Christianity is pre-eminently social. Hence its social institutions. These are its social prayer-meetings and congratulations, its social praises, its social thanksgivings, its social communings, its social benedictions.

Its standing occasions and festivals are ordained for this purpose, for the cultivation and manifestation of a spiritual and holy union and communion, in joint participation of its prospective and retrospective ordinances and institutions.

Hence the necessity of a church state. A Christian can no more live out of a church state than can a physical man live out of a physical universe. He as much needs the Spirit of God as he needs breath. He needs the bread and the water of life as much as his body demands for its sustenance the literal bread and water of earth. Were this not so, the church and its institutions would be unmeaning and barren appendages, without reason, without object, without good. They are silly philosophers, who seek to live without physical elements; and quite as silly Christians, who dream of spiritual life, spiritual health, or spiritual comfort, without the ordinances which God has instituted for the life spiritual and divine. The communion of saints is the exquisite of human happiWithout employment there is no enjoyment, and no enjoyment without employment. Heaven is not a mere state of repose. Its raptures and ecstacies of bliss are all activities of the soul, in wonder, love, and praise expressed.

ness.

A philosophic speculative repose is a state of soulless apathy and inactivity. A human being cannot live on ether, however pure, unearthy, and unelementary it may be alleged to be. There are ordinances of worship even in the heavens. And there are worshippers there who unite and commune in the full radiation and fruition of the Divine presence. But they are not mere thinking Quakers, speculative philosophers, or ranting enthusiasts, but admiring, worshipping, adoring saints. They tune their golden lyres to the song of Moses and the Lamb.

It is not only in the apocalyptic visions that we read of "harpers harping with their harps," in rapturous choirs above; but there, also, we hear of the “song of Moses" repeated; and, better still, that of the slain Lamb echoing in choral symphonies through all the vaults of heaven.

But in the earthly state of the church we now live, and move, and have our membership. Its social ordinances are, one and all, of divine appointment. And they are severally and collectively designed to instruct and comfort, to encourage and strengthen us for the work of faith, the labor of love, and the patience of hope.

A Christian living out of the church of Christ—unless in exile on some Patmos, or in some prison, banished from the sanctuary of the Lord—is a conception so far out of my premises, that comprehend it I cannot; nor do I envy that man who attempts to justify it, under pretence of high spiritualism, or because of some canonized shibboleth of factitious importance, made sacred only by some sectarian enactment or prescription.

The church of Jesus Christ and its divine ordinances, are now the only Bethel -the only social antitype of the tabernacle of Israel, of the temple of Solomon, of the Mount Zion where stood the Ark of the Covenant, the citadel of the great King.

The foundations of Zion are on the holy mountains.

Jehovah loveth the gates of Zion

More than any of the dwellings of Jacob.

Glorious things are spoken of thee, City of God!

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Yea, concerning Zion it shall be said,

This and that man was born in her!

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For the Most High shall himself establish her.
In the records of peoples Jehovah shall relate,
This man was born there.

They shall sing as those leading the dance;
Each shall say, All my springs are in thee.

(Psalm lxxxvii.)

But in clearer vision, with Paul we say to the Christian church, and to its holy brotherhood-"You are come to Mount Zion, even to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels; to the general assembly and church of the sons of God, who are enrolled in heaven, and to the Judge who is God of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect; to Jesus, the Mediator of the New Covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel."

In such society as this,

My weary soul would rest;

The man that dwells where Jesus is,

Must be for ever blest.

What a contrast between a citizen of Zion and a mere citizen of any state or empire founded in blood, usurpation, tyranny, or on any of the forms of philosophy or theology, ancient or modern!

A. C.

THE REMEDIAL SYSTEM.-No. I.

In the development of the remedial system, called the gospel, in which was exhibited the kindness and love of God our Saviour towards man, there are no ideas of more significant import employed by the Spirit of Wisdom, than those which are expressed by the terms sacrifice, propitiation, and reconciliation. Upon the right understanding of these terms depend the knowledge, reception, and enjoyment of the great salvation which, beginning to be spoken by the Lord in person, was afterwards confirmed to us by his apostles.

The grand design of the mission of the Son of God into our world, and his return to the occupancy of that glorious throne which he had with his Father before the world was, can never be understood nor properly appreciated, until we have duly weighed the import of these words in their contextual relations, and their relative bearing upon each other. They appear to form, as it were, the material out of which has been constructed a channel to convey to us the effluence of the divine love. The death of Christ, apart from the ideas signified by these three terms, has no more meaning or importance than the deaths of those Cæsars under whose reigns he was born and died. They were the depositary in which were laid up and embalmed the ideas most familiar and dear to the heart of the patriarch and Jewish worshipper. And so bright and dazzling were the great ideas couched in them, that no prophet or sage of sacred story, however gifted with wisdom, could look upon it, or their vision take in more than a few of its faintest rays. Yet, faint as were those rays, they were the only lights through which they could behold the divine favor, and hope for a deliverance from all the consequences of sin. And although the blood of the victim offered by the patriarchal or Jewish worshipper could not justly remove the evil from the conscience of him who did the service, yet may it not have adumbrated to his view some vicarious measure, involving the death of some glorious sufferer that would exonerate the guilty from the penalty of a broken law, in a way worthy the character of the Lawgiver-nay, that would not only atone for the insult and indignity which sin had offered to the Majesty of heaven and earth, but which, also, would magnify his law and make it honorable for God to forgive.

