far as it does not require its members to adhere to the Church of England, was erected in the year 1827. " One of the first and dearest objects to our pilgrim fathers was to realize in the land of their adoption the solemnities of a Scottish Sabbath, but long and dreary was the period which elapsed ere they witnessed "a consummation so devoutly to be wished." It would not be safe to affirm, that in every individual case the motive was purely religious, that there was a single eye to the glory of God. In addition to that predilection for forms of worship to which they have been accustomed, and partiality for the religion of their forefathers which are common to all, the Scottish Presbyterians were influenced by early associations and recollections of a peculiarly interesting character, as well as by a laudable attachment to their national Zion in their efforts to secure the means of support for a standing ministry in connexion with that Christian Church. But doubtless many were actuated by higher considerations than any or all of these, and when the day at length arrived which shone on the first structure dedicated to Presbyterian worship in that rising colony, it was hailed as the dawn of spiritual light, liberty, and joy. It was the commencement of a new era of happy time, or like the return of spring after a long and dreary winter. From the year 1783, when the loyalists arrived, till the year 1817, when a Scottish church was opened, Presbyterians and Congregationalists, of whom there was a large proportion in different districts of the Province, were either necessitated to remain total strangers to the public ordinances of grace, or to mingle in the devotions of other denominations of worshippers who might have been provided with the means of congregating. But so congenial to the sentiments and feelings of the great body of the first settlers, were the principles, forms, and usages of the Presbyterian Church, that had a moderate share of state favour, and of Christian liberality, in the mother country, been extended to its earlier colonial struggles, there can be little doubt, that, long ere now, it would have embraced in its communion almost the whole of the Protestant population, having rendered unnecessary that multiplication of sects and parties, whose various interests, and conflicting claims, find in Episcopacy no adverse elements forcibly to repress, and no friendly bearing calculated to allure. It is not designed to insinuate that there is no common ground on which English and Scottish churchmen, nay, many of the dissenting denominations which divide the Protestant population of our country, can meet and hold friendly spiritual communication. But it cannot be disguised that many of the rites, forms, and ceremonies of the Church of England, are so different from those of other religious persuasions, as to make it manifest that the taste of the great body of the people is naturally opposed to them, and that early habits and education are necessary to form a warm admirer of its distinctive characters, and to excite a relish for the peculiarities which so strikingly mark its modes of worship. Why, in Scotland are the principles and forms of the establishment, those of the great body of dissenters from it? And how does it happen, that there, no sects holding tenets widely different are ever found to prosper? Why, in short, in its relation to the Established Church, is the dissenterism of South and North Britain so strikingly dissimilar? It is just because in the case of the latter, much more than in that of the former, there are in the religion of the land elements adverse to the cause of separation, and a bearing favourable to a friend In point of commercial importance, St. John with its harbour on the Bay of Fundy (having the peculiar advantage of being open to navigation throughout the year,) unquestionably takes the lead. Next to it may be ranked the sea-ports of Miramichi, St. Andrews, St. Stephens, and Richibucto. But the towns, villages, and settlements throughout the Province, which contribute in various and increasing proportions to form a population of from eighty to a hundred thousand, it belongs not to my purpose to enumerate. Such a collection of inhabitants, driven by discontent or penury from the mother country, gathered by business or by accident from many different quarters, must be supposed to bring with them a corresponding mixture of principles; and, in many instances, may be easily believed scarcely to have formed any principles at all. "Persons of the latter description,' to use the words of Dr Dwight in reference to another locality, "seat themselves on commercial ground to amass property, not to find the way to heaven; and of such persons will no small part of such an aggregation ordinarily consist. To such an unfortunate moral state of society is sometimes happily opposed that peculiar influence in favour of religion, which is exerted too rarely, I confess, by superior talents, united with superior piety. On such efforts heaven has heretofore smiled with distinguished benignity. Were they happily to be made here, they could, I think, hardly fail of success." To a certain extent that