out the 103rd Psalm for the first outburst of thanksgiving, "Bless, O my soul, the Lord thy God," &c. Like Zacharias at the circumcision of his son John, the dumb man was dumb no longer; for "his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he spake, and praised God." He rose up with the rest, and showed by the swinging of his body and the smile upon his face, as well as by his unrestrained melody, that his soul had been set at liberty. "His heart and his flesh cried

out for the living God."

Mr.

As was the case at Kilmarnock, the Word of God sounded out from Mr. Rutherford's church to all the region round about. A considerable number of his hearers came from the large and bustling port of Grangemouth, already referred to. Rutherford frequently preached in that town, both on Sunday nights and on week nights. We remember being driven down to Grangemouth on the occasion of our first visit to the district, and of preaching to a large and appreciative audience from the text, "Escape for thy life," in a spacious school-room which had been built by the Earl of Zetland. We also supplied, for a month or two, a preaching station in the town of Denny, where about a score of Mr. Rutherford's members lived. The church at Avonbridge, likewise, which still adheres to the Evangelical Union, was established about this time,-being composed of members partly from the church at Falkirk, and partly from that at Bathgate, under the care of Mr. Robert Morison. Among those who were led, through the instrumentality of Mr. Rutherford's labours, to study for the Christian ministry, we may mention the Rev. Robert Anderson, who has long carried on a successful ministry in Glasgow; and the Rev. Henry Melville, for several years attached to the Canadian branch of the Evangelical Union, and now pastor of a Christian church in Parma, Michigan, U. S.

It must doubtless have been a trial to Mr. Rutherford to see some of the wealthier and more influential members of his congregation leave his ministry, during the progress of his discussions with the Presbytery, and also at their close; but if some "of the better sort" went, the Lord sent others to supply their place. Thus we read in the pamphlet entitled, The Question of Deposition," such a paragraph as the following:-"The Session agreed to invite Mr. Bryce, formerly a member of Session in Mr. Steele's congregation, and now a member of this congregation, to officiate with them at the winter sacrament. Closed with prayer." An excellent Christian lady, Miss Anne Muirhead, also felt it to be her duty to leave the same congregation and join Mr. Rutherford's, because she sympathized with him in his doctrinal positions, and felt her heart blessed

under his fervent ministrations. She was herself an authoress, having published, during the heat of the voluntary controversy, The Church in the Ephah, or, an application of the book of Zechariah to the view of congregational support advocated by Nonconformists. She also read the Old Testament fluently in the original Hebrew, and had in her desk respectful replies from Professor Robinson of America to skilful speculations of her own as to sacred writ, in connection with Palestinian topography. An impressive likeness hung in her elegant diningroom of Claudius Buchanan, the renowned missionary in India, and also her relative. Mr. and Mrs. Rutherford were accustomed frequently to remark in these early days that it was both consolation and compensation to them, for the loss of those who could not bear the frowns of the influential of the earth, "to see Miss Muirhead slip into the church in her own quiet way." Her adherence to any cause was a sufficient certificate to the general public of Falkirk that there could not be anything far wrong with it. She was of great use to Mr. Rutherford in these troublous times. She managed not a little of his abundant correspondence. She received preachers and students into her hospitable house. She gave liberally of her substance to the cause of God. By her beautiful letters she cheered and instructed the leading ministers of the Evangelical Union, to whom, moreover, she often suggested appropriate sermons and publications. She has long since been taken to the church above where divisions and differences shall be unknown; but she undoubtedly deserves a place in these memoirs of the early trials and triumphs of the cause.

Another gentleman of position in Falkirk, a banker and Justice of the Peace, used frequently to attend Mr. Rutherford's ministry. One Sabbath evening, quite a scene occurred in the large and well-filled chapel when this gentleman happened to be present. While Mr. R. was making some strong statements about the universality of the atonement, a tipsy man rose up in the body of the church, and loudly exclaimed that the preacher was not speaking the truth. Thinking that some zealous friend of the Presbytery had come to spy out the land and the proceedings of the leader, Mr. Rutherford waxed bolder, repeated all his favourite texts, and laid down both law and Gospel with a mingled air of anger and authority. But it was all of no avail; for the god Bacchus proved, in this case, a sturdy unbeliever, and a second time a loud denial of the preacher's doctrines rang through the building. But at length the truth began to dawn on both preacher and hearers that whisky was more to blame than orthodoxy. The Justice of the Peace, however, took note of the flagrant violation of

British law, and, as the next day happened to be a court day, sent his officer both to apprehend the transgressor as a criminal, and summon Mr. Rutherford as a witness of the misdemeanour. Very reluctant was the kind hearted preacher to bear testimony against the alcoholic limitarian; but the latter got some solitary hours in the lock-up to cool down the ardour both of his potations and his theology.

When the Messrs. Morison saw their way, in 1843, to maintain the kindred articles of the Holy Spirit's world-wide, resistible work, and conditional election, Mr. Rutherford was nothing loath to follow; for he also had begun to feel that the doctrine of universal atonement required the doctrine of universal grace as its counterpart and complement. In 1845, he published a pamphlet on The Work of the Holy Spirit in Conversion, in which he laid down, with his customary force and clearness, this advanced position of himself and his brethren.

