THE YOUNG MEN OF LONDON.

We believe, with Dr. Cumming, that "God is in History.' Especially do we believe Him to have been in that particular passage of it, which led to the formation of "The Young Men's Christian Association," and the delivery of its present series of Lectures at Exeter Hall.

"A little band met first in a parlour; it next ventured to show itself in a room in Radley's Hotel; it rose a step higher, with fear and trembling, into a literary institution at Leicester-square; it reached Freemason's Hall-filled the Centenary Hall—and now Exeter Hall is too small to hold, not its members, but those who, arrested by its progress, come to listen and cast in their lot with us."

Such has been the growth of this society up to the present time, and during the lecture season just gone by, it has numbered amongst its eloquent and gifted advocates some of the brightest names in our noble army of gospel ministers. The Episcopalian, and Presbyterian, the Baptist, and the Wesleyan-men of all shades of politics, and maintaining every variety of opinion on the vexed question of church government, have come forward to plead for it, and mould it, by their own majestic minds; to shew how all may "hold the Head" without compromise, and to expound, upon the world-wide principles of our common humanity, and our common Christianity, the position, the duties, and the dangers of our young men at the present crisis. Beautifully is it remarked, with reference to the catholicity of this society, "We have a prize at stake far above all consideration of human parties: -a question of truth, of the revealed truth of God, in comparison with which all secular considerations sink into insignificance. The favor of our fellow-men, the advancement of our party, the interests of our denomination, the worldly prosperity and prospects of our families—these are toys of childhood compared with the cause of true religion.

"Yet a little while, and the question will not be with any of us :

"God in History."-A Lecture by the Rev. J. Cumming, D. D., delivered before the Young Men's Christian Association, 28th November, 1848, being the second of the series. The whole of these admirable addresses are published by the Religious Tract Society, at a price which places them within the reach of all.

Have you been whig or tory, conservative or liberal, protectionist or free-trader? but, have you been a sound, consistent protestor against the falsehoods of Satan by whomsoever maintained; and have you been a faithful soldier and servant of Jesus Christ ?”

Taking as the ground-work of this series, and the key that opens up the whole, the great principle laid down by Dr. Cumming in this second lecture, that God is in History, we shall first give, in his own eloquent language, the explanation of this proposition:

"Man is in history-its most wonderful, and often its most perplexing phenomenon. Angels are in history-opening its mysterious seals, sounding its awful trumpets, and pouring forth its dreadful vials. Satan is in history—ever active to suggest what is evil, arrest what is good, or overthrow what is holy, pure, permanent, divine.

“But God is in history. Were it not so, man would become a fiend; angels would flee as from another Gomorrah; Satan, wearing his burning coronet of sin, and the regalia of hell, would lord it over sea and land; and time, commencing with Paradise, would close with Pandemonium.

"God is not confined to consecrated acres and hallowed shrines; his power is felt, where his presence is deprecated or unsuspected. He is in the counting-house, the shop, the exchange, the market -on the deck, the battle-field-in the parliament, the palace, the judgment-hall. Forcing none, he adjusts, arranges, and directs all; making microscopic points the pivots of gigantic wheels; and a random shot, as recently in Paris, the tocsin of a revolution that has changed the condition, connexion, and prospects of almost every nation in Europe. God is in all history, whether he be seen or not; in its minutest winding, in its gentlest ripple, and in its roaring cataracts; at your festivals and funerals; beside the baby's cradle and above the monarch's throne."

Can we doubt then, that he is in this movement, affecting, as it does, the highest interests of so many of our young men—not only in the metropolis, but throughout the empire, and wherever else these lectures shall be read. A glance at their several titles

• Opening Lecture by the Rev. Hugh M'Neile.

will show how well their subjects have been chosen; though it may, perhaps, be well to place them before our readers in what to us, appears a more connected and suggestive order, than that of their original delivery.

We have then, under this arrangement, our common humanity first asserted in the fourth lecture, "The Common Origin of the Human Race," by the Rev. William Brock, late of Norwich. The great fact, that God has made of one blood all the nations of the earth, is proved from their languages, their physical organization, their mental and intellectual capacities, the traditions current amongst them, and their moral and spiritual conditions ; whilst the whole argument is wound up by an inference, well reasoned out, that the Bible which asserts and proves this great principle, must be true.

