| | PAGE. |
|————————————————————-|——-|
| THE ABSENCE OF THE SENSE OF SIN, | 369 |
| NOTES OF A SERMON. By Rev. John R. Mackay, M.A., Inverness, | 372 |
| THE LATE MR. LACHLAN MACLEAN, INVERNESS, | 378 |
| THE LATE MR. WILLIAM CAMPBELL, GLENDALE, | 380 |
| RECOLLECTIONS OF BETSY LINDSAY, | 382 |
| SIN AND EVILS OF SABBATH MAIIS, | 386 |
| AN DLEASNAS MOR ‘SE SIN CREIDSINN ANN AM MAC DHE, | 392 |
| THE LATE MARGARET MACLEAN, LOCHBROOM, | 399 |
| THE LATE MR. JOHN AULD, TOLLICROSS, GLASGOW, | 400 |
| REVIEWS OF BOOKS, | 403 |
| PROTESTANT NOTES, | 405 |
| NOTES AND COMMENTS, | 406 |
| CHURCH NOTES, | 407 |
| THE MAGAZINE, | 408 |

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THE Free Presbyterian Magazine And MONTHLY RECORD.

VOL. XVI.

FEBRUARY, 1912.

NO. 10.

The Absence of the Sense of Sin.

(Continued from page 247.)

IN a previous article on this subject, we pointed out chiefly two things: first, that there is the greatest possible difference between the sense of sin and the practice of sin—sin itself is of the creature, but the sense of it is of God; and secondly, that it is clearly the teaching of the Scriptures that the Holy Spirit produces a sense of sin in conversion and sustains the same in sanctification. It is manifest, therefore, that the absence of this sense implies the absence of the work of the Spirit which is necessary to salvation. Many, indeed, are the evil results of the absence of the Spirit’s work in His convincing and enlightening operations. The sinner who has religious convictions of a kind, and is not humbled before God by a sense of his sins, is beset with grave spiritual dangers. In fact, it has been remarked by thoughtful students of the things of the kingdom of God that no great error in doctrine or departure from the Scriptures has ever taken place, but an insufficient sense of the sinfulness of sin lay at the bottom of it. A deep conviction of our own sinfulness and liability to err, will keep us submissive to the wisdom of God as expressed in His word, and dependent on the teaching of the Spirit of truth, who cannot lie. We now proceed to observe:—

1. Some all-important departments of religion from which the sense of sin is absent at the present day.

It is conspicuous by its absence from the general preaching of the time. Let it be noticed that the theology which is popular in the larger religious denominations takes little account of the fact of sin. The inspired account of the Fall is treated by many more as myth or poetry than as simple truth, while the doctrine of the total depravity of the race in relation to anything spiritually good is practically, often emphatically, denied. Divinity students who have never been savagely taught of God themselves, and who imbibe seriously-defective views of sin and salvation at theological Halls, will necessarily give expression to these views in the pulpit

when they become ordained and responsible ministers of the Gospel. Thus it has come to pass that the average preacher of the day is a man who does not seem to have any sense of sin himself, and makes no effort to impress his hearers with the necessity of having it. He was never convinced in his own soul that he was a fallen, lost sinner before God, or that he possesses a heart that is “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jerem. xvii. 9), and so these solemn realities have no place in his thoughts or his preaching. He stands up with the aspect of a just and good man who never thought or did anything particularly wrong or sinful in his life, and addresses his hearers as if they were very much like himself in this respect. They need, no doubt, to be instructed or corrected on some minor points, or consoled in view of troubles and disappointments they have experienced in their daily life, and he administers the supposed instruction or comfort required. Further than this he seldom, if ever, goes. Sin, if it is handled at all, is chiefly treated in its bearings on one’s neighbour or fellow-creature. Moral evil, as between man and man, is at times largely descanted on and strongly denounced, but sin, as committed against God and incurring His holy displeasure and righteous curse, is not discussed or proclaimed. The Bible doctrines of sin and its consequent punishment—hell—are regarded by many preachers as the gloomy notions of an unenlightened past, in nowise fit for the ears of the cultured people of to-day. We have surely fallen upon evil times when the unerring truth of God’s Word cannot be spoken or listened to in the professing Church of Christ, and when blind leaders of the blind so largely occupy the Christian pulpit. We do not touch the various consequences of this popular preaching meantime: we simply note the fact that the sense of sin, both as a doctrine and an experience, is absent from it to a fatal degree.

The sense of sin is also conspicuously absent from the exercise of public prayer. The Lord Jesus, as the Head of the Church, taught His disciples to pray: “Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us” (Luke xi. 4). And the Apostle John, as an inspired teacher, addressing the children of God, declares, “If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John i. 8, 9). These infallible testimonies clearly prove both that a sense of sin is an important element in Christian experience, and that sin should be matter of confession and supplication unto God on the part of those who walk in the light. Now, we find that this feature is very seldom to be observed in the general ministerial prayers of the present day. There is no confession of sin, or entreaty for forgiveness. The cry of the broken spirit, which is in God’s sight a pleasing sacrifice, is not to be heard from professional lips—a sure indication

of the reign of spiritual death. What is generally to be heard is a series of thanksgivings for blessings received—”We thank Thee; we thank Thee; we thank Thee”—a manner of address too suggestive of the Pharisee’s prayer in the temple: “I thank thee that I am not as other men are.” The supplication of the Publican—”God be merciful to me, a sinner,”—is far away. Let us not, however, be understood for a moment as decrying the spirit of true thankfulness to the Most High for His goodness, or the appropriate expression of it. This is admirable and necessary in its own place. But it comes to this, that when no sense of sin or need is expressed, the discerning hearer is apt to call in question whether the leader in prayer has ever received any of the saving blessings of the Gospel, and, as a result, whether he is capable of rendering spiritual thankfulness to God for anything whatsoever. The most highly favoured of God’s servants feel their own sins and shortcomings most, and the need of constant application to the throne of grace for forgiveness and cleansing, and for quickening, renewing, comforting, and strengthening influences. They count not themselves to have apprehended, but “press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. iii. 14). The absence of the sense of sin from the devotional utterances of those who ought to be an example to others will have an injurious effect upon the views of the people who listen to them. The tendency will be to choke the sense of sin and need, even where it is to be found. Unconverted ministers are bound to destroy much good and to do incalculable harm to their fellow-sinners.

The sense of sin is, further, absent from the general religious life of our time. We use the word life in a modified sense. The life that is so much talked of is for most part only a form of death. Spiritual death has its activities as well as spiritual life, and these activities bewray themselves, for they do not run in the channel of God’s Word. Let it be noticed, then, that the sense of sin is absent from many supposed conversions. This important change is now generally reduced to one category, decision for Christ. All that the convert is expected to say is that he believes in and intends to follow Christ. There is no word of conviction of sin, and ruin, and helplessness. A lost sinner, crying to the Lord for mercy and pardon and faith through Jesus Christ, and not ceasing until He is helped and saved from above, is not the newer Christian at his beginnings. He believes and decides by his own native ability with hardly a pang of conscience, and this is what is called conversion. True it is that a decision to follow Christ is part of a true conversion to God, but it is not the whole. It belongs to the fruit rather than the root of the matter. None can truly obey the Redeemer but one who has been saved by Him from sin in its guilt and dominion, and this implies an inward change of soul—a new birth—that is generally attended with many inward struggles and agonies on account of sin.

The subject will (D.V.) be resumed in a future issue.

Notes of a Sermon.

BY THE REV. JOHN R. MACKAY, M.A., INVERNESS.

Preached on New Year’s Day.

“There shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.”—ACTS xxiv. 15.

TO pious minds the beginning of another year will bring serious thoughts. The clock of time seems, at such a season, to strike hard and loud, as if calling us to realise that we are one other stage nearer the most solemn appointments of death and of judgment. The greater number of mankind, however, are very deaf to these loud calls. They are like a company of passengers that had set out from one of our ports on a trans-Atlantic liner having, let me say, New York in view as their first destination on the other side, but who, in the course of the voyage, had become so absorbed with the little life of the ship itself—with the little engagements and little movements backwards and forwards on board ship wherewith passengers usually try to beguile time—that they quite forgot for what purpose they were on the Atlantic at all. They will waken up with surprise, and it may be with consternation, when, notwithstanding their thoughtlessness, their ship shall have brought them into port.

But the call of God’s Word is louder and more distinctly intelligible than that of the seasons of the year. Such a call we have in the words of our text. In meditating on it we shall, in reference to the resurrection spoken of, consider—

I.—The Fact;

II.—The Reasons why; and

III.—The Question suggested.

I.—Our text declares that a general resurrection of the human race is to be certainly looked for. All mankind are here given us in two classes, the just and the unjust. These classes are exhaustive of the race; every man, woman, and child from Adam downwards will find their place in one or other of these two classes. Now concerning the entire number of individuals both of the one class and of the other, the Apostle Paul declares that, so far as before Christ come again they shall have died, they will also experience a rising again from the dead in a bodily sense.

It is the case, as every careful reader of the Scriptures will have noticed, that much more is said in the Word of God concerning the resurrection of the just than is said concerning the resurrection of the unjust. And for that inequality several reasons may be assigned.

(i) The Bible is mainly the record of a gracious revelation on the part of God. Now, the resurrection of the just belongs to the sphere of grace. That can scarcely be said of the resurrection of the wicked.

(2) The doctrine of the resurrection from the dead is in more places than one stated in the Scriptures controversially and the recognised rules of controversy are followed. Christ so states it in Matthew xxii. 23-33 (Mark xii. 18-27; Luke xx. 27-38). Paul so states it in 1 Corinthians xv. Now, in a controversy it is well understood that it is easier to prove a particular proposition than a universal proposition; and that for the purposes of the controversy it may not be always necessary to prove a universal. If any one, e.g., were to say that there was no Roman Catholic in Inverness, one opposing that view, in order to overthrow the assertion, did not need to prove that all the inhabitants of Inverness were Roman Catholics, nor even to prove that one-third of them were Roman Catholics. All that was necessary, in order to completely overthrow the contention of the person who ventured to say that there was no Roman Catholic in Inverness, was that it should be demonstrated that there were some Roman Catholics in Inverness. And we find Christ adopting this, admittedly the wisest and best, method of reasoning with those who opposed themselves against the truth, in His controversy concerning the resurrection—with the Sadducees. The Sadducees denied that any of the dead would rise from the grave. Christ, in order to overthrow their reasonings, showed that some at least must rise from the dead. This He did—one may remark in passing—in a way which showed the profound reverence He had for the Scriptures. His proof rests on the difference between the past and the present tense of the verb “to be.” God, in speaking to Moses at the bush, did not say, “I was the God of Abraham,” but, “I am the God of Abraham”—the Living, Reviving, Covenant God of Abraham—that is, even after Abraham had been some hundreds of years in his grave. Because Jehovah still continues to be the Covenant God of Abraham—of his entire person, soul, and body—Abraham must rise. Such, I take it, is the nature of Christ’s reasonings against the Sadducees. He proves, that is, from the Scriptures, that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—yea, all whose God Jehovah is—must rise; and if some rise from the dead, the Sadducean position is overthrown.

