grees, or their epistles of human commendation. The faithful preaching of the pure gospel will ever be its own certificate, while all other credentials, without it, go for nothing.”

Mr Ewing was now a marked man. In truth, he was beginning to feel painfully the unscriptural nature of religious establishments. The power of the church courts, in forbidding ministers to preach wherever they had an opportunity, appeared to him contrary to the will of God as revealed in the sacred oracles, which represent the first disciples scattered “everywhere, preaching the word," and which has enjoined, "Let him that heareth say, Come."

Meanwhile, the elder Haldane, frustrated in his intentions of evangelising India, bent his powers to the work of evangelising his native country. Rowland Hill was induced by his solicitations to visit Scotland, and by his ministrations in Edinburgh, Perth, Glasgow, Paisley, Greenock, and other large towns, he communicated an impetus to the progress of religion, which some now living may still remember. In the modern Athens, from fifteen to twenty thousand persons, forming his congregation on the Calton hill, must have reminded the beholder of a scene of yet surpassing interest, when, eighteen centuries ago, the apostle of the Gentiles, standing on the hill of Mars, addressed himself to the mixed multitudes who inhabited the metropolis of ancient Greece. But Rowland Hill was not obliged to preach in the open air. On the 29th of July, he opened for public worship the Circus, a large building to be supplied by ministers from England. The Circus at Edinburgh suggested to Mr Haldane the idea of buildings of a similar kind at Perth and at Caithness. At the same time, he resolved on the education of pious young men, to engage in the ministerial labours for which there was now so urgent a demand. Where should a tutor for them be found? Mr Ewing was the man. To him he applied, and with success.

And now it became the conviction of Mr Ewing that he must part from the people of his charge. His inward conflict tinged the character of his discourses, and, to prepare himself and them for the approaching separation, he directed their attention to such passages as these:-"He that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me," Math. x. 38. "Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his

own master he standeth or falleth," Rom. xiv. 4. Many of his hearers knew the design he had in view, and in patient sorrow and silence waited the hour of parting. At the last communion service which they enjoyed together, they well understood the meaning of their pastor, as he repeated in his own peculiarly touching manner, the well known lines

"The dearest idol I have known,

Whate'er that idol be,

Help me to tear it from thy throne,

And worship only thee."

The last sermon which he preached in Lady Glenorchy's chapel was from Tit. iii. 2, which he afterwards published, and entitled "The Duty of Christians to Civil Government." In the course of the following week, he made known, in respectful terms, to the moderator of the presbytery of Edinburgh, that he no longer considered himself a minister of the church of Scotland.

A strange step was this, judged by the dictates of mere worldly policy. But he had felt that the shackles with which the establishment bound him were inconsistent with his Christian liberty; and having ascertained what he considered to be his duty, he was deterred from it neither by the fulminations of the General Assembly, nor by the regrets of his affectionate friends. Many ties were rent asunder when he departed from the communion of the Scottish church, but the tie with which he was bound to obey Christ was stronger and dearer than all. In the communion of that church his childhood and youth had been nurtured-and with her ordinances were united the most sacred of associations for there he had received, through the blessing of God, the first seals of his ministry. To grieve those whose love and esteem he valued, was the bitterest draught to his tender spirit. His father told him in plain terms that he considered him ruined, so far as his ministerial success was concerned. But Greville Ewing held on his way.

Was he mistaken in his path of duty? Let the four hundred and fifty answer, who, but the other day, were seen to walk through the streets of Edinburgh in solemn procession, on their way from St Giles's to the New Assembly Hall, giving utterance by that act to a voice, which has re-echoed amongst the mountains and storm-girt islands of Caledonia, and from them has sounded forth with gathered strength, till every land and every

clime under heaven has caught the divinely inspired accents of spiritual freedom-" Render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and unto God the things that are God's."

(To be concluded in our next.)

ON THE SANCTIFICATION OF THE SABBATH.-No. II. THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT.

The authority of the fourth commandment establishes the observance of the Sabbath day.