benignant influence has been made to bear on the population of those transatlantic settlements which form the subject of this sketch, though "the little leaven" has failed in point of quantity to “leaven the whole lump." But our encouragement is, "that God despiseth not the day of small things," and by the very inadequacy of the means, he causeth his own powerful operation more signally to appear. As might have been expected, this infant colony was the scene of many irregularities committed under the covert of high religious pretension previous to the arrival of properly accredited religious instructors, who could not be expected to fix their abode among a people who had not the means of comfortable support even for themselves and those consigned to their care. Fanaticism, with its wildest extravagancies both of opinion and practice, marked the proceedings of the New Lights and other sects of misguided religionists who overran the earlier Protestant settlements. I cannot pretend to enumerate or describe all the shades of religious opinion which that particular designation was employed to characterize, nor would it be consistent with the spirit of Christian charity to involve all who in the present day are classed under the same appellative, in the same condemnation. Certain it is, that many of those selfappointed teachers who first obtained "a local habitation and a name" in New Brunswick, were sunk in ignorance, degraded by vice, and under the sacred and venerable name of Christianity disseminated the most licentious principles which, there is good reason to hope, the enlightened Sabbath instructions, and faithful week-day ministrations of an increasing body of minis. ters from our own and other lands are doing much to counteract and exterminate. Though no part of the Province has ever yet been distinguished as the scene of a religious revival, yet amid discouragements numerous and severe, there have been "times of refreshingly alliance. In like manner, had a judicious policy been from the presence of the Lord," and in many a lonely hut, buried amid the darkness and the depths of an unbroken forest, are to be found altars to the God of Israel, hearts softened by religious impressions, and gladdened by spiritual consolation. "Witness, ye hills, where winter rules the year,- exercised in adapting the Ecclesiastical Establishment given to New Brunswick, to the habits, modes of thinking, early associations, religious education, and feelings of the mass of its first British settlers, a regular and beloved ministry would have long ago been secured to the great majority of the colonists, while the progress of schism would have been arrested, party violence would have been checked, and the oil of Christian charity would have been poured upon the tumultuous waters of bitterness and strife. It is true, indeed, that the first church grant obtained after the separation of the province from Nova Scotia, was in the name of certain trustees for the benefit of those adhering to the Protestant principles approved of by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, but no pecuniary means having been provided for the erection of a place of worship, in connection with that branch of the Reformed Church; and the land appropriated for its location being situated at an inconvenient distance from the denser population, the building (of which a foundation was laid on the spot referred to) was never carried forward to completion. Thus it happened that though many of the leading men, at the first settlement of the Province, were true sons of the Scottish Church, and employed their influence, with some success, in order to have her rights duly recognised, they were, from such discouraging circumstances as these, led to attach themselves to a religious society, more favoured of the powers that were, and before an edifice, worthy of the Church of their fathers could be reared on a more eligible site, the sacred tie which bound them to her altars was dissevered, while the original trustees, with one solitary exception, had been removed from this earthly scene. It would, however, be ungenerous not to state that the church thus, at length, established, was aided in its progress by a grant of money from the Province treasury, and afterwards endowed, to a certain extent, by the crown, because the part of the city's population, belonging to that communion, became large and respectable. But no provincial establishinent was granted, nor was provision made for the erection or support of other churches in that connection, and thus many of its best friends were necessarily merged with other denominations, falling, perhaps, too easy a prey to that process of utter extermination to which the " witnessing remnant" of Scottish Presbyterianism has been subjected. Had those scions of the parent stock, which had been conveyed to that western clime, been nourished during their infant progress, how immense, at this day, would have been their produce! how many "trees of righteousness" would have sprung up, "the planting of the Lord, in whom he would be glorified!" Surely it is most desirable that the same attractive scenes which our beloved coun try, with