(3) The Apostle Paul follows a similarly wise method in 1 Corinthians xv. in controverting the opinion of those who had been saying (v. 12) that there is no resurrection of the dead. The Apostle’s counter argument in that chapter bears directly only on those who are Christ’s. But as the argument is handled by the Apostle Paul, one perceives that over and above the fact that he would not prove a universal when less sufficed to overthrow the arguments of his opponents, the Apostle was led to adopt the exact method followed by him in this remarkable chapter because he felt that as the resurrection of believers followed as a matter of necessity the resurrection of Jesus Christ, so for the resurrection of Jesus Christ, in particular, the proof was overwhelming, so overwhelming indeed that a jury who would not

on the evidence affirm the resurrection of Jesus Christ, would perjure themselves.

I have been stating reasons why one should not feel surprised if one finds that the Scriptures say much more concerning the resurrection of the just than they do concerning the resurrection of the unjust. (1) The Bible is the record mainly of a gracious revelation of God; (2) God’s witnesses shewed supreme wisdom in their controversial methods; (3) the resurrection of Jesus Christ (which virtually carries with it the resurrection of His people) is capable of the easiest and fullest demonstration. But it were an utterly thoughtless thing from the circumstances now named concerning the greater fulness of testimony to the resurrection of the just, to conclude that the Scriptures leave the subject of the resurrection of the unjust in a measure of dubiety. Not at all.

The doctrine of the resurrection of the wicked is taught, if not so frequently, yet as plainly as that of the resurrection of the just. I am not now dealing with the matter with a view to notice every passage in the Scriptures wherein the doctrine is taught. But I would seek to fix your attention on three passages. The first, which is from the Old Testament, is in Daniel xii. 2: “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” The sense in which this passage in Daniel ought to be understood may be gathered from the second passage to which we direct attention, even from the words of our Lord in John v. 28, 29, words in which, beyond doubt, the language of Daniel is re-echoed: “The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and they shall come forth; they that have done good to the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation.” Evidently Christ understood Daniel’s “many” in the sense of “all,” and to His followers it will be an end of controversy, both as to the Divine authorship of Daniel, and as to truth of the doctrine that we are to look forward to a resurrection not of the just only, but of the unjust also—not of those who are Christ’s only, but of those also who are not His—that Christ thus re-echoes Daniel.

The third pivotal passage in our text. “There shall be,” says the Apostle Paul, “a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.” It were easy to show that the doctrine of Daniel on this head was also the doctrine of other Old Testament prophets, and that the doctrine of Paul on this head was also the doctrine of other Apostles, so that one can have no hesitation in saying that we shall not give up the doctrine of a resurrection of the wicked without parting company with Daniel, with Christ Himself, and with the Apostle Paul, or rather with all the prophets of the Old Testament, with Christ Himself the Chief Corner Stone, and with all the Apostles of the New Dispensation.

That is the Fact.

II.—Having said so much with a view to bring home to your minds the Fact, I proceed to treat of the Reasons. For it is not only that the Scriptures teach us the fact of the resurrection of the unjust as well as the just, but the Spirit of God has been pleased for the establishing of our understanding and conscience to tell us the reasons. I say reasons rather than reason, for it does not seem to me that the reason why the just will have a bodily resurrection is one and the same with the reason why the unjust will have a bodily resurrection. In making this distinction, however, I wish to say that by reason I here intend the reason on the part of the people raised. If one were looking to the reason on the part of God, one might well say that His power and His righteousness was the reason in the case of the one as well as in that of the other. But now we are dealing with the reason on the part of those raised from the dead. For it is not without a reason on the part of those raised that either the just or the unjust will shortly be raised from the dead. Nor is the reason in either case one and the same. If you take the case of the righteous, it is in accordance with Scripture for us to say that righteousness on their part is just the reason of their resurrection. Take the case of Christ Himself first. To Him, as to all, the grave was a prison-house. But He was brought forth out of that prison-house because the debt which brought Him to it was fully paid. His resurrection was God’s recognition not only of the fact that He spake truth when He said, “I am the Son of God,” but also of the further fact that as He gave His life a ransom for many, so that ransom was accepted, and so the debt, for which He had become obliged, was discharged. And in God’s good time they who are Christ’s, and who shall have fallen on sleep ere Christ come again, will also as members of Christ’s mystical body be brought forth out of their prison-house as a public attestation of the fact that to them there has been no condemnation from that hour in which they became through faith united to precious Christ. Their righteousness, in a word, is the cause of their resurrection; of this they have a pledge even in time. For the Spirit of God has come to make His abode in them. The proof of that also is that through this indwelling they mind the things of the Spirit more than they do the things of the flesh, and they have the assurance that as the Spirit of Christ thus manifestly dwells in them, the Spirit of Him who raised Christ from the dead will one day quicken their mortal bodies. Their going forth from the grave will be a matter of righteousness, as truly as the issuing of Paul and Silas from the prison in Philippi (Acts xvi. 35) was a matter of righteousness. The righteousness of the saints, primarily imputed righteousness, but corroboratively also inherent righteousness, is the reason why the just rise and appear before the judgment seat of God.

But the case is otherwise with the unjust. Guilt on their part will be the reason of their rising from their graves. Guilt is a

terrible power. Guilt will sometimes among men drag a criminal from across the Atlantic and bring him to appear before a Judge in Britain. Or we may put it for purposes of illustration thus:—Ordinarily with ourselves when a culprit is apprehended by the police, he finds lodgment for the first night or two in the lock-up. He is then dragged before the Sheriff or Judge. What is it that brings the culprit rather than any other person before the Judge? It is simply and only guilt, or at least a presumption that there is guilt. So shall it be with the wicked. The grave is their lock-up from the day of death—I speak of the body only here and now—to the day of the resurrection. They shall then have to leave the lock-up, and guilt, and nothing but guilt, will drag them from out their grave up to the bar of God’s judgment. What a fearful thing guilt must be! We think it terrible when a would-be fugitive from justice is extradited in order that he may be reckoned with in this country for his crimes. But the sight is not so awful as will be the sight of innumerable graves opening in order that the guilty might be handed over to justice; graves in the case of some that were as prison houses unopened for thousands of years.

But some may think that we are exaggerating here, and claim that, whilst it is conceivable that those who were guilty of outrageous crimes are burdened with such guilt that not even their grave can hold them always, it cannot be guilt that is the reason why all those who are not Christ’s will have a resurrection. But what saith the Scripture? “He that believeth on him shall not be confounded” (1 Peter ii. 6). If he that believeth shall not be confounded, or shall not be put to shame, but, on the contrary, shall have praise and glory and everlasting honour, that certainly carries with it that everyone that is not a believer will be put to shame. The Scriptures study brevity, and imply more than they directly say. When the Psalmist says (Psalm xcv. 11), “I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest,” an Apostle, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, understood that to imply that some must enter in (Hebrews iv. 6). Similarly, when Isaiah or Peter says that no one that putteth his trust in the Foundation laid in Sion will be put to shame, we must conclude that everyone who does not put his trust in the Foundation will be put to shame. Nor need we be at a loss to understand what is meant here by shame. It is just the shame which the wicked will realise when they issue from their graves—the shame that is the concomitant of guilt—the shame and everlasting confusion of which Daniel, under the Old Testament, and Christ, under the New, as we have seen, spake. The teaching of the Bible is that the whole world is brought in guilty before God. As our Shorter Catechism puts it: Some sins in themselves, and by reason of several aggravations, are more heinous in the sight of God than others. But every sin deserveth God’s wrath and curse, both in this life and in that which is to come. Nor is there a single soul

whose guilt is so light that, if that soul have not the conscience purged through the blood of Christ, its guilt will not bring it out of its grave at the time of the Great Assize. It is beyond question that as the reason of the bodily resurrection of the just is righteousness, the reason of the bodily resurrection of the unjust is guilt—guilt not purged off the conscience. To this there will not be a single exception.

III.—These solemn considerations bring us to ask a Question. We ought to have no questions, whosoever we be, as to whether we shall rise after our death out of our graves or not. The testimony of Him who cannot lie assures us that both the just and the unjust shall rise. These categories are exhaustive—we must belong to one or to the other—we must rise. About that there is no question. But the question is, “Why shall I rise? Will righteousness or guilt be the cause of my rising?” It must be on account either of righteousness or of guilt we shall rise.

By way of guidance, let it be said that the doctrine which we have been handling under our second head this day, is fitted, if rightly received, to kill self-confidence. We may have been willing to acknowledge in an easy way that we are by nature guilty creatures. But think of what it means, that you are guilty in such a way and to such a degree that if you do not get rid of your guilt in time, that guilt of yours will one day drag you forth out of the lock-up of your grave, and will bring you to the judgment seat of Christ, only to meet there with shame and confusion that will literally be everlasting. Is not this truth, if received as it ought to be, fitted to kill self-confidence in everyone that hears it? For a resurrection on account of the enormity of guilt, a resurrection therefore to everlasting shame, is what everyone without exception deserves. Is not our natural righteousness of little avail seeing that it will not cover our guilt or our shame in that day?

It is not easy to learn the lessons which the law of God is intended and fitted to teach, and it is only in a small measure that we could learn them and live. Nevertheless it is eminently salutary, nay, indispensable, for our salvation that our nakedness should be laid bare. Why? Is it that we should be tormented before our time? Not at all, but in order that sensibly stripped of every confidence in the flesh, we might flee for covering to Him who is ever ready to clothe the naked, clothing them without, if one may say so, with His own righteousness imputed to us, and inwardly with the grace of His blessed Spirit. He is the resurrection and the life. He that believeth upon Him shall never be put to shame; yea, though he were dead yet should he live. If, then, the question be pressed, as it ought to be pressed, what shall be the reason of my rising from the dead? The answer will depend on whether we have laid to heart our nakedness, and fled to Christ to cover us, or whether on the other hand, notwithstanding all we have heard of law and gospel, neither the terror of the one nor the kindness of

the other has moved us. And in conclusion I would say, although in a sense I have said the same thing already, that, as regards those who will rise to praise and glory and honour, they in time go forth out of the prison house not only of justice and conscience, but also out of the prison house of the flesh, in which by nature they had been corrupting more and more.

May He bless His word!

The late Mr. Lachlan Maclean, Inverness.

MANY of our readers would have learned with sorrow by the November Magazine of Mr. Lachlan Maclean’s decease. Mr. Maclean occupied so large a place in the Church’s counsels and work that a more extended notice appears to us to be called for. Mr. Maclean was born at Essich, in the parish of Inverness, on the 28th of April, 1833. He was but a young boy when his father, Charles Maclean, removed with his family to the farm of Whitefield, parish of Stratherrick, of which the latter was for many years tacksman. The subject of this notice married young, and shortly afterwards removed to a home of his own in Duntelchaig, parish of Dores, where he remained for the better part of his life.

