yet more and more that the Spirit of God may make intercession, both in me and for me, with groanings which cannot be uttered,' since words fail to give them utterance. (Rom. viii. 26.)

"But persons mistake who imagine that groans are expressive only of a sense of guilt; they are often the expressions of desire: as David says,

Lord, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee.' (Ps. xxxviii. 9.) And such, I trust, have been many of the groans which I have uttered in secret, and some of which may possibly have been overheard.

"Nor is it on a personal account only that groans are uttered. A minister who knows what it is to 'travail in birth with his people, till Christ be formed in them,' will find many occasions of sorrow, as I have of late years. I have had a people, some of whom have ill understood their duty towards me (Heb. xiii. 17.) and have constrained me to give up my daily account, not with joy, but with grief;' or, as it is in the original, 'with groans.

"But supposing those expressions of my feelings to have been on a personal account only, and that only from a sense of my unworthiness, I am far from conceiving it to be on the whole an undesirable experience; for by means of it my joys are tempered with contrition, and my confidence with fear and shame. I consider the religion of the day as materially defective in this point; and the preaching of pious ministers defective also. I do not see, so much as I could wish, an holy, reverential awe of God. The confidence that is generally professed does not sufficiently, in my opinion, savour of a creature-like spirit, or of a sinnerlike spirit. If ninety-nine out of a hundred, of even good men, were now informed, for the first time, that Isaiah in a vision saw the Seraphim before the throne, and that each of the seraphs had six wings, and then were asked, 'How do you think that they employ their wings?' I think their answer would be, How! why they fly with them with all their might; and if they had six hundred wings

6

they would do the same, exerting all their powers in the service of their God; they would never dream of their employing two to veil their face, as unworthy to behold their God, and two to veil their feet, as unworthy to serve him; and devoting only the remaining two to what might be deemed their more appropriate use. But I doubt much whether the seraphs do not judge quite as well as they, and serve their God in quite as acceptable a manner as they would, if their energies were less blended with modesty and conscious unworthiness. But whatever opinions the generality of Christians might form, I confess that this is the religion which I love; I would have conscious unworthiness to pervade every act and habit of my soul; and whether the woof be more or less brilliant, I would have humility to be the warp.

I often in my ministry speak of Job's experience, after God had so revealed himself to him, as proper for all; why then should I not cultivate it myself, and really, truly, deeply, and as before the heartsearching God, abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes?' (Job xlii. 6.) Can I enter into the Spirit of that word abhor, and not groan? Or, is that a word which is to have no counterpart in our actual experience? I do not undervalue joy; but I suspect it, when it is not blended with the deepest humiliation and contrition. God has said that a 'broken and a contrite heart he will not despise; and is that an attainment that is so low and small that I may leave it behind me, as a state that was proper for me forty years ago, but not now? What is meant by a broken heart? Would to God that I knew; for with all my groaning I do not know a thousandth part of what it means. I remember to have heard a saying of and though

I do not admire the expression, I do admire the sentiment; and I would not feel my obligation to my Saviour less than I do for ten thousand worlds. Indeed, I consider that this very feeling will constitute the chief felicity of heaven; and that every blessing we there enjoy will be most of all endeared to us as being the fruit of re

deeming love. I behold the glorified saints in heaven falling on their faces before the throne, whilst they sing praises to their redeeming God. (Rev. v. 8-14.) What then shall I do on earth; yea, I behold even the angels who never sinned, adoring God in that same posture. (Rev. vii. 11.) What then should I do, whose whole soul is but one mass of sin and corruption? Finally, God himself is light, and I am to be as like Him as I can. But what is light? Is it not a combination of different rays-the red, the orange, the yellow, the green, the blue, the indigo, and the violet? Some would think, perhaps, that they could make better light if they had the brilliant rays alone; but so think not I; I would have the due proportion of the sombre with the bright; and all in simultaneous motion; and then I think I should more resemble both the created and the uncreated light. At all events this is my own ambition, to live with one Mary at my Saviour's feet, listening to his words, (whilst others are cumbered

about the world,) and to die with the other Mary, washing his feet with my tears, and wiping them with the hairs of my head.