The great representative idea of those elementary dispensations, and that which evidently indicated the central truth of the true remedial system, was the victim as a sin-offering. During the Patriarchal age, it was the one idea, and it was most familiar to every pious family. For every such family had its altar, upon which was daily laid the appointed victim. And it did undoubtedly, however faintly, typify the propitiatory and reconciliatory character of the great antitypical sacrifice, both with respect to God and the worshipper. Under the Law it remained in all its importance. While the Patriarchal age continued, the priesthood continued in the heads of families; or, in other words, it was Patriarchal. Under the legal institution, it was transferred to one family of the sons of Israel -to that of Levi. And in this family it was confined to Aaron and his sons. While the latter ministered at the altar, the other families of Levi ministered in things that more remotely pertained to the altar. This change in the priesthood was the ground-work of the Law, for on account of it the Law was introduced. Although under the Law a much greater variety of offerings was introduced, a bloody victim was still the only offering that could make reconciliation for the sins of the people. Once every year the high priest entered into the most holy place, to make expiation for sins.

Under the Levitical arrangement, there were many adjuncts connected with the sin-offering; such as the high priest, the sprinkling of blood upon the people, upon the mercy-seat and before the mercy-seat, and the places where it was offered—all of which make it a more general and exact type of the real sin-offering in all its accidents. But as we have hitherto considered sacrifice rather with reference to the worship, we shall now view it with reference to the great Lawgiver-Jehovah himself.

Viewed as the Moral Governor of his rational creatures, He must have regarded sin as an indignity—an insult offered to His Majesty; for the majesty of a king consists in his authority. In this character sin was an offence that called for the exercise of his justice. Or, if we view him as a Father, sin he must have felt as a wound to his affections. As an absolute Governor, sin, as it involved his honor, must be punished; and his justice decreed that the transgressor should die. But as a Father, he could feel pity for his erring children. But pity could not change or remove the moral turpitude of sin. Justice alone could render to sin its due. Was it possible, then, to punish sin and save the sinner; or, in other words, to pardon sin and maintain the majesty of law, or the honor of his government? Pity says pardon. But justice is outraged, and demands the penalty of a violated law. The law knows no mercy.

But why is the bosom of the eternal Father moved with pity for his rebellious children? Was it because a wily apostate intelligence had, in an evil hour, sought and taken an undue advantage of his less intelligent and unsuspecting children? And is this indeed the history of sin in its first introduction into our world? If so, how shall the great Father of the universe dispose of it to his own glory and the good of those, his holy intelligences, who are spectators of this sad and woful event-the apostacy of that lovely pair, our great progenitors, whom he had made in the image of their Father, and crowned with glory and honor, and placed over the works of his hands?

Now before we attempt to examine into the great remedial system devised by infinite wisdom, power, justice, goodness, holiness, and love, let us take a view of the parties involved and those who were spectators of the woful occurrence. But this we shall defer till the moon once more shall have completed her circuit round our sinful planet.

A. W. C.

THE AMERICAN BIBLE UNION'S APPEAL FOR PRAYER AND AID. NEW YORK, January, 1854.

THE Board of the American Bible Union, profoundly sensible of the importance of the labors in which they are engaged, and conscious of their inability to perform them in their own strength, affectionately address all brethren in the same common faith, who are interested in the great objects which they are prosecuting, and earnestly request them to remember those objects at the throne of the heavenly grace. They especially entreat the prayers of God's people for all who are employed by the Bible Union in the work of translation or revision.

It is a matter of devout thankfulness, that more correct views of the necessity and importance of freeing the revealed word of God from human error and obscurity, are gradually prevailing, and that greater numbers are becoming sensible of their obligation to assist in this blessed enterprise. For these mercies, and the signal marks of divine approbation that have hitherto attended all the operations of the Union, the Board desire the friends of pure versions to unite with them in gratitude and praise to the ever blessed Revealer of Truth.

The following brief statement regarding the revision of the English Scriptures, cannot fail to excite renewed interest in the enterprise, and to call forth more fervent supplications for its success.

Distinguished scholars are employed by the American Bible Union in the revision of the common version, holding their ecclesiastical connections with eight denominations-CHURCH OF ENGLAND, OLD SCHOOL PRESBYTERIANS, DISCIPLES or REFORMERS, ASSOCIATE REFORMED PRESBYTERIANS, SEVENTH-DAY BAPTISTS, AMERICAN PROTESTANT EPISCOPALIANS, BAPTISTS, GERMAN REFORMED CHURCH. Written contracts have been made with more than twenty scholars, and many of these, in compliance with the stipulations, have made engagements with others to work with them, so that the number of scholars actually engaged in the service of the Union, does not vary far from forty.