It was when he was in Dores, and after he had been a few years married, that he came under concern for his soul. The means which the Lord made use of for this end was the faithful preaching of the Rev. Archibald Cook, Daviot, whose ministry Mr. Maclean had now the opportunity of attending. As a child, indeed, Mr. Maclean remembered to have heard Mr. Cook preach in the North Church, Inverness, when he would accompany his parents from Essich to that densely-crowded congregation. But up to the time we have above specified any serious thoughts that young Lachlan had of eternal realities were but as the morning cloud and the early dew that soon pass away. But when the set time had come, he was plunged into great soul trouble, and he had a long and deep experience of law work.

The writer remembers relating to Mr. Maclean what the excellent Rev. Finlay Cook was reported to have said illustratively of the nature of the Lord’s dealings with some souls in calling them effectually. “The work of grace,” Mr. Cook said, “was like to that of a blacksmith who had a purpose of fashioning some iron instrument. In order to this the iron was placed in the fire, and blown upon until it came to melting heat. The smith then gave it what shape he would, and afterwards threw it away among his coals. The iron would soon become as cold as though it never felt the fire, but the shape that was given it when it was melting hot, it never could lose.” Mr. Maclean supplemented this view of grace by relating how he heard the Rev. Archibald Cook put

the matter, making use of a somewhat similar illustration. Mr. Archibald Cook had it that the work of grace in some was as though a blacksmith were engaged in fashioning some work in iron. Whilst this was going on, some other work, more pressing for the moment, was laid upon him, with the result that what the smith was first engaged upon was laid aside, and allowed to cool. Again the half-fashioned instrument was taken up, and again laid aside. If the iron could feel and think, it might conclude that the operations begun on it could never come to a good end. But the smith had his own purposes and his own ways of accomplishing them. And so, said Mr. A. Cook, did the Lord carry on his saving work in some of his people. Mr. Maclean told this note with such feeling and such deep sympathy that the writer concluded that Mr. Maclean must have read in it the true history and meaning of the Lord’s dealings with himself. This view of the history of Mr. Maclean’s early experiences is also in keeping with much that one has heard him relate on other occasions in connection with those days. Doubtless in those days Mr. A. Cook’s preaching offered him much instruction, but when at length he came to know the peace of God, it was not as a hearer in any public means, but in secret. A portion in which he hoped to the end that he had cast anchor was Isaiah ix. 6, 7.

He appears to have been early led to very clear views of reconciliation with God through the peace-speaking blood of Christ. To the doctrine of justification by faith, of which Luther spoke as the article of a standing or falling Church, he was ever afterwards very faithful, and indeed it sometimes seemed to the writer that one of the greatest services which Mr. Maclean was enabled to render in his generation to divine truth was his constant iteration of the valid objective grounds of a sinner’s peace with God.

Mr. Maclean’s talents, as a thinker and speaker, were above the average, and he was early led to proclaim, as a public speaker, the peace with God through the blood of Christ, which he himself had experienced, and of which he could never speak but with wonder. In 1871 he became an elder of the Free Church congregation of Daviot, of which the Rev. John Macqueen was at the time minister. It was the beginning of troublous times in the chequered history of the Free Church, and Mr. Maclean as a member of Presbytery, Synod, and Assembly, through many years of conflict, stood faithfully by the party who were opposed to removing the old landmarks. He paid several visits to Edinburgh that he might oppose the pretensions of Professor Robertson Smith, and in the old controversy about Union with the U.P.’s, in the controversy about Disestablishment, and in the controversy about the Declaratory Act, Mr. Maclean acted a consistent and manly part. He was a close and trusted friend of the late Rev. Donald MacDonald, Shieldaig, and of the Rev. Donald Macfarlane who is happily still left us, and when those two

ministers in 1893 resolved, in the face of all their brethren in the ministry, to abide by the old standards, which we believe was tantamount to abiding by Christ Himself, they had no heartier supporter than Mr. Maclean.

In 1895 Mr. Maclean removed to Inverness, the town wherein was his home up to the end of his sojourn here below, a sojourn, as readers of the Magazine know, which was finished on the 30th day of September, 1911.

Mr. Maclean took the warmest interest in all that concerned the well-being of the Inverness Free Presbyterian congregation during the time of his stay in this town. To the writer, as pastor of the congregation, he was always kind and sympathetic. In Deacons’ Court and Kirk-Session his advice was much esteemed. As long as health lasted, he was a willing helper in supplying religious services on the Lord’s Day, oftentimes in the congregation of which he was elder, and not rarely in neighbouring congregations, as Daviot, Dingwall, and particularly Beauly. We do not suppose that he ever sought or accepted pecuniary remuneration to the extent of the payment of the train fare. This no doubt he was in Providence, above others like-minded, enabled to do, the Lord having prospered him in a business way until he had become one of the largest building contractors in the north. For about a year before his decease it was evident that death had laid its cold hand upon his goodly frame. He endured not a little suffering, but he bore it with much meekness. His soul comforts on his death-bed, as he himself put it, made him often to forget his physical miseries.

With his sorrowing, and very devoted sons and daughters, and other relatives, we feel sincere sympathy. J. R. M.

The late Mr. William Campbell, Glendale.

WE beg to record with sincere regret the death of William Campbell, one of the elders of the Glendale congregation. His death took place somewhat suddenly on the 9th of December. He was out at the prayer meeting on Thursday night, as was his usual, and just as he was tending his way home in company with others, he was suddenly seized with an illness which rendered him unconscious. In this state he continued until he breathed his last, early on the Saturday morning. He had attained the ripe age of ninety years when the summons to depart came; and it may be said that it was literally true of him that he hardly, if ever, knew what bodily sickness was during that lifetime, such was the man’s physical strength and robustness. Notwithstanding that this was so, the Lord laid His hand on William in other forms. He told us more than once that seven of his family,

ranging in age from early youth to the maturest years of manhood, died and were laid by him in their graves before himself.

William’s company was very entertaining. It may be said—if the figure is allowable—that he was a little receptacle of anecdotes, social and religious, which he could relate all along to the close of his life without the least hesitancy. The ease and clearness with which he used to deliver these, one after another, gave us the impression that, considering his old age, his mental faculties were possessed of exceptional vigour and power. In conversation on religious topics he invariably fell back on the days of the late Rev. Alexander M’Coll’s ministry in this parish, latterly translated to Lochalsh. For this champion of the faith, taken as a man, a christian, and a minister, William entertained deep and lasting respect. William was very frank and open, and free, I should say, of any tinge of duplicity. He was sincere and honest in his religious character. On account of this frank manner and disposition which characterised him he frequently provoked resentment which brought him into dislike and trouble. We remember him telling us—an instance of his openness is this, even when the story to some extent told against himself—that when he appeared before Mr. M’Coll and his elders for obtaining the privilege of baptism for his children, that servant of Christ called on his most prominent elder to catechize William. When he satisfactorily answered the questions asked of him, the Rev. Mr. M’Coll ended by saying to William: “You seem at any rate to possess a sufficient amount of head knowledge and self-righteousness. You can go.” William listened to this compliment with an unruffled spirit and took it well—very unlike many who cannot bear rebuke in our day.

He was a constant attendant at the means of grace, and whoever would be absent from his place or seat in the house of God, William was not that one. His face, which was sure to be located right in front of the pulpit, would be seen quivering with eagerness to hear what was being said. He was slightly deaf. He was actually drinking in all he was hearing, and could rehearse a good deal after he came home. This showed what the bent and exercise of his mind was when attending on the public worship of God. He was not like the generality of hearers—listless while they profess to be listening to the word, and indifferent as to whether or not they benefit by or carry it with them. William indeed was somewhat like Lydia, “whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.” In all kinds of weather he would come to the church on the Sabbath and week-days, while many a young man and woman in Glendale would, to shun the weather, stay in their houses. They would consider a rainy day—what William, old though he was, had no difficulty in waiving aside—a sufficient justification for keeping to the fireside.

He had a deep interest in the cause of Christ in the place, and in no more convincing manner did he exhibit that interest than

in his exercise in prayer. He was at times mighty in prayer, especially when he had his times of enlargement. At other times he would feel straitened—a common experience of the people of God. He was not ignorant of Satan’s devices; he knew his temptations, and on several occasions he divulged to confidential friends some of these. His prayers in public were also marked by this phase of experience. At times we were struck by the fervency of the petitions and the penitency of the confessions which pervaded his public exercises. Prayer was his mightiest weapon in expressing himself. He was much attached to the congregation of Glendale, and much concerned for the spiritual condition of the rising generation among it; he pleaded earnestly for times of reviving and quickening, and for the salvation of sinners; he deplored the widespread apathy in the things of God and the sinful indifference to the divine claims which characterise our day and generation. He had a keen sense of the contrast between the present and the days of his youth, and saw that the changed conditions were very much in the direction of evil and declension, so far as religion was concerned.

We feel very much the blank which his removal has caused in our congregation and among our praying people. What need there is that the Lord should arise and plead the cause which is His own, and display His mighty power, so as to raise up the children instead of the fathers, who are being so rapidly removed from our midst! To the bereaved widow and the other members of the family we tender our sincerest sympathy in their bereavement.

M. M.

Recollections of Betsy Lindsay, A Godly Young Woman who passed through much tribulation, and died at Edinburgh in 1839.

BY THE LATE REV. FRANCIS M’BEAN, FREE CHURCH,
FORT-AUGUSTUS.

(Continued from page 236.)

LETTERS FROM BETSY LINDSAY.

“EDINBURGH, 28th September, 1839.

MY EVER DEAR MISS G.,—Grace, mercy, and peace, be multiplied unto you. Your very kind and welcome letter found me again in my old habitation. What praise and thanks are due from me unto the Lord, for bringing me again in safety to my father’s house. Well may I say, that the Lord has been with me in my going out and coming in, and hath caused His face to shine upon me. Oh pray, my dear Christian friend, that I may be enabled to glorify God more than I have ever yet done, in the increase of health and strength which He has seen meet to bestow upon me. Surely He has an end in restoring me thus far; and when the chief end of our creation at first was for His glory, it is

easy to see that every deliverance from trouble, or increase of it, is for His glory also. May I therefore live no more unto myself, but unto Him who died for me; and may you also, for ‘we are bought with a price.’ Oh that my heart would ever meditate on His love and goodness, then would my tongue proclaim aloud His praise. Oh how I long to get free from this ‘evil heart of unbelief,’ that I might serve Jesus without sin, and be for ever with Him!

I am sure, my dearly beloved friend, you both wondered and greatly rejoiced when you heard that the Lord had permitted me once more to worship in His house of prayer. What I that day experienced, while sitting there, of the love of a three-one God, I cannot convey you any idea of. My dear Miss G., I rejoice to hear that it hath pleased your heavenly Father, who is the ‘health of your countenance,’ to increase your health and strength. May it indeed and in truth be devoted to the work and service of your heavenly Master. May your faith also be increased and established, that you, ‘being rooted and grounded in love,’ may be prepared to do or to suffer all the will of God concerning you, whether prosperous or adverse. We know that our covenant God cannot, and will not, do us wrong.

