Their flocks, for the most part, adhered to them, and | many hearers besides were attracted, by attachment to their principles and sympathy with their sufferings, as well as by indignation against the unworthy treatment which they had received. Thus arose the Secession from the Dutch Church. It is said that those ministers who have seceded are chiefly young men, destitute of experience and of Christian wisdom, violent in their temper and conduct; that, without any compromise of principle, they might have continued in the communion of the Church; that their evangelical preaching would have been tolerated, and they would have met with no serious difficulty in the way of their maintaining a decided and prudent testimony against prevailing corruptions, and labouring to effect a reformation and revival. There may be some truth in these suggestions, and certain it is, that there are still in connection with the Establishment, not a few pastors quite as zealous, and pious, and faithful as any of those who have seceded. It may be a difficult question to say, how far they were required to take that step, and how far they might not have done more good by remaining at their post, and helping on, even amid many discouragements, the awakening within the Church. Such questions, however, do not affect their right now to a full and ample toleration, nor do they extenuate the injustice which has been done to them, by their being subjected to persecution. We must reserve our farther remarks on this subject for another paper. In the meantime we cannot but call the attention of our readers to the remarkable analogy that may be traced between the recent Secession in Holland and the Secession in our own country in the last century. In their causes and occasions, their rise and progress, the two Secessions may be very closely compared. Happily, at the stage at which the Dutch Secession has arrived, the parallelism The Scottish Seceders were not persecuted; the disgrace of such a measure, as proceeding from a Protestant government, and a so-called Presbyterian Church being reserved for the nineteenth century. ceases. JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST: BY THE REV. WILLIAM MALCOLM, "A man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ.”—GAL. ii. 16. To us who have to abide the reckoning of the judgment-day, the most momentous of all questions, and that which requires and demands our most immediate attention is, How shall man be just with God? Condemned as we are by our own heart as well as by the law of Him with whom in judgment we will have to do, how shall we be justified? When the books are opened and the judgment set, wherewithal shall we come before the Lord, and appear with acceptance before the Most High God? Will God, by an act of undistinguishing mercy, clear the guilty? Will he, without regard to the claims of his justice, and the requirements of his law, and the integrity and the honour of his government, expunge from the book of his remembrance our multiplied transgressions? No! This would make him such an one as ourselves. Evil cannot dwell with him, neither can sinners stand in his sight. Sin is that abominable thing which his soul hates. And he cannot, he cannot look upon iniquity. He could be no longer what reason and revelation declare him to be,-the Holy One and the Just, were he to reward alike the righteous and the wicked. As soon could he cease to be God as he could receive into favour the breakers of his law. The holiness of his nature, the honour of his government, the well-being of the universe, demand that sinners shall be punished, and shut out from the presence and the friendship of God. For Him to come down from the throne of his holiness and hold converse with us, and treat us as friends while we are yet in our sins, with the weapons of rebellion in our hands, would remove from their place the pillars of heaven, and give an irreparable shock to the moral government of the world. But, perhaps, we could repair the breach which sin has made, and settle the controversy to which sin has given rise between God and us. Might we not by our doings, or our endurings, yet become entitled to his forgiveness and his favour? Might we not, by our future obedience, give satisfaction for our past offences? Might we not, in all time coming, so fulfil the divine law, which we have broken, as to remove from ourselves its condemnation and its curse? No: Naturally we have neither the inclination nor the ability to keep God's commandments. And even although we were able in future to keep them perfectly, that would be nothing more than our duty for the time being;—it could make no atonement for past transgressions. The not contracting a new debt can never discharge an old one. book, out of which we are to be judged, declares, in terms that cannot be misunderstood, that "A man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ." And that I. "A man is not justified by the works of the law." This is true, whether we understand the apostle to refer to the moral or the ceremonial law. Before we can be justified by the moral law, we must have rendered to it a complete unsinning obedience. Of this law the sum is love to God and love to our neighbour-perfect love, unmixed with any selfishness, unsullied by any stain. The obedience which it requires is perfect obedience. Its terms are "do this and live,” and “the soul that sinneth it shall die." It accepts of no half measures. It admits of no