"P.S.-I have not been till lately acquainted with any book, except 'Augustine's Meditations,' that exactly paints all that I approve, and all that I wish to be; Brainerd's Life has too much of gloom and despondency for me. But I think that the Memoirs of my beloved and honoured friend, Henry Martyn, come axactly to the point; and his biographer, the Rev. John Sargent, has marked it with beautiful precision in the close of that Memoir. O! that all the world would study that short Memoir; it speaks what I would, if I were able, speak in the ear of every human being, day and night. May God, of his infinite mercy, give me abundantly to experience this heavenly disposition; and may all that I have written be blessed of Him to the producing of this holy disposition in others. Amen, and Amen.

more

IT is curious to observe how, both in moral science and in theology, but especially in the latter, the great subjects of controversy among contending parties periodically resume their interest in the public mind. The relation of human to divine agency, the evidences of Christianity, the baptismal question, and other important topics, seem destined, at certain intervals, to reappear after a season of forgetfulness, and, each in its turn, to become the leading topic of the day. Our age is remarkable for a revival of the great controversies to which the Reformation gave rise. For a long period after the separation between the Romish and the Reformed Churches became final, the questions in dispute between Romanists and Protestants, were, if not alto

gether lost sight of, comparatively little agitated; each party seemed to rest on their arms for awhile. Amongst ourselves, especially, the line of religion in the 18th century, and down to recent times, was adverse to the study of a controversy so closely connected with the spiritual, or experimental side of Christianity. Recent events have unexpectedly dissipated this indifference, and we now find ourselves eagerly discussing the very same fundamental questions, on justification, on the nature of the Church, on the Sacraments, and on the rule of faith, which fill the pages of Melancthon and Jewell.

The most prominent form of debased Christianity is Romanism, not so much as it exists in the decrees of the Council of Trent, but as it is actu

ally found in the floating sentiments and practice of the Church of Rome. And the great question which we, in the present day, have to determine is, in what respects does the spirit of Romanism differ from that of the Gospel, as contained in the inspired writings? The direct method of satisfying ourselves on this point is, of course, to compare the peculiarities of the Romish system with Scripture, and discern wherein the former deviates from the latter. But there is another line of argument, equally perhaps instructive, and that is, to exhibit the identity of Romanism, as regards its fundamental principles, with the various false religions which prevail in the world. If we can establish an identity of principles between the Romish system, and the various false religions, whether of ancient or modern date, which man has devised for himself, the conclusion will be obvious; that so far as Romanism is contrary in its spirit to Scriptural Christianity, it is the product of man's natural heart. We propose to select one of the most remarkable and elaborate systems of idolatry that has ever perhaps existed, viz., Hindooism; and to draw out a brief parallel between the leading idea of that system and those of Romanism. In sketching the spirit of Hindooism, we shall refer chiefly to the able work of Dr. Duff on India Missions, as our authority, where the subject is treated in a more philosophical manner than usual.

Theological speculation has ever run in two distinct channels, according as Theology, properly so calledthat is the doctrines of the Holy Trinity, and of the person of Christ, or what may be called Anthropology, or the relation of human agency to Divine has occupied the attention of the Church. In the East, the current of controversy set in the former direction; and the Council of Nice, which established the doctrines of the essential divinity of Christ, and the personality of the Holy Ghost, was the result of warm and protracted disputes with the followers of Arius and Sabellius. The case was very different in the West. The practical character of the Latin church exhibi

ted itself in developing the theory of Church government; and the first great controversy which arose amongst the western Christians was that between Augustin and Pelagius, on the spiritual condition of fallen man. The decisions of the Council of Nice were, with one trifling exception, unanimously received by the Latins; they never became a subject of dispute in the West; and hence, at the Reformation, it was not on these points that the great controversy between Luther and his opponents turned, the three creeds being admitted and received by both parties. Some years after the separation between the Protestant and the Romish churches had taken place, the doctrines of the latter were authoritatively laid down at the Council of Trent; but the decisions of that Council did not touch the Catholic doctrines of the Trinity or of the person of Christ, further than to confirm them. The Romish Church, therefore, as regards those fundamental objective truths of Christianity, holds the truth; here she takes common ground with ourselves against the Socinian and the Infidel.

