Mis. 10. John vi. 37, "All that sheep in short, they could not bethe Father giveth me shall come to lieve, because, as Esaias said, God had me;" verse 44, "No man can come "blinded their eyes." The welcomers to me except it be given him of my of Jesus had diligently and faithfully Father." These and some other searched, heard, and learned of the texts are produced to show that "the Father in his Old Testament scrippurposes of God, in regard to human tures, and were so prepared to recogsalvation, are limited to the church;" nize Him as their Messiah. They "all was pre-arranged by infinite were, therefore, God's elect oneswisdom." Now, whatever else the were given to the Son-were drawn passages prove, they do not prove to him by the Father, and became these dogmata; for there is not a sheep of the Great Shepherd, attendhint in them of purpose, limit, or ing to his words and following him. pre-arrangement. What the words Parts of the divine mystery were then of these and many similar passages future, but such was the state of do disclose may be new to these things in our Lord's life time. Here writers, and may well be marvellous Calvinists and Arminians are equally to all as to Paul the apostle. They at fault. The former err in applying are, indeed, parts of the "Mystery" to sinners generally what relates to of heaven respecting the Jews. During Jews under these extraordinary cirour Lord's life, and during part, at cumstances. The latter err in endea least, of the lives of the apostles, the vouring to show that the Lord could Jews were under most extraordinary not, in the passages quoted, have and peculiar circumstances, such as meant what he said. Assuredly the no other people were ever under, and Lord did mean what he said (fairly such as the Jews themselves were understood); but his words did not under only during that period. That then, and do not now, relate to the people were then divided into two conversion of Gentile sinners. They distinct classes, and the dealings of related only to Jewish sinners and God with the one class were the saints, during the period of the opposite of his dealings with the other. "mystery.' Then, "the election God had foretold by his prophets that obtained" justification. The "rest a part of the Jews would despise and were blinded." God dealt with "the reject their Messiah, and, in conse- rest" as with apostates; for he gave quence, should "hear and not under- them a spirit of slumber-darkened stand-see and not perceive." And their eyes-hardened their hearts, that another part of the same people, and made their very religion a stumtaught by and learning of the Father, bling-block to them. Awful severity, should recognize and embrace the indeed! But now comes one wonder promised one. Accordingly, when of grace. Had they stumbled that Christ came to his own (Jews), his they should for ever fall? God forown (a part of them) received him bid! God had goodness in store for not; and for rejecting him, as for a even these non-elect and hardened species of apostacy, they were hard- ones. Another wonder succeeds. ened and blinded. But to as many Could any object be obtained through as received him, believing in his the Jews' stumbling? Yes, a merciful name, he gave the right to become and great object, even the coming of sons of God. The rejectors were salvation to the Gentiles. "Seeing rejected as non-elect; their table you," Jews, "put it from you," said (religion, as then taught) was made the heralds, "lo! we turn to the a snare to them: they learned not of Gentiles, for so hath the Lord comthe Father-came not to Christ-manded!" Here the mystery opens believed not, because not of Christ's apace: Blindness had thus happened,

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to a part of Israel, for a limited time, and with a gracious object in view; and it was to continue until the Gentile "fulness" came in. A third wonder hastens : Paul could, and did say, the Gospel was preached to every creature under heaven." Surely Gentile fulness had then come in. If so, that was the time for salvation to flow back to all the Jews as freely as it had, through their defection, flowed forward to all the Gentiles. And now the crowning glory of the whole mystery appears: The hardening is taken off, and the golden opportunity is given to Jews (as well as to Gentiles) of freely receiving Christ and his justification; for God "concludes them all, no longer as in apostacy, but simply in unbelief or disobedience, and this He does, blessed be his name! "that he may have mercy upon all." Well may we, in contemplating the whole mystery, and especially its gracious termination, burst into the apostle's exclamation, "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!"

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Paul's preaching was babble." At the doctrine of the resurrection, the wise Athenians "mocked." Like Festus they deemed the doctrine of the cross learned madness.

Perv. 11. Mat. xvi. 17, "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven." Now it is begging the question to infer from this that God gave faith to Peter. The Father, indeed, gave abundant and well-confirmed testimony to be believed, both in Old Testament prophecies, and in the miraculously attested claims of Christ. But it was especially at his baptism in Jordan, that the Father bare public testimony that Jesus was his beloved son, by his own voice from heaven, and by the dove-like form of his descending and remaining Spirit. And Peter, having thus" heard His voice, and seen His shape," was truly, and by the Father in heaven, enabled to affirm "thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God."

Mis. 12. John vi. 44, “No man can come unto me, except the Father who hath sent me draw him." That this text refers not to our times, and that it only related to the life of Christ, is made very manifest by our Lord afterward saying, "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." For we are thus taught, that during his life, the Father drew Jews to Jesus; but after his death, Jesus drew all men to himself.

