human mind, and the removal of personal responsibility; two or three miracles rolled into one! Rather than that, I think we should be thankful for Babel itself.

LENNY. So long, at least, as Babel does not mean voluntary disloyalty to the great and good King.

HILLSTEAD. Exactly. Thank you, dear Lenny. That must be always understood, if not expressed in so many words. Discussion, courteous controversy, differences of opinion, with a sincere desire on the part of all to reach the blessed haven of assured truth, are not only allowable but profitable, when it is assumed as beyond suspicion that each one is a loyal and loving disciple of our glorious Master.

SMITH. I never thought of all this in such a light before. I have long thought if every one agreed with-with

OWEN. Your body? Don't be bashful, brother.

SMITH. Well, don't hit so hard. It was natural, although no doubt foolish, that I should think of those I know best as nearest the truth; but, to put it generally, I have thought sometimes that if all were of one mind it would be very delightful.

LENNY. No doubt; but what then? Delightful without light. Uniformity without thought. Concord without conviction. Consent without examination. A dead sea without a healthy ripple on its surface. A forest of trees, all one size, one shape, one colour; a garden of flowers all one pattern, one hue, and one odour; and a community of men all repeating the same thing, like a multiplied echo, or a flock of well trained parrots, without understanding; a captivating idea, truly! I vote for Babel! By all means let us have Babel! I never saw beauty in Babel before; but now I am profoundly in love with that notorious confusion. It is infinitely better than mental stagnation in which intellectual life and growth are impossible, individuality out of the question, and obedience to the command that asks us to give a reason for the hope that is in us, utterly beyond human power. An act of uniformity, conceived in stolid ignorance both of the character of God, and the nature of man, and attempted to be put in force by tyrannical power worthy of that ignorance, sheds instructive historical light on this "delightful" thought!

HILTON. And yet there are men who consider such a state of things the perfection of excellence. A dear friend lately put into my hand a small book, from which he thought I could derive some light-that is to say, regarding the mind of the writer, if nothing more important was illuminated. The thing is entitled "Some questions of the Church Catechism, and doctrines involved, briefly explained, for the use of families and parochial schools." Let me read a few sentences. They will help our "talk" towards a right conclusion on the inestimable blessing of liberty of conscience springing out of the very construction of the

เ

Bible, though certainly they were never intended to serve such a purpose :-"When were you made a Christian? When I was baptized.Can any one become a Christian without baptism? No.-In what light must we view those who have never been baptized? As the heathen, whether they be old or young, notwithstanding they may be in the habit of attending divine worship.-... What are those persons said to be who have rightly received baptism? They are said to be born again,' or to be 'regenerate.'-In this our second birth, who is our Father and Mother? God is our Father and the Church our mother.-. You said that the Church is governed, according to the Apostles' institution, by bishops, priests, and deacons; what pretension has the Church of Scotland, as it is popularly called, to be considered a Church at all, seeing that it rejects the order of bishops, retaining only the orders of priests and deacons ? It is the church which is established in that country by law, and therefore it is regarded by the State as a true Church. Its distinctive title, however, is the Presbyterian Church of Scotland,' or the Kirk,' and is not in reality, the Church of Scotland.... We have amongst us various Sects and Denominations who go by the general name of Dissenters. In what light are we to consider them? As heretics; and in our Litany we expressly pray to be delivered from the sins of false doctrine, heresy, and schism.'-Is their worship a laudable service? No; because they worship God according to their own evil and corrupt imaginations, and not according to his revealed will, and therefore their worship is idolatrous.-Is Dissent a great sin? Yes; it is in direct opposition to our duty towards God.-How comes it then in the present day that it is thought so lightly of? Partly from ignorance of its great sinfulness, and partly from men being more zealous for the things of this world than for the Lord of hosts.-... But do we not find among them many good men ? Many doubtless are unexceptionable characters in a moral point of view, but they are not holy men; and herein indeed we may learn a lesson from them, for if they apparently attain such perfection, what ought we to be in all manner of godly conversation, who possess all the means of grace ?-But why have not Dissenters been excommunicated? Because the law of the land does not allow the wholesome law of the Church to be acted upon; but Dissenters have virtually excommunicated themselves by setting up a religion of their own, and leaving the ark of God's Church.-What class of Dissenters should we be most upon our guard against? Those who imitate the most nearly the true Church of Christ.—Why so? Because we are more liable to be deceived by such, the points of difference being apparently few and unimportant, whereas the very circumstance of their being Dissenters shows that they have fallen from the unity of the Church Catholic, and consequently are not in a state of salvation.-But are there not some Dissenters who use the same form of prayers as our

