THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE. I should say something not wise), I desire to hurt no man's feelings; and I am willing to learn from my brother at any one's feet: but if I may not play the polemic, by the great grace of God, I think I could act the martyr for that ninth article. By the great grace of God, I would rather die than stain its heavenly glory. Whatever wisdom led those honoured brethren, who drew up the eight propositions, to bring them to such a close, I cannot tell. It was a strange document, which had no future, with its far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, for a grand appendix. Every one of the eight propositions was true, as far as it went: but it did not go to the grave -much less rise in triumph beyond it. The Friends do not believe in the resurrection of the body, except. ing that of Christ. I was taught by them; and I thought I ought to do many things. The thing that knocked me down (when I was a student of lawwhen I left Blackstone for Paul-alone and serious, for fear any one should see me- so great a fool I was) was reading the 15th chapter of 1st Corinthians. Í felt an old man strike me on the head; and I had the headache when I received the blow. I received it with an agony I cannot describe; and since I have received the truth, I would rather give my life, which is not worth giving or taking, than part with my immortality. I believe that Jesus Christ on the cross suffered in his soul, but in his body too (though in his soul much more), that he might redeem bodies and souls; and I hear an argument like that in his own words, Your bodies are the temples of the living God; if any man defile the temple of God, him will God destroy.' I feel that we ought to honour our bodies, and to keep them pure and clean for Christ-that, in the resurrection, they may be conformed to his most glorious body, according to that passage, which I will alter to make it more close to the original: Who shall change the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the hody of His glory, according to the working of His mighty power whereby He is able to subdue even all things to Himself. Now, Sir, this doctrine is so completely the doctrine of Christianity, that, give it up, and you may go with Pythagoras to the mummies of Egypt, and be yourself a mummy; but you will never be a philosopher, and never be a Christian. Christianity here has completely the field of vision; like the sun that spreads its radiant tide of never-ending affluence, inexhaustible; and, of which, a pencil can illumine a hemisphere of this little globe. His sunbeams are brought to the world, unattracted by the world, by their own irradiating effluency, like the grace and truth of God. I see in God's light, and believe with all my soul, the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead; without which, I should feel that living was a poor and absurd business. "But this is solemn as well as glorious. "When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory. And before him shall be gathered all nations'-when no other man will ever be born, and no born man ever be born again. 'He shall separate them one from another. as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. Here I ask you, what is God's motive in telling you of these things? for it is not as some have dishonourably represented them. In the 25th chapter of Matthew, Christ gives the parable of the talents, teaching us our own accountability; the parable of the ten virgins, showing the difference between the Church visible and invisible (the only Church out of which there is no salvation). But He says these principles are to be il lustrated, when the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father, with all his holy angels. In that scene we shall figure. I have received a letter from 13. one dear to me, who is praying for you, as she has done for me, and she says, I pray for you, that forgetting everything else, you may come off with triumph in the day of judgment.' Let God's grace give us that triumph, without which all others are only the precursors of damnation. I ask this question-what is the motive of the great God in teiling men of hell? I believe it is nothing but an illustra tion of this truth-God is love.' It is because He does not want men to go there; as Whitefield told his audience once in the outskirts of this city, 'I preach hell, that you may go to heaven;' and if there is a heaven,' said a woman, I will go there;" God help you,' was the answer, and so will I.' I believe it is short-sighted misanthropy to hide those truths; I do not mean to say, that we are to recommend men to go to heaven, merely or mainly, by telling them of the pains of hell; but I say that motive has its place, as every truth has its position, and the whole revelation of God its finished symmetry. 1 am before an audience that understand it. The discussion of the question was adjourned, and at next sederunt Dr. Byrth, of Liverpool, opposed any alteration in the articles agreed to at Liverpool, or any addition to them. Especially he opposed the ninth article-not from any doubt in his own mind to its scriptural truth, but on the grounds that it was not contained in the original basis-that those truths only which were essential to salvation ought to be included in it,| and that the basis which had been tried for nine months should at least be tried for nine more. He could have wished also to exclude the eighth article (respecting the ministry and the sacraments), but had consented for the sake of peace and love not to disturb it. Like Dr. Cox, he had been born and bred a Quaker, and he fully confirmed the statements which had been made respecting the