“The Just shall Live by Faith.”

ROM. i. 17; HEB. x. 38.

(Continued from page 164.)

WE shall now observe more closely a few of the chief particulars in which the life of “the just” consists as a life of faith.

(1) It is a life of faith in respect to the Word of God. Christ said in the days of His flesh: “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” The Holy Scriptures are the word of the living of God, and the Lord has made known in them the whole truth that is necessary to the life and salvation of men’s souls. He has set forth the spiritual needs of men as fallen, lost sinners, and He has unfolded the riches of his own provision to supply these needs in and through His Son Jesus Christ. Now, it is by a cordial belief of the truth in both these aspects that sinners pass from a state of nature into a state of grace. This cordial belief is the work of the Spirit of God, and believers are persons who are said to have been “born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” As the life of faith has been begotten of the word of truth, so it must be sustained and carried on thereby. Believing souls must, therefore, feed upon the Word of God as their spiritual food. They are called to a walk of dependence on the words of eternal life. True Christians, therefore, take the Word as their infallible guide. They accept it as the only genuine light to their feet and lamp to their path. They seek to entertain no views regarding themselves or others but what is in accordance with the Word, and they desire to regulate all their thoughts in respect to the Triune God in His being, purposes, and kingdom, by the same unerring standard. Again, they rest their hope of acceptance with God upon the ground of His Word. It was, in the light of this Word, as a revelation of law, that they discovered themselves to be sinners on the brink of an undone eternity, and it is in the light of the same Word as a revelation of grace they saw there was

mercy in God for hell-deserving sinners, and were enabled to believe in Christ unto salvation. Generally, some particular portion of God’s word is brought home to the mind with such enlightening and quickening power that the soul cordially embraces the Lord as its Saviour and Portion in that particular word of truth. Lastly, “the just” look for all their spiritual supplies on their journey heavenward, to come through the channel of the Word. The Spirit takes of the things of Christ and shows them unto His children. The Spirit adds nothing to what is contained in God’s word; He only opens up and applies what is there already. He may often make use of the words of men for conveying light or comfort, but these words are only valuable as they are founded upon and agreeable to the unerring Scriptures. Those who are truly taught of God will, therefore, not live upon the words of the creature as such; their spiritual life is bound up with the Word of God; and they “desire the sincere milk of the Word that they may grow thereby.” “The unsearchable riches of Christ,” in respect of grace and glory, are only to be found in the Scriptures, and by faith in the words of inspired truth, believers enter into the experimental enjoyment of these riches, and have fellowship with the Father, through the Son, and by the Holy Ghost. The river of divine blessing which makes glad the city of God, flows along the channel of divine truth, and the just stoop down, and drink with the mouth of faith from its living and life-giving streams.

(2) It is a life of faith in regard to the great benefit of Justification. We single out this benefit from among others, as it is eminently associated with faith in the Scriptures, and lies at the foundation of all other spiritual benefits in the order of divine bestowal. Martin Luther, in his first experience, already referred to, was deeply and strenuously exercised as to his justification before God. He was searching the Scriptures for light on the way of peace when the words, “The just shall live by faith,” for the first time arrested his attention, and showed him that justification was by faith and not by works; but it was not until the words came to him the third time—on his visit to Rome—that he was entirely delivered from the entanglement of the legal system, and brought to see that he was only dishonouring God by adding on his own works and penances to the perfect merits of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The idea of justification by works is deeply rooted in the human mind. When God at first entered into a covenant with man in the estate of innocence, He made it a covenant of works, as suitable to man’s character then as a holy creature, and the substance of the covenant was “Do and thou shalt live.” But man broke the engagement by disobedience, and incurred the penalty of sin, which was death. By his transgression he also rendered himself incapable any further of keeping the law of God perfectly, even for a moment. At the same time the very sin

which produced this result blinded him to the extent of his fall, and he still continues to imagine that he can render a satisfactory obedience to the law of God. Thus it is that all men in their natural state, whether consciously or unconsciously, look to the law of works for justification and acceptance with God. They suppose that something they have done or will do by their own efforts will secure the favour of their Maker and Judge. And they steadfastly adhere to this principle, though the true way of justification is plainly set before them in the gospel of Christ. It is only the Spirit of God that can divorce a sinner from the law as a covenant of works, and unite him to Christ in a covenant of grace.

Justification by faith alone is very evidently the doctrine of the Bible as to the way in which a sinner becomes accepted with God. The Apostle Paul was the chief instrument used by the Holy Spirit to expound and press home the truth on this important point, and the first part of his message is that “by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified” in the sight of God. The meaning plainly is that no sinner of the human race can obtain freedom from condemnation, or righteousness before God, by his own works—that the works of fallen creatures are so imperfect and polluted that they cannot satisfy the precept of the law or remove its penalty. The second part of the apostle’s teaching is that it is the obedience of Christ alone, in doing and suffering, that has met all the claims of law and justice against “the many” whom He represented, an innumerable company of our fallen race. Christ’s obedience or righteousness is thus the only meritorious ground of justification before God. The third part of the doctrine is that faith is the instrumental cause of justification—that the sinner embraces the righteousness of Christ by an act of believing, and thus enters into a state of justification.

It is clear, then, that when a sinner is seeking acceptance with God, he is called upon in the gospel, first, to believe that all his righteousnesses—his very best works—are imperfect and corrupt, and cannot in any way satisfy the law or secure the favour of God; and, secondly, to receive Christ as the end of the law for righteousness, as one who has gloriously met all the claims of law and justice against His people by His obedience and sufferings unto death; and when a sinner, by divine grace, responds to this call, he is justified. God pardons his sins, and imputes to him the righteousness of Christ, whereby he is “accepted in the Beloved.” Saving faith, therefore, leads a sinner to go out of himself entirely as a ground of justification, and to accept of Christ as his only and all-sufficient righteousness. The act of justification on God’s part is complete and perfect; nothing can be added to it or taken from it; and so “there is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus—who walk, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

Now, it sometimes happens that true believers themselves do not enter fully into the meaning of justification, and that, through darkness and remaining unbelief, they do not derive the benefit from this precious doctrine that they otherwise might do. The words under notice call attention to the fact that “the just” are to continue, as they began, to live by faith, and this is true in connection with justification as well as other blessings. The tendency to look within for a ground of hope still continues in the hearts of God’s people, and they are apt to rise and fall as to the belief of their acceptance with God according to the special frame of mind in which they may find themselves. When they feel that iniquities inwardly prevail against them, they are ready to raise the foundations of their hope, and to think that they are now obnoxious to the wrath of God as an offended judge. They are liable to forget that if once pardoned and accepted by the Lord, their justification stands sure, and can never be made void by any power in earth or hell. There is always abundant room, no doubt, for the constant exercise of repentance, but this is a different matter from casting away one’s hope. Personally we believe that it is often those who have had the deepest views of their fallen and lost condition as sinners before God, that have attained to the clearest apprehension of their justification through the imputation of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We did not intend, to begin with, to continue our imperfect treatment of this important subject beyond two articles, but we find that we have filled enough space meantime, and so must refer the remainder of our remarks to some corner of a future issue.