selves? Doubtless; but the prayers of the Church being, for the most part, for the priest to offer up in behalf of the people, it must be sinful and presumptuous for those persons who are called dissenting teachers to address the throne of grace, usurping the priestly office.-Is it wicked then to enter a meeting-house at all? Most assuredly."

OWEN. What miserable rubbish!

HILLSTEAD. Ay, true enough; but mark the point Hilton has in view by reading this highly intelligent and very charitable affair; the effect which would be produced by a supposed revelation that simply communicated facts about which there could be no diversity of opinion, thus making no provision for the nurture and growth of the intellect by personal study, and no room for the exercise of the noblest grace of the gospel-charity, in cases where different men had honestly reached different conclusions. The writer of this amusing little catechism-for a quiet smile is the best reply to it-assumes that a given church is the community of God, and that all outside that church, whatever their Christian profession or character, are outside salvation. Well, you can't object to that logic. It is undoubtedly correct. If his assumption is warranted by divine truth, his conclusion is inevitable. It must be so. Now, we are not going to criticise this man; that would be profitless cruelty; but on the principle that inference sometimes helps direct argument, we gather something from him to show how wisely adapted to the variety of mind is the great diversity of modes by which revelation speaks to us.

ARNOLD. It appears to me that the structure of the Scriptures suggests that a merely mechanical or routine religion is neither profitable to man nor pleasing to God. There is such a remarkable and beautiful interweaving of the intellectual and emotional, of thought and feeling, of the supernatural and the natural, that the very form of the revelation is attractive, whilst the revelation itself is beyond all price. It is not only that we have doctrine and precept mutually related, the latter springing out of the former as naturally as the fruit from the tree, but that we have the consciousness of the believer gratefully approving the things believed. God and man meet in Christ Jesus, and men feel that what God has said in his dear Son exactly suits their condition. Every condition and class of mind is graciously considered. Poetry, parable, prophecy, doctrine, precept, caution, warning, promise, and counsel are all given; and the arrangements of grace point steadily and invariably to the consummation in the kingdom of glory, when the Saviour will have his reward, the Church her triumph, the world its rest, and the Father the realisation of his eternal purpose in a cleansed and happy universe which will witness no irruption of evil nor shadow of sorrow through the ages to come. Altogether, the picture in which the book melts and disappears, as having done its work and borne its testimony during the school days

of humanity, is one of unparalleled beauty and splendour, such as infinite wisdom alone could have sketched, and infinite power alone could have completed.

HILLSTEAD. I am extremely grateful to you, dear brethren, for these happy evenings. May a blessing rest on us all during the necessary separation of the summer months; and may the grand truth of immortality only in Christ, and the corresponding truth of his glorious kingdom, find a place in many Christian hearts! Whether we shall ever meet thus again is unknown to us, and indeed it is a matter with which we have nothing to do. Grace be with you all!

ALL.

"Amen! "

ATONEMENT PREFIGURED IN THE BAPTISM

I.
THAT

OF JESUS.

Read Matt. iii. 13-17, and Luke iii. 21-22.

AT Christ is both the wisdom and the power of God, is a truth that shines forth resplendently in the vicarious character of his sacrificial work. It conveys to the believing sinner the full assurance of his identification with all that Christ did for God, all that he is to God, and all that he possesses from God, Nowhere I think does this principle of substitutional efficacy appear more conspicuous within so brief a space as in the narrative of the baptism of Jesus the Christ, the Son of God. It is very necessary to bear this great feature in mind in the perusal of the entire scene and its attendant circumstances.