opinions held by the Society of Friends. Dr. Byrth concluded by moving as an amendment, that they should return to the Liverpool articles. Mr. Hinton seconded the amendment, arguing that the main design of the Alliance was to include godly people, and therefore nothing should be adopted that would exclude a single believer, however erroneous we might deem his views on some important points. Dr. Cunningham urged the addition of the ninth article: "The subject is not generally thought much of in this country. But we are bound to attach due weight to the solemn, deliberate testimony of the American brethren. If there is to be anything of a statement regarding truth, it is important that it should be given out on that point. With regard to our own country, as far as its theological literature is concerned, we have scarcely anything of the denial of the doctrine of eternal rewards and punishments, except from Unitarians, and men avowedly infidel. I do not speak of individual instances in a meeting like this. We must judge from what appears fully and palpably; and I aasert, without fear of contradiction, that, as far as concerns the theological literature of Great Britain, the denial of eternal rewards and punishments has been, with few exceptions, characteristic of a sect which none of us regards as evangelical. Therefore the addition of this article to our basis, professing the views commonly called evangelical, is but a following out of our general assertion of evangelical principles, by em bodying in our list an article, in regard to which the views of such as differ from us have been charaçteristic only of an un-evangelical or anti-evangelical sect. "If it be true, that there is some indication of what has not appeared in the literature of Britain-some indication of such doctrines being held by men, evangelical on other points; if that be the case, it seems to me, that, unless we are to exclude from our consideration altogether the element of doing anything for evangelical truth, that fact constitutes the strongest reason why we should let the world know that we believe in the scriptural doctrine of the eternity of future rewards and punishments, as a part of that great system of truth, to which alone we can attach the name of Christian. If the case be represented-and a mixture of truth with heathen philosophy is becoming prevalent-it is one of the great dangers to which rising Christianity is exposedit is a danger against which, if we have any regard for truth, we are called to go forth with a warning voice; and, therefore, to oppose the amendment which proposes to leave out the ninth article." as Dr. Morrison (Chelsea) held the same view:-"If I had now come into this assembly, and for the first time had looked at the basis as it originally stood, I think the question would have occurred to me-professing no very high measure of intelligence on such points-how marvellous it is, that a basis of truth, coming from such an assembly as this, should not contain so much as one reference to the destinies of futurity! although it be the great characterisic of Christianity, that life and immortality are brought to light by the gospel; and although it be the constant testimony, both of Christ and his apostles, that the wicked shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power? I do not, for a single instant, call in question any of those statements made by Mr. Binney, or Mr. Hinton, relative to the personal piety of some individuals who may be, as I think, fearfully at variance with Scripture upon the subject of the everlasting destinies of mankind. But this I will say, if you do not adopt a principle similar to that which alters the articles of your basis, you will not only include these godly men, but you will open your doors to the admission of every man, and any man, who chooses to hold the doctrine of the non-eternity of punishments and rewards. And I want to know, if you do open your doors so wide as this, how you will conduct yourselves, if thousands in America should come forward, and propose to subscribe every article of your creed? How will you act towards them? How will it be possible for you, under your existing-I mean the provisional basis-how will it be competent for you to exclude them from your fellowship?" Mr. James of Birmingham followed on the same side, as also did Dr. Wardlaw, who said: "When Dr. Cox alluded to the fact that, in such a basis no reference whatever had been made to a future state, I felt surprise and sorrow; and I could not account for the fact of such an omission, except upon the ground, that we had all considered that point assumed. Yet it did appear a singular thing, that, in the basis of Christian truth, there should be no reference whatever to futurity. I, therefore, am decidedly of opinion that the ninth article should be retained. It is a doctrine I have never been able to view as capable of being disposed of by verbal criticism -as if it were indefinitely stated. It is one of the most fearful truths of the Bible. It presents the most awful views of the divine government we can take. I must own before this assembly, it is a truth which, of all others, has occasioned the most powerful emotions in my own miud. I have studied the subject, and alas! with tears and anguish, when I have thought what was implied in eternal punishment. I have trembled, and was almost afraid of thinking upon it. But then it has ever occurred to my mind (and I hope I have not been actuated and influenced, in this emotion, by the fear that hath torment')-with regard to my own personal position; I hope in the Son of God; and one consideration which especially binde iny soul to him is this-that he has delivered me from everlasting