The late Dr. Walter C. Smith.—There passed away at the end of September, at a venerable age, Dr. W. C. Smith, who, in his day, was a troubler of the peace of the Free Church. His fame rests chiefly on his poetic gifts. He has been highly praised by men eminent in the world of letters, but whatever merit his poetry had as poetry, the teaching of some of it was most pernicious, as witness the following lines:—

Shall God be wroth because we love them still,
And call upon His love to shield from ill,
Our dearest best;
And bring them home and recompense their pain,
And cleanse their sin, if any sin remain,
And give them rest;
Nay: I will not believe it, I will pray
As for the living, for the dead each day.

There is such a thing as poetic license, but in these lines we have undiluted Romanism expressed in rhythmic sentences by a minister professedly belonging to a Presbyterian Church.

A Sermon.

BY THE LATE REV. ALEXANDER GUNN, SEN., WATTEN,
CAITHNESS.

Preached in 1809, and hitherto unpublished.*

“But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.”—MATT. ix. 12.

THERE is no article of faith more certain than that Jesus Christ is an all-sufficient and most willing Saviour, able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him, and that those that come unto Him He will in no wise cast out. Those that entrust their souls to His hands He keeps, and none of them is lost. It is also certain that all the guilty sons of Adam stand in the most absolute need of Him; in vain do they look for salvation in any other; without Him they are undone for ever. And without Him their very existence becomes a curse, and their immortality but the duration of their misery. The disease of sin has so deeply infected their souls that none but this divine Physician can heal them. Since this is the case, who would not expect that Jesus would be universally the desire of mankind? Ah, who would not expect that as many as are wounded and just perishing of their wounds, would all earnestly apply to this Physician, and seek relief from Him upon any terms? Who would suspect there should be so much as one heart cold and disaffected towards Him? Must not all love and desire Him, since all need Him so extremely, and since He is so completely qualified to be their Deliverer? But, alas! notwithstanding such favourable expectations from the nature of the thing, it is a most notorious fact that this divine Physician is but little regarded in our dying world. This all-sufficient and willing Saviour is generally neglected by perishing sinners. There are thousands among us that have no affectionate thoughts of Him, no eager longings after Him. They exert no vigorous endeavours to obtain an interest in Him, nor are they tenderly solicitous about it. They indeed profess His religion and call themselves Christians after His name; they pay Him the compliment of a bended knee, and now and then perform the external duties of religion, and thus have high hopes they shall be saved through Him; but as to their

* This is a Sermon by “the great” Mr. Gunn, who was born in 1773, ordained minister of Orphir, Orkney, in 1803, and translated to Watten in 1805, where he died in 1836. See Auld’s “Ministers and Men in the Far North.” This Sermon is the only discourse, with the exception of a short address (see Magazine, January, 1897), of this eminent minister that has ever been published, and while it belongs to the earlier and less powerful period of his ministry, it still contains sound, evangelical truth, fitted to be spiritually useful, and giving some index of the commanding ability of the preacher.—ED.

hearts and affections, He has no share there—these are reserved for the world which, in practical estimation, they prefer to Him, whatever they profess.

Now, whence is this strange and shocking alienation of affection from Him who is the Lord of life and glory, the fountain of all good? Whence is it that the dying are careless about a Physician—that a Saviour is neglected by those that are perishing? The true reason we may find in our text—“They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.” That is, they who imagine themselves well, however disordered they are in reality, do not feel their need of a Physician, and therefore will not apply to Him and put themselves under His care. This is the answer of Christ to the proud, cavilling Pharisees who censured his free conversation with publicans and sinners at an entertainment which Matthew had prepared for Him.

The publicans were a sort of custom-house officers among the Jews, appointed by the Romans, whose tributaries they then were, to collect the duties imposed by the Government. They were generally persons of bad morals, and particularly given to rapine and extortion in raising the taxes. On this account they were particularly hated by the Jews—especially by the strict sect of the Pharisees. Their very office would have rendered them odious, even though they had behaved well in it, for it was a public badge of the slavery of the Jews to the Romans, which, to a people so proud and so fond of liberty as the Jews, was a mortification they could not patiently bear. The publicans were therefore objects of general contempt and abhorrence, as an abandoned sort of men; and the Jews—particularly the rigid and haughty Pharisees—held no conversation with them but kept them at a distance, as though they had been excommunicated. Hence says Christ concerning one excommunicated by the Church for incorrigible wickedness, “Let him be to thee as an heathen man and a publican”—(Matt. xviii. 17). That is, “have no intercourse with him, but treat him as the Jews do the publicans.”

The compassionate Jesus, who came “to seek and save that which was lost,” did not conduct Himself towards those outcasts upon the rigid principles of the Pharisees. They held them in such contempt that they did not labour to instruct and reform them. But Jesus preached to them, conversed with them freely, used the most condescending, affable, and ingratiating measures to reform them, and called some of them to the honour of being His disciples. Of this number was Matthew, the author of this history. Once an abandoned publican, afterwards a disciple, an apostle, and one of the four evangelists whose writings have diffused the vital savour of the name of Jesus through all ages and countries. O! the condescension, the freeness, the efficacy of the grace of Christ! It can make a publican an apostle, an abhorred outcast the favourite of heaven and the companion of angels.

What abundant encouragement does this give to the most

abandoned sinner among you to turn unto the Lord! Let publicans and sinners despair of mercy and salvation if they continue in their present condition; but if they arise and follow Jesus at His call and become His humble, teachable disciples, they need not despair. Nay; they may rejoice in hope of the glory of God, and be assured they shall be admitted into the kingdom of God when the self-righteous children of the kingdom are shut out.

When Matthew had embraced the call, he made a feast for his new Master, that he might show his respect and gratitude to Him, and that he might let his brother publicans and old companions have an opportunity of conversing with Him and receiving His instructions. The blessed Jesus, who was always ready to embrace every opportunity of doing good, whatever popular odium it might expose Him to, cheerfully complies with Matthew’s invitation, and mingles with a crowd of publicans at his table. Like a physician, He employs Himself among the sick and dying, and not among the healthy and gay. The conversation of sinners could not be agreeable to Him. To converse with His Father and the holy angels would have been more pleasing to His holy soul, but if by conversing with sinners in our guilty world, He can but save the perishing creatures, He cheerfully submits to the self-denial, and even rejoices in it, just as a compassionate physician, though he has no pleasure in the melancholy mansions of sickness, yet frequents them that he may relieve the distressed.