FOR three months the children of Israel had left "the house of bondage," and had sojourned in the wilderness. Their God had cleft the waters of the Red Sea before them, had supplied their temporal necessities with manna from heaven, and had granted them to triumph over their enemies by the power of Moses' prayer. The time was come, in which He judged it right to reveal to them, in express terms, his holy law,—that eternal rule of right and wrong, which was in existence before they were called into being, and which was to remain to the end of time. The mountain of Sinai burned with fire; round about it were blackness and darkness and tempest; and the sound of a trumpet ushered in the words of the Most High. The ten commandments were pronounced by the voice of God himself to the trembling children of Israel. No other portion of the commandments which He gave them were thus honoured. They were separated from all the rest by the solemnities attending their promulgation,-by their committal to two tables of stone, and by the peculiar care bestowed on their preservation. And why? Because whilst the ceremonial observances of the Jews were one day to cease, when their end was answered -when every one of their types had found its antitype, and every one of their shadows had found its substance,—the moral law, being the transcript of the will of God, concerning all his intelligent creatures in this lower world, was never to pass away. It was this law which the Saviour fulfilled and honoured by his stainless obedience. It was this law which his followers are evc to keep in view, as the model to which they are to be confor red, urged to it at once by the example of their Lord, and

by the precept which He has enjoined on them-" Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father, who is in heaven, is perfect."

If we regard the decalogue as permanent in its character, it follows as a matter of course that the institution of the Sabbath is likewise permanent. The same voice which proclaimed from amidst the unapproachable glory, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," placed the seal of Divine authority upon the day of weekly rest.

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We think it can be proved from the sacred scriptures, that the law of the ten commandments does occupy the position above assigned to it. It has been affirmed that the distinction made between these commandments and the precepts of the ceremonial law, in that Jehovah himself promulgated the one, and Moses was employed to repeat the other, was merely accidental. The Israelites were alarmed, and entreated that the word might not be spoken to them any more. They said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die," Exod. xx. 19. But this view of the matter does not accord with that given by Moses elsewhere. "These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice; and he added no more," Deut. v. 22. Jehovah had already paused, before the multitude proffered their request. He needed to add no more. The law which He had given contained a sufficient summary of the moral duties they owed Him as their God. And the following words imply that a peculiar sanctity pertained to these commandments: “And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone," Deut. iv. 13.

The ceremonial laws, intended for the Jewish people alone, were written by Moses in a book, but the decalogue was inscribed by the finger of God on two tables of stone. These tables, called "the two tables of testimony," were deposited in the ark, which, overlaid within and without with gold, and covered with a veil, was first placed within the tabernacle, and then, on the building of the temple, was transferred to the most holy place. With reason was a veil thrown over the ark. It was death to look into it, 1 Sam. vi. 19. It was death to touch it, 2 Sam. vi. 7. Into the Holy of Holies, where it stood, the

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high priest alone might enter, and that but once a year, and not without blood, Heb. ix. 7. The law, lying hid beneath that sacred covering, had been broken, and all the power it had was a condemning power,— -no sound issued from it save the sentence of death. But over the ark which contained the tables of the law, was the mercy-seat or propitiatory, foreshadowing the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ,-as if to prove, by this juxta-position, that the claims of the law and the mercy of God in the gospel were in glorious harmony, and that He who should open the door of life and pardon to the guilty, should at the same time maintain to the utmost the authority of the Divine code.

It is true that the mere fact that the ten commandments were given to the Jews would not prove them to be binding on us. Neither does it prove that they are not binding on us. They are binding on both Jews and Gentiles, and for the same reason, because they are the principles of moral rectitude, by which all our hearts and lives are to be governed. For, if the unchangeable principles of moral rectitude are not contained here, where shall we seek them? Then, there has been no summary of human duty given to us at all. We ask, in the spirit of humble and candid inquiry, Would it not have been a strange omission, if, in the Scriptures, mankind had been pronounced in a state of condemnation through their disobedience, while no revelation was given of that law, through disobedience to which they were undone?

The Lord Jesus Christ has given to the moral law the sanction of his own authority. In his sermon on the mount, he declared that the object of his coming was not to destroy the law or the prophets, and added, "I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.” What law did he intend, when he thus spoke? The ceremonial law was abrogated by his appearing. The moral law remained. Neither by that word "fulfil," did he intend that, on account of his own personal obedience to it, it no longer claimed the obedience of his disciples, for in the verse immediately following, he adds, "Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven," Matt. v. 19. The kingdom of heaven here means the church of Christ on earth, and the passage plainly signifies that