compromise. Perfect holiness in heart and in habit is the least that will satisfy it. Turning a deaf ear to the pleadings of our weak and unworthy nature, it sternly declares, “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." Do and live. Disobey and perish. Whoever hopes then to be justified by his obedience to the moral law, will do well to inquire whether his obedience is perfect. Can he lay his hand upon his heart and say, as in the presence of the all-seeing God, "this hand is clean, this heart is pure?" The law of the Lord is perfect, and that law in all its spirituality, and in all its exceeding breadth, I have fulfilled. But who among the sons of men can speak after this manner? He who clings to the law as the ground of his hope, must abide by the terms of the law. Were the perfection which is required of him to be measured by the standard of human judgment, it is possible, that however far he might at times depart from it, he might very often be able to reach it. But man has to answer at another bar. As a candidate for justification he must appear before the tribunal of the Most High. His judge is to be the Holy Lord God. The sentence which is to seal his destiny, will be the sentence of Him who cannot err,-whose eyes are as a flame of fire,-in whose sight the heavens are not clean, and who chargeth his very angels with folly. And never can our morality be considered as meritorious,-never can our obedience be considered as blameless,-never can our claims on the divine favour be held as valid, till our hearts are so pure, and our conduct so spotless, that they can bear the inspection of the eye of Omniscience-till we can appeal to the Searcher of hearts and the Judge of worlds, and say, "Thou, Lord, knowest all things, and thou knowest that I love thee," and that in no instance, in no place, and at no period, have I in thought, word, or deed, transgressed thy commandments. But where, O where among the frail children of men, is the man who raising his eyes to the throne of the Eternal, can affirm that the will of God has been the rule, and the glory of God the end of all his actions? Who can say I have done good and sinned not? Or who could be jus tified if God were strict to mark? Neither can a man be justified by the ceremonial law. This law, we are told, "having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, could never with those sacrifices which were offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect." In the sacrifice, and offering, and burnt-offerings, and offering for sin, which were offered by the law, God had no pleasure, "For it was not possible that the blood of buils and of goats should take away sins." Equally unavailing for this purpose, are the external ordinances under the New Testament dispensation. They were appointed by God, and they are observed by all his true worshippers, not to establish for them a claim to eternal life, but as the means of their spiritual nourishment and growth in grace-the means by which they become, not entitled, but meet for the inheritance of the saints in light. When, for example, the people of God pray, it is not in their own name, or on the ground of their own merit, but in the name and through the merits of Jesus the mediator, expecting an answer only for His sake whom the Father heareth always. When they go up to God's house, it is not to found thereon a claim to God's favour, but to declare with the voice of thanksgiving what favour the Lord hath already shown them, and to speak of all the wonderful works which he hath already done for them. When they observe the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, it is not with a view thereby to procure salvation, but to keep in remembrance, and to hold communion with Him, who with the sore travail of his soul, wrought out salvation for them. They view their observance of this ordinance, not in the light of a compromise,-not as procuring an indemnity for the past, and an indulgence for the future, not as an overture of reconciliation on their part, not as the settlement of a hitherto unsettled controversy, but as a grateful commemoration of blessings received by them-of love spontaneously manifested,-of a movement made in mercy towards them on God's part,-of salvation purchased for them by the precious blood of God's own Son. For from all that they know of God's law, and from all that they know of their own insufficiency, they are convinced, that "a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Christ." II. "A man is justified by the faith of Christ." That God should in any way, or on any account justify the ungodly, that he should provide and proclaim a plan by which the apostate race of Adam might be reclaimed and received back into favour and fellowship with himself, that he should pass by angels when they sinued, and fix his love on sinful man, may well fill us with adoring wonder, and cause us to exclaim, "O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight!” Let us ever bless and adore the tender mercy of our God who regarded us in our low estate, and in whom, when we had destroyed ourselves, our help was found. But why is it, it may be asked, that we are justified by the faith of Jesus Christ? This question it is in our power to answer. Mysterious as are the wonders of redeeming love, we are yet able to give to every one that asketh us a reason of the hope that is in us,-Jesus Christ is the Mediator, the divinely appointed Mediator, between