The Pharisees now thought they had a good handle to raise popular clamour against Christ, and therefore cavil at these freedoms as though they had been profane, and inconsistent with the character of the Messiah, or even of a prophet. If He claimed this character, they thought it much more becoming Him to keep company with them than with profligate publicans. Hence, to stumble and perplex His disciples, they come to them and ask, “Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?” The disciples were not as yet endowed with that mouth and wisdom which all their enemies could not withstand, and therefore Jesus answers them, and takes upon Himself His own defence: “The whole,” says He, “have no need of a physician, but they that are sick.” Some suppose that by “the whole” Christ means those that were really whole, or that were not so infected with the disease of sin as to stand in need of Him as a Physician. When such persons can be found among the sons of men, this exposition will appear plausible. But since we know that all have sinned and stand in need of Christ as a Saviour, it is much more reasonable to suppose that by “the whole” Christ means those that imagined themselves whole, though really languishing with the deadly disease of sin. As if He had said, “I come unto the world under the character of a physician for sick souls. Such these despised publicans are, and therefore these are the persons I have to deal with, and these are most likely to make application

to me. But as for yourselves, you think you are righteous; you think you are not so far gone with the disease of sin as to need a Physician sent down from heaven to heal you. While you continue to entertain this high opinion of yourselves, I have no business with you as a Physician. I must therefore rather choose to converse with these sinners, who now begin to see themselves such, and to be sensible of their need of a Physician.” Thus, as I observed, Jesus here vindicates His conduct even upon the principles of the Pharisees themselves. It was not now to His purpose to dispute the high opinion they had of themselves. But when it was proper, He faithfully exposes their true character as proud, self-righteous hypocrites, and denounces the most terrible woes against them.

To give a fuller view of this text, and to adapt it to practical purposes, I intend to describe the character of those that are whole and of those that are sick, in the senses here intended.

There are none of the sons of men who are really “whole.” Their souls are all diseased; for all have sinned, and there is none righteous, no, not one. And perhaps there are none upon earth so proud and so ignorant of themselves as to affirm in so many words that they are whole, that is, perfectly righteous. Therefore by “the whole” cannot be meant either those who are really free from all sin or those who imagine themselves entirely free from it. It does not appear that even the proud Pharisees were capable of flattering themselves so far. But by “the whole” are meant those who are indeed guilty, depraved sinners, and who are ready to make a superficial profession in words that they are sinners, but continue secure and impenitent, insensible of their guilt, their corruption, their danger, and their need of a Saviour; that is, those who are really sick and dangerously ill, and yet are as easy, as unapprehensive of danger, as careless about applying to the Physician as if nothing ailed them. The disease is of a lethargic, stupefying nature, so that they are not sensible of it. It renders them delirious, so that they think themselves well when the symptoms of death are strong upon them. What multitudes of such may we see in the world. The Word of God pronounces them dangerously ill; their friends may see the most deadly symptoms upon them; but, alas! they are insensible of their own case. Jesus, the divine Physician, warns them of their danger, offers them His help, and prescribes to them the infallible means of recovery; but they disregard His warnings, neglect His gracious offer, and refuse to submit to His prescriptions. This is the general character of those that are “whole” in the sense of my text.

By “the sick” are meant those who, like the former, are really guilty, corrupt sinners in extreme need of a Saviour, and who readily confess they are such. But here lies the difference. They are not only such in reality, and they not only acknowledge that they are such, but they are deeply sensible of it; they are tenderly

affected with their case; their temper and conduct, their thoughts of themselves and of Jesus Christ, their designs and endeavours, are such as are natural to a soul sensibly sick of sin, and such as bear a resemblance to those of a person sick in body and using all means for a recovery. It is the characteristic of this class of sinners, not that they are less holy or in more danger than others, but that they are more sensible of their condition and more solicitous and laborious about deliverance. They feel themselves disordered; they put themselves under the care of Jesus, the only Physician of souls; they submit to His prescriptions, and use all means for recovery to soundness of mind from the deadly disease of sin. This is the general character of the sick in the sense of my text, but it is necessary I should descend to particulars.

The particular characters of the whole and sick, in contrast, are such as these:—

i. He that is whole has never had a clear, affecting sight and sense of sin, but he that is sick is fully convinced and deeply sensible of it. The one has only a general, superficial, unaffection conviction that he is a sinner, that he has not been so good as he should have been, that his heart is somewhat disordered, and especially that he has been guilty of sundry bad actions. But, alas! he neither sees his sinfulness in its full extent, nor is suitably affected with that little of it he sees. He does not clearly see the entire and universal corruption of his heart and the numberless principles and seeds of sin that are there, the blindness of his mind as to divine things, the secret disaffection of his heart towards God and holiness, the carnality of his mind, and his lukewarmness and formality in the duties of religion. He may have a transient glance—a superficial view—of these things, but he has not a deep, settled conviction of them, nor is he suitably affected with what he knows of his own sinfulness. It does not appear to him such a mighty matter to have such a disordered heart towards God, to have dropped a forbidden word now and then, or to have committed a few bad actions—few, I say, for so they appear to him, though repeated times and ways beyond number. Sin appears to him a small evil, and he has a thousand excuses to make for it. Hence he is as easy, as careless, as presumptuous in his hopes, as if he believed he did not really deserve punishment from a righteous God, and therefore was in no danger. Though the leprosy of sin spreads ever so wide, and breaks out into ever so many putrid and mortifying sores, yet he is easy and secure and insensible of the disease. Thus, like a man in health, he is unconcerned, and neither apprehends himself sick, nor uses the least means for his recovery. O! what multitudes of such are among us. They will confess themselves sinners with as little concern as if they were quite free from sin, or as if they thought there was little or no danger in it.

But is it so with the poor, sick sinner? O! no; he sees, he feels, that his whole head is sick and his whole heart faint, and

that from the crown of the head even unto the sole of the foot there is nothing but wounds, bruises, and putrifying sores. He feels the plague of a hard, senseless heart, and the secret springs of wickedness within him. He feels that sin has enfeebled all his powers, and that he is no more able to exert them in religious endeavours than a sick man is to employ himself in active life. When he is awakened out of his security and his eyes are opened to see himself in a just light, he perceives the symptoms of spiritual death strong upon him. So clear are his views of his entire and universal depravity and imminent danger, that he is utterly astonished he was so blind as never to discover it before. Now, also, he has a deep sense of the evil of sin. He not only sees himself universally disordered, but he sees and feels the disorder to be deadly. Sin now appears to him the greatest evil upon earth, or even in hell; as worthy of the severest vengeance from a righteous God; as contrary to the divine purity; as a base, ungrateful violation of the most strong and endearing obligations; as destructive to the soul, not only according to the penalty of the divine law, but in its own native tendency.

During the progress of the Christian life the believer feels himself recovering a little, though very slowly, while he follows the prescriptions of his divine Physician and receives healing influences from Him. He feels his enfeebled soul gathering a little strength, his vitiated taste gradually corrected, and the welcome symptoms of returning health. But O! he is sensibly sick still. The cure is not complete in this world, but the remains of his old disorder hang upon him all his life, and he is subject to many dangerous relapses in which it gathers new strength, and he is often afraid it is incurable.

1. They that are whole are generally easy and secure and unapprehensive of danger, but the sick soul is alarmed and anxious, and cannot be easy till it perceives some appearance of recovery.

