tuous, the covetous, and the religious. The night before which they must attain thither is the end of their life. The gates are the opportunity of grace and mercy. The enemies that surprise them if they be shut out are Satan and his angels. The first resolves to be at heaven by night, but trouble meets him in the form of a wicked law-broker, and puts such tricks into his head, whereby he may vex his neighbours, that he presently draws his sword, which is some writ or process, and furiously lays about him, till, having tired out all his adversaries, he wearies the judge, the advocate, the attorney, and, which is most strange, his indefatigable solicitor, and makes his peripatetical profession tedious to him. The lawyer hath his term and vacation; but this man hath no term, of his term no vacation. till death serve a subpoena upon him from the star chamber of heaven. Now, perhaps, he would make his peace and be quiet, but now, alas! he must enter into everlasting disquiet, and fall into the hands of worse furies than ever before he had either found, made, or employed.

The next is the profane wanton, and he would also be saved, but temptation meets him in the shape of pleasure, which so bewitcheth him with her painted beauty, that he thinks her all sweetness. Not unlike Issachar (Gen. xlix. 14, 15), he sees the land pleasant, and he even lays him down couching like an ass between the two burdens of excess and uncleanness. Time remembers him by his looking-glass, and diseases pinch him by the arm to break off his method of sensuality and vicissitudinary sins; but he will not believe them, pleading against them-yea, rather, against himself that his bones are full of marrow, his roses are not withered, old age and he are strangers, he hath nothing to do with

Time. But Time will have something to do with him, and sends him that unwelcome messenger, Sickness, to warn him of the near approach of impartial Death. Now he calls for his physician, Repentance. He would leave all vanity and begin his journey; but, alas! his time is short and the way is long. There is no hope of his seasonable arrival.

The third is the covetous churl. "And I promise you," saith he, "Jerusalem is a goodly place. I will thither sure." But temptation meets him in the form of a wedge of gold. He likes it well; it dazzleth his eye, and fires his heart with a desire to get it. He is advised to betake himself to his tools, and refuse no labour for it, without which he cannot hope to obtain it. What are those engines? The mattock of oppression, to strike into the bowels of the innocent; the spade of laboriousness, wherewith he must toil and tire his own flesh; the hook of plausible attraction, to draw in cheatable customers; the rake of penurious business, whose teeth are always scraping together; the shovel of dissembling closeness, whereby he may accumulate and multiply his heaps and hoards; the mine of policy, to take all advantages; the petard of usury, to blow up whole estates. With these instruments he must work, starving the poor, his servants, himself; for he is good to nono, worse to himself. He lives miserably to die damnably.

For the last, he that fears God and loves the Lord Jesus travels on toward eternal life, yet not without some interruptions. Sin is sometimes wrapped up in the temptation of wealth, and he may stay to look upon it; sometimes in a beauteous face, as Michal was given David to ensnare him, and he may cast a transient eye upon it, often in the disguise of friendship, and that pre

vails so far with him as to discourse with it. He meets with divers assaults; but though, like Jonathan, he tastes of the world's honey, he will not feed on it; and whensoever he wanders, the Spirit of grace recollects him, and draws him as the angels did Lot out of Sodom; otherwise he were in danger of being benighted, and, do what he can, he hath time little enough. Therefore he concludeth, "If I loiter, I shall be locked out. Unloose me from the bonds of sin, happy repentance! Defend me, faith! Hold me up, patience! Strengthen me, zeal! I come! Lord Jesus, open the gate! I come! I come!"-THOMAS ADAMS.

PRAYER.

Prayer is not a smooth expression, or a well-construed form of words; nor the product of a ready memory, nor rich invention, exciting itself in the performance. These may draw a neat picture of it, but still the life is wanting. The motion of the heart Godwards, holy and divine affection, makes prayer real, and lively, and acceptable to the living God, to whom it is presented; the pouring out of thy heart to Him that made it, and therefore hears it, and understands what it speaks, and how it is moved and affected in calling on Him. It is not the gilded paper and good writing of a petition that prevail with the king, but the moving sense of it; and to the King that discerns the heart, heart-sense is the sense of all, and that which He alone regards; He listens to hear what that speaks, and takes all as nothing when that is silent. All other excellence in prayer is but the outside

and fashion of it: that is the life of

it.

He that is much in prayer shall grow rich in grace. rich in grace. He shall thrive and increase most that is busiest in this, which is our very traffic with heaven, and fetches the most precious commodities thence. But the true art of this trading is very rare. Every trade has something wherein the skill of it lies; but this is deep and supernatural-is not reached by human industry. Industry is to be used in it, but we must know the faculty of it comes from above-that spirit of prayer, without which learning, and wit, and religious breeding can do nothing. Therefore, this is to be our prayer often, our great suit for the spirit of prayer, that we may speak the language of the sons of God by the Spirit of God, which alone teaches the heart to pronounce aright those things that the tongue of many hypocrites can articulate well to man's ear; and only the children in that right strain that takes Him, call God their Father, and cry unto Him as their Father. And, therefore, many poor unlettered Christians far outstrip your school-rabbis in this faculty, because it is not effectually taught in these lower academies; they must be in God's own school, children of His house, that speak His language.