2nd October.—It has again seemed good unto Him who has said that He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, to heat the furnace; but He will not allow it to be too hot. How comforting to know that while the rod is in His hand, there is love in His heart.

‘Parents may err, but He is wise,
Nor lifts the rod in vain;
His chastenings serve to cure the soul
By salutary pain.’

On Monday morning I was seized with another attack of convulsions, which weakened me much, but having been bled in the arm, God was again pleased to bless the means for giving relief. While tracing the dealings of God in His inscrutable yet adorable providence towards me, sense would say, ‘All these things are against me;’ but faith says, ‘All things work together for good to them that love God.’ Oh pray for me, my dear Miss G., that the Lord may be glorified in me, and by me. This is all I desire to live for; just that I may be anything or nothing, that Jesus may be all in all.

Favour me with another letter if you can find it convenient. I long very much to see you, and hope soon to be refreshed with your company. Now, my dear Miss G., grace be with you, and with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.

My mother joins me in grateful love to you; and I remain
your humble and obedient servant,
ELIZABETH LINDSAY.

“29th October, 1839.

MY DEAR MISS C. E.,—May grace, mercy, and peace, be multiplied unto you, through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord. I was exceedingly happy at the receipt of both your letters. I indeed think it very kind of you to take the trouble to

write to one so unworthy of your notice or regard. You do not blame me in your last for not writing to you. No: You seem to have remembered the injunction, Rebuke with love; ‘and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.’

I trust, my dear Miss C., you have now more ‘peace and joy in believing;’ yet I believe you will often find that prayer of the disciples needful, ‘Increase our faith;’ as also, ‘Lord, save us: we perish.’ As surely as these words were breathed forth, so were they answered. He delivered them from the wind and the waves, which were like to overwhelm them; and He is still the same compassionate Jehovah Jesus to all His people. He still delivers them from the winds and waves of temptation, which they meet with in passing through the wilderness of this world to the ‘desired haven.’ Let us, therefore, take encouragement, and rejoice in God. He hath not only provided the covenant of grace, but He has made such a provision in that covenant as will meet our every want. Are we weak and faint? He says, ‘They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary, and they shall walk, and not faint.’ ‘Cast not away, therefore, your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward.’

30th October.—May you, my dear friend, often climb the mountain of heavenly mindedness, and so get the world under your feet. View Jesus as exalted on His holy throne, and behold Him saying, ‘I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.’

Oh, Miss C., trust Him for this, by virtue of His own promise! Trust Him at all times, for ‘the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent.’ Take all your deadness, and all your hardness of heart, with all your pollution, to Him, that it may be washed away:—’I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean.’ Go with those fetters wherever sin has bound you, that He may set you free; for He was anointed to set at ‘liberty them that were bound.’ For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.’ ‘Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.’ Do not fret; none perish, none ever did or ever will perish, that trust in Him. May we be ashamed ever to suspect the solemn declaration of Him who is ‘the faithful and true Witness.’ Give Him the glory of His own work in your heart; for God never begets a desire in the heart of any sinner that He does not fulfil.

I rejoice, my dear Miss C., that you are so comfortable. The Lord is the chooser of His people’s lot, and the fixer of the bounds of their habitation. He either suits the circumstances to them, or them to the circumstances. He knows well what they can bear. In your last letter you say, ‘The temptations of the world are so great, and the deceit of your own heart such, that you are continually straying from the right path.’ I am glad, however, that God is giving you to feel the plague of your heart; but oh, the world is indeed an ensnaring enemy to the Christian! But does

not this fear, my dearly beloved Miss C., lead you nearer, and keep you nearer, to Him who is the Fountain of life, and who hath said, ‘My grace shall be sufficient for you?’ May ‘the Lord preserve you in your going out and in your coming in,’ from all evil. Oh may you be kept loose to the world! We are necessitated to take the world in our way to heaven; but let us ‘lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race which is set before us.’

1st November.—You will be glad to hear that my health continues much better; yet my pain and weakness daily teach me that here I have ‘no continuing city;’ and I would not have it otherwise, even if I might. Yesterday, being the Fast Day, I was out in the afternoon, and heard a most precious sermon from these words:—’In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.’ I do not think I ever heard the fountain set forth in its fulness in the way I did then. I feel quite ashamed of the low and narrow views I have of Christ.

You say, ‘You trust that I still remember you at a throne of grace.’ I do not remember the day that ever I forgot you, since the first when you were led, in the kind providence of God, to visit me. But ah, what are my poor feeble prayers? What an unspeakable comfort it is for us to know that we have an Advocate within the vail, even Jesus, who presents our prayers in the censer of His love, perfumed with the incense of His own merits.

5th November.—I am sure, my dear Miss C., you will rejoice with me when you hear that God has allowed me the high and exalted privilege of having a seat at His table, which he hath prepared for the strengthening of His people in the wilderness. Oh what a day of the Gospel it was! ‘What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits!’ Oh help me to praise our ‘altogether lovely’ Lord Jesus, for His truth, and for the kindness of His love to unworthy me. Never was I so happy. Nor do I expect again to enjoy such a day on this side of eternity. My paper will not allow me to give you much account of it, but let it suffice you for the present when I say, ‘I sat down under His shadow with great delight, and His fruit was sweet to my taste.’ I send you the texts. The morning one was the 19th verse of the 89th Psalm; the evening one, the 20th verse of the 2nd chapter of Galatians: it was all upon faith. Oh to learn to live this life of faith! Pray, oh pray much for me! I need your prayers more than ever. Having vowed unto the Lord, I need strength to perform it.

I long very much for Christmas, when I shall expect to see you, if spared; but should we never meet on earth again, oh may we meet to celebrate the praises of redeeming love through all eternity! Grace be with you.—I remain, my dear Miss C., your humble and obedient servant,

ELIZABETH LINDSAY.”

(To be Continued.)

Sin and Evils of Sabbath Mails.

BY THE LATE REV. ANDREW SYMINGTON, D.D., REFORMED
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, PAISLEY.*

IN arranging a series of treatises on the Sabbath, it was impossible, with any consistency, to omit one on the Sabbath Mail—the sin being manifest on the grand principles on which we advocate the Sabbath cause, and the evils being great and widely spread. Since the treatises were announced, the interest of the public mind has been awakened to the great argument in general, and to this practical part of it in particular; and movements have been made in several quarters, which have given expression to public opinion on the evil of the Sabbath mails, and the press has given forth publications on the subject, of less and greater extent, as almost to supersede the execution of the task we had prescribed to ourselves. Though unable to present the subject in new or stronger lights, or to give strength to the argument, or to make appeals of even equal power, we feel our obligation to redeem our pledge.

We are fully aware that we encounter, in the outset, a strong prejudice from the universally felt and acknowledged benefits of the Public Post. We entertain a high estimation of these advantages, and regard with admiration the pitch of improvement which the postal establishment has now reached. In despatch, punctuality, diffusion, and safety, it exceeds anything that could have been anticipated, and meets almost everything that could be wished. Persons prevented intercourse by local separation and other causes, can now communicate daily, and even oftener, at a trifling expense; and intelligence in business, science, literature, politics, and in every matter of public interest circulates widely and gratuitously, like the light of day or the air of heaven. Nor is this confined to a favoured locality, but spread over the length and breadth of the land—we may almost say the world; for persons sundered by the globe’s diameter can now correspond in comparatively a brief period of time. Any attempt, therefore, to place the mail under restriction, is ready to be regarded with apprehension and offence, as the individual would be who would maliciously shut for a time the sluice which supplies a large community with water; or the person who, to indulge some capricious freak, or cover some selfish or resentful purpose, would stop the supplies of a gasometer, and place the streets and dwellings of a great city in midnight darkness. We deprecate every unjust interference with the operations of the Post Office, and we hope to make it evident that the restriction for which we have to plead is not only required by high moral considerations, in deference to an

* This article is taken from a volume entitled “The Christian Sabbath,” published in 1850. The general argument is equally applicable to the present time.—ED.

authority which should not be questioned, but contributes in no small degree to the interests of individuals and of society. Regulations are necessary to efficiency and safety, and restrictions promoting these and other objects are not to be disregarded; as in the supplies of water and light, just alluded to, regulations are not to be scouted which are required to purify the water and improve the light, and, withal, to prevent and provide against the causes of inundation and explosion.

To come to our subject. Our argument may be conducted upon two principles;—the one is the economical principle; the other by appeal to Scriptural authority. In the one case the question is treated in its bearings upon the temporal interests of individuals and communities; in the other, we view the subject in the lights of morality and religion, and in connection with the duties and interests of our holy Christianity. In this series of treatises, the former of these principles has not by any means been overlooked; but the latter principle of argument is regarded as first, and chief, and last—the main principle according to which the question is to be discussed and settled in the Christian community. At the same time, it is our firm persuasion that the subject of the Sabbatical institute, soundly expounded on the high principle of Scriptural authority, will bring out the argument on the principle of sound economics, and establish satisfactorily that the observation of the Sabbath conduces in a very high degree to the temporal wellbeing of man, individually and socially. We regard it as an axiom not requiring proof, and not to be questioned, that the law which God has enacted for man, the whole moral law, while declaring the divine supremacy, and as such demanding obedience, is calculated to promote the greatest good. We do not, we dare not, lay utility, expediency, or self-interest at the foundation of moral obligation. “True indeed it is, that conformity to the approving will of God is conducive to individual happiness and the general good, and must produce the highest degree of both. This is, therefore, a sound accessory reason of moral obligation; our objection lies against raising it into the primary reason.” We shall, however, leave the economical utility to show itself, while we deal with the argument on the high principle of the revealed will of God. We are fully aware, that to give our argument conclusiveness, so far as founded on the Fourth Commandment, it is necessary to establish its abiding moral obligation. “The requirements of the moral law,” it is justly regarded, “are not the dictates of the mere or sovereign will of God, but are the results of the real nature of things and the propriety of relations, and so of immutable obligation. The appointment of a specified time for the celebration of worship is partly positive, but not positive as the ceremonial law. It is founded on the constitution of things as ordained by God, and on the divine procedure in creation; and it is wise and good, while the present system of the world and constitution of man continue.

The antiquity of the Sabbath, as instituted before the entrance of sin—the occasion and reference of its first institution, in God’s creating the heavens and the earth in six days, and his resting on the seventh—the position which it holds in the midst of unrepealed moral statutes—its benevolent design, as providing a season of rest from labour—its recognition in the history and predictions of the Old Testament, and in the doctrine and practice of Christ and his apostles, and the history of the Christian Church—supply material for satisfactory argumentation on the subject. These and other arguments have been elaborated in former treatises, and we do not feel ourselves called to reiterate what has been already written. We now assume the moral obligation of the Fourth Commandment, and deal with persons acknowledging it.”

God has spoken, and he has written, and caused it to be “written in a table and noted in a book for the time to come”—”Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy; six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work; but the Seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work.”