He that is whole is benumbed with a stupid insensibility, but he that is sick is in pain from the disease of sin which he sensibly feels. The one can walk about merry and thoughtless, with a hard, depraved heart within him; the other is perpetually uneasy, and, like a sick man, has no taste for anything while he feels such a heart within him. If the one is anxious, it is with some worldly care; if the other is anxious, it is chiefly for the recovery of his dying soul. The one can give himself up to business or pleasure or idleness, as a man in health and at ease; the other is apprehensive that his soul is in great danger. He is alarmed with the deadly consequences of sin, as it exposes him to the wrath of God, the loss of heaven, and all the miseries of hell. But this is not all that distresses him; he considers sin in itself as a loathsome disease, and is pained with its present effects upon him. As a sick man is not only alarmed at the consequence of his disease, namely, death, but considers it as a present pain, and as depriving

him of the present comforts of life, so the sick soul feels sin as a loathsome, painful disease that now deprives it of the exalted pleasures of religion, and renders it incapable of serving its God with vigour and life. This indisposition of soul for the exercises of religion is in itself a constant uneasiness to him who is spiritually sick. How strongly does Paul represent the case when he cries out, “O, wretched man that I am; who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”—(Romans vii. 24). This is the character of the soul sick of sin. But he that is whole hath little or no uneasiness upon this account. If he is ashamed at all, it is with the consequence of sin; he fears nothing but the punishment. As for the disease itself, it is so far from giving him uneasiness that he is fond of it, and unwilling to part with it. It affords him sensations of pleasure rather than of pain, and he rather dreads a recovery than the continuance of the disorder. That holiness which is the health of the soul is disagreeable to him, and he would rather continue languishing than recover. May be you can easily distinguish between sickness and health of body, and you are very ready to do it. And will you not inquire what state your souls are in—whether they are sensible of their sickness and in a way of recovery; or whether they are insensible of their danger, and unsolicited about their recovery? May you examine yourselves in these particulars.

1. They that are whole are unwilling to apply to a physician or to follow his prescriptions, but to the sick a physician is most welcome, and they will submit to his directions, however self-denying and mortifying. This is the point my text has particularly in view, and therefore we must take particular notice of it.

They that are in health have no regard to a physician as such; they neither send for him, nor will they accept of his help if offered gratis; they look upon the best of medicines with neglect, as of no use or importance to them; the prescriptions proper to the sick they hear with indifference, as not being concerned. Thus it is with thousands who imagine themselves whole in spirit. The Lord Jesus exhibits Himself to the sons of men under the character of a physician. The gospel makes a free offer of His assistance to all sick souls that will freely accept it, and what reception does He generally meet with? Why, multitudes neglect Him as though they had no need of Him. They may indeed pay Him the compliment of professing His religion because it happened to be the religion of their fathers and their country, but they have no eager desires after Him; they are not in earnest and laborious to obtain His assistance; they do not invite Him with the most affectionate entreaties to undertake their case; they do not beg and cry for relief from Him like blind Bartimæus (Mark x. 47), “Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on us.” In short, whatever regard they may possess for Him, they are not deeply sensible of their absolute need of Him; they are not feelingly affected towards Him as towards a being with whom they have the nearest

personal concern—a concern of the utmost importance—and the reason is, they are whole in their own apprehensions; or if they feel some qualms of conscience—some fits of painful remorse—they soon heal their own hurt slightly, crying, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace. They make a medicine of their own prayers, tears, repentance, and religious endeavours, and with this they hope to heal themselves. Thus Jesus is neglected. They give Him the name of a Saviour, but in reality they look to themselves for a cure. How is the gospel that makes the offer of relief from this heavenly Physician generally received in the world? It is neglected as the offer of superfluous help. It is heard with that indifference with which men in health attend to the prescription of a physician to the sick, in which they have no immediate concern. But this neglected gospel is the only effectual means for healing your dying souls. Then what means the inattention with which it is heard? What means the general neglect with which it is treated? But thus it is all around us.

Again, Jesus prescribes to the sons of men the only means of their recovery. Particularly He enjoins them no more to drink poison, that is, no more to indulge themselves in sin, which is, in its own nature, the most deadly poison to the soul. This divine Physician likewise requires them to use the means of grace instituted in the gospel, to meditate upon their condition, and obtain a deep sense of their disorder, to read and hear the Word with solemn attention and self-application, to pray with frequency and importunity. These are His prescriptions to all that would recover under His hands. But how few observe them in earnest. A general neglect of the means of grace prevails, or they are attended upon with carelessness, which is equally pernicious. Christ also enjoins them to submit to Him as their Physician, to flatter themselves no longer that they can heal themselves by means within their own power, but to apply His blood as the only healing balm to their wounded souls. But, alas, they disregard this grand prescription; they will not submit to Him, but, like an obstinate patient, will have their own way, though eternal death should be the consequence.

But this is not the case of the sinner spiritually sick. He will do anything—he will submit to anything—if it may but save him from the mortal disease of sin. How ardently does he long after Jesus! With what willingness does he put himself under His care! With what joy and gratitude does he hear the offer of free salvation in the gospel, and how dear is the gospel to his heart on this account! With what anxiety does he inquire whether he is upon the recovery or not! With what pleasure does he discover the signs of returning health—to feel a little eager appetite for spiritual food, to feel a little spiritual life in religious exercises, to feel himself able to run in the way of God’s commandments, to feel the principles of sin weakened within him. How willingly does he submit to the prescriptions of his Physician, and attend

upon the means of grace, however disagreeable to a carnal mind! He makes the law of God the rule of his conduct. He guards against relapses, and keeps out of the way of temptation as far as possible. But those that think their souls healthy and vigorous boast of their strength and what mighty things they can do in religion. As for him, he feels his weakness; he feels he can do nothing aright but as he receives daily strength from Christ. He feels himself every day troubled with some disorder or other, therefore he is daily sensible of his need of the Physician, and makes daily application to Him. He does not grudge to take time from his other affairs that he may use means for the recovery of his soul. For if he lose his soul, what would the whole world profit him? In short, the sick sinner is a tender, frail creature, entirely dependent upon Christ, and every day taking means from Him, anxious for his recovery, and willing to submit to anything that may promote it. This is the man, in our Christian-despising world, that gives Jesus a most willing and welcome reception, and embraces His gospel as containing all his salvation and all his desire. May the number of the sick among us be daily increasing!

(To be Concluded next month.)

Memoirs or Spiritual Exercises of Katherine Colace or Mrs. Ross.

THE RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE OF A SCHOOLMISTRESS OF THE
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

(Written with her own Hand.)

(Continued from page 215.)

ANOTHER remarkable passage was: One morning, I being to meet with a sore affliction, the Lord began to speak comfortably to my heart, by promising me these things that He knew were most comfortable to me: as (1) an outgate from all the troubles that were then upon me, bringing in that word, “Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, that he is very pitiful,” and that He would choose my lot: I had seen the folly of my own choice. (2) As to my spiritual condition, His Word should be my rule, His Spirit my guide, His love my principle, and His glory my end in all my actions. This was very comfortable, being often desired by me. (3) Some particular passages of my life that were to come, being comfortable providences, were made known unto me. (4) A promise of fair landing, for as rough a sea I was trysted with. And all was shut up with that, “I will be your God.” This last I wondered at, knowing that He was my God. But I found since that there was