But this great question must not rest here. The Bible, thus stamped with the sign manual of the God of the whole earth, must be disseminated as widely as its many tongues and manycolored tribes. How we may do this, let our third lecture, "The Bearing of Commerce, upon the spread of Christianity," by the Rev. Robert Bickersteth, M.A., inform us.

Do we want other than didactic teaching, on the great theme of Philanthropy? Let us study the character, the cast of mind, the modes of thought, the earnest purpose developed in the twelfth and last lecture of the course, "Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton,

Bart.," by the Rev. Thomas Binney.

But the blessings of commerce and philanthropy, and even the mere dissemination of the word of truth itself, will prove inadequate, unless we are instructed in the precise nature of scriptural godliness, and receive the engrafted word with meekness, yielding it no grudging obedience, but taking it home to our heart of hearts, and living out its gracious lessons. Would we know it then, to be of God, let us read prayerfully our tenth lecture, "The Internal Evidences of the Divine Inspiration of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament," by the Rev. Thomas Raffles, of Liverpool. Here we find arrayed as so many weapons in the glorious warfare, the noble and rational theology of the Old Testament, the moral glory of the New, the power of its motives to holiness and virtue, the spirit that breathes throughout the book, the candour and impartiality of its writers, and its startling

and majestic originality. "The perfect conformity of the facts and occurrences mentioned or alluded to by the sacred writers, with the accounts preserved in history, and other authentic records, altogether foreign and independent,” ought scarcely to be reckoned amongst these internal proofs, except as it may, in some degree, bear upon the following argument deduced from the perfect and undesigned coincidence between the sacred writers themselves. Our actual religious institutions as Christians, no less than those of our elder brethren the Jews, supply another and convincing proof; and the unquestioned and unquestionable influence of Christianity on its enemies, and on the world at large, completes this quiver of arrows, each of which might well bear the same label as the shaft of Joash.

And now comes forward the great and bold man who is to set out and mark off the broad boundary line between the true and false-" The Church and the World:" which is the title of our ninth lecture, by the Hon. and Rev. Baptist W. Noel, who thus places before us the office, the privileges, and the duties of all who profess and call themselves christians.

“For what purpose has God appointed that his people should be mixed with the world in senates and marts of commerce, in offices and workshops, in all the business of life-the wheat among the tares, believers among the unbelieving, the obedient among the disobedient, the happy among the miserable, the saved among the lost?

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'Hear the summons and promise of God to the church of Christ: Arise! shine! for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee, and the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.' 'Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee.' Hear the prayer and prediction of another inspired prophet for the church of God. 'God be merciful unto us and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; that thy way may be known upon earth, thy salvation among all nations. The peoples shall praise thee, O Lord; all

the peoples shall praise thee.' Hear the prayer and prediction of Jesus himself. 'Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.' Hear, lastly, Christ's command to all his followers. 'Ye are the salt of the earth.-Ye are the light of the world. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.'

"By the moral glory therefore of the church of Christ, by its resplendent piety, by the union of all its members in holy devotedness to God, and by his favor manifestly resting upon it, he intends to convert the world to Christ."

But the Church, in these days especially, is not merely acting an aggressive part. She must be constantly on her watch-tower, girt with the whole armour of faith, lest by any means Satan get the advantage. Ignorance, Disloyalty, Misrule, Popery, Worldly ambition, Philosophy, falsely so called, and Infidelity in all its forms and phases, are endeavoring in a thousand ways to subvert the pure Gospel of Christ. Therefore does the Rev. J. A. James, of Birmingham, prove, in the sixth lecture, that " The Possession of Spiritual Religion is the Surest Preservative from the snares of Infidelity and the Seductions of False Philosophy.” His arguments are these that the possession of spirituality alone places its possessor on vantage ground for examining the historical evidences of christianity; that it furnishes that best of all proofs, experience, and makes man happy, and consequently above the power of ordinary temptations; that it keeps him humble, and thus saves him from the predisposing cause of infidelity-pride of intellect; that it asks for no such fearful alternative as unbelief, to stifle conviction, or lull the conscience to sleep; and that it imparts that patience and docility, which makes us willing to receive even those truths of Scripture which we are unable to explain; resting on the promise, that what we know not now, we shall know hereafter.