THE QUESTIONS OF THE CONSIDERED IN THEIR RELATION TO NO. II. stamped the mark of finite knowledge, and as a consequence, of limited influence and operation. The same system of government, legislative and executive, which is the glory of England, has proved ruinous to other nations; and the most flourishing system at last perishes because it is unable to adapt itself to the progress of mind. Upon its ruins is built another system more adapted to the wants of human nature. Such is, and must ever be, the history of all human systems, and such always will be the fate of their originators. But it is the characteristic of the Christian System, that it is adapted to all time, to every nation, and to every clime. The most depraved may be raised by its power to the dignity of personal holiness; and the purest and most intellectual feel its influence chastening and subduing every foible, till, when it has perform THE CHRISTIAN'S MISSION. In surveying the mental history of the world, and the various plans that have been the fruit of the gigantic and starry intellects which have laboured for a brief space, there is one source of melancholy, yet instructive contemplation, which is, the nature and duration of the systems originated. There have been those who have promulgated systems behind their age-these have been the subject of ridicule and contempt. There have been others who have organized systems adapted to the exact wants of the age-and these are they who are the truest benefactors of mankind, and whose names are engraven most deeply on the tablet of Fame. These are they who are "wise in their own generation ;" who from a profounded its perfect work, it renders them knowledge of human nature, and the circumstances and wants of the age, form a corresponding plan. Where they have acted according to the knowledge they possessed, and the opportunities the times afforded, we can gratefully render them all due honor. But there is another class of men-and they are the noblest and the purest -who have founded their systems upon principles of morals, and upon circumstances which ought to exist, rather than upon the circumstances which do exist; and, though consequently gaining esteem from the more noble-minded members of society, still meet with the sneers and indifference of the ignorant, and the persecution of the depraved. Their fate is much to be deplored: they are earnest and lofty souls, struggling ardently for truth, and it is not until their valiant hearts lie cold in death that mankind appreciate their thoughts and designs, and Fame, too late, brings her wreath to decorate their tombs. But on all the systems is Our but " a little lower than the angels." Such being its effect on individuals, its effect on nations is still more apparent. A nation is happy or miserable in proportion as its government and morals conform to the spirit of divine law. Our national grandeur has been ascribed to our industry, energy, bravery, and so forth; but it is a mistake of effect for cause. industry, energy, and bravery, constitute our national grandeur ;—the cause lies in the greater admixture of divine law with our government and morals, and that grandeur can only be maintained by a continued and increased adoption of divine law. If any one be unconvinced, let him behold the nations under the sway of Roman Catholicism and idolatry, and he will behold industry, energy, and bravery withering away, and the peoples themselves degraded and enslaved both in body and in soul. Every system requires agents by whom its principles are to be presented to the human mind; and the Christian Q heralds its fair presence, the peaceful virtues that attend its path, and the train-this is the Christian's mission. System, as the moral universe is the sphere in which its influence is to be exerted requires human agents like-long blaze of glory that lingers in its wise, and it is a solemn and weighty consideration as to how and by what means this divine system is to be promulged, we shall proceed to state in the first place THE AGENTS. When the Christian System was first given to the world, its propagators were delighted with the divine power to control all the elements of nature, and mould them into witnesses of the truth of their divine mission. They wandered over the earth endowed with the delegated power and majesty of God, and showed to mankind the realization of Jacob's dream, the ladder whose ends touched earth and heaven—the way by which the angels could descend to meet man and hail him as a brother, and by which man himself may ascend to the presence of his God and Father. THE POSITION OF THE CHRISTIAN. In the glimpses of the heavenly host given to us, we find there are three gradations of rank: the Archangel, the messenger of God's will; the Seraphim, the angels of love, who stand nearest the throne of God, as being most like the divine mind; and the Cherubim, the angels of knowledge;-these, in this our world, learn the wisdom and love of God, and as the scroll of Divine Providence is gradually unrolled, they chant for evermore the solemn anthem, "Great and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty, just and true are thy ways thou King of Saints." But when God wished to create our world, he did not delegate his power to the angels. No, it was a work too lofty to be delegated even to an archangel But the Apostles, long ages since, he performed it by his own personal sealed their faith by their blood-action, thereby consecrating labour, they departed to the land "where the and declaring to us that in labour wicked cease from troubling, and the alone lies the true dignity and object weary are at rest"-they now hold of existence. communion with the Prophets who have hung their harps on the throne of God, and in the greatness of the contrast between earth and heaven feel how measureless is their recompense. The work still has to be executed, and by whom? It can only be performed by those who have the knowledge of divine truth, who alone can claim the high and arduous task; and in these latter days, when sin and suffering overspread the earth, there is need for a further proclamation of God's system; and