misery. Again, whenever I have thought on the subject, the question would come back to my mind-Am I to claim for myself greater benevolence than God? And this has led me to the Bible; and'] there I have found that awful truth-written so clearly, and in such a variety of ways, and so universally pervading it-that I could not resist the conviction without giving up my principles. I have therefore yielded my conviction to God; and rested in the hope, that he will give me strength of principle to acquiesce, with holy joy, in what is to glorify him for ever; and that the great day will be, in this, as in every other respect, the day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God. I hold this as a most important article of truth, fearful as I have felt it." The discussion of the question was again adjourned, and finished at next sederunt; after addresses from Dr. Beecher, Dr. Patton, Mr. Haldane Stewart, and the! Hon. and Rev. Baptist Noel-an immense majority! voting in favour of the article. Mr. Noel concluded his argument thus: "I humbly conceive, that Christian prudence requires us to admit the article: and if, as one of our brethren has ventured to intimate, we should be: called by a new, and that which sounds to his ear, an unmusical name-if we should be called eternal tormentists—a name which we do not take, but which is given by the mockery of the world-would not that name be a sermon to the world? Would it not tell them, that we are eternal tormentists who have been rescued by the blood of Christ, and who long to see them rescued also? Oh! that in the spirit in. which it is revealed in God's Word, this truth might echo round the world, that those who are exposed to torment, because they have not felt the magnitude of their sins, might come with us in that peace-speaking. blood, which is able to change eternal torment to endless glory! and thus be one with us in that spiritual Church over which Christ presides, and whose home is in heaven!" SELF-CONSECRATION. My faith looks up to thee, Now hear me while I pray; May thy rich grace impart As thou hast died for me, Pure, warm, and changeless be, MISERY AND MADNESS. While life's dark maze I tread, And griefs around me spread, Be thou my guide; Bid darkness turn to day, Wipe sorrow's tears away, From thee aside. When ends life's transient dream, Shall o'er me roll; Blest Saviour, then in love, O bear me safe above A ransomed soul! MISERY AND MADNESS. true. 139 with intense eagerness in my face, as if to dis Ir was a bright cold spring evening, and as I sat by the fire, I was surprised to see an old man, who lived many miles distant, pass my window with a hurried step. His manner on all occasions was solemn, and his motion very slow; but he was now evidently impelled by some strong emotion, and I waited with some impatience till he was shown into my room, Before we parted I proposed to pray. For wondering what could have power so to move a little he listened with the deepest silence. a man of such a peculiarly phlegmatic constitu. We could not hear him breathe. A groan oc tion. The mystery was soon unravelled. He casionally he did utter, and that more frequenthad saved money, and now he feared it was ly as the exercise drew to a close, from which I lost, and his whole being seemed absorbed in dreaded a speedy return of the more violent and roused by this fear. Three score and ten emotions I had witnessed. He continued, years had furrowed his brow. He had no chil- however, in a state of repose. His countenance dren to provide for. And independent of had resumed more of its natural expression; what he supposed was gone, enough remained and when he left my room to return home to support in comfort the declining years of with his wife, who had been waiting for him himself and his wife; but his life had been a considerable time, I was willing to believe spent in accumulating, and with Micah, he that the crisis of his excitement was over, and seemed ready to say, "Ye have taken away that he might yet lay hold of some truth or my gods, and what have ye left me?" He promise of God, which would enable him to spoke of the hard labour with which he had feel that, although not one fragment of his gathered, and the lightness with which those idol should be recovered, he was not beyond into whose hands he feared it had fallen would the reach of being happy in a miserable world. spend, and the thought seemed as gall and wormwood to his soul; and while the strength of a long-cherished passion, easily accounted for the state of excitement in which he appeared, there was a strangeness sometimes in the expression of that excitement, which led me to fear that some fatal injury might be done to the overwrought brain. I tried to soothe him by the hope that he might yet regain his lost treasure; promised to aid him in the attempt-and urged on him the need, if God saw fit to deprive him of that which he might have too highly prized, of submitting with meekness to his good will, assured that he had in store for him a better portion, if he would but be willing to receive it. It was affecting to mark the workings of his mind, in the varied expression of his countenance. Doubt and fear seemed to give way to confidence, and then suddenly, as if urged by some new emotion, he would start and look Not many days were gone before I fulfilled my promise to inquire particularly regarding his affairs, and had procured such information as made me set out gladly for the old man's cottage, feeling I had tidings to impart that would, if not quite remove, at least greatly lighten, the burden of his grief; but I had scarcely entered, when the wildness of his eye too surely revealed to me that what I dreaded had come to