all her faults, continues still to present, should be exhibited in the foreign settlement of Great Britain. And how can these ever be expected to be realized while the ecclesiastical provisions of our land are not extended to these regions, and allowed there to exert their full salutary influence? Is there any thing in the moral circumstances of these settlements to prevent the agency of our Church from being attended with the same happy effects on their condition as have been witnessed and admired within the sphere of its native operation? Would not that which is good for home prove an equal benefit abroad? In corroboration of these statements the writer may be permitted to quote his own language, while resident in the colony which is the subject of this sketch;' "I may assert, without any pretensions to prophetic sagacity, that were the Scottish establishment settled in this Province in all its beauty, and vigour, and strength, those scenes of profanity which shock every Scotsman possessed of the ordinary feelings of his countrymen on his first arrival on our shores, and from which he shrinks with horror, until familiarity has weakened their influence, or absence from home has effaced the religious impressions of his youth, would speedily vanish, the wholesome discipline which has hitherto restrained from vice being still maintained over the parents, the children would naturally be trained in the same principles and habits; by degrees the benignant influence of that religion which * Ecclesiastical Polity in British Colonies, &c., p. 64, CHRISTIAN TREASURY. The Power of Faith.-O faith, faith! thou blessed companion of the children of God! Thy wondrous power deprives the wilderness of its horrors, and the deepest solitude ceases to be solitary under thy guidance! All that earth and heaven possess of beauty is thine, and with the treasury of heights and depths thou enrichest thy possessors! That which is distant, is brought near by thee; thou developest hidden things, and awakenest past events to new life. Thou mergest the gloom of the present into the bliss of the future, and paintest the sky of many a departing sun with the dawning radiance of a better world. In the midst of sublunary changes, thou anticipatest a peaceful paradise. Thou peoplest our bereaved family circles with holy and heavenly company; thou dost associate both worlds in close connection, and unitest things past, present, and to come. In thy light, the sacred narratives seem acted over again, and our own personal history becomes a sacred record of Providence. Thou hast the power of realizing the dead as if they were alive; the patriarchs are our contemporaries, although their ashes repose in the sepulchre of near six thousand years. By thy voice they still converse with us, although to human ears they speak no more; by thy realizing aid, they visit us in our darkness with kindness and consolation; by thy light, we see a cloud of them as witnesses encamped around us; and whatever grace they experienced, is through thee, appropriated to ourselves. Thou nourishest us with the promises made to Abraham, sustainest us with the strong consolation of the oath divinely sworn unto Isaac; thou givest us the staff of Jacob to support our steps; thou enablest us with Moses' rod to divide the sea, and with David to leap over the wall and rampart! O faith, faith! thou doorkeeper of every sanctuary, thou master over all the treasures of God! May He, who is thine author, draw near unto us; and He who is thy finisher, bend down himself towards us!-KRUMMACHER. (Elijah the Tishbite.) Witnesses for Christ.-Is the Gospel-cause a warfare? Every Christian present is to regard himself as drawn to serve. Is there a great cause at issue between God and the world? Every Christian present is subpoenaed as a witness for God? Look on yourself in this light, and you will not, on the ground of disqualification, dismiss the subject from your mind. You will not think that a mere annual subscription buys you off from that great duty for which God has made you a Christian. "I cannot speak for Christ," said a martyr, on his way to the flames, "but I can die for him." And, in the same martyr spirit, you will say, "I cannot speak for Christ-would that I could-the world should hear of him; my lips cannot speak for him, but my life shall; my tongue cannot witness, but others can; and, if property can aid, and prayers prevail, they shall." Brethren, this is simply the sentiment of Scripture; this was the spirit of the primitive saints. They looked on themselves individually as born to be witnesses for Christ-ordained to the office of diffusing the Gospel. Wherever they went, the language of Christ was still sounding in their ears," Ye are my witnesses-go into all the world." Is it true that he has said this to us? To the ear of piety he is saying it still-to the eye of piety he is here this day to repeat it-do you not behold him? Do you not hear him saying it to you-and to you? Never till Christians feel them. selves individually addressed, will the Church fulfil its lofty design as a missionary witness for Christ to the world.