God and us. We had broken God's law. Jesus Christ, in our stead, magnified that law and made it honourable, by fulfilling all its requirements, and by enduring all its penalties. We had sinned, and consequently lost all title to eternal life. Jesus Christ was made sin for us, although he knew no sin himself, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. We were under the curse. Jesus Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. Without shedding of blood there could be no remission of sin. Jesus Christ shed his blood for the remission of our sins. By the sacrifice of himself he put away sin-put away at once its condemnation and its dominion. bare our sins in his own body on the tree. He He washed us from our sins in his own blood. had cast us forth from God's presence, and put enmity between God and us. Christ is our peace. He made peace by the blood of his cross. The chastisement by which our peace with God has been procured, was upon him. And he suffered, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. The wages of sin is death. Christ came that we might have life, and that we might have it the more abundantly. We are polluted, and ignorant, and weak. Christ sent down his Holy Spirit to renew us in the spirit of our mind, to guide us unto all truth, and to strengthen us with all might in the inner man. In us, that is, in our flesh, dwelleth no good thing. Christ is full of grace and truth. In him is treasured up all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and he has commanded us to ask that we may receive. We are unworthy. But worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and he was slain for us. Sin | law that has been violated. It is God's holiness that has been outraged. God, therefore, must determine what will be to him a pleasing sacrifice. But here, too, we are on safe ground, when we believe in Jesus Christ. For all that he did, and all that he endured for us, was of God's appointment. God prepared a body for him, that in that body he might bear our sins. God anointed him for the express purpose of preaching to us the good tidings of salvation. "God sent him into the world, that whosoever believeth on him may not perish but have everlasting life." God "set him forth to be a propitiation for sin through faith in his blood." And having sent him to occupy the place of sinners, to do and to die as their Surety and Substitute, "God spared him not, but delivered him unto the death for us all." Yea, "it pleased the Father to bruise him, and to put him to grief, that he might bear our griefs, and carry our sorrows." And when, in the conversion and salvation of sinners, Christ " sees of the travail of his soul and is satisfied," it is "the pleasure of the Lord that thus prospers in his hands." And that nothing might be wanting to entitle and qualify us for the exercises and the enjoyments of heaven, "it hath pleased the Father that in Christ should all fulness dwell, that out of his fulness we may all receive, and grace for grace." And to set our suspicions on this point for ever at rest, and to show us, beyond all controversy, that he is well pleased with the righteousness which Christ hath wrought out and brought in for us, "God has highly exalted him, and given him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, and every tongue confess." But was there no injustice in slaying the righteous for the wicked,-in punishing the innocent for the guilty, in wounding Him who did no sin, for our transgressions, and bruising him for our iniquities? No; he had a right to suffer and to die, when and for whom he pleased. Being God, and God manifest in the flesh, he had power to lay down his life, and power to take it up again. And what he had a right to do he was most willing to do. When he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor, he longed to stand in the breach between God and us, saying, "Here am I, send me." Accordingly, he offered himself to suffering and to death for us. He gave his life a ransom for many. He humbled himself, he was not humbled against his will,-he humbled himself, and became, of his own accord, obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. He was desirous, yea, he delighted to tread for us the wine-press of his Father's anger, although he had to do it alone, and although of the people there was none with him. When he saw that the work of reconciliation could be achieved only by his being brought into the dust of death, he was even straitened till, by that means, it should be accomplished. Nothing could, for a moment, shake his resolution to die for us. He rebuked sharply one of his favourite disciples when he attempted to move him away from his purpose. He set his face stedfastly to go up to Jerusalem, though he knew that ignominy, and agony, and death awaited him there. And having died for our offences, he rose again for our justification, and is now an exalted Prince and Saviour to grant repentance unto Israel and forgiveness of sins. When he ascended up on high leading captivity captive, he received, as the result of his mediatorial work, he received | gifts for men, yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them. It is not enough, however, that a sacrifice, even a spotless and spontaneous sacrifice, be offered for sin. It must, moreover, be such a sacrifice as God requires and approves of. It is God's And hence it is that we are justified by the faith of Jesus Christ, that by him all who