agencies, (and God be praised they are so many and so valuable,) we may vigorously set on foot, and with labour and self-denial prosecute; our Liturgies we may duly recite; nay, we may go further, we may set forth to those who hear us the terrors of the broken law of God, terrors that we ourselves feel, and the Atonement of the Lamb of God as the sinner's only refuge; an Atonement which we plead ourselves as our own only hope: but till the peace of that Atonement be realized, and on Scriptural grounds be appropriated by us, there will be always something wanting in our proclamation of the peace of the Gospel to others."

The authority which the Apostles received from Christ to remit and retain sins, is interpreted by their practice, their words, and writings, as the best commentary,—

"The great use which they made of it was unquestionably declaratory; that is, they declared the terms on which God forgives sin: they preached the Gospel, they displayed the riches of Divine mercy in Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and the power of the Spirit to implant in the soul the moral likeness of Christ.

แ Wisely, therefore, as well as modestly, does our Church tread in the general footsteps of the Apostles, abandoning the fearful claim of the Church of Rome to a judicial authority, and contenting herself with a declaratory, or precatory Absolution. . . . . We do not advance ourselves, when we encroach on the Divine prerogatives, and assume a dominion over the faith of our flock. In the ministry of reconciliation, we have as much honour as men can bear; and he who discharges that ministry faithfully shall receive from the Lord Jesus Christ, at the Great Day, a crown of glory. . . . . It may be a ministry which is not recommended by brilliant talents or deep learning; but if it be assiduous, conscientious, earnest, prayerful, and thankful, the Great Day will declare, if it be not manifested before, that our labour has not been in vain in the Lord."

There remain several of these Discourses on which we can scarcely touch. In leaving them almost unnoticed, we deprive ourselves of a gratification, and our readers lose a privilege. "The Unbelief of St. Thomas" is the groundwork of some important remarks on "the different kinds and degrees of unbelief." There is, first, the infidelity of wilful ignorance; then that which has "its secret roots in a dissolute life, or an unclean imagination, not at all an uncommon origin." Then, of course, there is a bribe and a bias on the understanding, swaying it to reject the pure and undefiled law of God. A third species of infidelity is found chiefly in minds of bold enterprise, which love to plunge into deep and abstruse questions. For this, the best remedy is "a profound sense of the weakness of our faculties, and the grandeur of God;" while "a fourth species takes its rise in the predominant cultivation of the intellect, to the neglect of a corresponding growth in the moral judgment and affections."

"The Ascension" leads the writer to ask "why" that festival "should not rank with the greatest of the Church? If the day when for us men and for our salvation the Lord Jesus Christ came down from heaven, and was born of the Virgin Mary, suspends secular business, and is celebrated by all Christians with public worship; why should the day when He returned to heaven fail of the like homage, if at least He left nothing undone which he came to do, and if the execution of the stupendous work of our redemption was not inferior to its promise; if Christ's own words of parting and blessing were as precious as the angels' song at His birth." This Sermon contains some striking remarks upon the place of the Lord's Ascension, Bethany,-" Already rich in sacred memories and tender affections," having gathered round it, "it was now to receive another illustrious association," being destined to "yet another distinction, when the Lord of life shall come again, and His feet shall stand on that very hill of Olivet from which He was taken up into heaven."

We regret that we cannot give extracts, nor even a sketch, of the Sermon on "Christian Charity," (preached in behalf of the Corporation of the Sons of the Clergy,) which enlarges on the expansive benevolence of the "Churches of Macedonia,” as disclosed in the Second Letter to the Corinthians,-" When men give themselves to the Lord, their money will not be held with a tight hand. They and theirs are all consecrated."

One more extract shall be given, the heart-stirring and affectionate appeal, which is found at the conclusion of the last Sermon in the course :

"And now I have finished the argument of this sermon, and to-day I finish the course of sermons, which, in dutiful and deep love to the University, I have counted it a great privilege to deliver. Oh! that God may grant to me, that in return for the great debt I owe to it, my humble testimony may be made His instrument to reach here some hearts, to give light to some darkness, to instil peace and comfort into some sorrow! I know I can only hope to achieve so high an ambition by preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ; for He is the way, the truth, and the life. And if to-day I speak, as I trust, to many whose eyes are enlightened by the Holy Ghost to see the beauty of the law of God, and to love it, even while they fear it, because they find that with their utmost efforts they cannot keep it, then let me say finally, there is nothing which will pacify such a state of mind except the Cross of Christ and His righteousness. . . . . Are your sins on the altar of that burnt-offering? They may be there. I pray you carry them thither."

Where all is "wheat," selection from the field is difficult; and sometimes, by the necessity of the case, almost arbitrary. It must be supposed that the Sermons which compose this

volume, prepared expressly for the University pulpit, were his most finished productions; but those of his ordinary ministry, at St. Mary's, Brighton, were of the same character, bearing the marks of thoughtful preparation. A singular charm was felt in his pulpit-addresses, arising from a union of refinement and ease of diction,-the handmaids, though in his plan subordinate to the ends of Scriptural faithfulness and profitable application. Mr. Elliott's personal religion was seen in his ministry, as well as his known character. It transpired in the discourses before us. No one can read them without discovering his own adoring affection to Him whom he strove to magnify" in his preaching. His attachment to the Saviour is most vividly pourtrayed throughout the volume: much of the spirit of the Disciple who was at once so "loved," and so loving, shines in every part. By his congregation, his private friends, the University who heard them, and candidates for the ministry, to whom they may be recommended, these Sermons will be highly valued.