-HARRIS. (Witnessing Church.) SACRED POETRY, GOD'S CARE OF HIS PEOPLE. "As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings; so the Lord alone did lead him."-DEUT. xxxii. 11. MARK how the eagle hovering o'er her nest MISCELLANEOUS. C. B. The reign of Atheism.-The great jubilee of Atheism was the French revolution. Then her volcanic fires, which had been silently accumulating while the world was asleep, broke forth with the fury of a long imprisoned element, and converted a whole country, for a time, into one burning field of desolation. It was just when France decreed that she was without a God, and that she would have none; when she inscribed upon her tomb-stones, and upon the gates of her sepulchres, "Death, an eternal sleep; when she caused Atheism to ride in triumph in all her high places, and hunted Christianity into the caves and dens of the earth;-it was just then that her blood flowed like a river, and the guillotine rested not from its work day nor night. I need not tell you how suspicion took the place of confidence; how every thing that is kindly and generous in the human heart withered away, and every thing that is selfish, and base, and cruel, grew rank and flourishing; how the tenderest relations of life lost all their sacredness, and the heart's blood was often let out by the hand which was pledged to offices of friendship; how suicide multiplied its victims by thousands, as if it were on a race with the guillotine; how the last vestige of domestic happiness was blotted out, and law, and order, and civilization, were entombed, and every man trembled at the touch of his fellow-man, lest the next moment a dagger should be plunged into his bosom. It was as if the heavens were pouring down torrents of blood; as if the earth were heaving forth surges of fire; as if the atmosphere were impregnated with the elements of death, while the reign of Atheism lasted. Other nations saw the smoke of the torment, as it ascended up, and trembled lest upon them also the day of vengeance was about to open.-SPRAGUE. (Lectures on the Contrast between Christianity and various other Systems.) The Old and the New Man.-The following simple narration of his Christian Experience, made by one of the catechumens to Mr G. Clarke, in New Zealand, shows, that "as in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man." "I have no rest day nor night, for the wickedness of my heart: it is always contending for evil. Until you came and made known among us the Word of God, we had nothing of this sort: now one heart is continually teasing the other to do wrong, and the other to do right; and between them both I have no rest. He said, he wished to do right, but he did not understand all this quarrelling. I told him, wherever a work of grace was begun, there was more or less of this spirit lusting against the flesh, and the flesh against the spirit: if he sought strength, it would be given him as he needed it, and, in the end, final victory."Miss. Reg. Sept. 1835. Scripture Interpretation. Mr Venn gives this sound advice for the right interpretation of Scripture: "To guard against dangerous perversions, it may be la'd down as a maxim in divinity, that it is necessary, not only to hold the doctrines of the Bible, but also to view those doctrines in the same light in which the inspired writers viewed them, and to make only the same inferences from them which they did. For there is scarcely any truth which may not be held in a partial manner, or seen through a distorting medium; so that we then only believe as the apostles did, when we receive their tenets in the same full, comprehensive meaning in which they delivered them, dwell upon them in the same proportion to other truths, and draw the same conclusions from them." CONTENTS.-On the Difference between Justification and Sanctification. By Rev. R. Inglis, Minister of Lochlee.--The Autobiography of Mr J. Livingston, formerly Minister at Ateran..The Temporal Benefits which Christianity Confers. By Rev. J. W. Taylor. No. III. On Individuals.-The Southampton Gi; y Festival. Concluded.-A Discourse. By Rev. A. Hamilton, A.M. --Colonial Sketches. No. II. New Brunswick. By Rev. G. Burns, D.D.-Christian Treasury. Extracts from Krummacher, and Harris.. -Sacred Poetry. God's Care of his People. By C. Ballingall.-Miscellaneous. Published by JOHN JOHNSTONE, 2, Hunter Square, Edinburg); J. R. MACNAIR, & Co., 19, Glassford Street, Glasgow; JAMES NISEET & Co., HAMILTON, ADAMS, & Co., and R. GROOMERIDGE, London; W. CURRY, Junior, & Co., Dublin; and W. M'CoMn, Belfast; and sold by the Booksellers and Local Agents in all the Towns and Parishes of Scotland; and in the principal Towns in England and Ireland. Subscribers in Town, will have their copies delivered at their own residences regularly, by leaving their addresses with the Publisher. Subscription (payable in advance) per quarter, of twelve weeks, 1s. 6d., and the other periods in proportion, shall it be presumed, that God is under any obli THINGS SECRET AND THINGS REVEALED. gation to grant to such persons even the smallest, PART III. BY THE REV. WILLIAM MACPHAIL, Senior Minister of the National Scottish Church, Rotterdam. IN further accomplishment of the general object of these papers, I next