We may say of Mr. Rutherford what we said of Mr. Robert Morison, in our last article, that he did good service in the way of preaching and lecturing, when churches were formed in connection with the growing New View movement, in the chief centres of population in Scotland, such as Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Dundee, Greenock, &c. Indeed, in these early days, he was one of the most acceptable preachers of our body. We used to think that we never heard a man thrill an audience more easily and more effectually than he. The first time we ever heard him preach was in the town of Hamilton, on the text, "Marvel not that I say unto thee, Ye must be born again." We still remember the impression produced on us by that disHe had also a most valuable sermon on the words, 'If ye receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater," &c., by which the light of salvation was introduced into many a formerly darkened soul.

course.

Indeed, Mr. Rutherford's desire to see the doctrines of the Evangelical Union introduced into the principal cities of Scotland ultimately militated against the prosperity of his own flourishing church at Falkirk. His ministry had been much appreciated in the large town of Greenock; and the thought struck him that he might be able to take both Greenock and Falkirk under his wing. The Rev. Alexander Duncanson, Independent minister of Alloa, and belonging to the New View party, had commended himself favourably to the notice of some of the congregation at Falkirk; and it was thought that a collegiate charge and double ministry for the two towns might be advantageously entered upon. But, unhappily, the ministers did not agree; the Falkirk church was rent in twain; and Mr. Rutherford ultimately settled in Greenock as sole pastor of the

church there.

For several years he ministered acceptably in Greenock, and, without doubt, laid the foundations of the Evangelical Union church, which still flourishes under the able ministry of the Rev. Alexander Davidson. During his Greenock pastorate he delivered, by request, a course of lectures in Glasgow, on the doctrine of election, which were afterwards published in a neat volume, and were much admired for their clearness and force. He delivered two or three of the same course in Belfast, in one of the principal Wesleyan churches of the town, and received a valuable present of volumes, at the termination of his visit, from a committee of gentlemen connected with the Methodist denomination.

Removing to Dundee in the year 1851, he revived considerably the Evangelical Union church, which had been founded there about three years previously. It was during his pastorate that the property was acquired in Reform Street, Dundee, which the first E.U. church still occupies.

It was only to be expected that the ministers of a comparatively small and struggling cause like the Evangelical Union would have many difficulties and trials with which to contend. As years rolled on, Mr. Rutherford began to feel this; and instead of fighting patiently against them, he at length expressed a desire to be received back again into the church of his fathers. It is not for us to impute motives, or to say that the troubles through which he passed inclined him to look favourably on views of truth which he had rejected when he was a younger man. But this we will take the liberty of saying, that the able books which he wrote in defence of the doctrines of free grace remain to this day unanswered by himself or any other person, and are, in our opinion, unanswerable.

We wish him much happiness while spending, in comparative quiet and retirement, the evening of his life among his former brethren. Perhaps we should make an apology to him for dragging these old matters to light, and for refreshing the memory of his fellow-countrymen as to his theological antecedents. But the acts of public men become the property of the public; and we found that we could not write the continuous history of the formation of the Evangelical Union without giving his proceedings the place which they undeniably hold in the history of the movement. The chain would not hang together without the link which the case of the Rev. A. C. Rutherford supplies.

As he finds the shadows lengthen in the evening of his life, we trust that it will be a pleasant thought to him that his name will go down to posterity as that of the friend and fellow-worker of the Morisons, of John Guthrie, John Kirk, and the other earnest men who bore the brunt of the Atone

ment Controversy, with other affiliated doctrines,—and that thus he helped to lift up in old Scotland the banner of a free and unrestricted salvation.

Our readers would observe that "Messrs. Pollock, Guthrie, and Walker," protested against the suspension of Mr. Rutherford on the 5th of May, 1843. The reasons of dissent afterwards given in by the two other gentlemen turned out to be comparatively harmless, being taken on mere points of order; but those of Mr. Guthrie were on the merits of the case, and drew down upon him, on the very next week, the unrestrained vehemence of Synodical anathema. That tale we propose to unfold in our next number.

THE TRUTH UTTERED IN SPITE.

WHEN publicans and sinners drew near to listen to the gracious voice of the Son of God, and remained unrebuked by the Divine Speaker, the Pharisees and scribes, who were looking on, murmured and whispered to one another, "This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them." The words were uttered as a nasty innuendo. They meant that, judged by his company, Christ could not be a very exalted character. It was quite against all social decorum, and professional etiquette, and religious standing, that one with a high claim to office and character should receive sinners. It could not be allowed. So these men felt. It was one of the supposed six scandals that the higher orders of religious people should eat and drink with the sons of the soil-the common people. And this is the charge they bring against Jesus, and because of which they quarrel with him. He will reprove their pretences and vindicate his own doings in his own way; but meantime we take their words, and find in them not the wreath of thorns which they would weave, but a crown of glory, than which there is nothing brighter to be found anywhere. We notice that

In the Saviour's reception of sinners we see his power of attraction: "All the publicans and sinners drew near." He had come down into the earth as a new centre of attraction. Men felt a new centripetal force playing upon thought and feeling. Men, conscious of a great unrest within them, felt that a new power was apprehending them, arresting them, turning them, chaining them to a new spiritual centre of