we, who glory in being illuminated by the light of divine truth, by that very claration show that to us is the glory, and on us rests the responsibility of proclaiming to the world the infinite wisdom and love of the Eternal God. To propagate a system whose authorship may be known by the light that de The Christian may now see the dignity of his own position. When God created a world, he gave not the work to the highest angels, but performed it himself; and in giving him the work of proclaiming to mankind his commands and love, he has placed him in a situation higher than the angels, and second only to himself and our glorified Redeemer. As he is, then, the medium by which God teaches even the heavenly host his wisdom, and in which he shows his Providence, let him prove himself worthy of the high vocation to which he is called. THE WORK AND CAPABILITIES OF THE CHRISTIAN. We, then, being the laborers of God, and responsibility resting upon each, it is necessary that we should know our appointed task. "Every man should seek his work, and do it.' The fact of no two minds being women endowed with courage esteemconstituted alike is not a proof of ed the characteristic of men—when our weakness, but of our power; it they beheld the Roman soldier, who shows that our souls are intended preferred death to dishonour, cheerto form one harmonious and godlike fully submitting to the scourge, a puwhole. nishment so ignominious as to be forbidden to a Roman-when they saw all these things, they felt that the despised Nazarenes had, in trial, a support which they never experienced, it brought a conviction that the Christian system was from the Supreme Being. The Heathen endured death, but the Christian rejoiced in it. History tells us that martyrdom was often followed by the conversion of the executioners and of many spectators. If such were the effect of faith and practice in those days, surely we who are not tried in the fire of persecution, who are enlightened by the full blaze of divine truth, and who have within our reach the accumulated knowledge and learning of eighteen centuries, surely we can do as much as they ! In the first age, bishops, deacons, and evangelists were the principal officers and laborers mentioned; but we cannot all be rulers, nor can we all wield the sword of the Spirit, so as to render men the prisoners of the Lord-nor have we all that rule over our own souls, that calm judgment and searching knowledge of the human heart, which are so essential for those who have to bear rule in the church of God. But there is one work every man can do, and without which transcendent talents are utterly useless. The work is this: we can all show to the world by personal holiness the transforming influence of the system we advocate. And here I may say, we must take a higher standard than respectability. It is a standard made by the world for their own convenience. A respectable man signifies one who is as good as the generality of men, but certainly not any better. If we are only respectable, we can have no predominant and lasting influence. Our lawgiver said we were to live "soberly, righteously, and godly." Between this standard and that of the world there is some considerable difference. To this, personal holiness of character, may be ascribed the astonishing success of Christianity in the first age. It has been said that "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” But the mere martyrdom did not convince: there had been impostors who endured death calmly, and with resignation. It was the attending circumstances that invested martyrdom with such power. When the executioners beheld Christians even in the midst of the consuming flames, raising a song of praise to God, because they were permitted to testify their faith by their blood-when they beheld The Christian can exert a great and national influence, by endeavouring to infuse into all legislative enactments and reforms, the spirit of his own religion. Those who, from mistaken views of Christian duty, would debar the disciple of Christ from the exercise of political influence, would thereby take away the power from those the most worthy to exercise it, and the least likely to exert it for personal aggrandisement and party purposes. The 120 provinces of Persia had no reason to regret that Daniel held the reins of government. It is still more inexpedient to leave unassailed any unequal and oppressive laws, for they are the strongholds into which tyranny and priestcraft take refuge from the assaults of truth, and may be turned into formidable engines for the destruction of her votaries. The first work of any general, when he has chosen his battle-field, is to remove any obstacles to the free movement of his forces, and seize on every means offered to strengthen | From this, Mr. Campbell showed, in a clear and striking manner, that the Church of Christ was not founded upon either the 39 articles of the Church of England, or the 158 folios of the Church of Rome; for it is not of human reason, but of divine revelation. It is not contained in the articles of Amiens, or upon the five points of Calvin, or upon any number of isolated abstractions of human opinion, or the metaphysics of all the Doctors of Divinity in the world; but solely upon Jesus Christ himself. "This is the tried rockthe sure foundation-stone; and whosoever buildeth thereon, shall never be ashamed." hath not revealed it to thee, Peter, upon which the Christian Church but my Father, who is in heaven," was reared. All, then, who make &c. Mr. Campbell, in passing, the same good confession are built showed the total weakness of the upon Jesus Christ, and consequently Roman Catholic superstructure in entitled to a place in the Church of having been built upon a gross gram- | God. matical absurdity-in supposing that the Church of Christ was built upon the flesh, blood, and bones of Peter, instead of on the noble confession which that Apostle made. The lecturer said that he was astonished that there could be found a man, with the least spark of common sense or intelligence, who could receive such a gross and absurd assumption. Mr. Campbell then went on to explain the reason why Jesus adopted the parabolic teaching. Every man, he said, had his own idiosyncrasy in the manner of communicating his thoughts to his hearers; and this, it would appear, was the peculiar mode Jesus Christ adopted in teaching his In referring to that part of the disciples. The lecturer, in confir- | answer of Jesus, "Flesh and blood mation of this, referred to a number hath not revealed it unto thee," &c. of other passages, where his thoughts | so accommodated the beauties of external nature to the purposes of the instruction he was communicating to his disciples. The lecturer then, in again alluding to the confession of Peter, said that the whole communicated this great truth, THAT UPON ONE GRAND CONFESSION CHRIST WOULD BUILD HIS CHURCH. There were but three ideas in this confession; and upon reflection it will be found, said Mr. Campbell, that we have only three distinct ideas of any man, viz.