Perv. 10. These writers seem to take for granted that "belief of the truth" is the gift of God to certain individuals; and in proof offer 1 Cor. ii. 14, “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." Unfortunately, however, for them, belief is neither named nor meant in this passage. Those "spiritual" men, the Mis. 13. "If it be of works it can Apostles of Christ, received "the be no more of grace." These Bapthings of the Spirit" direct from hea- tists decide that "works" here include ven, as the Lord promised they should faith in Christ, repentance, and put(John xvi. 13.) But the wisdom-ting on Christ; and that such acts seeking Greek, the disputer, the phi- or works are incompatible with grace! losopher (the recipient of no heavenly If so, assuredly the water from the influence) could not, by the mere ex- smitten rock could not be " of grace" ercise of his senses, and natural rea--because Israel had 1st, to hear the sonings, know those "things of the news; 2nd, to believe it; 3rd, to run Spirit." Indeed, so contrary were to the stream; and 4th, to drink. they to the "wisdom of this world," Assuredly, also, Paul the Apostle that when declared to these "natural" erred in saying, "It is of faith, that men, they appeared "foolishness." it might be by grace"-and" by

grace ye are saved, through faith." among all things that are done under It is, however, a refinement in "wis- the sun-that there is one event to dom above what is written," peculiar | all." Since because of this, men to such theologians as these Scotch often become hardened—are “full of Baptists, that to thankfully receive a evil and madness in their heart ;" gift, is to rob the giver of merit. To because by all that is visible, in this the candid it must be very plain that life, no one can decide with certainty the "works" of which the Apostle how any one stands before God. speaks are not "faith in Christ," nor "the obedience of faith," but are "deeds of the law," done to merit justification, and make God debtor to man, Rom. iii. 28, and iv. 4.

Four-fifth of the 128 quotations must stand over till next month. J. D.

MYSTERIES IN PROVIDENCE.

Ir physical nature has its profound and yet undeveloped mysteries-if religion, in its doctrine and institutions, has its sublime and awful secrets, which no intellect can comprehend-why should not the scheme of a superintending Providence, or of a righteous moral government, also have its peculiar and incomprehensible mysteries? They are, indeed, but parts of one grand system-the offspring of one and the same almighty mind, and why should they not equally bear the characteristic impress of that same infinite wisdom

and benevolence?

Providence, in its scheme and development, has, therefore, in all ages and all minds, presented its proportion of mysteries, no less inscrutable than those of Nature and Revelation. So profound and unsearchable are these, that Solomon, the wisest of men, in reference to human destiny, has said ;-"No man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before him"- "All things come alike to all. There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked, to the clean and to the unclean, to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not; as is the good so is the sinner, and he that sweareth as he that feareth an oath." Again he says;-"This is an evil

The same writer has said ;"There is a vanity”—a misfortune— which happens in this world, that there be just men to whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked: again there be wicked men to whom it happeneth, according to the work of the righteous." This is still more mysterious. It proves, indeed, that God does not intend that we should be rewarded or punished in this world, and that the events of this life are not meant to develope either human character or human destiny. Again Solomon adds, as still more mysterious ;-" There is a just man that perisheth by his righteousness, and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life by his wickedness."+

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David, the father of Solomon, has also said;-" God, indeed, is good to Israel-to such as are of a pure heart." "But"-although this be the fact, the ultimate fact-" as for me, my feet were almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipped; for I was envious at the foolish-seeing the prosperity of the wicked; for there are no bands in their death, but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued like other men. Therefore," he adds, "pride compasseth them about as a chain, violence covereth them as a garment. Verily," adds the sweet psalmist of Israel, "I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency; for all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning. But should I,” adds he, continue in this strain, I "should

cause to stumble the generation of all this? There is an old sinner, of my children. When I desired to vigorous health and robust constituunderstand this" mystery of Divine tion, whose every breath is profane Providence, he adds, "it was too and impious; who has, for more than wonderful for me until I went into half a century, been blaspheming the the sanctuary of God"-until I con- God that is above; and there has sulted his oracles; "then understood just fallen a brother Frost, of EngI their end." "Surely thou didst set gland-a brother Reid, of Scotland them in slippery places; thou cast- -a brother M'Chesney, or a brother edst them down; thou doomedst them Latham, of America-each in the to destruction.”* morning or meridian of life, eminently gifted with the powers of doing good

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But a poet more ancient, more patriarchial, more experienced in woe-with spirituality of mind, with

than David, has asked ;-" Wherefore do the wicked live, become old-yea, are mighty in power? Their children are established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes. Their flocks and their herds increase, and they multiply in the land. They send forth their offspring like a flock, and their children dance. They take the timbrel and the harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ. They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave. Therefore,' because of this prosperity, the wicked say to God, Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. Who is the Almighty that we should serve him, and what profit should we have if we pray to him?"