observe, IV. That the partial promulgation of the Gospel is one of those secrets belonging to God, into which men are prone to inquire beyond the discoveries of revelation upon these points. Because the volume of inspiration has asserted, "that without faith it is impossible to please God,"that this faith can come only by hearing or reading the Sacred Word,-numbers are apt to conclude that, if the Bible were really the inspiration of God, and the knowledge of it were absolutely necessary to salvation, it would, of course, be delivered to the whole human race as their sole guide to eternal happiness. But this confident expectation, that if the Scriptures were in reality the Word of inspiration, it necessarily behoved them to be made equally known to the whole human race; and the consequent doubt or denial of their truth, because they are not thus equally made known, implies a most presumptuous and fatal mistake, which, in its consequences, includes a disbelief of the divine appointment of the present state of things in the universe. The mistake is this, that because the Sacred Oracles are so indispensably necessary to the salvation of men, God is obliged to vouchsafe a knowledge of them to all. But I would demand, who is the arrogant man that would thus compel the Almighty to an equal distribution of his best gifts to guilty rebels, every one of whom had merited nothing but immediate misery? Have all men sinned, and come short of the glory of God? Are all of them gone astray, so that none of them doeth good, no not one? Do they all stifle the remonstrances of conscience; shut their eyes against the obvious restraints from evil, and encouragements to good conduct, suggested by the natural tendencies of virtue and vice; disregard the most awakening admonitions of Providence; nay, disobey, despise or ridicule the revealed oracles of inspiration, when graciously put into their hands? And VOL. III. much less the greatest privileges? Or, shall a revelation of the will of God, and of the way to eternal happiness, attended with every desirable evidence of its truth, be pronounced to be false, because it has not been dispensed to the whole of an apostate race, not one of whom had deserved it? Besides, if the justice of this reasoning were admitted, the lower orders of angels in heaven would either deny that they were at all the creatures of God, or would dreadfully murmur because they were not of the highest rank! And, in fact, it was either this blasphemous reasoning, or the still higher impiety of being discontent in any sphere inferior to God himself, that thrust the legions of angels from heaven into the gulf of hell! But to descend to cases more peculiarly our own. If the preceding mode of reasoning against the truth of revelation, by reason of its want of universality, were admitted, the man of mean talents, of scanty education, of low rank, and of slender fortune, might hence argue, that because he was unequal in point of abilities, of cultivation, of parentage, and of wealth and ease to some of his fellow-men around him, he had therefore a right to question whether this-as he would call it-unjust allotment were really the ordination of God. Or, the reasoning which would deny this truth for the reason alleged, is the same as if the possessors of splendid talents, of extensive learning, of dazzling honours, of profuse riches, and of constant health and prosperity, should deny their various superior privileges to be the gifts of heaven, because they were not dispensed to the great mass of their fellowcreatures in the humble ranks of life! Brethren, let me remind you, in illustration of this topic, that some highly gifted men may be said always to look through a telescope, except when passion, appetite, prejudice, or selfishness cast a shade between their telescope and the objects at which they look. An important fact this, which demonstrates the high and indispensable subserviency of piety and virtue to the right exercise of the loftiest talents, and the corresponding responsibility of the possessors of such talents. While, on the contrary, the great bulk of men view surrounding objects with a dim-sighted, naked eye only; with the body of Christ from the dead. But while, at an eye, however, neither shaded nor dazzled by least, a small number of professing Christians, many, many of the fantastic appearances which wherever the true knowledge of the Gospel is enso greatly obstruct or distort the vision of men joyed, zealously ascribe their conversion to the of talents. But, my friends, does this wonder- all-prevailing influence of the Holy Spirit, enlightful disparity of powers of mind overthrow the ening their understanding, renewing their will, fundamental truth, that Almighty God made both purifying their affections, and giving a divine tenthese far-sighted, and these comparatively blind, dency to their tempers, habits, and pursuits; and intelligent, and accountable creatures? The all-while these few professing Christians shine forth wise God and Creator claims the inequality as his with a conspicuous superiority of piety and uniown work; and most justly proportions the re-versal integrity above the great body of