tion. I. THE CONCESSION GRANTED TO THE WRONG. The request, "Give me," &c., though wrong in spirit, is granted. "The father divided unto them his living." This is an emblem of God's conduct with sinners. He concedes to them the means of gratifying their selfish wishes. He gives them their portion of goods. The miser, the voluptuary, the ambitious, the vain ;-to all, however corrupt, He gives "the portion," &c. "He allows power to steal, murder, blaspheme," &c. This Divine conduct shows :-first, The responsibility thrown upon man. He has what he seeks, and he cannot find fault, and will, therefore, reap at last "the fruits of his own labor." It shows:-secondly, The high probability of future retribution. It cannot be that this concession will always continue. II. THE CONNEXION OF CONDUCT WITH FEELING. "Not many days after he gathered all together and departed." Probably he turned the fortune he had received into ready money, jewels, or other valuables, which he could easily carry with him. The change of feeling towards his father showed itself "not many days after" in his conduct. It is ever The apostacy of the life is sure to follow the apostacy of the heart. Let the spirit of religion decay and "not many days after" it will appear in the conduct. "Keep your heart therefore with all diligence," &c. III. THE POWER OF SIN TO DENATURALIZE OUR LIVES. The dictates of natural reason, affection, and conscience, would urge the son to remain in loving fellowship with, and obedience to, such a father. His departure was unnatural. It is common to speak of sin as the natural state of man, but it is not correct. It is unnatural. It is against the law of reason to prefer error to truth,-the law of conscience to follow the wrong in preference to the right,-the law of our entire nature to love the creature more than the Creator, and to subject conscience to the body. 80. [TO BE CONTINUED.] Theological Notes and Queries. OPEN COUNCIL. [The utmost freedom of hallowed thought is permitted in this department. The reader must therefore use his own discriminating faculties, and the Editor must be allowed to claim freedom from responsibility.] At the beginning of the second year of our Theological Notes and Queries, a word retrospective and prospective may be in place. The large number of queries may be fairly regarded as a proof of the interest, and even excitement of our readers generally. That in some there is neither excitement nor interest, and that to such the Notes and Queries appear dry, is credible. "Dry light," however, is sometimes needful. It was neither promised nor intended that this department should be adorned with the flowers of oratory, or that solidity and the profit of the thoughtful should be postponed in favor of "clap-trap." The bloom and beauty of the complete body are more attractive to the eye than is the underlying skeleton; yet, were this wanting, we can imagine that the corporeal structure might suffer somewhat in firmness and activity. The earth may be less inviting when bound in wintry chains and clad in white; but reflection tells us these are preparations needful for the blossom, the fruit, and the grain. So in mind. Unless you have a solid basis of knowledge, vain is the play of imagination. Encouraged but not satisfied by the past, and confident, good readers, in the understanding between us, we hopefully enter on another year of friendly discussion, of enquiry and Abel's blood, but Abel himself who is here described as speaking. In Heb., xi. 4, Abel is said "being dead, yet to speak." But this is a point of confessedly small consequence. If we take xii. 24, and xi. 4, together, it will become manifest that Abel speaks, after his death, by his blood-his own blood. Gen. iv. 10: "The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground." Some, as Knatchbull, think indeed that the blood of the sacrifices which Abel offered is intended. But this opinion appears to us to be groundless and opposed to the natural meaning. In no other passage is it said that the blood of Abel's sacrifices spoke. Yet the writer of this epistle is evidently referring to a familiar fact. Besides, were the blood of the sacrifices to speak, it would be of the same things as Christ's, though by obscure anticipation. That Abel's blood cried for vengeance, and that the blood of Christ cries for pardon, is, we think, the obvious and only admissible sense; and this, moreover, is the sense set forth by all the ancients. Queries to be answered in our next Number. 1. What are the best arguments against the sceptical assertion that conscience is only the result of education ?-P.M.Í. 2. Will the Editor, or some one of the numerous readers and correspondents of the Homilist, favor me with an exposition of Rom. viii. 19-23 ? I am acquainted with the more exact rendering of the passage than that of the common version, and also with the meaning ascribed to it by Tholuck and others ;who believe the whole material world to be included in the terms; and that the deliverance spoken of has reference to the future renovation of the earth-the production of the new heavens and new earth; (which reading I reject) and I am also familiar with the explanation given in "The Homilist," No. 3, New Series. But the passage still seems to need further elucidation, and perhaps further light may be given by a reply to the following questions : 1st. Does the passage embrace the inferior animals? If so, how do verses 19 and 20 apply? 2nd. -If the application of the words be only to man (which we think) then, how, or in what sense, can the Gentile world or unbelievers be said to wait with earnest expectation "for the manifestation of the Sons of God," and for deliverance "from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God"? W. H. COLLIN. 