believe are justified from all things from which they could never have been justified by the law of Moses. When we believe in Jesus Christ, we are setting to our seal that God is true. We are seeking salvation in the way, and the only way, in which God hath said that it can be found. We are building on the sure, well-tried foundation stone which God himself hath laid in Zion. We are relying for acceptance with God on that sacrifice which God himself hath appointed, which the Son of God willingly offered, and which God himself hath accepted. On this ground, this covenanted ground, God can meet with us in peace. Christ, the Anointed and the Sent of God, having, in our stead, satisfied all the demands of law and justice, has brought at once glory to God and good will to men, so that "God can now be a just God, and yet a Saviour; just, and the justifier of all who believe on his Son." To them who are in Christ there is now no condemnation. " It is God that justifieth; who is he, then, that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even now at the right hand of God making intercession for us." To the doctrine of justification by the faith of Jesus Christ, and not by the works of the law, it has been frequently and vehemently objected that | ness and sin; between heaven and hell. No; his it is unfavourable to morality, that it emboldens ground is taken, his resolution is formed, his heart the sinner to continue in sin. And if we are not is fixed; and he runs; he not only makes choice justified by the works of the law, wherefore, it is of the law of his reconciled God, but so glad and asked, serveth the law? To this we answer, that so grateful is he that he has escaped from the toils the law serveth, by its unbending strictness, by its and the meshes of sin and Satan, and that he rigorous exaction of perfect obedience, the law breathes the air of liberty, the glorious liberty of serveth as a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. the sons of God, that he runs in the way of God's Offering no pardon to the transgressor, but de- commandments. To his God and Saviour he connouncing indignation and wrath, tribulation and secrates all the faculties of his body, all the energies anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil; it of his mind, all the affections of his heart, all the shuts us up unto the faith of Christ, and compels advantages of his station, all the obedience of his us to run into the hiding-place provided for us in life. He is a follower of God as a dear child. the Gospel. And having brought us to Christ, He loves and obeys this Saviour who loved him that we may be justified by him, the law serveth, and gave himself for him. He grieves not the farther, as a rule by which we may walk in Christ. Holy Spirit whereby he is sealed to the day of reFor we do not make void the law through faith, demption. vea, we establish the law; we thereby testify that the law is of immutable obligation, and so holy, and just, and good, that nothing less than the holy, harmless, and undefiled obedience of God's own Son could come up to its requirements, and that nothing less than the shedding of His blood could blot out its hand-writing that was against us. And no man who views the law in this light will ever think himself at liberty to transgress it. For though it has often been alleged that faith is subversive of obedience, sure we are that if there be such a faith, it is not the faith by which we are justified; for that is a holy principle, and always leads to holy obedience. How can we view God as faith does view him, as God in Christ reconciling a guilty world to himself,-forgiving us and yet taking vengeance on our inventions; how can we view him as the sinner's friend and sin's eternal foe, as so loving us that, rather than we should perish in our sins, he laid on his own Son the iniquities of us all; how can we thus view him without feeling towards him that reverence and that love which naturally and invariably produce a willing obedience? And this is precisely the situation of the Christian. Feeling himself condemned by the law of God, and destitute of all title to the happiness of heaven, he believes, at the same time, that God, the very God whom he has offended, has graciously sent his own Son to remove from him the sentence of condemnation by his own obedience unto the death, and to purchase, with his own blood, a right for him to glory, honour, and immortality. The cordial belief that this Saviour is his Saviour, slays completely the enmity of his carnal mind, and kindles within him such a glow and such an intensity of affection towards his redeeming God, that he seeks first and above all other things to do the will of God. The love of Christ constraineth him. He confers not with flesh and blood. He turns his feet unto God's testimonies. He makes haste and delays not to keep all God's commandments. His language is, "Lord what wilt thou have me to do?" 66 Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth." He halts not between two opinions. He tries not to make a compromise between God and Mammon; between holi All this is agreeable not only to revelation and reason, but also to experience. The believer has the witness in himself that his faith in Christ, or his dependence on the righteousness of Christ for justification before God, so far from producing in him the love of sin, or emboldening him to continue in sin, is the very principle which makes him dead