need of this, for not only were all my other comforts too weak to bear the burdens I met with since, but also these comforts I formerly enjoyed—by which I was helped to bear my troubles—were in a great measure taken from me, so that, if I would not take consolation from my relation to Him, I should have none at all. Then I met with the death of that excellent lady, the Lady Park, even at the time she had finished a house that she had caused build for me, that so I might be near her, about which she had been at great pains. This was a stroke I thought I would never have been able to bear, but I was wonderfully supported to the admiration of onlookers. She had in the beginning of her sickness told me she was to die, and desired me to come to that place, notwithstanding of her death, for her children’s sake. I desired her to forbear speaking of her death to me, it being a thing I was not able to bear (measuring the trial with my present strength, and not with the strength I met with suitable to the trial), and forbade her to expect my coming there if she died. And, finding it so with me, she forbore further speaking, and committed it to the Lord. Thereafter I could have no peace till I went to that place. I met with opposition from several airths, and amongst others, from my worthy neighbour, it being at a greater distance from him, and likewise fearing my solitude might wrong me. But I was still put in mind of this: that I used to get my will by quitting it, and so I did in this particular, for within a short time thereafter he was brought to that place, out of which the lady died, by a providence that neither of us did expect. So, a little after I came to that solitary place for her children’s sake, the Lord made intimation to me that He would come there and be a comforter unto me and a blessing to my family, which, when He had prepared me in some measure for, He performed it. The manner of His preparing me was, by working such an estimation of the gospel in my heart that I thought it could not be too dearly bought, though at the expense of the greatest temporal afflictions: nay, I thought it a sufficient compensation for all other losses from that place. “Though they eat the bread of adversity, yet their eyes shall see their teachers.”

I was at that time under a very sore trouble, which I had been wrestling with and seeking deliverance from for some time before. It was continued and increased; yet the Lord wrought in my heart such an estimation of the gospel that I was content with the continuation of the rod and any additions that He pleased so that I might enjoy the gospel. When my heart was brought to this, then I said, I have sold all for the field where the Pearl is. By this frame, which the Lord brought me to by degrees, I found two great benefits. The one was the pleasantness I had in bearing the affliction I was under; the other was a blessing with the Word, so that it was never so blest to me as a little after that eminent servant of God was set down beside me. I met frequently with that Scripture, Isa. lx. 1, 2, 3, 4, but understood

not what the Lord intended by bringing this testimony so often in my way. At last I found that the end for which the gospel was preached was to carry on His work so in the hearts of believers, as at length they should be “called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified,” as in the third verse. So the Lord carried on His work by degrees in my soul, that it came to some desirable period, by the Lord’s blessing of his ministry and the afflictions I was under, accompanied with the secret teaching of His Spirit. Before I had the occasion of his preaching, the Lord took the teaching of me in His own hand, and cleared up His Word to me by His Spirit, and this was instead of fellowship and preaching, but never suffered me to conclude any thing without clear testimonies from Scripture, and so kept my judgment sound. And when I got occasion of useful fellowship that was able to help me in intricacies I was entangled with, though I was countenanced in using these helps, yet the Lord usually expelled all my darkness or ever I could take the opportunity of improving them; and then, when I had communicated my case, I was confirmed by these helps that what I met with was of the Lord. And when I had opportunity of hearing what I was taught all the week over, I was confirmed in on the Lord’s Day. And the reason, as I conceived, of this singular providence was (1) There was a long time I had no opportunity of lively means, and lest the alteration of His way should be too hard for me to bear when necessity, because of sad afflictions, drove me to live only upon spiritual mercies; the Lord, in the depths of His condescendency, continued the same way with me when I had the means. (2) Also, the Lord foreseeing that there were days of darkness coming even upon these whose lips should preserve knowledge, and at whose mouth the law should be fought, and from His tender care of keeping poor unworthy me in His way in such a day, He continued, even when I had the means, in His usual way of teaching me in secret; and to keep me at the work of dependence on Him for His teaching, He filled my hand with such intricate cases, which after trial none could help me in but Himself, and He did it clearly. And to confirm me that it was the Lord that cleared up these intricacies, and that I was not deluded nor mistaken, He taught me ordinarily in secret these very things that I met with afterwards in public. A third reason, I conceive, was to learn me to cease from man, and not to be discouraged when I should want these occasions, as I did afterward; seeing He Himself without them, and in them, was all and all to me. The Lord, out of the depths of His mercy and condescendency to me, put me upon the exercising one grace after another, and in order to the discerning of these in my soul, I was called necessarily to such frames as were evidences of these graces? As instance, 1. Humility. I was so put to it in outward and inward trouble that I got no outgate, till I wan to two things: (1) Quietness of heart to the Will of God under the trouble.

(2) Abhorrence of myself for these ills that the Lord discovered to be the cause of my trouble. Instance 2. Faith in reference to things I would have been at, either as to the clearing of the understanding or the mortification of sin. As to the first, I found great darkness and doubting about some fundamental points; and after much pains by reasoning with myself, but to no purpose, it was brought to my remembrance that the Lord in His Word had said so, which presently dispelled all mists, which could not be without belief of what was spoken. And as to the second, viz., the mortification of sin, it was made discernible to be by the faith of the operation of God working me up to a laying hold on the promises for that end, after I had unfed other helps, but to no purpose. Instance 3. As to the grace of love, He cleared it up to me. (1) By the manner of my love to the Brethren, which was not from any selfish end, but as they bore the image of their Father, whether known or unknown. I once tried the nature of my love to one of my most intimate acquaintances. And 1st, As He had been very useful to me, I loved Him; 2ndly, As He was a member of the same body with me in Christ; 3rdly, As He was an Ambassador of Jesus Christ. But I found I loved Him most of all as bearing the image of Christ. But (2) I loved Him; for His love was shed abroad in my heart, both by that inconceivable glory in Himself that He was pleased sometimes to discover, and likewise by reflecting upon His workmanship in my soul. When He had thus by degrees brought His work in my soul to some period so that I was able clearly to discern these things freely given me of God, thereupon I had for some time an heaven in my soul uninterrupted and love very discernible, both by admiring Him who had dealt so liberally with me, and also longing to be in a capacity of enjoying Him uninterruptedly and in another kind of degree.

These mercies I enjoyed by Mr. Thomas Hog’s ministry, and other helps mentioned before, he being sent by the Lord to me and my family in a day of great distress, and recommended to my heart by the Lord as a great blessing, and one in whose heart the law of his God was, and that none of his steps should slip, and with whom I might converse confidently. He was also a great blessing to my family in converting some and confirming others. And to make it evident that he was mainly sent to me in the time of these great depths which I was under in that place, when some had come to hear him that had not so esteemed him as they should, he would have been laid by from preaching, though he knew nothing of their being there, even after he had resolved to preach; and this became so ordinary that when we saw some folk coming to hear we concluded we would get nothing that day. Thus the Lord kept up the esteem of that faithful servant, and kept us in fear of misprising our great privilege, lest we should be served as others were.

(To be Continued.)

Scottish Heroines of the Faith.

BY THE REV. D. BEATON, WICK.

(Continued from page 219.)

MRS. RONALDSON (HELEN STIRK) OF PERTH.*

IN the long list of names of men and women who have proved faithful unto death, Scotland, small among the nations of the world, recognises among them not a few of her own sons and daughters. Forgetful she may be of her priceless heritage, but the rehearsals of the noble deeds of these faithful martyrs can still touch a chord in the hearts of Scotsmen the wide world over. Are not her heather clad hills redolent with memories of her martyred dead? For

“On many a lonely mountain waste, by many a trackless way,
A cairn tells where a hero sleeps, to Scotland of to-day.”