Hence

it is obvious that, as regards the abstract theology of the two systems, no comparison can be instituted between Romanism and Hindooism; the former exhibiting, in this respect, the truth of God, while the latter is a tissue of the most puerile and absurd fables. It is to the other field of inquiry, the battle-field of the Reformation, when the objective truths of Christianity come to be considered as subjective, or received into the heart, that our comparative view must be confined.

One peculiarity of Hindooism is the power which it attributes to fallen man of raising himself by his own unassisted powers, to union with God.

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Its principal end and design," says Dr. Duff, "like that of all pagan and infidel philosophy, is to cherish in the corrupt heart of lapsed man, the seed and rudiment of the covenant of works to promote, to the utmost, the spirit of that proud self-dependance; the spirit of that heaven-defying, self-righteousness which has been emphatically styled the heresy of old nature to prove how, without the

infusion of divine grace, or any obligation at all to the divine mercy, man may raise himself to a state of integrity and perfection by the sheer force of his inherent powers, and the vigorous application of his own selfcultivated faculties."* There is in it, as in most false religions, a recognition of the great truth that man is fallen from God, and in a state of degradation. To account for the state in which he is found, without directly attributing the origin of evil to God, recourse has been had by the framers of the Hindoo mythology, to the doctrine of the transmigration of souls. Is it asked, why is the greater part of mankind born into the world with depraved dispositions, and placed in circumstances manifestly unfavourable to the formation of virtuous character? The Vedas, or sacred books of the Hindoos, reply, that the vicious propensities, which the soul brings with it into the world, were acquired in a previous state of being, during its inhabitation of the body with which it was then connected; and the dispositions of this previous state were acquired in a former one; and these in one still earlier; and thus "by assuming the past eternity of the universe, and the infinite renewals of worlds into which every individual being has brought the predispositions contracted by him in earlier states, and so retrospectively without beginning or limit," an attempt is made to shift the authorship of evil from God. It is needless to remark that this is only evading the difficulty; for however far we go backwards, we must at length arrive at the first link of the chain, which can only be the Supreme Being.

The natural destiny of souls, according to this doctrine, is to undergo millions of transmigrations from one form into another, with a view of expiating their guilt, and wiping away their stains by means of pains and sufferings to be undergone in the successive bodies they assume.

But

there are divinely appointed means whereby this destiny may be modified, arrested, or wholly changed. There are three degrees of future bliss to † Duff, p. 147.

* Duff, p. 213.

which the Hindoo, conscious of his moral pollution, may aspire. The lowest kind is not so much positive as relative bliss. It consists in making some progress towards final deliverance. It is merely a step in advance of its present state. The next and higher degree of bliss after this life is of a positive kind. It consists in the enjoyment of carnal pleasures in the heaven of one or other of the gods. It is not, however, eternal; and after a certain period, the soul must again descend to this earth, to enter upon another series of transmigrations. The highest degree of future happiness is difficult to describe. It consists in the total annihilation of personal consciousness, and the negation of all thought and feeling. In this state, the soul is supposed to be absorbed into the essence of Brahm, the Supreme Being, to be reunited to him from whom it originally derived its being. And this absorption into Brahm implies the extinction of personal existence. In a word, it is the Pantheism, by anticipation, of modern Germany, the natural and inevitable result of those theories according to which the soul is an emanation from the substance of God.

