this end. Whatever tends to promote this, you are to cherish and favour; whatever hinders this, or in any degree operates injuriously upon it, you are to discountenance and shun. All that gives bias to your passions and appetites, to your inclinations and thoughts, to your opinion of yourself, to your conduct toward others, your private or public employment of your time, your business and gains, your recreation and pleasures, is to be judged of by a reference to this standard, and condemned or approved accordingly. You are to feel that nothing is of such consequence to you as the Christian character, that to form this is the very work for which you were sent into the world; and if this be not done, you do nothing, you had better never have been born, for your life is wasted without accomplishing its object, and your soul enters on eternity without having secured its salvation. The provisions of God's mercy are slighted, and for you the Saviour has lived and died in vain."

The formation of the Christian character, though an arduous work, is shown to be in the power of all to accomplish; and the distinction is well defined, between "the necessity of every one's own labours being exerted to secure his salvation, yet the inadequacy of the utmost virtue to purchase or merit it." The observations on the proper state of mind to be cultivated on commencing this important business, are admirable. The directions for reading, meditation, and prayer, cannot be perused without advantage, and the caution against expecting the durability of those glowing feelings of excitement which the devout Christian occasionally enjoys, may be useful to those, who, from inexperience, are apt to be discouraged at the transitory nature of that glow of holy rapture which at times they experience. They will learn from our author, that those seasons when the enraptured mind, soaring on the wings of contemplation, till it can almost gaze through golden vistas into heaven, "are few as angels' visits, and that their real worth is to be ascertained by the religious power gained from them, towards meeting the duties and sufferings, the joys and sorrows, the temptations, trials, and conflicts of actual life."

The remorse excited in the mind when first awakened to a sense of its past trangressions, is feelingly pourtrayed; and the exaggerated light, in which the individual under these circumstances views his own character, is well explained. "He sees

at one view all his past sins, open and secret, and sets them by the side, not of the hidden and private life of others, but by their decent public demeanour." These feelings of penitence, however, if not carried to excess, are highly beneficial, as they will lead to true humility and sincere reformation; but, at such times, the mind requires rather to be soothed into a state of calm, than roused to greater excitement; there is no reason, because conscience is awakened to a sense of sin, that despair should be excited of the mercy of God, for now the mind is best prepared to receive and to value the precious legacy of peace bequeathed by the Saviour to his true disciples.

The following passage may enable all to ascertain for themselves, whether they have or have not acquired the true spirit of

personal religion, "All men know that if the salvation reigned within,' it would regulate the movements of the life, as surely as the internal motions of the watch are indicated on its face; if the hands point wrong, they know, without looking further, that there is disorder within." In the same manner, the outward deportment proves the inward state of heart and mind.

Scarcely any thing can be imagined more forcible, more awakening, more calculated to assist the devout, to arouse the indifferent, to lead to increased watchfulness, and to more rigid self-examination, than the chapter "on the religious discipline of life." Well would it be, if such reflections were generally reduced into practice, for assuredly to him who succeeded in the attempt, "heaven would be already begun; and when welcomed to the joy of his Lord, it would be to a joy which his regulated spirit had already tasted in the labours and pleasures of obedience below."

An Illustration of the Epistles of St. Paul, including an entirely new Translation. By Charles Eyre, Clk. Trinity College, Cambridge, A. B. 1807. Two vols. London; Longman & Co. 1832.

Of all the writings in the world, those of St. Paul have been most unfairly treated. Tortured sometimes in the crucible of theological alchemy, they have been attempted to be changed from the natural substances of which they are composed, to the desired metal which the dreaming philosophers sought. Sometimes dragged mercilessly into the inquisition of school divinity, they have been placed under the savage discipline of the rack and the screw, till confessions have been extorted from them, of things with which they were totally unacquainted; and evidence has been wrung from them, in support of allegations, which, when left to speak freely, they positively deny. And as this forced testimony has always been just what the torturers determined beforehand that it should be; the testimony, has, of course, varied according to the temper and object of these inquisitors. If these ill-used, persecuted, and constantly tormented Epistles were in the hands of the Roman inquisitors, then there was no rest nor escape for them, till they had testified that the Pope was the successor of Peter, that the Church was infallible, that a priest could convert bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, that the Church may grant indulgences, that the intercession of angels and saints should be sought, and that Christ instituted the seven sacraments of baptism, confirmation, eucharist, penance, extreme unction, holy orders, and matrimony. And then, when any one called in question the conclusiveness of this extorted evidence, the ready reply was unfailingly at hand, that seventeen infallible Councils, beginning with that of Nice in 325, and ending with that of Trent in 1541 to 1549, had determined, beyond all controversy, that the writings of St. Paul had, of their own accord, in the most unequivocal language, declared these doctrines to be

true.