We revere this as the law of God, obligatory wherever it is made known;—a law obvious to the most feeble capacity; authoritative and majestic to command the attention of the most heedless; impartial and comprehensive, embracing the whole circle of superiors, inferiors, and equals; withal, at the same time, so benevolent, as to be regarded not merely as the utterance of absolute moral sovereignty, but as a grant of Divine goodness, to be received and highly appreciated. They judge falsely as presumptuously, who place their own will and pleasure in opposition to the authority, and wisdom, and goodness of God. Great as are the advantages of the postal establishment, it is under law to society and to God. It is under law to society, and cannot, must not, under any pretext, infringe upon the liberties of men, trifle with their lives, or inflict cruelties upon the mute creation. In the hands of moral and accountable beings, it is under law to God, and men cannot, in conducting it, violate innocently and with impunity the wise, benevolent, and authoritative legislation of the most high God. We are constrained to regard Sabbath mails, in the ordinary circumstances of society, as a violation of the letter, the spirit, and the design of the Divine law; and because “sin is the transgression of the law,” we must speak of the sin of Sabbath mails. According to every just interpretation of the Fourth Commandment, civil labour, not required by necessity or mercy, or the observance of religious ordinances, is interdicted on the holy Sabbath. “Thou shalt not do any work.” But the systematic and regular running of the mail is ordinary civil labour, and, when not specially required as above, is a violation of the law of God. The carrying of mails by men on foot or on horseback, by gig or coach, boat, steamer or locomotive, is ordinary civil work, required and lawful on six days of the week, but forbidden, and

therefore unlawful, on the Sabbath. By the persons employed in the various services of the Post Office on the Lord’s day, there is an appropriation of time in direct contravention of the law of God. Thus occupied, they are performing their everyday secular work by which they provide for themselves and their families. Attendance in the place of civil business, receiving letters and mails, sorting and stamping letters, sealing bags, despatching mails, and delivering letters, newspapers, and small packages of various character, form the ordinary work of the Post Office; and in many cases the work is onerous and exhausting. The work done within the Post Office, the work of the persons carrying letters and packages, or conveying them by coach or train, is not distinguishable, by the persons engaged or by others, from the work of the other days of the week. God has said of the Sabbath, “On it thou shalt not do any work;” and in the things of which we complain, the authority and goodness of God, thus interposed, are resisted and set at nought. The lightnings, it is true, do not flash in our eyes as in the eyes of ancient Israel; the thunders are not reverberating from the trembling mountain; the voice is not giving forth the audible utterances which made those who heard it entreat that it should not be spoken to them any more; yet the commandment stands on the sacred page unrevoked by the authority by which it was enacted, and by which alone it can be repealed, and is recognised by prophets and apostles, and by Him who came not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfil and establish them—the Lord of all, and the “Lord also of the Sabbath.” The civil labour in the matter in question is in disobedience to the authority of God; it is breaking down that reverential acknowledgment of the Deity which the rest of the Sabbath is expressly designed and admirably fitted to cherish and maintain, and treating that honour which is due to God, and required by him, with neglect and contempt. Is there obligation in the commandments, “Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal,” and the other precepts of the Decalogue, and none in the precept addressed, with no marked specifications, to the parent, to the child, to the master, to the servant, and to him that sits in the gates to administer righteousness? Is no heed whatever to be given to the Divine caveat which introduces this commandment, “Remember the Sabbath-day?” Is no deference to be paid to the Divine Wisdom, in distributing the time of labour and of rest? Is no grateful return to be made to the Divine Benevolence, in granting us six days for our own work; nor reverential obedience to be yielded to the Divine Supremacy, in challenging a special proprietary in the seventh portion of time? Is there to be no sense nor acknowledgment of the Divine Mercy, in instituting a day of rest from labour and toil to man and to cattle, and giving opportunity to man of moral and spiritual improvement? Is the Divine Benediction, which was conjoined with the keeping of the Sabbath when God first consecrated it to his special service, to be treated as a thing of nought? Is there

no fear of the blight or moth of the curse on the work of the six days, in treating with neglect the day which He who blesses and it shall be blessed, has specially blessed and hallowed? Is there obligation in the commandments of the second table, in which God has set the fence of His high authority around our honour, life, substance, and character, and no obligation in the precept in which God has appointed a season for the special acknowledgment of His being, the celebration of His worship, and the hallowing of His name; and in which, while consulting His own glory, He has at the same time regarded the true interest of man, ordaining that this portion of time shall be a season of relief to the body from laborious toil, and escape to the mind from engrossing secular care? We are, of course, addressing ourselves particularly to persons acknowledging the obligation of the Fourth Commandment, and find it utterly impossible to reconcile the practice condemned with such acknowledgment.

The claims and urgencies of business are brought forward in defence of Sabbath mails. In a manufacturing and commercial country like ours, speedy and regular communications involve deeply the interests of the several classes of the community; and diligence in business is commended by the obligation of virtue and of religion. But let us hear the Divine commandment, “Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work. On the Seventh thou shalt not do any work.” The hebdomadal rest from civil labour is the law of God, and, wherever this exceeding broad commandment finds man, it demands respect and obedience. It addresses itself with equal authority to the parent and the child, the master and servant, the husbandman, the artisan, the merchant, the rich man and the poor man, the monarch and the subject, the legislator, the judge, the magistrate, and the community at large. This law is obligatory in the city and in the field, in the house and on the highway, in the factory, in the counting-house, and in the shop, on the land and on the water, on shipboard at sea and in the harbour. Rest on the Sabbath is the law of God, and in no ordinary state of things is it to be set aside. The very supposition lays the wisdom of God under imputation. To the man who works with his hands, or otherwise pursues civil business, the weekly rest is matter of duty, right, and mercy; and there must lurk some fallacy or evil principle when, in prosecuting the ordinary business of life, a plea of necessity is urged in opposition to the law of God. Two facts may be adduced in opposition to this plea, the one of long standing, the other of recent date. The city of London has no mail on the Sabbath. With what plausibility or propriety can provincial towns and rural districts set up the plea of business for Sabbath mails, when the General Post Office of the commercial metropolis of the wide world issues no letters, and employs no servants on the Lord’s day? Is it not matter of fact, that when proposals have been made for opening the General Post Office on the

Sabbath, remonstrances have poured in against it from all quarters? As in other cases, so in this, let the Divine command, “On the seventh day shalt thou rest,” take effect over all the land. From midnight to midnight let the Sabbath be a season of rest to man and beast employed in this as in every other ordinary work. There is neither impossibility nor impracticability here; and the importance of the thing demands effort and sacrifice to carry it into effect. Were this arrangement gone into universally, there would of course be no blank day (as merchants have been accustomed to call the day when no mails arrived from London), with the exception of the Sabbath; and this, though a day of cessation from toil and trade, not a blank day, but a business day of incalculable profits to those who rightly improve it. The Sabbath would not be a blank day even to the men of corporeal labour and commercial occupation; for mind and body would by rest be prepared for more vigorous and correct application to business, and work and business would be done better and in greater amount than could be compassed by continuous application. The rest of the Sabbath will not prove lost time to the man of business and work, any more than the time employed in oiling the wheels of a carriage to give it both a sweeter and a swifter motion. This gone into, a public homage would be done to religion over the land; thousands would be released from oppressive drudgery; and the men of business would be relieved from close application, without the fear of being anticipated or overreached, as is done or dreaded, in the eager competitions of mercantile life. But could there be a plea for Sabbath mails on the score of business—a plea that we deem inadmissible—it would be altogether set aside by the recent improvements in locomotion. What! mails from London every day except the Sabbath! twice every day, and oftener in many cases, and yet cry for business letters on Sabbath! There must be something altogether undue and excessive here. Why not urge the same plea for other public establishments? Banks are closed on the Sabbath. Courts of law are shut on the first day of the week. Other business and government offices are shut on the Lord’s day. Might not the plea of business be urged for opening the Exchange for commercial transactions, and warehouses and shops for sales, as in France and other countries in the Continent? Why does the Judge not hold his court, and admit the Lawyer to plead the cause of his client on the Sabbath? Why are the Houses of Parliament not opened on the Sabbath? We can easily conceive of cases involving deeply the temporal interests of parties, their personal convenience, and even their liberty, in which urgency might be pleaded with greater plausibility for opening the courts of law, than for the ordinary despatch of mails on the Sabbath. Why should the distinction of lawful days be kept up in the several departments of legislative, judicial, and civil business, and broken down in the Post Office?

(To be Continued.)

An Dleasnas Mor ‘se sin Creidsinn ann am Mac Dhe.

IS e aon do na ceud fhoillseachaidh a tha air a dheanamh, ‘nuair a tha Spiorad Dhe a toirt air lannan an aineolais tuiteam o inntinn a pheacaich le ghràs slainteil, fheuchainn dha co iordheirc, co freagarach, agus co feumail sa tha ‘n Tighearn Iosa Criosd, na phearsa ghloirmhoir, agus anns na sochairibh do-mheas a tha e buileachadh. “Tha Dia a thurt ris an t-solus soillseachadh, a dealrachadh anns na cridheachaibh aca, a thoirt soluis eolais gloire Dhe ann an gnuis, na am pearsa, Iosa Criosd.” (2 Cor. iv. 6.) Agus is sona, is do-labhairt sona dhuinne peacaich chiontach thruagh, gu ‘m bheil a leithid do Shlanuighear, agus do Fhearsaoruidh cumhachdach againn, neach trid iobairt luachmhor agus eadar-ghuidhe bhuadhach, a dh’ fhaodas sinn a bhi air ‘ur deanamh reidh ri morachd Dhe neo-chriochnach naomha, agus air an d’ rinneadh eucoir; agus trid a Spioraid agus a ghrais chumhachdaich, a dh’ fhaodas ar nadur ciontach a bhi air aiseag chum iomhaigh bheannuichte-san.

Le moran na ‘s lugha do chall dhuinne dh’ fhaodadh a ghrian a tha dealrachadh san latha, agus a ghealach agus na reultan a tha sgeudachadh na h-oidheche, a bhi air am muachd, na gu ‘m biodh ar n-anamaibh aineolach air, agus as eugmhaids drughaidh a bhi aig Grian ghloirmhoir so na Fireantachd orra (Mal. iv. 2); is iad a throcair agus a ghras sabhalaidh, solus agus beatha na cruitheachd so is isle aig Dia, agus is iad a gloir agus a h-oir-dheirceas, aoibhneas agus ioghnadh nan saoghal gu h-ard. Tha ‘n t-iomlan do ‘n ana-creidimh agus do ‘n droch-rnn aig inntinnibh mi-dhiadhaidh, maille ri laigsinn creidimh, an-dochais a chridhe, agus beag graidh ann an Criosduidhibh treibh-dhireach, a sruthadh ann an ceumaibh eadar-dhealuichte o ‘n aineolas air an Fhear-shaoruidh ghloirmhor, agus dhiadhaidh so; a tha eolas air neo-chriochnach feumail agus tarbhach.

