ourselves, instead of fixing them on Him and his cross. Nay, and have we not often preached Christ for the very purpose of getting honour to ourselves? Christ, in the sufferings of his first coming, and the glory of his second, has not been the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, of all our sermons.

9. We have used words of man's wisdom. We have forgotten Paul's resolution to avoid the enticing words of man's wisdom, lest he should make the cross of Christ of none effect. We have reversed his reasoning as well as his resolution, and acted as if by well-studied, well-polished, well-reasoned discourses, we would so gild and beautify the cross, as to make it no longer repulsive, but irresistibly attractive even to the carnal eye! Hence, we have often sent men home well satisfied with themselves, convinced that they were religious, because affected by our eloquence, touched by our appeals, or persuaded by our arguments. Thus we have made the cross of Christ of none effect, and sent souls to hell with a lie in their right hand. Thus, by avoiding the offence of the cross, and the foolishness of preaching, we have had to labour in vain, and mourn over an unblest, unfruitful ministry.

10. We have not fully preached a free gospel. We have been afraid of making it too free, lest men should be led into licentiousness; as if it were possible to preach too free a gospel, or as if its freeness could lead men into sin. It is only a free gospel that can bring men peace, and it is only a free gospel that can make men holy. Luther's preaching was summed up in these two points, that we are justified by faith alone, and that we must be assured that we are justified;' and it was this that he urged on his brother Brentius to preach usque ad fastidium; and it was by such free, full, bold preaching of the glorious gospel, untrammelled by works, merits, terms, conditions, and unclouded by the fancied humility of doubts, fears, uncertainties, that such blessed success accompanied his labours. Let us go and do likewise.

11. We have not duly studied and honoured the word of God. We have given a greater prominence to man's writings, man's opinions, man's systems, in our studies than to the WORD. We have drunk more out of human cisterns than divine. We have held more communion with man than God. Hence, the mould and fashion of our spirits, our lives, our words, have been derived more from man than God. We must study the Bible more. We must steep our souls in it. We must not only lay it up within us, but transfuse it through the whole texture of the soul.

12. We have not been men of prayer. The spirit of prayer slumbered amongst us. The closet has been too little frequented, and delighted in. We have allowed business, or study, or active labour, to interfere with our closet hours. And how much

has the feverish atmosphere in which, for some years past, both the church and nation have been enveloped, found its way into our closet, disturbing the sweet calm of its blessed solitude. We have not stood continually upon our watch tower in the day-time, nor have we been set in our ward whole nights. Our life has not been a lying-in-wait for the voice of God. Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth,' has not been the attitude of our souls, the guiding principle of our lives. Nearness to God, fellowship with God, waiting upon God, resting in God, have been too little the characteristic either of our private or our ministerial walk. Hence our example has been so powerless, our labours so unsuccessful, our sermons so meagre, our whole ministry so fruitless and feeble.

13. We have not honoured the Spirit of God. It may be that, in words, we have recognised his agency, but we have not kept this continually before our eyes, and the eyes of the people. We have not given him the glory that is due unto his name. We have not sought his teaching, his anointing,'-the 'unction from the Holy One, whereby we know all things. Neither in the study of the word, nor in the preaching of it to others, have we duly acknowledged his office, as the enlightener of the understanding, the revealer of the truth, the testifier and glorifier of Christ. We have grieved him by the dishonour done to his person as the third person of the glorious Trinity, and we have grieved him by the slight put upon his office as the teacher, the convincer, the comforter, the sanctifier. Hence he has almost departed from us, and left us to reap the fruit of our own perversity and unbelief. Besides, we have grieved him by our inconsistent walk, by our want of circumspection, by our worldly-mindedness, by our unholiness, by our prayerlessness, by our unfaithfulness, by our want of solemnity, by a life and conversation so little in conformity with the character of a disciple, or the office of ambassador.

14. We have had little of the mind of Christ.-We have come far short of the example of the apostles, much more of Christ; we are far behind the servants, much farther behind the Master. We have had little of the grace, the compassion, the meekness, the lowliness, the love of God's eternal Son. His weeping over Jerusalem is a feeling in which we have but little heartfelt sympathy. His 'seeking of the lost' is little imitated by us. His unwearied 'teaching of the multitudes' we shrink from, as too much for flesh and blood. His days of fasting, his nights of watchfulness and prayer, are not fully realised as models for us to copy. His counting not his life dear unto him that he might glorify the Father, and finish the work given him to do, is but little remembered by us as the principle on which we are to act. Yet surely we are to follow his steps; the servant is to walk where his master has led the way;

We

the under-shepherd is to be what the Chief Shepherd was. must not seek rest or ease in a world where He whom we love had

none.

Let us then confess our sins, and turn again to the Lord. Let us not shrink from the humiliation of such an acknowledgment, in all its breadth and depth. Let us purge out the old leaven that we may be a new lump. Let us rend our hearts, and not our garments, and seek the face of that God whose majesty we have insulted, whose Son we have rejected, whose Spirit we have grieved, whose gospel we have slighted, that he may return and have mercy on us as in the days of old. Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither is his ear heavy that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear.'

ART. IV. The Modern Judea, Ammon, Moab, and Edom, compared with Ancient Prophecy; with Notes and Engravings, illustrative of Biblical subjects. By Rev. JAMES AITKEN WYLLIE, Dollar.

