novel-one of these sickly, sentimental heart-depraving books -she is all-engrossingly bent. Her work is neglected; her highest interests are forgotten; and her heart shuts out from its affections that love and friendship and benevolent regard which are the life-blood of society. Her sensibilities are depraved and developed to a morbid extent. She has indeed sympathies; but they do not embrace real sufferers. The misery and poverty which appear all around her in the actual world make no impression upon her heart; she beholds it all unmoved. But over the woes of an imaginary love-sick swain, or forlorn maiden, she drops the sympathetic tear and heaves the profoundest of sighs. She lives in an ideal world, and to a certain extent she retards the progress of the actual one. Not only is she herself an idler in the great bee-hive, her example is contagious, and she helps to make drones of others.

How pernicious too is the influence of error! As certainly as man is sanctified through belief of the truth, so surely does he become corrupted through the reception of error. Can an evil tree bring forth good fruit? Can the seed of tares bring forth a harvest of fine wheat? Impossible. Only "he that believeth shall be saved." Now, it is not belief in general which is thus referred to. It is belief of "the truth as it is in Jesus:" and the belief of no other thing will save the soul. Every other thing is, in reference to salvation, and where brought into competition with the Gospel, soul-ruining error. What is true in regard to this most important of all concerns is also true in regard to things of minor importance. Let us all be deeply convinced of this, and be ever careful, ere we give credence to the opinions of men, to see that they are true. Nothing but truth will stand the lapse of time,

"The wreck of matter and the crash of worlds."

Systems of error may lift up their heads and sit enthroned on the high places of this world for a day; but by and by they must and will crumble into dust. Let us then declare ourselves on the side of the truth, though the world should be against us. Let us abide by it through good report and through bad, for we may rest assured that by so doing we shall in due time reap the reward if we faint not."

But how shall we know the good from the bad, the true from the false? By what test shall we try the many books with which we are beset, so that we shall neither on the one hand impoverish our minds with what is useless and trifling, nor on the other, wreck and ruin them with what is false?

With reference to the former matter we will only suggest one consideration. We do not condemn novel reading, nor

purely literary works. We have derived considerable pleasure and benefit from both. But this we may be sure of: first, with regard to novels, that whenever they draw away our attention or interest from the real facts of life, either by their own improbable nature or by our over-absorption in their perusal, they are then unquestionably pernicious and ought to be given up; while at the same time we must consider that the great mass of novels have an immoral tendency, and should never be perused at all. To peruse them for the sake of any good lesson that may be derived from them is like wading to the eyes in mud to get possession of a pin. Secondly, with regard to fine literary composition, it should only be regarded as a mere adornment of something that is essential and important. Whenever we lose sight of the essential in the cultivation of the circumstantial, then emphatically are we "grasping the shadow and losing the substance." What can mere finely turned sentences or smart literary gossip do to satisfy the cravings of the immortal soul, or fit it for its great and eternal destiny! Truth, like beauty "unadorned, is adorned the most," in a great many cases at least; and better for us to sacrifice the mere form than the great truth which it seeks to adorn.

But how shall insidious error, mixed up and smoothed over with truth, be detected and avoided? This is a more difficult task, and, as we imagine, there is no royal road to the performance of it. We must exert all our energies of heart and mind to guard the citadel of our being from its deceitful and dangerous influence.

One important consideration is that our affections have much. to do with our reception of truth or error. How true, in regard to belief of error, is the old proverb, "The wish is father to the thought"! When a man's affections are supremely fixed upon God, how steady and sure is his progress through the innumerable errors that beset his pathway through life! When the soul submits itself to the influences of the good Spirit of God, how quick is its discernment of what is only the mere semblance of truth! Many men, in the pride of their hearts, keep themselves from decision for God and duty, because, forsooth, they do not understand and comprehend all God's ways. How foolish is such conduct! Did such persons really wish to do right they would speedily find enough of plain incontrovertible fact to warrant their doing so. Their own unworthiness; their dependence upon a higher power; the merciful providence by which they are continually surrounded, are first truths in the experience of all, and surely these should suffice to induce every honest man to yield himself to God.

But it is also requisite, in order to avoid error, that our intellectual faculties be exercised. We must sift and examine every theory and statement that is urged upon our attention. Our reason is the faculty of mind which enables us to discern between truth and error. The function of reason is to recognize the relationship that exists between ideas-at least this is one of its functions. This function it discharges intuitively. Reason is that God-given power which sits as umpire in the human soul and with uncorrupted fidelity sees and makes known the truth. Its judgements, subjectively viewed, are invariably correct; they are true judgements in accordance with the evidence supplied. How then, it may be asked, does error arise? We reply that it may arise from the false or imperfect information presented to reason. Reason takes a correct view of what is brought before it, but that may be either insufficient or untrue. Reason does not procure evidence; it sits in judgement upon it. It is not the procurator fiscal, if we may so speak, but it fulfils the office of judge or jury.