Faodaidh anam an duine bhi aineolach air deich mile ni, gun e lughdachadh ni sam bith d’ a fhior shonas, ach tha ‘n t-iomlan do na beannachdan a tha air an gealltuinn le Dia, sa bhuineas do bheatha agus do dhiadhaidh, air an toirt dhuinn trid eolais an Tighearna Iosa Criosd. Ma tha trocair agus sith air am meud-achadh dhuinn, is an trid eolais De, agus Iosa Criosd ar Tighearn (2 Phead. i. 2, 3); agus is e dleasnas mor a Chriosduidhfas ann an gras, agus ann an eolas ar Tighearn agus ar Slanuighear Iosa Criosd. (2 Phead. iii. 18.)

Tha Criosd co uile fheumail ‘chum ar slainte agus ar sonas, is gu ‘m bheil e neo-chomasach gur urrainn dhuinn a bhi air ar sabhaladh as eugmhaids-san. Tha sinn uile ciontach agus na ‘r peacaich fo dhiteadh, le lagh naomba Dhe; ‘s esan ar n-iobairt reitich agus ar fear-tagraidh mor. (1 Eoin ii. 1, 2.) Tha sinn na ‘r peacaich lag agus gun treoir, le ‘r dol air seacharan o Dhia; ‘s

esan an Tighearna na aonar anns am bheil againn amhain neart agus fireantachd. (Esa. xlv. 24.) Tha sinn na ‘r creutairean neo-ghlan agus truailte, ann an sealladh an Tighearn; ‘s esan Iosa ar fear-naomhachaidh. (Eabh. ii. 11.) Tha sinn a thaobh nàduir marbh agus neo-mhoothachail air mhodh spioradail; tha esan na spiorad a bheothaicheas. (1 Cor. xv. 45.) Is creutairean sinn a tha air ar buaireadh agus air ar saruchadh; ‘s esan ceannard mor ar slainte. (Eabh. ii. 10.) Is peacaich sinn fo amhghar agus ann an eudochas; ‘s esan solas Israeil. (Lucais ii. 25.) As eugmhais-san cha ni sambth sin ach truaighe agus an-dochas annainn fein; ni a thug air Pol a radh, “Tha mi a’ meas nan uile nithe ‘nan call, airson ro-ordheirceis eolais Iosa Criosd mo Thighearna: airson an d’ fhuilg mi call nan uile nithe, agus measam gur aolach iad chum gu ‘n cosnainn Criosd.” (Philip. iii. 7, 8.)

Cha ‘n ‘eil ni sam bith is sgriosaiche do dh anamaibh dhaoine, agus na ‘s mo n aghaidh glòir gliocais agus tròcair neo-chriochnach Dhe na slainte trid Iosa Criosd, na spiorad fein-fhireanta agus fein fhoghainteach. Cha ‘n ‘eil daoine anns an t-saoghal na ‘s faide o shlainte trid Iosa Criosd, nan leithidibh sin sa tha ‘g earbsa nan airidheachd fein airson a bhi taitneach le Dia, aig am bheil fuighair ri neamh mar thoradh am fireantachd fein, agus a tha ‘g earbsa nan cumhachd agus na ‘m maithreas fein ga ‘n giulan d’ a ionnsuidh. Tha Criosd fein a ‘g innse dhuiinn “gu ‘n d’ theid na cis-mhaoir agus na striopaichean do rioghachd neimh roimh ‘n leithide sin. (Mata xxi. 31, 32.)

Ciod air bith co deadh-bheusach, mhaith, dhiadhaidh, agus chrabhach sa shaoileas daoine iad fein a bhi, ma tha fuighair aca gu ‘n gabhar riu gu taitneach san am ata lathair, agus gu ‘m faigh iad slainte air a cheann mu dheireadh airson an aobhair sin, aon chuid gu h-iomlan na ann an cuid, tha iad ga ‘n cur fein suas mar fhir-shaoruidh dhoibh fein—tha iad a cur cul ris an fhireantachd uile iomlan aig Mac Dhe; an aon fhireantachd a tha saoradh o chionta, agus a cur an neo-brigh uile rùntibh glòirmhor tròcair agus àrduachdranachd Dhe ann an slainte an duine. (Gal. v. 2-4; iii. 1-22; agus Rom. xi. 6.) Do bhrigh “gu ‘n do pheacaich na h-uile, agus gu ‘m bheil iad air teachd gearr air glòir Dhe; agus air am faotainn ciontach na fhianuis” (Rom. iii. 19, 24); tha mallachdan uamhasach a bhreitheanais agus an ditidh shiorruidh amhain air am maitheadh dhoibh sin, a tha toirt duil do shlainte fhaotainn uatha fein, agus a gabhail rithe gu h-iomlan mar shaor thiodhlaic gràis Dhe ann an Iosa Criosd. (Rom. v. 16, 17, agus vi. 23.)

Feumaidh Criosduighean a bhi dichtiollach ann an cleachduinn an iomlain do dhleasnsaibh stuama agus diadhaidh agus is e’n gloir agus an sonas an coimhlonadh mar sin; ach is iad rearachadh agus fireantachd iomlan Chriosd, agus cha ‘n i ‘n umhlachd neo-iomlan acasan, a dh’ fheumas a bhi na fhireanachadh aca an lathair Dhe. Do bhrigh gu’n do ghlan an Tighearn Iosa ra

peacanna d’a thrid fein (Eabh. i. 3), uime sin thu suil aige ris an iomlan do chliu ar slainte, agus bithidh e aon chuid na uile anns na h-uile, na gun na ni sam bith; a thaobh ar maitheanais agus gabhail rninn le Dia fhaotainn: agus ni am fior Chriosduigh gairdeachas ann an cul a chuir r’a oirdheireis, fhireantachd, shochairean, agus na h-uile ni bhuineas dha fein, chum’s gum bi an Tighearn Iosa na aonar air árduchadh. (Esa. ii. 11, agus 1 Cor. i. 30.) Agus tha feum againn air a shior ghràs g’ar cuideachadh, co maith r’a thoillteanas g’ar fireanachadh; oir as eugmhais san cha’n urrainn sinn aon ni a dheanamh a bhios taitneach le Dia. (Eoin xv. 5.)

Biodh impidh air a cuir air gach peacach do ‘n chinne-daoine, agus misneach air a toirt do gach aon aca creidsinn anns an Tighearn agus san Fhear-shaoruidh thròcaireach aig daoine, chum gu ‘m faigh e uaithe beatha agus sonas siorruidh. Thugaibh fainear gu cudthromach ciod a rinn Dia an slanuifhear. Chuir e thaobh a chulaidhean mòralachd agus glòire gu a fein eideadh le ‘r feoil-sa; thainig e ‘o a chathair rioghail gu h-árd, agus dh’irislich se e fein gu bàs a chroinn-cheusaidh, a shasuchadh ceartais Dhe airson bhur n-euccartan; agus thug e beatha mhaireannach agus slainte gu ruig na fior dhorsan agaibh; agus nach gabh sibh ris? Tha e gealltuinn na h-uile uireasadh feumail do bheannachdan airson anama agus cuirribh a thoirt dhuibh, airson uine agus siorruidheadhd (Salm lxxxiv. 11); bhur dion ‘r n-uile naimhdibh spioradail; bhur saoradh o ‘n pheacadh agus o ifrinn; agus neamh agus e fein a bhuileachadh oirbh; agus an cuir sibh fathast cul ris?

O! creidibh gur e bhur gliocas is àirde, bhur dleasnas do-sheachainte, bur slainte gu h-iomlan, sibh fein a thoirt suas airfad do churam agus do stiuradh Mhic Dhe; gràdh a thoirt d’a phearsa ghloirmhor, striochdadh d’a uachdhranachd sheimh, agus earbsa na chnmhachd agus na ghràs sabhalaidh. Tha gach ni Annasan ga chliuthachadh chum bhur raoghainn agus bhur meas; co aca bheir sibh fainear a ro-oidheirc iongantach, na sochairean a tha e buileachadh, an sonas do-labhairt acasan a tha gabhail ris, na truaighe do thuigsinn na muintir a tha deanamh dimeis air, agus a cur cul ris.

Smuaintichibh air a ro-oidheirceis do-labhairt gus am bi bhur cridheachan air an lionadh le h-urram, ioghnadh, agus gràdh. ‘Sesan Tighearna na gloire. (1 Cor. ii. 8.) Emanuel, na Dia maille ruinne. (Mhata i. 23.) An Dia mor agus ‘ar Slanuighear. (Thituis ii. 13.) Iehobah ar fireantachd-ne. (Ier. xxiii. 6.) Dia osceann nan uile, beannuichte gu siorruidh. (Rom. ix. 5.) An Dia cumhachdach, an t-Athair siorruidh. (Esa. ix. 6.) A sealbhachadh uile iomlanachd na diadhachd gu corpora. (Col. ii. 9.) Comh-ionann ri Dia ann an nadur. (Philip. ii. 6.) “Siorruidh.” (Micah v. 2.) “Neo-chaochlaidheach.” (Eabh. xiii. 8.) “Uile leir-sinneach.” (Tais. ii. 18.) “Uile-chumhachdach.” (Tais. i. 8.) Da ‘m bheil na h-uile umhlachd agus aoradh a ghabhas toirt

seachad gu bhi air an iocadh leis na h-uile creutair air neamh agus air talamh. (Eoin v. 23; Taibh. v. 11-14.) An ceud aobhar agus a chrioch is airde aig na h-uile nithe, leis an robh, agus air son an robh iad air an cruthachadh. (Colos. i. 16; Eoin i. 1-3.) A sealbhachadh aig an aon am na h-uile ro-irdheirceas aig an da nádur, nádur Dhe agus an duine. (Eoin i. 14, 15.) Air do na h-uile uachdaranachd air neamh agus air talamh a bhi air earbsa risan. (Mhata xxviii. 18.) A riaghladh osceann rioghachdan an domhain (Mhata viii. 26, 27), an fhreas-dail (Dan. vii. 27; Sech. vi. 12, 13), agus a ghràis (Eoin v. 21; Gal. vi. 18). Maillle ris gur e am Breitheamh mor agus orduichte air beothaibh agus air marbhaibh air chionn an latha dheireannaich. (Gniomh. xvii. 31.)

