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OF THE DURATION OF THE TERM OF OFFICE.

Ir is not deducible from the New Testament that the officers of the churches held their situations but for a given period; whether that was the case, or whether they were appointed to office during pleasure, does not appear. As, however, there is no transgression where there is no law; as in the absence of higher and positive direction, those who appoint to office have the right of determining the time their offices shall be held; as it is advisable to oppose every salutary check to the mischiefs resulting from the pos session of power; the church considers it has the right of determining that its officers shall hold their situa tions but for a limited time.*

ists. And indeed we must be allowed to doubt, whether Paul's known love of liberty, on the one hand, would have suffered him to encourage an opposite example; or if his accustomed prudence, on the other, would have left it to so young a man as Titus to elect the Elders to the different assemblies in the hundred cities of Crete.

* Three months is the time the offices are at present held in this church, and no person is eligible to return to office; till the expiration of three months.

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DUTY TO OFFICERS.

ATTENTION and respect is due from the members to those whom they have considered worthy to rule in the church. It is indeed but paying respect to the office they hold, and to themselves as having appointed them to office. The apostle to the Thessalonians has enforced this duty, and on this very ground*Now we entreat you, brethren, to consider them who labour among you, and are set over you in the Lord, and admonish you; and to regard them with the utmost fondness of affection; and to live in peace with them because of their office."* (1 Thess. v. 12. 13. Wakefield.)

* Paul recommends to Timothy, that the Elders who ruled well should be counted worthy of double honour. (1 Tim. v. 17.)-It must be confessed, however, that the term which is translated honour, signifies reward, and should be so rendered: it is the same word which is translated price. (Matt. xxvii. 6.) -Hireling priests will no doubt hail this emendation with satisfaction, as sanctioning them in the receipt of pay for their services. It is however decidedly against such a practice, for the apostle is giving directions as to the distribution of the funds of the church to the indigent members; and is it possible that if the Elders had had regular salaries attached to their offices, Paul could have recommended their claims in commON with the poor aged widows of the church? The idea is indeed ridiculous, as though a churchwarden, when attending to the weekly distributions to the poor, should be directed to give a double allowance to the minister of the parish,

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DUTIES OF THE MEMBERS TO EACH OTHER.

As brethren of the same family, Christians are to watch over and admonish one another, acknowledge their faults one to another, (James v. 15), to correct each other's failings, to fulfil the law of Christ by bearing each other's burthens, to exhibit tender regard for each other, to use hospitality one to another without grudging, and to keep up a continual intercourse of good offices. They are exhorted to walk worthy of their vocation, "with all holiness and meekness, with long suffering, forbearing one another in love."—"Finally (says Peter), be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another; love as brethren, be piteous, be courteous, not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing, but contrariwise blessing." (1 Pet. iii. 8, 9.)

See also John xv. 12; 1 Cor. xii. 26; Gal. iv. 1 ; vi. 2, 10; Ephes. iv. 32; v. 21; Phil. ii. 3; Col. iii. 12, 15; 1 Thes. v. 14; Heb. iii. 13; xiii. 3; 1 Pet. i. 22; 1 Pet. iv. 8, 9, 10; v. 5; James ii. 15, 16; iv. 11, 12; 1 John iii. 17, 18.

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QUALIFICATIONS FOR ADMISSION INTO THE CHURCH.

REPENTANCE for past error, a sincere determina tion in favour of virtue, a submission to the authority of Jesus, as the messenger appointed by God, a belief in bis resurrection from the dead as evidence of the fu. ture resurrection of man, are the grounds of admission into the Christian church. John and Jesus, and his disciples, proclaimed to the Jewish nation repentance, for the kingdom of heaven was at hand. The hum ble, the meek, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peace-makers, those who hungered and thirsted after righteousness, and were persecuted for their adherence to truth, are described by Jesus as fit characters for his kingdom. (Matt. v. 1–11.)

Peter sets forth in unequivocal terms to Cornelius

* Matt. iii. 2; iv. 17; Mark vi. 12. For the purpose of making the new dispensation known to the Jewish people, baptism by water appears to have been instituted by John; at least this is his declaration (John i. 31,) “and I knew him not but that he might be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water." After so express a declaration, one wonders how this ceremony can have been adopted by Christians as a Christian ordinance, and binding in our own times. It has served however to aggrandize the priest, and that is sufficient to account for any corruption, however flagrant, that may have befallen Christianity.

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and the first Gentile converts, what those truths were that he was presenting for their reception, and which had been published throughout all Judea. That Jesus of Nazareth was anointed by God with the holy spirit and with power; that he went about doing good, and performing miracles; that he was put to death by the Jews; that God raised him from the dead the third day; that he was seen of chosen witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. Peter emphatically adds, "and he commanded us to proclaim unto the people, and to testify that it was he that was ordained of God to be the judge of quick and dead." (Acts x. 57 to 43.)

Paul describes the word of faith which he had proclaimed to be-"that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved," Rom. x. 9;* See Matt. xviii. 3; 1 John y. 1,

* On the points which are necessary to constitute a belief in Christianity, there is a fulness and clearness of evidence in the New Testament, which supersedes all cavil and debate. The reader may consult at his leisure the following passagesActs iv. 2, 3; xiii. 30, 31; xvii. 3 and 31; Rom. i. 4; 1 Cor vi. 14; Ephes. i. 18, 19, 20; 1 Thess. i. 9, 10; 2 Tim ii. 8 to 13; 1 Peter i. 3. Both the resurrection of Jesus and the general resurrection, are enforced by Paul to the Corinthians in a manner commensurate to their importance. He declares to them the gospel he had proclaimed to them, that Christ died and was buried, and rose the third day, according to the scriptures; that he was seen of the apostles, of innumerable living witnesses, and of himself also. It seems, however, that there were individuals in the church of Corinth who denied the general resurrection of man; the apostle expresses his astonishment at this-he argues that, if there is no resurrection from the dead, then is Christ not raised,