More than half the work already done has been performed by scholars not connected with immersionist denominations, and we anticipate that this will hold true until the New Testament is finished.

Seven of the revisers under written contract reside in Great Britain, and three of these are connected with the Church of England.

In none of the above numbers do we embrace those scholars (of whom there are many) that render collateral aid. For instance, one furnishes a literal translation of all the passages in the Burmese version in which the translator (Dr. Judson) has varied from the common English version; another renders similar service in the Siamese, others in the Bengali, Sanscrit, &c.

Also, our revisers of the Spanish, the Italian, the French, and the German Scriptures, afford their aid to make the English more accurate. Some of their suggestions, especially those from the Spanish revisers, are considered invaluable. All the revisers in these several languages are men of eminent ability, and the discoveries made by one necessarily assist the others.

Hundreds of scholars, of greater or less reputation, from time to time, send in suggestions for the improvement of the English Scriptures, either in the form of criticism on the parts of the revision already issued, or in that of advice regarding other portions of the work. For such purposes we invite the direct cooperation of all scholars who are willing to render any assistance, however slight.

The revisers are furnished with the most valuable works for study and re

ference. In this respect no necessary expense is ever spared. Many of the books procured by the Union are most rare and costly. Every attainable facility is afforded to the revisers to accomplish their task in the most thorough manner possible.

Dr. Conant, in his late letter to the New York Recorder, fully explains the nature of the pledge required by the Bible Union of its revisers and translators:

"It requires of me no other pledge than fidelity to the original; that the exact meaning of the inspired text, as that text expressed it to those who understood the original Scriptures at the time they were first written, shall be translated by corresponding words and phrases, so far as they can be found in vernacular English, with the least possible obscurity and indefiniteness; and that this shall be done in the phraseology of the common English version, so far as is consistent with fidelity to the original, and a proper regard to the present state of the English language.' Such are the terms of the compact, and this is the only pledge required. Such, also, is the tenor of the general instructions to translators and revisers. The translator's duty could not be more justly defined than in the first of the above quotations; nor could a more scrupulous regard be shown to the personal responsibility and rights of the translator.

"These principles will live; and the society that plants itself upon them, and is faithful to them, is destined to live with them. They have already, to a wide extent, taken possession of the popular mind. The common people are asking, at the hands of Christian scholars, a correct version of the Christian Scriptures. These principles, whatever may be the fate of their advocate, will not die. They will live and work in the popular mind, where they have taken root, till this noble object shall be accomplished.

"So long as the American Bible Union continues true to the principles it has announced to the world, I am at its service for any aid which I can render; and I shall to the extent of my ability and influence, enlist for it the sympathy and aid of scholars in this country and in Europe."

The following extract from a work just published by Archdeacon Hare, an eminent clergyman of the Church of England, forcibly expresses the necessity and importance of revision:

"This notion, that slight errors, and defects, and faults, are immaterial, and that we need not go to the trouble of correcting them, is one main cause why there are so many huge errors, and defects, and faults in every region of human life, practical and speculative, moral and political. Nor should any error be deemed slight which affects the meaning of a single word in the Bible-where so much weight is attached to every single word-and where so many inferences and conclusions are drawn from the slightest ground, not merely those which find utterance in books, but a far greater number springing up in the minds of the millions to whom our English Bible, is the code and canon of all truth. For this reason, errors, even the least, in a version of the Bible are of far greater moment than in any other book, as well because the contents of the Bible are of far deeper importance, and have a far wider influence, as also because the readers of the Bible are, not only the educated and learned, who can exercise some sort of judg ment on what they read, but vast multitudes who understand what they read according to the letter. Hence it is a main duty of a church to take care that the versions of the Scriptures, which it puts into the hands of the members, shall be as faultless as possible, and to revise it with this view from time to time, in order to attain to the utmost accuracy in every word."

The progress of revision is not so rapid as many have anticipated. In this respect the most judicious scholars have found themselves mistaken. The labor has accumulated on their hands. But the unavoidable delay thence resulting will be far more than compensated by the increased value of the work itself. For particulars of progress we refer to the Fourth Annual Report, published in the first number of the Bible Union Reporter.

The prayers and the alms of the people of God should ascend together, as a memorial before him in so glorious and blessed an enterprise. We need pecuniary assistance. The balance in our treasury is low, and is decreasing. The expenditures for revision are much greater than in any former year. We therefore solemnly and earnestly beseech all who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, to consider the import of the following passages of sacred Scripture:

Deuteronomy iv. 2, "Ye shall not add to the word that I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it."

Deuteronomy xxvii. 8, “And thou shalt write upon the stones all the words of this law very plainly."