Mar a tha tuilleadh uisge ann an aon fhaighe na tha ann an uile aibhnicibh na talmhainn, agus aig aon ghrein tuilleadh soluis na tha aig an iomlan do na reultan, is ambuil a tha anns an Tighearn Iosa Criosd tuilleadh gloir agus oir-dheirceas na tha anns an iomlan do shaoghail, do dh’ ainglibh, do nithibh taitneach, na ciod air bith a tha ionmhuinn air neamh na air talamh. Tha na h-uile oirdheirceas cruthaichte a sruthadh uaithe san, an sior earbsa risan, agus gun toileachadh sam bith as eugmhais san. (Col. i. 15-19; Salm lxxiii. 25, 26.) Tha e na ‘s mo na an t-iomlan do mhaith aimsireil, mar a tha solus na greine na ‘s mo na sin aig coinuil. Tha e na ‘s mo na ‘n t-iomlan do bheannachdan spioradail, mar a tha an tobar na ‘s mo na na sruthain. Tha e na ‘s mo na ‘n t-iomlan do shaibhreas neamhaidh, mar a tha chraobh na ‘s mo na ‘n toradh. Tha na ro-irdheirceis iongantach sin na phearsa ghloirmhoir a tha do-labhairt, mor agus urramach; is e fior neamh do shonas a bhi maillle ris far am bheil e, gu bhi faicinn a ghloir. (Eoin xvii. 24.) Bheir beagan eolais air ionmhuinneachd bharraichte do ‘n inntinn theoth-chridheachd agus chuideachd, aoibhneas do-thuigsinn; agus solas neamhaidh. (I Phead i. 8.) Nan biodh an ceo muladach aig aineolas agus dorchadas peacach air atharrachadh o inntinnibh dhaoine, cha b-urrainn dhoibh gun ioghnadh a ghabhail r ‘a ro-irdheirceis ghloirmhor agus shiorruidh, a tha neo-chriochnach agus do-rann-suchaidh. (Ephes. iii. 8.)

Thugaibh faineair na sochairean luachmhor a tha ‘n Tighearn Iosa Criosd a buileachadh air na h-uile a tha creidsinn ann, chum’s gu ‘m bi mothuchadh agaibh air an luach, agus gun aon fhois a ghabhail gus an sealbhaich sibh iad. Cha ‘n ‘eil Fear-saoruidh mor agus beannuichte dhaoine a mhain a sealbhachadh aoidhealachd agus oirdheirceas neo-chriochnach ann fein, ach tha e neo-chriochnach gràsmhor ann am buileachadh bheannachdan air dream eile. Tha na ghràdh agus na mhaitheas airde agus doimhne, fad agus leud, a tha dol thar gach uile eòlas. (Eph. iii. 18, 19.) Tha lànachd shasuchaidh bharraichte ann an Iosa Criosd, freagarrach do na h-uile uireasbhuidh, iarrtus, agus sonas aig anamanna neo-bhasmhor a tha dol am mugh. Ann an Criosd air a cheusadh gheibh sibh iomlaineachd neo-chriochnach do

fhireantachd a cuir falach air bhur n-uile pheacannaibh. (1 Eoin i. 7.) Saibhreas nach teirig do mhaitheas, a riarachadh bhur n-uileuireasaiddh. (Philip. iv. 19.) Pailteas gràis a cheannsuchadh bhur n-uile anamiannaibh. (Mhata i. 21.) Gliocas do-rannsachaidh ‘g ar treoruchadh ‘n ar n-uile shlighibh. (1 Cor. i. 30.) Comas uile-chumhachdach a cheannsuchadh bhur n-uile naimhdean, spioradail. (Col. ii. 15.) Cumhachd àrd-uachdranach a leigheas uile euslaintean bhurn-anamanna. (Lucais v. 20-24; Salm ciii. 2, 3.) Agus lánachd gun tomhas do ghràs agus do mhaitheass araon ‘g ar sasuchadh agus g ‘r tearnadh agus sin gu an fhior chuid is faide. (Eabh. vii. 25.)

Is sona, is do-labhairt sona, iadsan uile aig am bheil còir annsan, agus a tha air an aonadh ris tre chreidimh agus tre ghràdh! Tha iad air faotainn maitheanais agus air an deanadh reidh ri Dia (Rom. v. 1), tha iad air an deanadh nan cloinn ghràdhaich dhasan (Eoin i. 12); tha an Spiorad aca a gabhail comhnuidh annta (Gal. iv. 6); agus a mealtuinn saorsa slighe d ‘a ionnsuidh aig na h-uile am (Eabh. x. 19-23). Is iad curam sonruichte freasdail caomh agus caomhneil Dhe (1 Phead iii 12, v. 7); tha gheallanna frinneach aca airson na h-uile maith feumail anns a bheatha so (Mhata vi. 30-33, agus vii. 11); agus tha iad nan oighreachan air beatha mhaitreannach agus glòir anns an t-saoghal ri teachd (Eoin iii. 14-16; Rom. viii. 17); is leosan Dia an Slanuifhear, ann an uile shaibhreas a mhaitheis, agus anns na h-uile daimh shonruicht’aige (2 Cor. vi. 16-18). Tha còir aca air uile gheallannaibh beannuichte fhocal (2 Phead. i. 4); a dh’fhaodas iad gu h-irisal agus gu cinnteach agairt uaithesan tre chreidimh agus urnuigh, a reir am feum. (Eoin xv. 7, agus xiv. 13, 14.)

Is i so an tiodhlac mhor, an tiodhlac neo-chriochnach a tha Dia an Slanuighear, a doimhne do-rannsachaidh a thròcair agus a ghràidh, a deònachadh gu ro shaor do pheacaich bhochd, thruagh, agus chaillte do ‘n chine dhaoine, eadhoin e fein, agus uile ionmhais a ghràis agus a mhaitheis. (Esa. lv. 1-7.)

Thugaibh fainear an staid thruagh agus an diteadh an-tromaichte aig na peacaich sin a tha cur an suarachas an Fhir-shaoruidh bheannuichte so, agus a shlainte mhor. Cia mar is urrainn iad dol as o dhiteadh siorruidh, a tha deanamh dimeas air an ulluchadh iongantach a rinn gliocas agus tròcair neo-chriochnach Dhe airson an slanuchaidh agus an sonais ann an Iosa Criosd, a tha ri tair air aon-ghin Mhic Dhe; a tha meas fhala agus iobairt luachmhoir nan nithe coitchionn, agus leis nach aill an Slanuighear mor agus naomha so a bhi na righ os an ceann, ach a tha raoighneachadh anamiann suarach, aigne truaillich, na buannachd na solas talmhaidh air thoiseach airsan? (Lucais xix. 14; xiv. 26-33; agus Eabh. x. 26-31.) Tha breitheanas cinnteach agus eagallach a feitheadh air an luchd-tarcuis aig Iosa Criosd, agus aig a shoiseul. Eiridh Iudhaich agus Cinnich a suas ann am breitheanas an aghaidh an leithide sin air an latha mhor, agus ditidh siad iad. (Mhata xii. 41-43, agus xxiii. 14-33.)

A Leughdair, ma tha thusa a’ d’ aon dhiu so, ceadaich dhomh, o’n mhothuchadh is ro dhruightiche air do chunnart agus air do thruaighe mhor, agus o speis thairisneach do’d shlainte agus do’d shonas siorruidh, ni eiginn a chuir fa’d chomhair do thruaighe do staide, chum’s gun smuaintich thu ort fein agus gun d’ theid thu as na thràth.

Am feadh a tha thu as eugmhais Iosa Criosd, ann an staid ana-creidimh, tha thu fo chionta agus fo dhiteadh na h-uile peacadh a chuir thu riamh an gniomh. Tha mallachdan uamhasach agus cumhachd ditidh lagha naomha Dhe a seasamh nan uile neart a t-aghaidh, airson gach eucaert a chuir thu’n gniomh ann an smuain, am focal, agus an gniomh. Tha ceartas Dhe, na uile uamhas agus eagal, an crochadh thairis air do cheann ciontach, ullamh gu briseadh amach ort (Eoin iii. 18-36); agus air dhuit a bhi as eugmhais Chriosd, cha’n ‘eil aon reite agad r’a thagradh, cha’n ‘eil aon neach agad a thearnadh t-anama chaillte o ifrinn agus o dhiteadh. Tha moran chasaidean ann an t-aghaidh, o lagh Dhe air a bhriseadh, do choguis fein, agus an diabhol a tha gad bhuair-eadh; ach air dhuit a bhi gun choir shlainte agad ann am Mac Dhe cha’n ‘eil aon fhearr tagraidh na eadar-ghuidhear agad maillle ri Dia a thagradh air do shon, ach tha thu sior charnadh a suas tuilleadh feirge fa chomhair latha na feirge, agus foillseachaidh ceart bhreitheanais De (Rom. ii. 1-5); agus is e bhi cuir an suar-achas an Eadar-mheadhonair mhor an ni sin a tha ceangal ditidh t-uile pheacannan eile ort. Tha Slanuifhear tròcaireach pheacach e fein a cuir an ceill, “Ge b’ e nach creid ditear e.” (Mharcuis xvi. 16.) Cha’n fhaic e beatha, básaichidh e na pheacanna, agus tha ferg Dhe a gabhail comhnuidh air. (Eoin iii. 36, agus viii. 21.)

Biodh impidh air a cuir air gach peacach, agus misneach air a thoirt do gach aon diu tighinn a dh’ ionnsuidh an Tigearn agus an Fhir-shaoruidd ghràsmhoir so, airson beatha agus slainte. Tha e neo-chriochnach comasach agus toileach, a fhréasdal do t-uile uireasadh, a mhaitheadh t-uile pheacannan, a leigheas t-uile eucailean spioradail, a cheannsachadh nan ana-mhiann is laidire, ga’d dheanamh reidh ri Dia, t-aisig a dh’ ionnsuidh iomhaigh ghràdhach, agus do dheanamh ro shona agus ro bheannuichte gu siorruidh. Cha’n ‘eil lánachd cumhachd sàbhalaidd agus trocair Chriosd gu bhi air a thomhas leis an tuigse is mo. “Tha gràs ar Tigearna thar tomhas ro phailte.” (1 Thim. i. 14.) “Tha e mar an ceudna comasach air an dream a thig a dh’ ionnsuidh Dhe Trid-san a thearnadh gus a chuid is faide.” (Eabh. vii. 25.)

Tha neamh lan do mhiorthuilean gràidh iongantaich agus tròcair neo-thoillteannach Chriosd. An sin, tha cuid a bha aon uair comharrachtae ann an gràinealachd agus ann an cionta, a nis air an lionadh le Spiorad Naomha Dhe, a seinn àrd chliu Dhe agus an Uain, am measg naoimh agus aingil ri h-aoradh. Ni h-eadh, tha cuid do fhiar mhortairean an Fhir-shaoruidd bheann-uichte fein, a faotainn beatha mhaireannach agus sonas o’n fhuil luachmhor sin a chaidh a dhortadh le’n lamhaibh ciontach fein.