But for advane

ing in this, and growing more skilful in it, prayer is, with continual dependence on the Spirit, to be much used. Praying much, thou shalt be blessed with much faculty for it. By praying, thou shalt learn to pray. Thou shalt obtain more of the Spirit, and find more the cheerful working of it in prayer, when thou puttest it often to that work for which it is received and wherein it is delighted.— LEIGHTON.

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The Genius of the Gospel: a Homiletical Commentary on the Gospel of St. Matthew. By DAVID THOMAS, D.D. Edited by the Rev. W. WEBSTER, M.A. London: Jackson, Walford, & Co. 1864. Svo. pp. 735.

For the past fourteen years, Dr. Thomas has been wont to place in the pages of his magazine, The Homilist, the substance, and in some cases the full manuscript, of his Lords'-day discourses. He has now collected and arranged them in this bulky volume, first submitting them to the critical revision of the Rev. W. Webster. We are not able to concur in all the praise Mr. Webster bestows on Dr. Thomas's labours; but, as a whole, these homilies are fresh in thought, skilfully planned, and often impressive in their presentation of truth. They are homilies-ethical rather than theological discourses-aiming to enforce practical truths, more than to expound doctrines. With this in view, Dr. Thomas does not always give the true sense of the Evangelist's words-as, for example, in his commentaries on the parables. The meaning he attaches to these striking allegories is, in several cases, not that primarily intended by our Lord. Yet no one will say that the moral lessons educed from them are not fairly within the scope of the language employed.

As a literary work, the excellences of the volume are marred by two or three great defects. The first is Dr. Thomas's fondness for pedantic words and phrases. Thus, in the course of a few pages, such words and phrases as the following are met with, and make one long for some literary academy by which every violence done to our English speech, and every violation of good taste, might authoritatively be condemned. An angel is spoken of who shall "course his downward way and inbreathe to the distracted

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so on.

But a far more serious defect is the scornful way in which Dr. Thomas speaks of the theologians of past days, and of those who still think that the Bible contains doctrines as well as precepts. "Dogmatists," "theologues," "traditionalists," "miserable sectarians," "traditional saints," "men who live in dogmas and ceremonies," are a few of the gentle terms by which he designates the schools of theology he dislikes. According to Dr. Thomas, these unfortunate teachers are guilty of "incoherent declamation," wordy redundancies," "dry formalities of logic;" in their sermons they speak "more in the official than in the individual voice;" they live in the " mere externalities " of truth and godliness; they are men whose conceptions have been narrow, superficial, material; whose Gospel has been a little bundle of crude notions, attractive to the thoughtless, but, verily, repulsive to all other minds." Such is Dr. Thomas's opinion of his contemporaries. "We are not," he says, "denouncing obsolete characters; they are living now."

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On the other hand, Dr. Thomas's sympathies are with those "who are distinguished by great spirituality of soul," liberality of thought, and "a philosophic insight to the laws of the mind;" with those rising spirits in every church that are practically indifferent to its little points of ceremony and minor shades of creed. Dr. Thomas is, of course, one of them. He exhibits no theological dogmatism: he has broken away from the trammels of religious routine! He can soar into the empyrean, can grasp the stars, and flood us poor mortals with the purest light!

"We want men who have neither the vanity to suppose that they have fully sounded the depths of theological truth, nor the arrogance to pronounce those heretic who neither adopt their notions nor use their nomenclature; but who, on the contrary, have grace to believe in their own fallibility, and, like John, in a teaching higher than their own."

But the above are faults of manner. We must now proceed, at the risk of being regarded as "theologues" and "dogmatists," to question Dr. Thomas's fitness as a teacher of Scriptural truth. Dr. Thomas may be a staunch believer in the doctrine of the Atonement; but this volume of more than seven hundred pages on the "Genius of the Gospel is, to say the least, singularly reticent about it. Once, Dr. Thomas quotes the passage," the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin; He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world," to prove that God can dispense pardon on a ground honourable to His character, and safe to His government. With this exception, the volume is either silent on this important subject, or employs language so like that of the school of Mr. Maurice as to give rise to the fear that Dr. Thomas's views have been influenced by them. What, for instance, can be made of the following statements in the homily on the Passover and the Lord's Supper?—

"Why are we to eat the bread and drink the wine? Because the act symbolizes the important duty of appropriating to ourselves that self-sacrificing spirit of which the physical crucifixion of Christ was but the expression and the effect. The spiritual meaning of these words may be thus expressed:-Take my self-sacrificing spirit into you; let your soul feed on it, as your body would on bread;

wine. This is the sublime reality of the service; the material act is but the form. His self-sacrificing spirit is the water of life, which He is to give, which, if we drink, we shall thirst no more; the bread of life which came down from heaven, which, if a man eat, he shall never die. To have this is to be made conformable unto His death-is to have His life manifest in our mortal bodies. 'Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life;'-that is, whoso appropriates the moral spirit of my being, hath eternal life."-pp. 652, 653.

