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of the principles for which our fathers counted not their lives dear to them; not a word of the reason why they stand in their pulpits; not a word of the seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, of the anti-christian apostacy, though the faithful remembrancer of these things is declared to be "a good minister of Jesus Christ," 1 Tim. vi. 6.

Is Rome not "drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus"? Has she not arrayed her Lord in the scarlet robe, and bowed the knee before Him but in mockery. There can be no denial of these things, for there is One that beareth witness of them, and we know that his witness is true. Is there not work here, then, for the Church of God? Can those be followers of Christ who will not oppose Antichrist? Can men love their Lord who care not to see Him betrayed? Is Rome to be left untouched, because she is the chief foe of the Lord? Shall no effort be made to thin her ranks, as she marches on "to make war with the Lamb"?

WORK IN THE SCHOOL.-Is there not work, too, to be done in the School? Why should children not be taught to look to the errors and the doom of Popery, as pointed out and foretold in our great and only standard of faith and morals-THE BIBLE? Is Protestantism unfit to be taught in schools?-in every school, we should say; for, thank God, it is taught in some! Why should not that good old book, "Fox's Book of Martyrs," have a reading-lesson taken from it sometimes? The price used to be an obstacle, but it may now be had for a half-a-crown. Let the children be Protestant missionaries; every one armed for the moral contest, and we shall have no retrogression, nor any standing still.

WORK IN THE HOME.-Last, but most important of all, is the work to be done in the home. Here it is that Protestant principles-cherished, and practised, and taught-will, as from a sound and healthy root,

diffuse themselves through all the branches and leaves of the tree of society. Let the father tell his children, by the winter fireside, the story of Rome's tender and merciful dealings with man. Let him tell them how, for reading the Bible, as God desired them to read it, father and mothers were taken from their children, and burned till they died. Let him tell them that Rome sometimes missed her aim, and that God sent his servants deliverance. And let him recount the dealings of God with our forefathers, rescuing them from slavery and cruel death. Perhaps he may go on to say that Rome is the same still, and that she would do these things now if she dared.

But let him not stop here. Let him tell the children the reason that Rome hates the Bible-because the Bible is against Rome; and let him teach them to pray that they may love that Book, and never let it go. Would that the homes of our country made the principles of Protestant truth household words-cherished, loved, and honoured!

Not now is the time to hold loosely by our Protestant faith, and to surrender our Protestant cause! Not now, when the Bible will soon vindicate its truth, and Rome's triumphant boastings shall be proved to be but the utterances of "a mouth speaking great things, and blasphemies," shall we, dare we, cease "contending for the faith which was once delivered to the saints."

Thank God, we wage no uncertain warfare; the issue of the contest is not doubtful. In the meantime, with the noble army of martyrs, let us bear our part bravely in protesting against Rome. Men must choose between Judas and Judah's Lion, and have nothing to do with the Jesuits, if they would be disciples of Jesus. Who, then, is on the Lord's side? Who stands the champion for Antichrist? Who is for God and the Bible? and who for Great Babylon? Let there be no hesitation, no delay, no neutra

lity. "Choose you this day whom ye will serve: if the Lord be God, follow Him; but if Baal, then follow him."

Be in carnest. The contest is between life and death--between freedom and slavery-between the good principle and incarnate evil; and the issues are national glory, or national ruin-individual prosperity, or personal degradation: it behoves men, therefore, to be in earnest. Aid, then, in the home, in the school, in the church, in the senate, every effort to support the "truth as it is in Jesus," against "the lie as it is in Rome." Spread the principles, emulate the zeal of the early champions of our faith and freedom; let it not be said that the love of your freedom is dying, and the love of your faith dead.

Prayer and effort must go together; everything may be accomplished by these means. We would not desire to overrate our humble exertions; but trust that, humble as they are, they may be the means of making more widely known the deeds of Rome, which only require to be known to be detested, based as they are on doctrines totally destructive of morality, degrading, debasing, and damning mankind.

Ballykilleg.

***

EVENINGS WITH THE EDITOR.

EVENING. THE TWENTIETH.