Now if this were all true, and these reasonings just, under elementary dispensations of moral government, during which both rewards and punishments were more outward and sensible, more temporal and worldly, than under the Christian and more spiritual administration of righteousness, why should we think it strange that there is now one event to all in very many of those particulars as above enumerated? How often do we see the sinner living to his three score years and ten, while many a pure and excellent stripling is cut down as the green tender herb, in the very morning of his existence? Nay, is there not something in moral government still more mysterious than

Psalm lxiii. 1, 6, 13, 17.

much practical good sense, and scriptural knowledge with hearts as full of benevolence as their mouths were of arguments and eloquence. And this, too, when myriads were crying for help--myriads famishing for the bread of life, and a voice every where echoing from city to hamlet, from hill and dale, "Come over and help us."

These, and many like them, whom we could name, died in the vigour of life, with an unbounded field of labor and promised usefulness expanding before them, and with many a good earnest in hand that their talents were acceptable, and their labors in the Lord not without a proper effect.

How, then, shall we explain this mystery? Is it because there was no more need for them in the Lord's vineyard, no farther labor to be performed, no souls to be saved, no Christians to be edified and refreshed in the ways of the Lord? This we cannot admit : for present observation and experience in their respective fields of labor, show that good has since been done, and is still doing. It was not, then, because they could not have done good; nor was it be cause the Lord would not have good to be done in their respective fields of labor. What, then, remains but that there are other provinces in God's immense universe in which they could be employed more happily and more usefully than here?

This is not a conclusion so visionary or baseless as some might on first hearing imagine it to be. No one

reasoning analogically from one system The Messiah has said that the or department of the universe to ano-angels who attend on little children, ther, can rationally conclude that God "do always behold the face of his does any thing in vain. Angels that Father which is in heaven." Now are of a nature and location very dif- without deciding the question— ferent to ours, are capable of perform- "Whether those angels of little chiling very important services in our dren are their guardian angels, or world, and doubtless in other worlds. their own spirits after death employed Why, then, should we not think that by the Lord in his service waiting men, or the disembodied spirits of upon others," evident it is that spirits men, after death, may perform services are ministers, and consequently, deas important to the inhabitants of rive happiness from the employments other worlds, as the inhabitants of assigned them in another state. those worlds perform in ours? And

so long as it is written that all the angels of God are ministering spirits sent on numerous and various ministrations to the heirs of salvation, we must not think it strange if God will make all saints after death ministers of mercy or of public utility in some of the grand departments of this stupendous universe, and that he needs them as much elsewhere as he needs angelic ministers in the world.

Angels can ride in chariots of fire, or on the wings of the wind; they can stop the mouths of lions, unbolt the doors of prisons, quench the violence of fire, roll away the rocks from the graves of saints, reveal secrets, carry messages from heaven to earth, strike dumb a hesitating Zacharias, or invest with vermin a wicked Herod; why, then, may not those who fall asleep in Jesus, perform services as various and as numerous in other portions of God's unmeasured and immeasurable dominions as angels do in this ? And if, in working out man's redemption, Jesus had need of a colt, the foal of an ass, may we not consistently suppose that in the government and administration of the universe, and in carrying out all his designs, the Lord may need the services of infants and adults, and that for this purpose he often selects the purest and best of our race, and calls them hence to minister in his hosts of light, in other fields of labor, according to the wants of his vast dominions.

Those who repudiate the assumption that demons are either diseases or diseased persons called lunatics, and admit with the Apestle James, that, like men they do believe and tremble, and are, therefore, wicked spirits-disembodied spirits or souls of dead men-cannot doubt that the spirits of good men, separated from their mortal tenements, or who have laid off their earthly tabernacles, are also capable of believing and obeying God, and therefore, of rejoicing in any employment subservient to his glory, or conducive to the safety or the happiness of his saints.

Indeed, without employment there is no enjoyment in any human being. The pleasures of sense and the pleasures of the mind equally consist in the moral and rational employment of our sensitive and moral faculties; in other words, in employing them on their proper objects in harmony with the laws of God, which are, indeed, the laws of the universe. This being indisputably true, follows it not, then, that our spirits, when absent from our bodies and present with the Lord, in order to their happiness pass not into a state of repose, but must be actively employed by God in spheres of action in harmony with 'their new constitution and the affairs of the universe; otherwise in his presence there is not a fulness of joy, nor at his right hand are there pleasures for ever more.

If, then, as it appears that dormant or unemployed spirits, whether an