"The New Testament means the Gospel dispensation, in contradistinction to the Mosaic one. The Mosaic one was sealed with blood, sprinkled by Moses upon the people; the Gospel dispensation was to be sealed with the blood of Christ. His blood was not only the New Testament blood, but blood shed for many '-for all-Jews and Gentiles; and shed for all, for the remission of sins. It is through this self-sacrificing love of Christ, symbolized by the blood, that the remission of sins becomes possible; and it is only as this self-sacrificing love of Christ is drunk in by us, appropriated by us, that the remission of our sins is obtained. There is sufficient virtue in Christ's sacrifice to obtain pardon for the world; but, unless that principle of sacrifice is taken in by us, acted upon by us, our sins will never be pardoned." -p. 653.

In all this, the idea that Christ's death is an expiation for sin is wholly absent. Attention is entirely given to the moral effect of Christ's death on us, not at all to the changed relation with God into which the sinner is brought by the Great Sacrifice for sin. The Biblical doctrine is, that the sacrifice of Christ consisted in His offering up Himself to God as the victim-substitute for guilty man, whereby an atonement was made for man's guilt. Dr. Thomas's doc'trine seems to be, that the crucifixion of Christ was but the expression and effect of His self-sacrificing spirit (the italics

are Dr. Thomas's), and that His blood was shed for the remission of the sins of those who possess the same self-sacrificing spirit. That the death of the Redeemer was an unequalled act of love is true enough. But it was more than this-it was an act of propitiation made to God on behalf of man. This view of Christ's sacrifice Dr. Thomas has wholly omitted from consideration.

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This reticence is even more remarkable in the Homily entitled "Christ on the Cross.' Here, at all events, we might expect a distinct enunciation of the truth. The lessons that the awful scene of the Crucifixion suggests would surely include the purpose of that agony, the object to be attained by that " cursed" death. But according to our author, Christ upon the Cross presents only the four following aspects :-" He is to be regarded as the victim of wickedness; as the exemplar of religion; as the deserted of Heaven; and as the power of God." He exhibited on the cross the highest love for enemies, the highest filial affection, the highest confidence in the Eternal. He felt distant from God, and was in terrible amazement. He displayed power over nature, and over the spiritual world. And this is all. "He was delivered for our offences; Christ died for the ungodly," says the Apostle Paul. "Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures." Yet of this great purpose Dr. Thomas says not one word, although treating of that dread hour in which "He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities."

It is probable that, in his horror of following in the steps of other theologians, Dr. Thomas has simply turned aside from this great theme as too trite. It is not that he rejects the doctrine of the Atonement; he only wishes to take a broader view, and so overlooks the gem sparkling at his feet. It is truth; but it is old truth, and the world wants something new. In search of novelties, many are drifting they know not where. It may be, as they say, that they are seeking to know the Lord's will more fully; but of this we are sure, that the spirit of reverence and humility is a better preparation for its discovery than that

arrogant contempt of our predecessors so often displayed.

An Apology for the Adoption of Padobaptism; with an Appendix on the Possibility of Union between the Congregational and Baptist Denominations. By the Rev. JOHN R. S. HARINGTON, late of the Bristol Baptist College. London: John Snow, 1864. Pp. 31.

Mr. Harington has given his reasons for departing from amongst us in so modest and Christian a manner, as to deserve entire credit for conscientiousness in the step he has taken, and for the sincerity of his new belief. These moral excellencies do not, however, secure correct reasoning; and in this respect Mr. Harington's defence seems to us a conspicuous failure. To follow him over all the grounds on which he rests the justification of his change of position, would involve a discussion of the whole pædobaptist question, for which we have no inclination. Nor is it necessary, since every point has been amply discussed in the pages of Carson and Stovel. It will suffice to adduce two or three specimens of Mr. Harington's mode of reasoning to test the intellectual quality of the arguments by which his judgment has been convinced.

Our author divides his treatise into two sections-1. The Spiritual Significance of Baptism. 2. The Unrestricted Application of Baptism. Under the first head he treats of the mode; under the second of the subjects of baptism.

At starting he tells us, that "if baptism be the symbol of a spiritual fact, it cannot be also the symbol of a material act, such as burial." Why baptism may not be a symbol of both a spiritual fact and a material act, Mr. Harington does not explain; but at once proceeds to state his conclusion, that for this reason "arguments for immersion drawn from the words of the Apostle Paul, 'buried with him in baptism,' lose their force." Presently, however, we find that it is not the mode which is the symbol of the spiritual fact, but the matter-the water. "The element we contend for, not the