But long ere the Covenant times, with its deeds of high heroism on the one hand, or of fiendish cruelty on the other, Scotland had its baptism of fire. True, in passing from the darkness of Popery to the light of the Gospel, she had not to pay such a price in blood as the sister kingdom. But if the faggots did not burn so fiercely in the Northern Kingdom, still there were not a few who passed through the fiery ordeal on the way to their everlasting rest. Among these were some women who, to use the Apostle’s words, “out of weakness were made strong.” There is something peculiarly ennobling in the sight of a frail woman standing on the scaffold or meeting courageously the advancing waves of the sea. To woman has been denied to a certain degree the high virtue of courage—at least she has it in a less degree than man. And, besides this, the tenderness of a woman’s feelings adds to the terrible ordeal. So when the awful crisis comes as to whether she will face the fire and break the ties, the strength of which only a woman’s heart can feel, who can tell how terrible the trial must be? Such examples, then, of noble womanhood are a precious inheritance to the Church of Christ. It is to some of these that we would seek to direct attention in this series of papers. Some of them were of lowly origin, but rich in faith; others, again, occupied high social positions in this world, but their chief ornament was a “meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.” The first honoured name on the list of Scottish women martyrs is Mrs. Ronaldson nee Helen Stirk, of Perth, or St. Johnston, as it was then called. Froude, in his exquisite literary style, has done justice to her memory in his History of England (vol. iv., p. 17), and Alane or Alesius writing to Melancthon makes the following reference to these martyrdoms—

* Most of this sketch appeared already in the Protestant Woman.

“Three days ago,” he says, “there were several countrymen of mine, who declare that the Cardinal rules all things at his pleasure in Scotland, and governs the governor himself. In the town of St. Johnston (Perth) he hung up four respectable citizens for no other cause than because they had requested a monk, in the middle of his sermon, not to depart in his doctrine from the sacred text, and not to mix up notions of his own with the words of Christ. Along with these a most respectable matron, carrying a sucking child in her arms, was haled before the Tribunal and condemned to death by drowning. They report that the constancy of the woman was such that, when her husband was led to the scaffold and mounted the ladder, she followed and mounted along with him and entreated to be allowed to hang from the same beam. She encouraged him to be of good cheer, ‘for in a few hours,’ said she, ‘I shall be with Christ along with you.’ They declare that the governor was inclined to liberate them, but that the Cardinal suborned the nobles to threaten that they would leave him if the condemned were not put to death. When the Cardinal arrived with his army at Dundee, from which the monks had been expelled, all the citizens took to flight, and when he saw the town quite deserted, he laughed, and remarked that he had expected to find it full of Lutherans.”

Reference is made to the cruel event in Knox’s History of the Reformation, to which Dr. Laing, in his edition, has added corroborative evidence (Vol. i., p. 118). Foxe, in his Book of Martyrs, also speaks of the drowning of this brave woman, but we are chiefly indebted for our information to Calderwood’s History of the Kirk of Scotland, where a lengthened account is given of the events leading up to her martyrdom. He introduces us to the subject by the following remarks:—”Whether it was at this progress or another, that the bloody butcher, the Cardinal (Beaton), executed his cruelty upon the innocent persons of St. Johnston, Mr. Knox saith he cannot certainly affirm. Buchanan referreth this progress and the cruel butchery of the innocent men to the winter time of the year 1545. Yet Mr. Knox placeth them both in his History before the first burning of Edinburgh, which happened in the May following this year, 1544. So doth, also, Mr. Foxe, in the Book of Martyrs, refer this butchery to the end of the year 1543, according to the old reckoning, that is, the beginning of this year, 1544; and both he and Mr. Foxe relate that this cruelty was executed about St. Paul’s day. But not studying to be too curious for the time, we come to the matter itself” (Vol. i., p. 170). And following the wish of good Mr. Calderwood, let us come to the matter itself. In January, 1544, Cardinal Beaton, accompanied by the Bishops of Dunblane and Orkney, came to Perth, and their presence there meant an end to the liberty that the citizens of St. Johnston enjoyed under their hereditary Provost, Lord Ruthven, one of the few Scottish nobles who were favourable to the Reformation doctrines.

Robert Lamb, William Anderson, James Hunter, James Ronaldson, and his wife, Helen Stirk, and James Finlayson were among the first to be arrested. On the night of their apprehension they were cast into the Spey tower, and were brought forth on the morrow to be tried. We pass by the examination of the men, and confine our attention to the trial, condemnation, and sentence of Helen Stirk, the wife of James Ronaldson. She was charged with refusing to pray to the Virgin when her children were born. She had gone the length of saying that if she had lived in the time of the Virgin Mary, God might have looked to her humility and base estate, as He did to the Virgin’s, “thereby meaning,” adds Calderwood, “that there were no merits in the Virgin Mary, which procured that honour to be made the mother of Christ, and to be preferred before other women, but God’s only free mercy exalted her to that estate.” Both the men and the woman were condemned. When the sentence was passed upon the men they were bound together, “which thing the woman beholding desired likewise to be bound by the serjeants with her husband for Christ’s sake.” On the day the three men suffered, Helen Stirk desired that even in death both she and her husband might be united in bearing testimony to the faith; but on this being denied her she turned to her husband, kissed him, saying, “Husband, rejoice, for we have lived together many joyful days; but this day in which we must die ought to be most joyful to us both, because we must have joy for ever. Therefore, I will not bid you good-night, for we shall soon meet with joy in the kingdom of heaven.” Yet another farewell had to be taken, and keen and sharp it must have been to a mother’s heart. She was led away to her doom by her merciless persecutors. As she passed the house of the Grey Friars, where the Cardinal was, she said, “Ah! they sit in that place quietly who are the cause of our death this day; but He Who seeth this execution upon us shall shortly see their nest shaken.” When she came to the edge of the water she took her suckling child from her breast and gave it to a nurse, commanding it and her other children to the care of her neighbours for God’s sake. Noble-hearted woman! All honour be to her, or, rather, to the grace that made her strong in the hour of trial! May the land that gave her birth ever honour the truths for which she and others laid down their lives!

“And never may the land whose flowers spring fresh from martyr graves
A moment’s parley hold with Rome, her minions, or her slaves,
A moment palter with the chains, whose scars are on her yet.”

(To be Continued.)

Roman Catholic Disabilities.—At the time of the writing of this note Roman Catholic Members of Parliament are making known, by a series of questions addressed to the Prime Minister, their determination to have the law changed where the Roman Catholic religion lies under certain disabilities.

Dr. Chiniqy’s View of the Church of Rome.

CHAPTER FROM “FORTY YEARS IN THE CHURCH OF CHRIST.”

REPLY TO DR. C. HODGE OF PRINCETON.

False Liberality with Respect to the Church of Rome.

THE general indifference on the part of Protestants to the real character and evils of Romanism arises largely from the idea that there is a sufficient amount of truth and good in that system to justify its being regarded as a Church of Christ. Cardinal Manning truly stated that “the Roman Catholic Church is either the kingdom of the Son of God or the masterpiece of Satan.” As it is most manifestly the latter, it is certainly not Christianity. The conviction of this must be deepened before much efficient work is done against the diabolical system. It is sad to see some prominent Protestants taking a wrong position on this subject.