pass. I told him what I had done, and what was yet secure to him; but he listened as if he heard me not. This phase of his disease was past; and his mind had rested on another and a deeper sorrow. His anxiety now was not for time, but for eternity. He spoke of an awakening from long carelessness and indifference; of seasons of awful alarm and dread; of the still small voice that had conveyed, amid deep darkness, into the soul the bright light of gospel peace; of the joy and gladness of such a revelation; the de light of contemplating it, and the horror of having it for ever ravished from the sight. "But why should it be so?" I said, and I would have proceeded, but he impatiently interrupted me, and replied, "It is a righteous judgment, for I have sinned against God." "But God," I said, "can forgive all sin." "No," he said, "not mine, not mine." "What sin," I said, "can the blood of Christ not blot out?" He replied, in an audible whisper, and with a look that made ine shudder, "Horrible blasphemies, that I dare not utter." I felt deeply for the poor old man; and scarcely knowing what were best to say to him in this sore extremity of his unhinged and distracted soul, I was silent for a little, not without inwardly crying to the Lord that he might enable me, in the spirit of wisdom and tenderness, to meet the necessities of his condition. The unexpected bereavement of a corruptible thing, on which his mind, alas! as it proved, had been too idolatrously fixed, first shook the throne of his reason, and set his thought adrift far from its control; now the cause of his sore malady seemed altogether forgotten. He thinks not of his lost gold. Had he the whole world, instead of a few fragments of its most precious metals on which he had set his heart, that were of no avail now. A temporal calamity had opened the fountain of bitterness in his soul-restored prosperity might have closed it, or dried up its waters; but now a spiritual misery from a far deeper depth welled forth its billows tumultuously, so to speak, tossing on their bosom the wounded spirit of this unhappy man. I said I was silent for a little. He looked at me with intense eagerness, as if afraid, and yet compelled to tell what he felt, when drawing very near me, and almost touching my ear with his lips, he breathed out in a deep scarcely heard whisper, Horrible blasphemies horrible blasphemies; no forgiveness--no forgiveness; the blood will not do for me." And I said, "This blood cleanseth from all sin. The Holy Ghost saith, by the Apostle John, 'If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us.'" Ay, ay, that is it," he said, crying out with great vehemence, "the Holy Ghost--the Holy Ghost-against him have I sinned. Is John greater than Jesus? and he said, 'Whosoever blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost, hath never forgiveness.' Speak not smooth things, nor any deceit to me. The fire of hell is already here; the blood of Christ cannot quench the fire of hell. The worm that never dies is gnawing me; can his blood drown it?" Here he laughed with a wild triumphant air, as if he had fairly entangled me in a difficulty. "Drown it? drown it?--no, no--it feeds it; it would soon die, but the thought of my despising the blood shed for me feeds it-feeds itfeeds it," thus repeating the same words over and over again, raising his voice higher and 66 higher, till I almost trembled. "Yes, the thought that I have despised my day, and trampled on the blood of Christ, feeds it. It has become like a dozen-it fills my soul." "Come now, be a little quiet," I said; "you are forgetting yourself entirely. Just let us reason together. Surely you have heard the words, Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as wool?" "Yes; long, long ago heard them. Then I thought I had got forgiveness; but it was all a fancy-a sweet fancy. I was happy for a while. Often I wished I had told you how happy I was; but it was a fancy all fancy. It was better I told you nothing about it. Woe's me now-woe's me, it was a sweet fancy!" And the poor man wept in his agony, even as a child. I could not help weeping with him, while I had hope that the tears he shed, bitter as they were, might yet be followed by happier feelings. He dashed them away violently, and looking at me firmly, he said, "It was a lie. You had no right to say the words were for me a false prophet," and he clenched his right hand, as if a furious mania stimulated his frame; but it passed away, then he said, "Yes, yes-it was true; it was for me; but I have sinned--even now saw ye the blasphemies." "Let me "But what are they?" I said. know." "Know!" he replied, "the tongue was never made that could utter them. O could. they be told, then my heart might be eased. No, no; here they are," he said, knocking his breast; "here, and they must drag me down to the lowest hell." I saw it was vain to speak, and left him, beseeching God to have mercy on him, and calm his troubled soul. A few days only had passed when I was once more on my way to the old man's cottage. When within about two miles of it, I stopped to gaze on the beauty of the scenc before me. The bright waters sparkled in the rays of the sun, and reflected from their quiet bosom the light and airy clouds that bedecked the sky. The mountains rose in stern magnificence from the shore, and only a solitary cottage here and there along their base reminded of the presence of man. On one of these my eye rested. It was small, but neatly whitewashed, and added much to the effect of the beautiful scene I admired. While I looked, the contrast between the outward calmness and the disquietude which I had reason to believe still reigned there, much oppressed me, and I felt how truly might be applied to what I saw the poet's description of another scene, "Where all, save the spirit Of man, is divine." I was roused from my contemplation by a strange unearthly sound. I looked on all sides for something to account for it, but in vain EVIL SPEAKING. miseries. 