Ma tha curam ort gu fios a bhi agad cia mar a thig thu gu coir fhaotainn anns an Fhear-shaoruidh mhor so, agus na shlainte (agus nar leigeadh Dia gum b-iadh anam neo-bhasmhor air bith a tha chomhnuidh sam fheoil caoin-shuarach mu’n ghnothuch chudthromach so), tha freagradh agad do ‘n cheist so o fhor focal De, ag ràdh, “Creid anns an Tighearn Iosa Criosd, agus tearnar thu.” (Gniomh. xvi. 31.) Cuir cul ris na h-uile earbsa ann a’ d’ ghliocas, a’ d’ neart, agus a’ d’ mhaitheas fein; a’g earbsa an comhnuidh agus gu h-iomlan annsan airson do shàbhalaiddh. Thoir suas thu fein le t-uile chridhe d’a ughdaras agus d’a uach-dranachd ghràsmhoir, gad stroichdadh fein do riaghailt a Spioraid, fhoicil, agus a fhrèasdaid: iarr gu dichollach a chaoinmhneas agus a ghradh mar do shonas araid, agus maithidh e do lochdaibh lionmhor, leigisidh e do nadur peacach. agus beannaichidh e thu ann am pailteas a ghràis, agus a thròcair, leis gach maith feumail. (I Cor. iii. 21, 23; Ephes. i. 3-6.)

Guidh gu durachdach ait Dia an Spiorad Naomh, “a thoirt tuigse dhuit chum gu ‘m b’ aithne dhuit Esan a ta fior eadhon a Mhac Iosa Criosd, neach is e’n Dia fior, agus a bheatha mhair-eannach.” (I Eoin v. 20.) Agus mar an ceudna do chridhe aomadh gu gabhail risan mar shlainte Dhe. Is iad eolas agus creidimh slainteil tioclhaean Dhe amhain. (Ephes. ii. 8.) Cha’n urrainn aon neach eolas a ghabhail air, na creidsinn gu ceart ann an Dia an slanuifhear, ach le solus agus cumhachd air am faotainn uaithe fein (Eoin vi. 44, 45; Mhata xi. 25, 26), a tha air an comh-pairteachadh riu ann an cleachduinn chudthromach agus dhich-iollach meadhanon orduichte Dhe, gu h-araid fhocalsan agus urnuigh. (Gnath iii. 3-6, agus viii. 33, 34.)

A pheacachaibh, creidibh focal Chriosd,
Earbaibh na ainn cumhachdach ‘s bithibh beo;
Na bheatha tha mile aoibhneas sgiobht,
‘S na laimh tha mile beannachd mor.

Tha sinn lan fhiosrach gu bheil an teagasg a tha anns na duilleagaibh so calg-dhireach an aghaidh beachdanna dhaoine a tha do dh’ inntinn thruailidh gun tuigse a thaobh a chreidimh. Am meag na dream so cha ‘n ‘e mhain gu bheil r’ am faotainn a muinntir a tha tur aineolach, ach mar an ceudna daoine tha a deanamh ainnheil mhor air diadhachd.

A muinntir aineolach ‘sann anns an t-seorsa oibre a tha iad a deanamh (ris an abair iad deadh-obair) a b’ ail leo earbsa airson maitheanas peacaidh, sith ri Dia agus fadheidh dol a stigh do neamh; air chor is nuair a tha creidimh ann an Iosa Criosd air a chumail amach mar an aon steidh-dhoichis gu ruigheachd air slainte shiorruidh, tha so a tilgeil na h-oibre acasan air cul, leis am bheil iad a gabhail oibheum, agus a cur rompa nach stroichd iad do theagasg a tha co fad an aghaidh an nàduir, agus am beachd-san an aghaidh na h-uile firinn agus ceartas. Mar so nuair a bheirear air aghaidh teagasg na firinn a tha leigeadh ris nach bi feoil air bith air a fireanachadh na fhianuis san tre oibríbh

an lagha, their iad gu bheil sinn an aghaidh gach deadh-obair, agus ma tha sinne fior nach ruig daoin leas suim a ghabbail do dhleasnas sambith anns an rathad sin.

Their a mhuinntir eile nach ‘eil agaunn ri sparradh air daoine ach creid, creid: agus gum bheil so an cunnart daoine mhealladh, do bhrigh gu bheil an fhirinn a luaidh air creidimh marbh, le e bhi as eugmhais oibre. Tha so uile fior. Ach tha iomradh anns an fhirinn air oibre marbh, agus tha na h-uile obair marbh nach ‘eil a sruthadh o chreidimh, agus tha barrachd dhaoine gu’m mealladh leis an obair mharbh; na tha le creidimh marbh. Nuair a thuit na h-Iudhaich ri Criosd, “Ciod a ni sinn, chum is gun oibrich sinn oibre Dhe?” Se fhreagair e, “Is i so obair Dhe, gun creid sibh anns an ti a chuir e uaithe.” (Eoin vi. 28, 29.) A ris nuair a thuit fear-coimhad a phriosain, “A mhaightstirean, ciod is coir dhomh dheanamh chum gu tearnar mi?” Se thuit Pol agus Silas ris “Creid anns an Tighearna Iosa Criosd, agus tearnar thu fein, agus do thigh.” (Gniomh. xvi. 30, 31.)

A nis, a mhuinntir a tha ‘n aghaidh a bhi sparradh air daoine creidsinn, tha iad an aghaidh an ni a theagaig Criosd agus abtoil. Ach se iad a bhi dh’ easbhuidh tuigse ciod e creidimh is coireach. B’ ail leosan a smuainteachadh gum bheil daoine gu saoithreachadh ri bhi air an ath-ghineamhuinn an toiseach, agus stri a dheanamh gu ruigheadh air creidimh. Ach an creidimh a ta o Dhia tha ath-ghineamhuinn, fireanachadh, agus naomhachadh a sruthadh uaithe. Uime sin, biodh an creidimh so aig daoinibh, ‘s cha churam nach lean deadh oibre. Oir is e’n creidimh an siol, agus far am bheil e air a chur anns an anam leis an ‘Spiorad Naomh, tha e ghnath a toirt a mach toradh na naomhachd.

Gràs slàinteil Dhé, agus à Mhic Iosa Criosd, agus co-chomunn an Spioraid Naomh biodh le ‘shluagh fèin. Amen.

The late Margaret Maclean, Lochbroom.

THE subject of this notice was born near Strathcanaird, Lochbroom. At an early age the Lord spoke to her through the words, “I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye salve, that thou mayest see” (Rev. iii. 18). She was in deep soul distress for many years. One day, however, as the late Rev. George Macleod, of Ullapool, preached from the above-mentioned text her soul was freed, when the light shone into her heart “to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” She did not hastily go to commemorate the death of Christ. A long time elapsed before she approached the minister privately, with a view to doing so. She gave such satisfaction as to what God wrought in her, that she was readily admitted.

She wrestled with God in prayer with perseverance. Hours used to be spent by her in pleading, as if, Jacob-like, she said, “I

will not let thee go except thou bless me.” Her pleading was enlarged, for it extended to the whole world, for the advancement of Christ’s glorious kingdom. She delighted in the Word of God, which was much more precious to her than “gold, yea, much fine gold.” For forty years or so she used to walk to Creich to hear the Gospel preached by the late Dr. Kennedy and others. Having got “water out of the wells of salvation,” she sought diligently to them to be refreshed and revived by the Spirit of God.

She praised the Lord for having raised up men to lead people in the right way at the separation in 1893. When some went from us to be plunged into ecclesiastical quagmires in other Churches, she unmovably held by the testimony raised by our Church. In considering the signs of the times she frequently repeated what she once heard Dr. Kennedy say at Creich: “Alas! poor Scotland, though exalted and joyful, little dost thou anticipate what is before thee.”

For about eight years she was confined to bed. During that time she might say with the Rev. Robert M. M’Cheyne, “God is now teaching me the use of prayer.” On the twenty-fifth of October she was freed for ever from the troubles which afflicted her, having entered into the joy of her Lord. Her remains are laid in Ullapool Cemetery. “Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grape gleanings of the vintage; there is no cluster to eat. My soul desired the first ripe fruit.”

A. S.

The late Mr. John Auld, Tollcross, Glasgow.

WE regret to record this month the death of Mr. John Auld, senior, Dunlop Street, Tollcross, near Glasgow, which event took place on Sabbath evening, the 14th January. Mr. Auld, who was eighty-three years of age, was a native of the village of Tollcross, where his ancestors for several generations resided. Having come under serious impressions of divine things when a young man of twenty years or so, he went here and there for a time with a view to get spiritual satisfaction, but was not satisfied. At length he heard the fame of the late Rev. Jonathan Ranken Anderson, of John Knox’s Church, Glasgow, who had shortly before—in 1852—left the Free Church. Mr. Auld went to hear Mr. Anderson, then preaching in the Railway Hall, Bridge Street, South-side, was deeply impressed with what he heard, and from that day became a close and attentive hearer of Mr. Anderson, until the latter’s death, in 1859. After that date he still closely adhered to Knox’s Tabernacle, and walked every Sabbath there from Tollcross, a distance of four miles. For the last fifteen years, while retaining all his old sympathies, he was an adherent of the Free Presbyterian Church, and when unable to walk on Sabbath, came to the week-day services in connection with the Communion occasions in John Knox’s congregation. There can

be no doubt that Mr. Anderson’s testimony and preaching left a deep impression on Mr. Auld’s mind and spirit—an impression that continued fresh and powerful to the end. The weighty doctrine that he heard in those early years, was evidently applied by the Spirit of God to his soul, and gave that peculiar gravity and solemnity which marked his thoughtful utterances about divine things as well as his general bearing at all times.

No one could be intimately acquainted with Mr. Auld, and hear him engaged in religious exercises but would be impressed with the fact that he was a man who lived and walked in the fear of the Lord—a Christian of the old, solid, godly stamp, too few of which are to be met with in the present day. Though daily and deeply exercised about his own soul, he was not by any means forgetful of the souls of others, but took a practical interest in the spiritual welfare of his neighbours. When prevented by the infirmity of advanced years from ordinary toil, he might be seen slowly moving about Tollcross, distributing sound evangelical tracts and Protestant literature. One of the last things he did was to procure a number of copies of Willison’s Mother’s Catechism, and to circulate them among friends and people in general. He was much grieved with the iniquity of the times, and often rebuked in a gentle but firm way the sin of Sabbath-breaking.

Mr. Auld was six weeks or thereabout on his death-bed, and was on the whole maintained in a composed and comfortable frame of mind. While not assertive of his faith and hope, as he had never been, he manifestly possessed “a good hope through grace.” He said that he had considerable liberty in prayer before the trouble began, and thought that something unusual was near. One day the writer called to see him, his subject of meditation was, “They looked unto Him and were lightened” (Psalm xxxiv. 5). He remarked that these words were not an exhortation to look, but the account of an actual thing that took place—”they looked unto Him and were lightened.” And on being questioned as to what he thought about them in relation to himself, he replied in his own slow, deliberate, impressive way, “I was enabled to hope that I was enabled to look.” Another day he was asked, “What shall we read?” “Read,” he answered, “the seventeenth chapter of John, which I have often read with a grievous enjoyment.” The wise will understand what a “grievous enjoyment” is in reading the Scriptures. On one of the last occasions on which the writer visited him, he exclaimed in an evident rapture of soul while prayer was being offered: “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.” He passed peacefully away on the date mentioned, and his removal is a loss to the community, where he was much respected, and to the Church of God on earth. Much sympathy is felt for his widow, family, and friends in their great bereavement. “Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.”

J. S. S.
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