Rev. Charles Hodge was a Professor in the Presbyterian Theological Seminary at Princeton for about half a century. He was a man of a powerful intellect and undoubted piety; but on this subject he was weak, and as his opinions had very great weight with many ministers and others, his influence in that direction was, to say the least, unfavourable.

Virgil gives us the history of a skilful mariner, who, deceived by the sweet but perfidious voices of the sirens, perished on the rocks of Scylla. So, when travelling on the sublime and bottomless sea of Christianity, it has been my sad lot to see more than one shipwreck caused by the sweet but deceptive voices of the siren of the man of sin.

The venerable Dr. Hodge was an example of this.* I give here his letter, followed by my reply:—

“MY DEAR SIR,—The question proposed in your letter is one to which wise and good men have given different answers.

“Some say that the Romish Church teaches serious error. As the influence of that Church is everywhere, and, from its nature, hostile to civil and religious liberty, therefore it is wrong to grant it any voluntary support or direct encouragement.

“Others say that, inasmuch as the Roman Catholic Church teaches truth enough to save the souls of men (of which I have no doubt); inasmuch as it proclaims the divine authority of the Scriptures, the obligation of the decalogue, and the retributions of eternity; and inasmuch as it calls upon men to worship God,

* Dr. Chiniqy does not mean that Dr. Hodge made “shipwreck” of his soul, but that he was deceived in his favourable opinion of the Church of Rome. Charles Hodge was in many respects admirable as a man and as a divine, but his views about Churches and Church polity were in several particulars too broad, and not safe to follow.—ED.

the Father, Son, and Spirit, it is unspeakably better than no Church at all. And, therefore, when the choice is between that and none, it is wise and right to encourage the establishment of Churches under the control of Catholic priests.

“For myself, I take this latter view. The principle cannot be carried out that no Church should be encouraged that teaches error. For then we could help none but our own. And the principle involves the absurdity that a little error is more powerful for evil than a great deal of truth for good.

“Of course, public men should act on Christian principles, and if it is wrong for a private Christian to help a Catholic Church, it must be wrong for a Corporation to do so.

“While, therefore, I dread the influence of the Romish Church, and recognise its corruptions in doctrines and worship, I nevertheless believe that it is better that men should be Roman Catholics than infidels or atheists. Romanists teach people to worship Christ, and to regard and acknowledge Him as the ‘Salvator Hominum.’—Very truly your Friend, etc.,

CHARLES HODGE.”

“DEAR SIR,—Since I accepted, by the great mercy of God, the truth as it is in Jesus, and renounced the errors of Rome, I have now and then heard many strange things about the doctrines of that Church, but nothing looks to me so strange and saddening as the letter which Dr. Hodge, of Princeton, has written to approve the Protestants who build up the churches of Rome. I have just read that letter in your issue of the 24th of August; and though it seems an act of folly on my part to publicly protest against the views of such a learned theologian, my conscience tells me it is an imperious duty to raise my voice against the manifest and most dangerous errors contained in the document.

“If Dr. Hodge had not so many titles to the respect and gratitude of the Protestant community, if he were not truly one of the most shining lights of our firmament, and if his long and matchless service in the defence of the truth had not given him such a title to the confidence of us all, his error would not be so fatal and deplorable, and I would remain silent. My humble position—my very insignificance—would be my excuse, in my own eyes, for remaining as a mute dog in the presence of danger. Even to-day I am tempted to say to my alarmed conscience, ‘Hold your tongue; be still and quiet. You are in the presence of a giant; with a knock of his little finger he can pulverize you. Let these errors go their way and spread; you can’t help. These ugly stones, coming down from a high mountain, roll with irresistible force; you will surely be crushed down if you are foolish enough to put yourself in the way and try to stop them.’

“I see too clearly the errors of Dr. Hodge. I know too well the incalculable injuries they will do to the cause of Christ, to allow myself to be guided by any selfish fear. Though the humblest and weakest soldier of Christ, I have heard Him say to

all those who were enrolled under His banners, ‘Fear not.’ Many times the humblest sentinel, from the ignored outpost, has saved the army by sounding the alarm in time.

“Dr. Hodge gives three principal reasons for approving the Protestants who build the churches of Rome. First, The Church of Rome teaches truths enough to save the souls of men. Second, It proclaims the divine authority of the Scriptures, the obligations of the decalogue, etc. Third, The Romanists teach people to worship Christ and acknowledge Him as the Saviour of the world.

“If these assertions are correct, Luther, Calvin, Knox, etc., would be the most guilty men of modern times, and the millions of martyrs whom Rome has slaughtered would be nothing else but rebels justly punished. If the Church of Rome’s teaching can save souls, why should we continue to protest against the great soul-saving Church (?), and why do we not go to the feet of the Pope to make our peace with him?

“Dr. Hodge is a mighty logician. I know it, and he has, probably, many brilliant theories in store to support his position. But the more arguments he will bring to prove that Rome is a soul-saving Church, and that she is a true worshipper of Christ, the better he will prove that Luther and Calvin, with their millions of Protestant followers—Dr. Hodge included—were, and are to-day, the greatest fools and the most wicked of men for having made so much noise—caused so much shedding of blood—to get out of the chains of Rome, the more he will prove the verity of the Rev. Mr. Ecker—’Protestantism is a failure.’ And if the learned theologian of Princeton can persuade the Protestants that they do well to build churches for the Romanists, the surer he will make the prophecy of the same Ecker good—’Before twenty-five years the United States will be Roman Catholic!’

“Had Dr. Hodge been, as I have been, a priest of Rome a quarter of a century, he would have spared his friends and admirers the surprise and sadness we have felt at his strange views on the matter.

“I do not pretend to say I am perfectly sure of what the learned divine means by ‘truth enough to save the soul,’ and I would like to know his mind more positively on the subject. But before I have that favour, I must bear testimony to the truth, and say, ‘After twenty-five years of experience and study as a priest of Rome, I do not know a single truth which that apostate Church has kept intact and unmixed with the most diabolical and damnable errors.’ Let us take the nature, eternity, holiness, and independence of God, for instance, as revealed in Christ and by Christ. What is the god of the Roman Catholic Church, seen or known through the doctrine of transubstantiation? A god made with a piece of bread by a man! Just as Aaron took the bracelets and the earrings of the Israelites, melted them, turned them into a golden calf, and said to the people, ‘These be thy gods, O

Israel, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt,’ so the priest of Rome says to his servant girl, ‘I want to carry the good God (le bon Dieu) to a sick man to-morrow, but there are no more wafers in the tabernacle; make me fifty wafers or little cakes that I may consecrate them.’ And the domestic mixes the flour with some water, bakes the whole between two red irons on which there is a cross engraved with the abridged name of Jesus. Then she takes her scissors and cuts those cakes, which are originally about five inches large—cuts them into small, round wafers about one inch large, and respectfully hands them to the priest. The next morning that same priest takes those small, round wafers to the altar, pronounces five magic words, and showing to the people the wafers, which are now turned into as many gods, he says, ‘This is our God; this is the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world; adore Him,’ and the whole people, with the priest himself, falling on their knees with their faces in the dust, adore and worship the new-born or new-made god.