mankind, sponsibility of his creatures to their unequal talents, and to their unequal means of improvement and of preparation for an eternal world. And here, you see, the analogy is clear as a sunbeam between the fact now stated, and the unequal or partial distribution of the Holy Scriptures. The God of nature, of providence, and of grace, is the avowed author of the most striking distinctions in both departments of his administration. shall any one deny the peculiar favour of God in thus revealing effectually to these persons, the saving knowledge of himself, because, in his unsearchable sovereignty, he does not employ equally efficacious means with numbers, to whom only the common outward means of grace are given, and who are suffered to become the victims of their own wilful resistance of the offered salvation, and their own deliberate choice of sin with all its fatal consequences? God will be the sovereign disposer of his own unmerited favours, and man is the sole author of his own misery. In this let God be true, though many men should be liars. May I not add, that, if we were as well qualified to estimate the different degrees of constitutional moral ability, and of divine influence upon the minds, as we are capable of perceiving the various inequalities of the common gifts of intellectual Once more, on this topic I may take an illusendowments and of providence in the external tration of the want of universality in the knowsituations of men, we should discover a propor-ledge of the Scriptures being no real objection tionable inequality of the favour of God, displayed against the truth of revelation, from the very great in the spiritual state of those who share alike in diversity of attainments in the divine life, observable the common blessing of the Sacred Oracles? Of in those who are truly possessed of it. At the first the vast numbers who read the Scriptures and hear promulgation of Christianity, all were not apostles them explained, how few appear to be truly en- and prophets. There were babes, young men, and lightened, purified, and influenced by the know-aged in the school of Christ. So it still continues to ledge which is from above! Now, to whom do those few owe their conversion? Not, surely, to themselves; for, in that case, salvation would be of him that "willeth and of him that runneth, not of God who showeth mercy;" in that case, a thing totally unclean would produce that which is clean; nor would the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost be at all necessary to quicken the soul dead in sin, to spiritual life. Besides, in that case, how can you account for it, that some sober, decent, and comparatively amiable characters should remain unmoved by the Gospel, and persist in impenitence, unbelief, carelessness of divine things, and in evil practices, after reading and hearing the very same passages of it which effectually prevailed upon others to repent, believe, and become holy in all manner of conversation, others, who had lately heen, perhaps, the grief of friends, and the nuisance of society? Will you ascribe this change to any thing amiable or attraction to important truth. One man, from the fultive in these persons, who were supereminent only in alienation from God, and who were as unable, by reason of their deliberate dislike to holiness, to shake off their evil habits, as the Ethiopian is incapable, by reason of natural inability, to change his skin, or the leopard his spots? It were, indeed, the height of blasphemy to attribute this glorious change to any but to Him who first caused the light to shine out of darkness, and who raises into life the dead in trespasses and sins, by the same Almighty power which he exerted in raising be. While all the disciples of Jesus, in consequence of being made a willing people in a day of powerful conversion, are animated by one faith, one hope of their calling, one love, and one grand object in life, viz., the glory of God, the attainment of salvation, and the faithful discharge of every known duty; yet are the degrees in which they differ from, and surpass one another in those heavenly graces, wonderfully different. One man has his mind irradiated by the Spirit of light, so as to comprehend, in a manner highly satisfactory to himself, the knowledge of the deep doctrines of the Bible, with their admirable harmony, connections, and bearings. Another is acquainted merely with the first elements of what is absolutely necessary for salvation; and cannot open his month upon the more mysterious doctrines of Scripture without darkening counsel by words fraught with weakness, ignorance, and, by consequence, opposi ness of spiritual understanding imparted to him, is able to prove an admirable instructor of divine things to his brethren of mankind. Another, after conscientiously listening to the line upon line, and precept upon precept imparted to him, makes but very slender progress in spiritual knowledge. And, without multiplying examples, one man habitually rejoices in hope of the glory of God, and, from a full view of the liberty wherewith Christ hath made him free, cheerfully enjoys for himself, and in the liberal communication to his fellow |