THE design of this volume is twofold. First, to illustrate the physical geography of Palestine; Secondly, to shew the accordance of its present state with the predictions of the divine word. The author has not visited the countries which he describes; but he has evidently spared no labour to make himself thoroughly acquainted with all that has been written upon the subject in ancient or modern times by the friends or the foes of revelation. To the fulfilment of this task he has evidently brought great patience and perseverance, flowing from an ardent love of his subject. He has produced a volume replete with information, which will be read with delight by all who are previously interested in the subject, and which, by its fascinating descriptions, is eminently calculated to create such an interest, where it did not previously exist. It contains as full and accurate a view of ancient and modern Judea as is to be found in any book in our language with which we are acquainted. It is written in an elegant and highly attractive style. Throughout it is characterised by a union of judgment and imagination. With great discrimination he has struck the medium betwixt superficial brevity and wearisome prolixity.

The first part of this work is devoted to an illustration of the physical geography of Palestine. It contains an outline of the Holy Land, and a description of its more remarkable mountains, valleys, and rivers. In this department of his undertaking the

author has consulted all the most important authorities upon his subject, and has shewn great judgment in availing himself of the labours of others. As he leads us with the steps of an experienced guide from one remarkable scene to another, he speaks to us of what has been, as contrasted with what is now-thus gathering around his subject all the glorious associations of old. Geography, which is often one of the most dry and barren of all subjects, has been invested with the beauty of poetry, without being despoiled of its accuracy.

If acquaintance with the localities referred to in Scripture heightens our interest and advantage in perusing the sacred volume, a comparison of the present condition of these countries with the predictions of Scripture is still more interesting and instructive. As the works of creation bear on them the impress of the wisdom, and power, and goodness of the great Creator, so the land in which the Bible was given by inspiration, and the wondrous people to whom it was originally given, bear upon them evidence of the clearest and most convincing kind, that the Bible is the word of God. The age of miracles is not past. The Jewish nation, viewed in the light of prophecy, is a permanent miracle, the force of which is perpetually increasing with the lapse of time, and the reality of which every man may ascertain by his own observation. The several portions of that nation may be considered as so many monuments erected by a divine hand to confute infidelity, and instruct mankind about the real causes of the difficulties and the downfall of nations. And the land of Judea, by the correspondence of its present condition with its predicted state, plainly shews that the God of providence is the author of Scripture.

The second part of this volume is designed to illustrate the fulfilment of prophecy in the present state of Judea and the adjoining countries. In this department of Mr Wyllie's work there is a coincidence in subject with that portion of Dr Keith's volume on the evidence of prophecy. That admirable work has long ago gained for its author a great and deserved celebrity, of which he can be deprived by no subsequent production, however meritorious. After the satisfactory manner in which Dr Keith has managed the subject, that must of necessity be a work of sterling merit, which will permanently secure public attention and approbation. Without entering upon a comparison between Mr Wyllie's volume and that of Dr Keith, with the view of deciding to which the palm of superiority belongs, we can have no hesitation in saying, that while each has its characteristic excellencies by which it is distinguished from and superior to the other, each has also such an amount of that common merit by which all able works are distinguished, that

the honour of neither will be diminished by being placed side by side with the other.

All writers on this department of prophecy who would do justice to the subject must be content to say much that has been said before. As they must refer to the same topics that have been treated of by others, so they must often illustrate them by the same quotations from the same authors. This is a necessity from which no genius can give exemption. To attempt to write nothing but what is original upon a subject that has been so long investigated, would manifest such a lack of soundness of thinking, as would prove, that he who entertained such an idea was utterly incapable of being an expositor of prophecy. But while the groundwork of every treatise on prophecy must be the same, there is ample room for originality and ingenuity; for ingenuity in placing what is already known in a happier light; for originality in making use of facts recently discovered, to illustrate points hitherto overlooked or left in uncertainty. While no man should expect to benefit the world on this subject who is not content to say much that has been said before, no man should put himself forward who is not prepared to say more than has been already said, or to place what is already known in a stronger and more convincing light. These are the terms on which all writers on prophecy must meet the public, and the tests by which all works on prophecy must be tried. We have a right to demand that they shall treat the subject in such a manner, that additional strength shall be given to the argument from prophecy; for otherwise their appearance before the public is wholly uncalled for. On the other hand, we must be content, that in fulfilling this demand, they introduce us to much with which we were previously acquainted. No work can ever attain a permanent celebrity, in which the first of these tests is awanting; and none, however eminent its merits, will be found to rise above the second.

If we try Mr Wyllie's work by these tests, it will be found, that while he introduces us to much with which we were previously acquainted, he has also introduced us to much that is entirely new, and placed the whole subject in such a light as adds greatly to our confidence in the fulfilment of prophecy. In the first place, he takes a smaller field for observation than Dr Keith, whose work embraces the whole range of prophecy, and in consequence of this he has been enabled to examine it more narrowly, and bring out more of those minute features, in which the strength of the evidence generally lies. 2dly, As to authorities, he goes farther back, and comes down to a later period. He goes back to Sandy's, and comes down to Bowring's report, and Robinson's narrative, and