If these same unfortunate Epistles were in the hands of the Calvinistic inquisitors, then they were compelled to give evidence against the Church of Rome, and in favour of election and reprobation, particular redemption, irresistible grace, effectual calling, and final perseverance. And when it was objected, that at least some of these doctrines could not be true, because God must be impartial, and man free; it was replied, that Paul has plainly taught God's sovereignty and man's inability, the inflexibility of the Divine decrees, and the necessity under which God is laid to glorify himself in the endless groans and miseries of the vessels of wrath, who were created for the regions of woe as expressly as the elect were formed for heaven.

If St. Paul's Epistles were in the power of the Church of England inquisitors, then they were forced to affirm, that the Church of Rome was Antichrist, and the Pope "the man of sin;" and that the Church of Christ should be established by law, and be girt about by Thirty-nine Articles and three Creeds, and be adorned with Pluralists, and Bishops, and Archbishops, with princely incomes, and have the King for its head. And if it be asked, how Paul could teach the necessity of any church establishment whatever, while he himself was a zealous and fearless and conscientious dissenter from the Jewish establishment; or how he could sanction enormous salaries to be received by the ministers of that religion which he preached for no salary; it is replied, Oh, but Paul in his Epistles argues that the dignity of the Christian ministry is to be properly sustained, and as the state of society alters, the Apostle must have intended that the condition of the clergy should correspond with such alterations.

Oh yes, it is, alas! too true, that unfeeling torturers of the Epistles in past ages, made Paul say whatever suited their purpose, and sanction any doctrine which their fancies had devised. And the rack-and-screw theologians of modern times, treat the Epistles with at least an equal degree of injustice and cruelty. They will not permit them to speak for themselves. They will not take the evidence of any one Epistle, as one whole thing. That evidence is broken up into shreds. Words are taken out of their connection, and severed from their relation to other words. The sound, rather than the sense, is made the standard of interpretation. And to complete the series of the inconsistencies, so much to be lamented in the conduct of Paul's tormentors, they now set him in opposition to Jesus Christ, and now place him upon an equality with his Lord and Master, and then elevate him above the Son of God.

Offended, and justly so, at seeing Paul thus preferred to Jesus, the mighty-minded Bentham was driven to exclaim, "Not Paul, but Jesus," and to write a volume in justification of the propriety and even necessity of his exclamation.

And which is most likely to be nearest the truth, and to be honouring the Saviour; the man who says, "not Paul, but Jesus?" or he who says, "not Jesus, but Paul"? But the latter is in fact what a man does say, whenever he endeavours to extract from the Epistles, doctrines which are directly at variance with the

plain language and positive commands of Jesus Christ. And yet this is done daily and hourly by those who arrogate to themselves the terms orthodox and evangelical. Ask them for proof of their doctrines, and straight they give you a text from Paul, tortured into a seeming compliance with their views. But let a whole Epistle be read through at one time, as every letter should be-and each Epistle is a letter-and the drift and design of the whole all along kept in sight, and the quoted text, the scrap torn away, assumes a totally different and not unfrequently an entirely opposite meaning.

The writer of these remarks well remembers his astonishment at the utterly different aspect which the Epistle to the Romans assumed, when he, for the first time, carefully read it through at a sitting, discarding as much as possible all preconceived opinions and early associations with particular expressions, from what that same Epistle had presented to his mental eye, accustomed as that eye had previously been to look on it only in detached parts, and to consider those parts as so many independent propositions, instead of being, as they really are, portions of a continuous argu

ment.

