, the thought struck him that he might make a happy application of these descriptions to himself, and thus bring to bear advantageously upon his cause the whole tide of popular and most favourite expectation. With admirable dexterity, but with great prudence and caution, he availed himself of this instrument, and gradually advanced to the avowal that he was actually the Messiah so eagerly expected by his countrymen. He met with violent opposition to his he one day walked up the Mount of Olives, attended by some of his followers; and on the higher parts of that hill, a mist or cloud (no unusual occurrence) enabled him to withdraw gradually from his companions. He thus concealed himself in the fog, went down on the other side of the hill, and for that time at least, was seen by them no more. He then lived in deep retirement; how long cannot be certainly known, but it is probable about twenty-seven years. Occasionally, and for special purposes, he made visits to some of his trusty adherents. One of those occasions was very memorable. In the neighbourhood of Damascus he met Saul, a young man of uncommon talents, and who had commenced his career of public life as an ardent enemy and persecutor of those who adopted the new religion. Jesus had the astonishing address to persuade him to change sides and become a follower and advocate of the new cause, which held forth an inviting field of exertion to a glowing mind, longing for publicity and fame. "But I pause. I feel shame and disgust at proceeding with these recitals of an infidelity which sets at defiance pro |