false hypothesis, or for There are indisputable there is some infallible

Again, in discharging its judicial function, reason proceeds upon some hypothesis, as a standard or touchstone to which matters under consideration are subjected. What is unknown or unadmitted, is brought into comparison with what is known or admitted, and thus its truth or error is made apparent. This hypothesis or standard may either be laid down by reason, or by the mere wishes of men; and when by the latter it is frequently wrong. Hence arise the possibility and actual existence of error. If sinful man sets up an incorrect standard of right and wrong, of true and false, and brings all things to this standard, the conclusion must also be false. But there is no necessity for such such false and imperfect evidence. facts lying at the basis of all truth, standard by which we may test all that we read. In the domain of mathematics we have the self-evident axioms and postulates which substantiate the truth of all theorems and problems with which they agree. In the domain of philosophy, too, we have first principles which are irrepressibly forced upon our convictions by their self-evidencing truthfulness-such for instance as every effect must have a cause; an intelligent design must have an intelligent designer, &c., &c. And above all, in the domain of theology we have the infallible testimony of the word of God, by which we ought to test every doctrine propounded by men. To the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." Moored on these eternal rocks, we need not be

drifted out upon the troubled sea of error, but repose calmly and peacefully by the haven of rest. Our duty, then, in relation to the mass of literature which contains so much error, and is so apt to mislead the thoughtless mind, is to keep firm hold of what is indisputable, and ere we take other ideas or theories into the foundation upon which our faith and hope repose, see by fair, independent, and comprehensive comparison, that they harmonize with eternal facts.

But let us test each theory and idea by the standard which is legitimately related to it. Men do not usually count fluids or measure grain by feet and inches. So neither should they try the doctrines of Christianity by the first principles of mathematics, nor test the Bible by systems of physical science. No doubt all truth is more or less related, and the knowledge of it in one sphere assists us to understand more clearly what is embraced within another sphere; but, in our opinion, it is only fair and just that we should proceed with our inquiries after truth in an independent way, examining each system in the light of its own evidence, and from its own foundations. It is this confounding of one sphere of truth with another that has caused so much rationalism and scepticism of late years. Because scientific men find higher professions and claims to supernatural power in the Bible, they reject it, on the ground that no such phenomena are to be found, at least in their estimation, in the world of science; yet we cannot help asking, What right have they to import such material considerations into the sacred and inspired revelation of God? But our space forbids further remark. We have here simply touched upon a great principle of thought, which is capable of indefinite expansion and elucidation, but which in the meantime we must allow each one to work out for himself. We close this paper by exhorting our young readers, in the words of Solomon, "To buy the truth and sell it not; " to "Cry after knowledge, to seek her as silver and search for her as for hid treasures.'

A. W.-S.

Of himself, he (the Rev. R. Hill) remarked, "My aim in every sermon is, a stout and lusty call to sinners, to quicken the saints, and to be made a universal blessing to all."-Sidney's Life of Rev. R. Hill.

Legh Richmond says-" Keep in mind that excellent rule :-Never preach a single sermon, from which an unenlightened hearer might not learn the plan of salvation, even though he never afterwards heard another discourse.

102

"THE RESTITUTION OF ALL THINGS."

"OF the times of the restitution of all things God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began." This was the lofty theme of all the prophets. In the midst of the wreck and ruin which sin had wrought, they pointed rejoicingly forward to a glorious time of restoration, when all that was confused and chaotic would become orderly and beautiful. They told men that not for ever would this world swing through space, groaning under the curse of sin, but that a brighter and better day, a day of purity and peace, would yet dawn upon it.

As the basis of a few thoughts upon the subject of "Restitution," we have selected that profound Scripture contained in Eph. i, 9, 11. Alford's translation of it runs thus:-" Having made known the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in himself in order to the economy of the fulfilment of the seasons, to sum up all things in Christ; the things in the heavens and the things in the earth, in him in whom we were also taken for his inheritance.”

Ellicot's translation is better. It is as follows:-" Having made known unto us the mystery of his will according to the good pleasure which he purposed in himself in regard to the dispensation of the fulness of times, to sum up again all things in Christ; the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth, even in him in whom we were also chosen for his inheritance.

(1.) These words seem to teach that God has revealed his ultimate design with regard to the work of redemption. He has "made known unto us the mystery of his will." The things which he eternally purposed within himself to do he has at length disclosed. We have now more than stray hints regarding the glorious consummation of all things. We have a revelation. The veil has been drawn aside from the hidden councils concealed for ages. God hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, making known "the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations."

(2.) This revelation which God has given has respect to "the dispensation of the fulness of times." By "the dispensation of the fulness of times," Alford understands "the whole duration of Gospel times." This interpretation recommends itself to us. We find in Scripture implicit reference to several dispensations or ages. The first was the Edenic; the second, the Antediluvian; the third, the Patriarchal; the fourth, the Legal. Each of these dispensations fulfilled its purpose, and passed away. The fifth in order is the Gospel dispensation, or "the dispensa