141 nothing seemed to stir. The trees were as fort while praying for him, from what seemed motionless, and the bosom of the lake as calm to indicate a just perception of his own eonand bright as before; yet its quiet waters seem-dition, and of the only remedy for all his ed to waft to my ears what struck me as the most fearful sound I ever listened to. While I wondered, it ceased; and I pursued my way, unable by any means to account for what I had heard. I had reached the path which led from the road to the cottage garden, when I perceived some figures standing near the door. One, I concluded from his appearance, was a clergyman. A stout young man in the dress of a sailor, and the old man's wife, stood by him, apparently engaged in conversation that much engrossed them. I did not like to intrude, and was just turning away, when a sudden movement among them attracted my attention. It was the old man; his hands tied behind his back, and his ankles bound together, and yet by short sudden jumps, he contrived to move with a rapidity truly amazing. He was addressed by the clergyman; but where I stood I could not hear what was said, though the reply was in a voice that would have been audible at a much greater distance. He declared, that he had been sent into the world for the purpose of destroying it, and that he was that day to commence with his own house; that he was commissioned by the Almighty to slay every living thing, and commanded now to begin by slaying his own wife. The few last words were uttered with amazing rapidity and increasing loudness, until the sound which before had startled me, pealed in my ears with such terrific vehemence, as left no room to doubt from whence it had proceeded. Week after week I visited the miserable old man, and at each return I found him tortured by some new fancy. His own, not the destruction of others, had now become his passion; and for some time he had to be watched narrowly. Then this gave way to the dread of being poisoned; all having conspired to destroy him, since he was once commissioned to destroy them; and this dread for several days led him to resist all manner of food. The energy of his mind decayed, and his bodily strength failed rapidly in consequence; and when I last saw him, he was reduced to extreme debility, but he was calm and collected. There seemed, indeed, so far as I was able to judge from the words he uttered, something like mental soundness returning to him. He expressed a desire that I would pray for him, which he had never done before. Upon requesting him to tell me, if he could, why he now wished me to pray, and for what, he looked earnestly in my face, and after a considerable pause, he replied with difficulty, but with deep solemnity," Sin, sin-the cross, the cross of Christ." I felt as if these broken detached words revealed to me his whole soul, and I could not but derive some confidence and coin I prayed as I was led, I trust, by Him who knoweth the deep things of God, and who knew that poor man's wants. The prayer was offered up in the name of Him who died for him. There was the deepest silence at the close; no voice, no sigh, no breath from the bed of the poor maniac, if maniac he had continued to be; his stormy life had closed in the deepest stillness. was no more; his spirit had returned to Him who gave it. EVIL SPEAKING. "MAY I speak evil of another person when it is true?" 1. A man may be faulty in so doing. The real secret faults of your neighbour you ought not unnecessarily to publish. And suppose there be no untruth nor injustice in it, yet there is uncharitableness and unkindness in it; and that is a sin. Thou wouldest not have all truth said concerning thyself, nor all thy real faults publicly traduced. "Out of thy own mouth will God judge thee, O thou wicked servant!" Yea, thy own tongue and conscience shall another day condemn thee. 2. You may speak evil of another person when necessity requires it. It may be necessary sometimes for his good; and so you may speak evil of him unto those that can help it; as a man may acquaint parents with the miscarriages of their children, in order to their amendment. Thus Joseph brought to his father the evil report of his brethren. (Gen. xxvii. 2.) Sometimes this may be necessary for the caution of others; as, if I see a man ready to enter into intimate friendship and acquiantance with a person whom I know to be highly vicious and dangerous, I may in such a case caution him against it; for, certainly, if charity commands me, when my neighbour's ox is ready to fall into a pit, to do my endeavour to prevent it, much more am I obliged to pre-| vent the ruin of my brother's soul, when I see him so near destruction. But for a man to do this unnecessarily and unprofitably-this is sin. 3. If you will speak evil of other persons, do it in the right method.-Christ hath given us an excellent rule: "If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, take with thee one or two more. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the Church." (Matt. xviii. 15, 17.) But if men will be preposterous, and will not follow Christ's order, but, instead of private admonishing, will publish men's faults to others, herein they make themselves transgressors. 4. In doubtful cases, silence is the safest way.-It is rarely men's duty to speak evil of men; and when it is not their duty to speak, it is not their sin to be silent. It is seldom that any one suffers by my |