But what we have now to observe is, that any of these degrees of future bliss is, according to the teaching of the Vedas, attainable by man's unassisted powers. He has only to go through the prescribed means, and the end will certainly be attained. And what are the means? To secure the lowest degree of future bliss, viz., a higher position in the next birth, the Hindoo must carefully perform all the duties peculiar to his caste, and the ordinary ceremonies of the popular superstition. In order to secure the second degree of happiness, viz., a temporary abode in the sensual paradise of one of the gods, the votary must give himself up to the service of the god whom he may select, the choice being left to himself; and besides the ordinary duties imposed upon him, in common with the mass of the people, he must discharge all those connected with the worship of his tutelary divinity. Hence the ori

* Duff, p. 148.

gin of the innumerable sects which are found in every part of India. Or, if he so prefer, he may attain the same end, by performing certain acts of extraordinary merit, which will give him, after death, a claim to be admitted to the sensual enjoyments which the gods partake of in their respective heavens. These extraordinary acts of merit are such as the following"fastings, long-continued, frequent, and accompanied with various meditative exercises; the presenting gifts to the Brahmans, such as a valuable piece of land, cows, horses, or elephants, large sums of silver or of gold, houses well stored with food, clothes, and utensils; the honouring of Brahmans with expensive feasts; readings or recitations of the Mahabarat, or other Shastras, on auspicious days; rehearsals for weeks together of those legends which embody the histories of their gods, accompan ied with dancings, and wavings of brushes, the jingling of rings, and the noise of instrumental music; the digging of public wells, or tanks of water; long and arduous pilgrimages to the confluence of the sacred streams; and, together with many other practices too numerous to be recounted, voluntary religious suicide."* It is, however, the way in which the highest degree of future beatitude, viz., absorption into the essence of Brahm, is to be attained, which chiefly deserves our attention. If the question is asked, How is this final bliss to be secured? the answer is, by acquiring divine knowledge; that is, an acquaintance with the real nature of Brahm, or the Supreme Spirit. How forcibly are we here reminded of our blessed Lord's words, "This is life eternal, to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent"? Such, however, is not the knowledge of God prescribed in the Hindoo system. It is simply a refined Pantheism. It is to see God in everything; to realize the fact that nothing exists but God; that every variety of being, spiritual and corporeal, is but a particular manifestation of God; and above all, to have a clear comprehension of the fact, that one's own

* Duff, p. 180.

Not

soul is nothing but a part of the Supreme Being, thrown off from his substance like a spark from the fire, and soon to be reunited to him. Such is the divine knowledge which is sure to be rewarded by final absorption into the divine essence! And, if we ask, what are the means by which this knowledge of God may be attained? we receive a threefold answer.* One class of religionists insist upon certain devotional exercises as the best way to the desired end. But what are these devotional exercises? the prayer of the Christian, when, conscious of his spiritual necessities, he draws near, in the spirit of adoption, to the throne of grace, and pours out his heart before a reconciled God. They consist in long-continued recitations of the Vedas, in particular sitting or standing postures, with the eyes half closed, and fixed on the top of the nose; in internal utterances, or repeated mutterings of the name of God; in attempts at fixing the mind on some internal object, with a view of habituating it to that profound abstraction, necessary to its final absorption into Brahm.†

Others assert that, by bodily mortifications and austerities, the soul may be disengaged from the influence of matter. The chief object is, to have a conviction that everything in the material world, earth, air, and sky, friends and neighbours, and all the varied objects of sense, are illusory appearances, having no independant existence, and being only different manifestations of the Supreme Spirit. With the view of effecting this object, an attempt is made, by unheard-of austerities, to extirpate the natural instincts, to blunt the sensibilities, and to make the body insensible to pain and hunger. Devotees of this kind are exhorted (we use Dr. Duff's words,) "to abandon all food eaten in towns, and to repair to the lonely forest. There they are to live at first on pure food, such as green herbs, flowers, roots, fruits, and oils found in fruits. They are to wear a black antelope's hide, or a vesture of bark; to suffer the hair of the head and beard to grow. They are to † Duff, p. 186.

* Duff, p. 186.