When the fulness of time had come for the outward display of the judicial action of God against SIN, in order that-when the several branches of the whole family of God should receive consciousness of Redemption-He might put it away for ever: "God sent his own Son into the world" in the likeness of sinful flesh," to perform under the law that which all previous sacrifices had failed to do. As the divinely appointed sin-offering, God judged on the Person of his Son, and passed the sentence of eternal abolition of SIN, to be fulfilled in due time.*

Christ Jesus came into the world as Son of Abraham, of David, and of Adam, in order to honour God as MAN, in every condition of humanity, Jew and Gentile, first by the manifestation of purity and righteousness in his life, and then by offering to him a spotless person, a perfect character of moral excellence, and all the precious fruits of a holy nature; glories that man in all ages of the world had come short of displaying, and without which no man can have access unto God."†

For the full instruction of his children in the wondrous blessings of the sacrificial atonement of his Son, it has pleased the Father to institute the symbolic action of the Baptism of Jesus by his forerunner, John. As "the Second Man, the Lord from heaven," he came to redeem all that had been lost by the first Man, bringing forth into light

* Rom. viii. 3; Heb. ix. 26.

† Rom. iii. 23.

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the full glories of the manifold wisdom and eternally conceived purposes of God.

II. In order to understand the Lord's vicarious position on earth, it is necessary to look at the solemn cause that brought him there. The first Man, Adam, dwelt in Eden, a garden planted by the hand of God, wherein was every object for joy and blessing suited to his condition; objects that could speak to him of the power, wisdom, and goodness of the Creator, with whom he was also in communion in his innocence. Objects, too, which must have had a tendency, under a right exercise of his moral faculties, to develop reverence and affection for their Giver. He stood in the midst, and the enjoyment of the bright aud untainted atmosphere of a sinless creation which acknowledged him as the divine delegate in sovereignty thereof, with a spotless and beauteous partner for all his joys, a help fitted for all his occupations. Yet, under such exceedingly favourable circumstances it was that at the first temptation he bartered his innocence for corruption; his position, which was probationary, and his inheritance, were lost.

When Israel came into the land of Canaan under Joshua, we behold once more man in the garden,* under a law of obedience † as at the first. But the garden how changed! Sin had come in, and its accompaniments, death and the curse, were painfully obvious throughout. Yet, under such circumstances, every thing surrounding Israel was favourable to an antagonism against prevailing evil, and the development of righteousness if it were an inherent quality in the natural man. Adopted of Jehovah as his people, under his especial government, fostering care, and guidance; hedged around by the ceremonials of a religion that drew them towards the confession of a certain relationship to him by means of an ordained priesthood; the only nation to whom Jehovah had made himself known, and therefore possessing a supremacy above all others, it was the purpose of the Most High to govern the world through their means, had their probationary tenure of the inheritance of Canaan showed them to be righteous instruments for such an object. But once more did Satan lead man into captivity to his will to worship him rather than God; once more was man proved unfit for communion with his Creator, and for dominion over creation; once more was man driven from the garden. Man in Israel failed to recover what man in Adam had forfeited.

"In the fulness of time," as I have said, appeared "The Last Adam," who came as the Divine Representive standing in the place of the first Adam and of Israel. He came with full purpose of submitting the same test of obedience through temptation by the same adversary; to give proof of perfect righteousness, and of unquestionable devotedness to the honour and glory of God who sent him: thus to redeem from the power of Satan both man and his inheritance.

III. We pass now to the incidents connected with Jesus when "He came unto John to be baptized of him." The baptism of John was of

* There can be little doubt, I think, that the garden of Eden was in the land of Palestina. See Ezek. xxviii. 12, 13, 15, connecting Tyre with Eden; also Ezek. xxxvi. 35; xxxi. 16. Again: Isa. li. 3, and Joel ii. 3, with Gen. xiii. 10. Many other references might also be adduced to warrant the supposition. † Deut. xxviii.