And

It is to a certain degree the same with each Epistle, and therefore it is of the first importance that every one desirous of treating Paul fairly, and of understanding what he is teaching, should read an Epistle as much as possible, with the circumstances of both the writer and the addressed before the mind's eye. to enable readers of Paul to recal and employ these circumstances, has been the object of Locke, and Lardner, and Priestley, and Belsham, and a host of other eminent and pious Christians, who desired that Paul should be understood-were anxious that his writings should no longer be made the instruments of error, controversy, and polemical rancour; and who were equally anxious that Christians should be no more disposed to act upon the sentiment, "not Jesus, but Paul," than they should upon the sentiment, "not Paul but Jesus;" both, when rationally interpreted, bearing harmonious testimony to the same great and essential truths.

Towards the same laudable object, the labours of Mr. Eyre are also directed. His illustrations are worthy the perusal of every Scriptural inquirer. May the day be near, when there shall be an agreement of opinion on the Epistles, a unity of spirit in obeying Christ, and a oneness of mind and heart in the love and worship of God, the Father of all.

The Wanderings of Christendom from Gospel Truth, and the Prospects of its return to primitive Evangelism. A Discourse, preached in Young-Street Chapel, Edinburgh; by B. T. Stannus. Bell & Bradfute, Edinburgh; R. Hunter, and C. Fox, London.

YES, indeed! Christendom has for ages, in obstinate waywardness, pursued the devious paths of metaphysics, and gloom, and sadness, which lead the unhappy wanderer therein, directly away from Gospel truth and

evangelical love. Oh, it is a melancholy picture, although bright are its colours, and tasteful are its pencillings, which Mr. Stannus has given in the Sermon before us, of the wanderings of Christendom into the labyrinths of Plato-into the "Groves of Academus"-into the wilds of Homoiousians, and Homo-ousians-and into the trackless desert of mystery. Pity it is, ten thousand pities, that this picture must be confessed to be so scrupulously true to the original. But so, alas! it is; and we are compelled to own with a sigh, while we gaze upon it,-this is really a faithful representation of the infatuated wanderings of Christendom.

But to prevent despondency, to minister hope, to cheer the drooping spirit, to change sighing into rejoicing, Mr. S. kindly places another picture before us, in which Christendom is seen returning to her " "first love," primitive evangelism. Hail! lovely sight. There is the star of evangelical truth," lighting Christendom on her return;-there are the streams of living waters, and the bread of life, to invigorate her on her journey; and there is enlightened, and invigorated Christendom, in the act of hasting away from the strange land of creeds, confessions, and politico-religious establishments, into which she has been taking a long and dark journey, back to the home of her Father. And this picture must, if there be truth in the Bible, be as faithful a representation of what Christendom will do, as the other is of what she has done.

Most true it is, as Mr. Stannus observes, that "Christians are rapidly returning to their first love." Welcome all; and let them all return. And to the benevolent wish with which Mr. Stannus closes this beautiful discourse" And may all our righteous endeavours to bring our fellowmen to their first love,' be crowned with success,' we respond a most hearty Amen.

THE CHRISTIAN PIONEER.

GLASGOW, APRIL 1, 1833.

In our number for February, we noticed the Sunday evening Lectures, then in course of delivery, at the Unitarian Chapel, Paisley. The Lectures were continued to the first Sunday in March, the concluding one, on the harmony of the Attributes of God, being preached by Mr. W. M'Kean, a native of Paisley, but now resident in this City. The observations with which he closed the services, are so excellent that we gladly insert them in our pages:

"In concluding these evening Lectures, I rejoice to congratulate you, my brethren, on the fulfilment of the Saviour's words, "Blessed are ye when men revile you, and speak all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake." You have experienced this in the Christian sympathy of those who have spoken in your behalf, in the cheerful manner in which the defence of the Gospel has been carried on, in the success which has attended the war with its enemies, and in the general hope that the thrusts which have been made at the cruel theology of Scotland's confession, have neither been aimless nor unsuccessful.

"Had the abettors of mysterious Christianity been aware of the result, they probably would have spared their heartless attacks on a few humble Christians, who quietly and unobtrusively worship God in the simplicity which is in Christ. But you needed something to awaken you; for although is well that you have shaken off the errors of the popular superstition, you owed to your brethren, to unbind their heavy burdens, and invite them to participate in the glorious liberty of the sons of God. But it is so generally. The enemies of the worship of the Father, have been the primary instruments of its extension; and but for them, the truth might have remained concealed under the rubbish which priests have