3. Referring to the query of U.T., No. 43, may I submit another, bearing much upon the same point, but perhaps of a more probing character? Has any individual, whoso. ever he may be, a right to expect or require any act from another which he would not perform himself? My enquiry applies equally to acts physical, social, political, or moral. For instance, should any consistent advocate of capital punishments, object or refuse to carry out by his own hands the last penalty of the law? And assuming that capital punishments are in harmony with Christian ethics, is not the odium now attaching to the Sheriff's assistant, who takes so prominent a part in the legal tragedy, most illogical? Again can any rightly or consistently advocate war who is not himself ready or prepared forthwith to take up arms and shed blood? The query of U.T. taken generally is a most important one, especially in these days when so much is done by the united efforts of men, and is conducive to the exposure of the wide spread fallacy, that man in a corporate capacity acquired moral rights and immunities which he cannot possess in his individual capacity. The corporate or collective action of men can create no privileges or responsibilities which can alter or affect their moral position and relationships. Any agency which perpetrates a wrong is equally culpable and accountable, whether it be an individual or a joint agency. Whilst therefore in his individual capacity a man cannot rightly delegate to or require from others that which he would not perform himself, so on the other hand in his corporate capacity, he can never, as a responsible agent, do aught that he would not do individually. The Pulpit and its Three Handmaids. HISTORY, SCIENCE, ART. SUB-DIVISIONS OR PROSY PREACHING. "Equally unnecessary is it to caution the preacher against those complicated divisions and subdivisions, into which our forefathers thought it proper to chop up their discourses, to the entire frustration of the very object they had in view, and the utter discomfiture of the most retentive memory. In one discourse of Bishop Hall we have counted no less than eighty heads, principal and subordinate; in one of Baxter's not less than 120, besides a formidable array of 'improvements.' But the most amusing examples of this abuse are those recorded in Robinson's notes to Claude's Essay, "On the Composition of a Sermon." But allowing the necessity of a natural and easy division, it does by no means follow that these are to multiply into whole armies. A hundred years ago most sermons had thirty, forty, fifty, or sixty particulars. There is a sermon of Mr. Lyle, on 1 Cor. vi. 17, "the terms of which," says he, "I shall endeavor, by God's assistance, clearly to explain." This he does in thirty particulars, for the fixing of it on a right basis, and then adds fifty-six more to explain the subject:-in all eighty-six! And what makes it the more astonishing is his introduction to all these; which is this: "Having thus beaten up, and levelled our way to the text, I shall not stand to shred the words into any unnecessary parts, but shall extract out of them such an observation as I conceive strikes a full eighth to the mind of the spirit of God."— Essays from the Edinburgh Review. A READY PREACHER. "A talented preacher on the continent was once called upon to preach before a company of gay Courtiers upon a text which should be given him at the time. The passage laid before him was the history of Philip and the Eunuch. The extraordinary readiness and self-possession of the preacher's mind were sufficient for the occasion. After glancing over, and then slowly reading, the text, he observed that, It contained several very extraordinary things suitable to his audience. It related to a Courtier, and to Courtiers he had to address himself. First wonder: a Courtier reads. Here he remarked that many persons at courts very often neglect their minds while they feed and dress their bodies. Second wonder: a Courtier reads the Bible. This led him to advert to the neglect of that sacred book. Third wonder a Courtier seeks instruction of a minister of Christ; which led him to expatiate on the contempt with which many treated them. Fourth wonder: a Courtier becomes concerned about the salvation of his soul. Which furnished a contrast with those who neglect their souls. Fifth-wonder: a Courtier believes, obeys, and finds his happiness in religion. This he proved was seldom or ever the case at court."-Facts and Fancies by Felix Friendly. THE TWO THINGS NECESSARY TO RESTORE MAN.-GAL. vi. 1, 2. "First: Sympathy. We Protestants have one unvarying sneer ready for the system of the Romish Confessional. Romanists confess, we say, for the sake of absolution, that absolved, they may sin again. A shallow, superficial sneer, as all sneers are. In that craving of the heart which gives the system of the Confessional its dangerous power, there is something far more profound than any sneer can fathom. It is not the desire to sin again that makes men long to unburden their consciences; but it is the yearning to be true, which lies at the bottom, even of the most depraved hearts; to appear what they are; and to lead a false life no longer. And besides the desire of sympathy,for this comes out of that dreadful sense of loneliness which is the result of sinning; the heart severed from God, feels severed from all other hearts; goes alone, as if it had neither part nor lot with other men; itself a shadow among shadows, and its craving is for sympathy; it wants some human heart to know what it feels. Thousands upon thousands of laden hearts around us are crying-'Come and bear my burden with me.' And observe here the Apostle says, Bear ye one another's burdens.' Not let the 6 priest bear the burdens of all: that were most unjust. Why should the priest's heart be the receptacle of all the crimes and wickedness of a congregation? 'Bear ye one another's burdens.' Secondly :- Again, by Forgiveness. There is a truth in the doctrine of absolution. God has given to man the power to absolve his brother, and to restore him to himself. The forgiveness of man is an echo, and an earnest of God's forgiveness. He whom society has restored realizes the possibility of restoration to God's favor. Even the mercifulness of one good man sounds like a voice of pardon from Heaven; just as the power and the exclusion of men sound like a knell of hopelessness, and do actually bind the sin upon the soul. The man whom society will not forgive nor |