-1st, his person; 2nd, the office he sustains in society ; and in the 3rd place, the character which he bears in fulfilling the duties of his office. The same understanding of Jesus Christ is what the grand confession of Peter indicated, viz. his person, his office, and character-that is to say, in his person he is the son of God; in his office he was the anointed Prophet, Priest, and King; and in his character he was the only foundation | | Mr. Campbell combatted the popular, saves the soul-the power of God and the wisdom of God to every man that believes, and the only foundation of a glorious immortality. But here another difficulty presents itself: If the spirits of bad dead men can communicate information to the living, why may not the spirits of good dead men also make revelations by which living men may be saved? The revelations of bad spirits leads to condemnation, and OBJECTIONS TO ESSAY ON why not the revelations of good spirits on DEMONOLOGY. NO. I. DEAR BROTHER CAMPBELL-Your essay "Demonology' "has perplexed me more than any thing ever written by you. This transmigration of spirits, or souls, is a doctrine that I have not sufficiently investigated to become a believer in it. You say the habitation of Mary Magdalene was rather her misfortune than her crime. Viewing it in this light, you must, of course, admit, or rather contend, that the bodies of the living may be inhabited by the spirits of the dead without the volition of the living; and if so, a kind of fatality attaches itself to the idea. If those spirits pollute the living, an abstract operation must of necessity be wrought for their relief, else their fate is sealed. It seems to me that necromancy, witchcraft, &c. &c. were not permitted to enter any, without an act of volition on their part; else I cannot see the propriety of enacting laws against these things. Law without volition appears to me to be useless, to say the least of it; and if by an act of volition those spirits are let in, then Mary Magdalene was a criminal because she broke the law enacted against suffering such spirits taking possession of her. But it seems that the expulsion of demons was classed among the miracles in the days of the Lord and his Apostles; therefore I conclude that from that time the spirits of the dead (if they be demons) have been prohibited from inhabiting the living, eise miracles are still necessary in order to their expulsion. If demons are expelled by the gospel, then it would be hard to distinguish between sins and demons. If evil spirits, or the spirits of evil men who have died, become demons, and enter into living men, then I should suppose that the spirits of good men may in like manner enter into living men; and if the bad spirits make bad men, then the good spirits make good men. And who knows but what the doctrine of personal election can be sustained on this ground? If those spirits enter without the volition of the party, surely the doctrine is true. And how can the Holy Spirit be distinguished from the spirits of good men who have died, seeing that the same effect is produced by their inhabitation? lead to justification? But I have scattered difficulties enough for one sheet. Suffice it to say, that I am sceptical in relation to revelations being made by dead men or their spirits. Affectionately yours, M. WINANS. NO. II. DEAR BROTHER CAMPBELL-Your essay on "Demonology" has set me to examining and thinking on the subject. In my last I let you know that my mind had been much perplexed-the difficulty grew out of your definition of Demons. I dared not directly call in question your definition; and if admitted when I put the definition (spirits of dead men) in the room of (demons or devils), I was perplexed; for those spirits of dead men were frequently heard by living men to cry out with a loud voice, and say many things which were understood by the living; besides, those possessed were always known to be so possessed by the people of that age: and physical power seems to be imparted by those spirits to those whom they inhabited-as in the case of the Gadarene, who excelled Sampson, for he could not be bound with chains; and also the case of the Asiatic, who subdued seven men, stripping and wounding them. Whether those spirits were visible or invisible I have not been able clearly to make out. The circumstances would seem to justify the notion that they were visible, as well as audible, in some cases. the case of the Gadarene they were counted, and found to be "about two thousand.” In I infer from your essay that witches, wizards, and necromancers of all grades were inspired by the spirits of dead men ; and, as a matter of course, those books used by the heathen world were the revelations of the spirits of dead men, of which there were burnt in Ephesus at one time in value fifty thousand pieces of silver. Brother Campbell, did Jannes and Jambres work real miracles, as well as Moses, only inferior in their kind? And did Simon the sorcerer work real miracles' in Samaria, before Philip went there? Or were the people deceived by Jannes and Jambres and by Simon? I had almost concluded that all the curious arts of the ancients were mere deceptions, by which the people were imposed on, and led to worship nonenities |