“I ask it—Where is the difference between this modern abomination and the idolatry of the Israelites? The only difference is that the Jewish idolatry was of short duration; they did not stick to it—they gave it up the next day, and shed tears of repentance. But the iniquity, the awful idolatry, of Rome is a permanent fact. Their wafer-god—their god made by a priest, with the help of the servant girl—is the basis, the life, the grand, constant, and public object of their adoration. I know that the Romanists and Jesuits have very curious though very ridiculous arguments to bind the poor slaves of the Pope, and to prove to them that the adoration of the wafer-god is not idolatry. But I hope that Dr. Hodge will not prostitute his high intelligence in attempting to help the sophists of Rome in the efforts they make to prove to the world that a man can make a wafer, turn it into God, and worship that god which he has just made himself without being an idolater. But if Dr. Hodge confesses that the worship of the wafer-god is an idolatrous act, how can he say that Rome teaches truth enough to save the soul?

“Through her sacrilegious and idolatrous sacrifice of the mass, the Church of Rome has not only dragged back the modern world to the idolatry of paganism, but she has added the brutalizing and degrading dogmas of the priests of Jupiter and Venus.

“During the twenty-five years I was a priest of Rome almost every morning I had to turn into a god a wafer made by my servant girl. I was assured by my Church that that was my true Saviour and my true God. After that I had to eat it in the same way that I eat the food which is on my table. And there are more than 200,000 priests of Rome who to-day believe, and do preach, the same monstrous things. Nay, you do not probably see a single priest in the streets, or in the cars, who does not carry a dozen of those wafer-gods in his vest or pantaloon pockets. And we are gravely told that the Church teaches saving truth about

God! Well, if the reverend theologian of Princeton really believes that the priests of Rome have the power to change the wafer into his very Saviour and God, why does he not go to worship Him at the feet of their altars? But if—as I am certain of it—that great Christian man would prefer to be thrown into a burning furnace rather than to adore the wafer-god of Rome, how can he tell us that it is no sin to build temples for such a sacrilegious and idolatrous worship?

“We are gravely told in that letter that the ‘Romanists teach Christ, and regard Him as the Saviour of the world.’ Into what strange delusions good and learned men are apt to fall. In writing these lines the celebrated theologian, no doubt, consulted more the kind disposition of his Christian heart than his vast erudition. When the Protestants meet their Roman Catholic neighbours, when they listen to the interesting lectures or read some of their learned books, when they see their smiling lips, their refined manners, they like to conclude that such amiable and learned men are true worshippers of Christ. It does them good to live in that illusion; they do not even like to hear anything contrary to what they consider the only charitable and Christian way to think of their neighbours. So Rome has many ways to deceive even the most intelligent and learned ones—she is so expert in the art of entrapping and bewitching souls! Is it not written of that wonderful Church that it will ‘come after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, with all deceivableness of unrighteousness’?

“But the kind and Christian, though mistaken, feelings of Dr. Hodge and some other Protestants towards the Roman Catholics will not change the awful truth. The apostate Church of Rome has, long since, forsaken and forgotten the real, divine Christ of the gospel, and has forged another Christ to suit her pride, her lust, and her unquenchable thirst of power and human glory.

“The Christ of the gospel is the only corner-stone of His Church. The Church of Rome has granted that privilege to Peter. The Christ of the gospel is the head of His Church, but the Christ of Rome said, ‘It is the Pope that is the head of the Church.’ The Christ of the gospel had promised His Holy Ghost to all His disciples—even to the humblest ones—to guide them in all their ways and teach them the sense of His holy words. But the Christ of Rome has promised his holy ghost only to the Pope, who alone has the understanding of the Scriptures and the knowledge of the truth. The Christ of Rome says to the sinner, ‘Go to Mary and you shall be saved.’ The Christ of the gospel is the incarnate love towards sinners. He loves them, He likes to be called their friend, He constantly prays for them with a love and mercy that no human language can express. But the Christ of Rome is constantly angry against sinners. He would not listen to their prayers; he would shut his ears to their humble supplications if his mother were not constantly reminding him of the

price he had paid and the blood he had shed for them. The Christ of the gospel is God and man. As God He is as eternal as His Father; He could have no mother. But the Christ of Rome is quite a modern god. He was born about 1900 years ago; his mother is Mary, who everywhere is invoked and called the ‘Mother of God’ by the Romanists.

“As Dr. Hodge is a good logician he will easily find that, if Mary be the mother of God, Saint Anne, who is the mother of Mary, and Joachim, who is her father, must be truly the grandmother and the grandfather of the god of Rome, and Adam his great-grandfather! A most marvelous fact, which, when well understood, will make it more Christian for the Protestants to raise temples to a god who has such glorious grandmothers and grandfathers.

“It is true, as Dr. Hodge says, that the Church of Rome calls her Christ ‘the Saviour of the world.’ But this is just as when her executioners called Him ‘King of Israel.’ It is mockery. For the very moment she has called Christ ‘the Saviour of the world,’ she goes to Mary and calls her also ‘the Saviour of the world.’ Rome says most eloquently in many of her books that Jesus is the hope, the refuge, the salvation of sinners. But this is only to throw dust in the eyes of such good and unsuspecting men as Dr. Hodge. Turn the page and you will see that, with still more eloquence, she calls Mary ‘the only hope, refuge, and salvation of sinners—the door of heaven.’ If some Popes tell you it is through Jesus that every grace comes to man, and that he is the surest foundation of our hope, that glorious truth in the Church of Rome is only a blind to deceive; for many more infallible Popes will assure you, in their infallible encyclicals, that it is Mary who is the surest foundation of our hope. I will not insult Dr. Hodge by giving the names of the Popes and the documents which proclaim those plain, clear, blasphemous doctrines, for he knows them very well.

“The true Christ was meek, and humble, and merciful. He rebuked His apostles when they wanted to punish those who rejected Him. He proclaimed liberty of conscience among men. But the Christ of Rome is a bloody monster, who, through his infallible vicar, the Pope, has approved the slaughter of St. Bartholomew, and covered Europe with rivers of blood and tears.

“No! the Christ of Rome, with his hatred of liberty, his constant oppression to every human progress, his infallible Pope, his holy inquisitions, his hatred of the Bible, cannot be the true Christ who is worshipped at Princeton Seminary. It is an old, false god, smuggled by the Pope from the old Pantheon of Rome, presented to the world under the name of Christ.

“No! the Christ whom I have made, during the twenty-five years, with the help of my servant girl and with a wafer—the Christ who, through his vicar, the Pope, has made me believe the most monstrous lies, who has persuaded me that his body, his

blood, his divinity, could be verily and substantially eaten by me, cannot be the Son of the God of truth. He is the father of lies and deception. And the disciples of the true Christ, who raise temples to the spurious Christ of the Popes, may be good, honest, sincere Christians, but they are mistaken. They give a helping hand to the greatest enemy of the gospel; they build up the Bible-burning Church; they strengthen those who, after having destroyed the Bible, will not rest until they destroy every vestige of liberty and true Christianity on earth, even if they have to wade up to their knees in the blood of the disciples of the gospel. The Protestants who build up the Church of Rome give help and strength to the enemy.

(To be Continued.)