unto sin, and alive unto God and godliness,-the very principle which, enlarging his heart, and filling it with the love of God, who first loved him, inclines his heart to God's testimonies, and directs and urges on his steps in the way of God's commandments. And we would ask, without the fear of contradiction, if it is not true, that those who have given the most cordial assent to the doctrine of justification by the faith of Jesus Christ, are the most scrupulously attentive to their conversation and conduct? And it has often struck us as a most remarkable fact, and as a proof how one delusion generates another, that the most bitter enemies of this doctrine are the most regardless of their moral conduct. Who are the best members of society? Who are the most faithful and affectionate husbands and wives? Who are the most careful, pains-taking parents? Who are the most obedient children? Who are the kindest masters-the most trustworthy servants? Who are most honest and upright in their dealings? Who are the men whom we would most readily employ on any interesting and momentous enterprise? Who are the men to whom, on our death-bed, we would most unhesitatingly commit the care of our widow and our fatherless children? Are they not the men who are seeking to be justified by the faith of Jesus Christ? Yes, these are the excellent ones of the earth. Their faith in Christ has implanted in their hearts a principle-a living active principle of love to God, which is always followed by brotherly kindness and charity towards men. Should they at any time be found halting, it is not their faith that is in fault, they themselves will be the first to confess that it is because they have for the time fallen from their stedfastness in the faith. In short, without faith we cannot be justified before God; and without faith we cannot live and obey God. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Without faith, we are without an interest | to "the pilgrims of the sun" more frequently and conin Christ; and without an interest in Christ, we are enemies to God, and God is, he must be, an While he is in Christ a reconciled enemy to us. God, out of Christ, he is a consuming fire. It is faith which unites us to Christ, the living vine; and if not thus united, we can neither put forth the blossoms, nor abound in those fruits of righteousness, which are, through Christ, to the praise and the glory of God. It is only in Christ the Beloved that we can be accepted of God, or that aught we can do can be pleasing in his sight. Blame us not, then, for insisting so often, and at such length, on the necessity of believing, and of proving your belief by your obedience. An error here is of the most fatal kind. It is not sufficient to say that you believe on Christ-your saying must be substantiated by your walking, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. The ambassadors of Christ must never lose sight of this truth. If we are true to our Master, and faithful to men's souls, we must ever labour to keep the impression fresh and vivid upon their minds, that it is only by faith in Christ that they can be justified, and that whosoever saith he hath this faith, ought himself also so to walk, even as Christ also walked. Unless we are content to heal slightly the hurt of our people, and to say, "Peace, peace, when there is no peace," necessity is laid upon us, yea, woe is unto us, if we preach not this great and leading doctrine of the Gospel, that "a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ;" and if, at the same time, we affirm not constantly, that they who believe to the saving of their souls, are, as the fruit and evidence of their belief, "careful to maintain good works." RAIN-MAKERS. BY THE REV. ROBERT JAMIESON, Minister of Currie. AMONG the many superstitions which, from the earliest ages, have prevailed among the heathen in Oriental countries, one of the most common and deep-rooted is the notion that certain persons possess the power of procuring rain. In the sultry climes of the East, no calamity is more frequent, or more disastrous than drought, which, in some seasons, rages with such intense and protracted severity, that the land becomes hard as iron, every vestige of vegetable produce disappears, and both man and beast are reduced to the greatest privations. In these circumstances, a shower is longed for as the most inestimable blessing: and as few or none, even among the poorest votaries of paganism, are sunk into such profound ignorance as not to believe that the control of the elements belongs to some invisible spirits that preside over nature, their natural resource, in order to obtain the supply of the indispensable fluid, is to individuals who are supposed to have the power of intercession with the gods. These persons are commonly the priests, who, as the support of their imposture requires them to be proficient in the arts of divination and magic, dexterously ascribe their wonder-working powers to the favour of the divinity they serve; and as these mercenary deluders of the people are always quick-sighted enough to perceive how they may best turn their influence to account, there is no way in which those of them who minister Thus the fidently boast of their communion with aerial spirits, The whole art of these pretenders consists in their Sir Walter Scott mentions, in one of his latest works, an old woman, in the Orkney Islands who, in the last century, drove a similar trade in the elements. |