Aug. BAYLEE ON VERBAL INSPIRATION ;* it seems to me, sir, a very well written little work.

Ed. I quite agree with you; there is a plain and straightforward discussion of his subject, such as theological writers would do well to imitate. I do not approve of everything Mr. Baylee says; but on the whole, consider his teaching sound and profitable.

London: Seeleys.

Aug. And what is your opinion of the much disputed subject? Ed. You mean Verbal Inspiration.

Aug. Yes.

Ed. I should not call it Verbal, but Plenary.

Aug. Why not? I do not see much difference.

Ed. I do not know that there is, but the term "Verbal" has been a stumbling block in the way of many good persons. I should not choose to say, "God spoke to the writer of Scripture the exact words they were to employ;" I should prefer saying, "The writers were so much under Divine inspiration, that they did not write a single word but what God chose they should write." There is not any great difference between these two assertions; but the latter seems to me more accurate, less liable to be misunderstood, more easily defensible, and more literally accordant with the declaration, that holy men spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. So the word Plenary appears more suitable than Verbal.

Aug. You say, more easily defensible; how do you mean? Ed. In this way. It is allowed that these writers were to some extent inspired. The dispute is to what extent. If they were left in some things, altogether to themselves, it is probable they would make mistakes; they might state inaccurately, or they might write what was not necessary or desirable for posterity to know. The result would be, that the Bible, which professes to be the Word of God, would be an imperfect book. Such a supposition is dishonourable to the All-perfect God.

Aug. How would Inspiration prevent this?

Ed. Not by always dictating to them the very words they were to write. This, in the case of transcripts from ancient records or family registers, would be more than was needed, as it would do altogether what the writer could partly do himself, and miraculous energy is never meant to preclude human

exertion.

Emm. As we see in the miracles that Christ performed.

Ed. Precisely so; the writer then would make his own investigations, just as a modern author might search the manuscripts in our British Museum; only with this remarkable difference, that the modern author would have no right to expect a special guidance from above, so controlling his mind and aiding his researches, that he could make no mistake, and could produce no result, but as God approved. The inspired writer, on the contrary, while he used as best he could, the natural faculties God had given him, was so acted upon by the Holy Spirit, that while the choice of materials, and the way he worked them up into history, were really his own, they were as really what the Holy Spirit wished and designed them to be.

Aug. This seems a better explanation, than saying that in some way the words themselves were always communicated to them. Ed. Of course, the result practically is the same, whether the words were given to them direct, or whether they were so controlled by inspiration, as only to use the words God wished them to use. But the result is reached differently by the way I adopt, and this way prevents any difficulty about the various styles of the Scripture writers.

Aug. You hold then, that every word in the Bible is as much inspired as if some audible voice from heaven had said to Moses or Matthew, "Write down the words which I am about to speak to you."

Ed. Certainly I do; and I also hold, that in some cases the writers must have been conscious that they were not left to choose their own words, as in the case of the prophets who, "searched diligently, what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow." Here there is a consciousness of being inspired to speak what the mind, notwithstanding, does not fully comprehend-the consciousness that a Divine power is not only governing, but suggesting.

Aug. And as we always think in words, the suggestion must have been verbal.

Ed. In these cases I believe it must have been; and in every case, the actual words are to be regarded as of an equal claim to a Divine origination, whether the writers were simply acting as amanuenses, or were using their own skill as compilers from existing archives. The claim of Scripture, of the whole of Scripture, to our veneration, is as strong, as if by some exercise of Divine energy, every word in the Bible had been written by the finger of God, even as He did write upon the two tables of stone.

Aug. Here is a sentence from Mr. Baylee, which appears to state your views concisely :-"If there was an ever presiding power of the Holy Ghost, where needful suggesting words, and yet, leaving a prophet so to the choice of his own words and phrases, as not to interfere needlessly with the exercise of his natural and acquired abilities, and yet to secure Divine authority for the whole as the Word of God, this gives a verbal inspira tion, which leaves the mind of the man unfettered, and yet secures for the Bible the mind of God."

Emm. Please to pass on now to THOUGHTS ON THE VOCATION OF THE TEACHER,*

* London: Seeleys.

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