THE DOUBLE SEAL.

Ir is no peculiarity of modern churches to be rent with divisions, corrupted by diverse errors of doctrine, and disgraced by the unworthy conduct of a too large proportion of their members. Churches planted and watched over by inspired men were early vexed by the leaven of sacerdotalism on the one hand, and rationalism on the other; while Apostles shed tears over professors who were "enemies of the cross of Christ." And these errors seem mostly to have been rather refuted by argument than put down by authority; at all times rather recognized as a foreseen trial than treated as a fatal pollution, which should necessitate the precipitate departure of God's true people from the community, as from a doomed Babylon.

St. Paul in one place warns Timothy of some whose "word will eat as doth a canker"; and, in opposition to their "profane and vain babblings," he points the youthful bishop to" the foundation of God," which, says he, "standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity." (2 Timothy ii. 19.)

If it is asked what this foundation is in itself, the answer seems ready: "Other foundation can no man lay than that is

laid, which is Jesus Christ." In its manifestation it is "the record that God gave of His Son." In its results it includes those living stones who, as the Church Universal, constitute "the pillar and ground of the truth." In a word, it is the TRUTH, whereby and wherein alone men may hope to be saved. We are now concerned with the seal of this foundation; and this is said to be twofold. On the obverse we read, "The Lord knoweth them that are His"; on the reverse, "Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity." The first is the signet direct from Heaven's chancery; the second, the earthly endorsement thereof on the part of the recipient. Yet on neither side is this seal purely subjective. Its trustworthiness does not rest on the shifting base of human frames and feelings, but on objective truths making themselves felt in that inner world of spiritual consciousness whose convictions are to the individual soul axioms, only incapable of proof because their contraries are inconceivable. The test is strictly Baconian: religious dogma demonstrated by religious experience.

The

The first side, then, of the seal consists in the Lord's knowledge of His people. The Lord's; not merely God's. It is the knowledge, not of omniscience, but redemption; not of the Creator, but of the Saviour; not of God, the incomprehensible, but of Jehovah, the revealed-"Shemhamphorash." immense gulf that lies between these words, God and Lord, is instinctively felt by those who use them. "God bless you comes glibly from lips that would shrink from saying "The Lord be with you." 1." In the newspaper, the critique, or the essay, the divine name God occasionally occurs; more frequently Heaven, Providence, or Power; but never The Lord: that were too distinctively Christian. And there can be no doubt that the general usage of the New Testament is to be observed in this passage, and the word "Lord" taken as referring to the Second Person of the Trinity. He it is who knows His own sheep as those given Him of the Father, and who are peculiarly His. What then is this knowledge?

(1) It is, like the love of which it is the expression, eternal. This is an attribute naturally resulting from the Divine unsuccessiveness. We may not understand it; that is, we may not intelligently reconcile it with other truths equally great and momentous, but we are not therefore to lose the comfort of it. The child is not the less happy in the enjoyment of parental love because he knows not the sacred mystery from which it springs.

(2) It is elective. "Whom he did foreknow, them he also did predestinate." (Compare Amos iii. 2.) It is not a barren knowledge, that ends in intellectual speculation;

but it takes hold of its object, and acts upon it transitively. Hence it is

(3) Communicative. The light of God's countenance is, like that of the sun, actinic as well as visual. It not only discovers what before existed, but it sets up in that discovered object a new and specific action. Its impact on the soul indicates, not an accession of knowledge on the part of God, but a consciousness of Divine recognition on the part of the soul. "Thou hast known my soul in adversity," is the declaration of the Psalmist. And thus this knowledge is

(4) Distinctive: it separates between the righteous and the wicked. "For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous; but the way of the ungodly shall perish": or, as it is in another Psalm, "the proud he knoweth afar off." To the one his regards are as the beneficial sunlight, vivifying and beautifying; but to the other they are like that look which in the morning watch-that drear, cold hour-He cast upon the Egyptians and troubled them, as they urged their desperate way across the Red Sea bottom. So that, at the last, this knowledge shall be the hinge on which our everlasting fate shall turn; the language of final rejection being, "I KNOW YOU NOT."

Reverse we now the seal; and, doing so, we read: "Let every one that nameth the name of Christ [or better, "the Lord"] depart from iniquity." As the former side was external to the soul,-operating upon it from without, so also is this. It is not the state of holiness attained, but the standard of holiness presented to the conscience for attainment. If our peace depended on the former, it would be always either imperfect or illusory. "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin," is the Christian's ideal; the ultimate of regeneration; which is more and more realized as more and more the new nature displaces the old. As he approaches it, he rejoices; as he recedes from it, he mourns in his spirit and is vexed. At morning light it awakes him to duty; and at eventide it calls him to give thanks for temptation overcome, or to chasten himself for temptation yielded to. It is an abiding presence with him, a perpetual monitor, which the unbelieving know not of. For sin to the believer is a totally different thing to sin in the unregenerate. In the latter it may arouse conscience for a time, it may excite horror, or it may feed remorse; but in the former it takes the shape of unfaithfulness to the Divine covenant, ingratitude to the Saviour, insult to the Spirit, blasphemy against the ineffable name by which He is named. The child of God alone can say, "Against thee only have I sinned." The murder of David's victim is absorbed in the sin against David's God.