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development announced by Mr. Beecher, and by which he would justify all innovations in Christian doctrine and worship. Indeed, what he calls “a development" of Christianity is precisely what the apostles called "a falling away" from it. They exhorted men to "hold fast the form of sound words;" to "contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints," forewarning them that some would "depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits." He, on the contrary, avers that Christ is "the author and finisher of universal faith; but not by the delivery of a symmetrical system embracing the whole of truth." This idea is that they had only "the seed-forms of truth" which are susceptible of indefinite explanation and infinite development, leading to other and yet higher "divine revelations;" while they conceived that they held in their possession all that was "profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works."

Behold, too, how widely this teaching of Paul differs from the transcendentalism of Mr. Beecher touching the relation of "right-living" to "divine revelation, inspiration, the knowledge of God." According to the latter, "right living is the method of coming at divine revelation;" and out of "living aright" came moral insight, inspiration, the knowledge of God." According to the former, the knowledge of God, through inspiration and divine revelation, précedes, and all right living follows. The man of God is perfected and thoroughly furnished unto all good works through the profit derived from the inspired word of God. And does Mr. Beecher actually think that his "living aright" imparts to his transcendental speculations an equal value with the epistles of Paul? The only differ ence, it seems, he would make is expressed as follows: "Paul distinctly affirms that his view of Christianity was partial and fragmentary, (1 Cor. xiii: 9-12.) Our age is not yet ripe enough to make up this deficiency." Thus beginning with a misapplication of Paul's language, he ends with the conclusion that "our age" is capable, when "ripe enough," of supplying the supposed "deficiency" of Paul's knowledge by attaining a more thorough comprehension of Christianity, as manifested in its "true developments and normal fruits!"

We have not so learned Christ" or the Christianity of the New Testament. And instead of asking what will be the Church of the future, let us ask what is the church of the New Testament, and having ascertained this, let us determine that the Church of the future shall resemble it in all respects, as far as this result may depend upon our agency. Its "spiritual and moral attributes" will then be manifested in the plenitude of their power and beauty. The sublimest faith, the purest love, and the loftiest spirituality of which man is capable are exhibited in exact conformity to the divine will. I. B. GRUBBS.

A SURVEY OF HISTORICAL SUPERNATURALISM.-No. III. AUBERLEN well remarks" To think of determining the difference between good and evil apart from God, is to come near wiping it out altogether. Without God, the highest, the indestructible standard of good is wanting, and sin is only understood in its true nature and in its whole depth when it is seen to be an offence against the majesty of the living God." The tempter was rending away the solid ground under human feet when he cast suspicion on the eternal love of God. It is

Observer, May 1, '71.

indeed the good pleasure of the Highest that men should become like gods, or God-like, but that is not to be accomplished either by sudden bounds or even slow developments of the life which is sensuous and creaturely. Men are to be natured or born from above, and the higher life to grow up in God according to the laws of His eternal kingdom. Man, driven out from paradise to fight a hard battle with soil producing thorns and thistles, with revolted elements, and with the plague and disorder of his own heart, finds an immense change. We are never to forget that he is at once earthly and heavenly in his origin-from Nature his mother and from God his father he came forth; the visible shares in all his glory and in all his humiliation, in weal or in woe, the destinies are inseparable. A sigh never rises from the human which does not find response and echo in the breast of the mother. "Cursed is the ground for thy sake;" deep was that malediction, and ever since the whole creation has travailed in pain, every creature sighing in the bondage but; the creature subjected to vanity and darkness has hope in the midst of anguish, anticipating liberty and glory at the manifestation of the Sons of God.

As we read in the fourth chapter of Genesis the bitter fruits of the fall soon begin to appear; there is a murder in the first family, sin taking that special direction of violence which dominated to the flood. Were we looking at the tragical transaction as an ordinary case of murder we might suppose antipathies of organization and consequent antipathies and quarrels arising therefrom. But it comes before us in connection with sacrifice and worship, with faith and with martrydom. Cain was the first will-worshipper, and Abel the first confessor and martyr heading the long roll of holy men faithful unto death. Separate from the verities of supernatural history, human reason would pronounce the offering of Cain by far the noblest of the two; he brought the fruits of the earth, so beautiful and fresh with dew of heaven upon them, but that younger brother, how revolting! who comes from slaughter with his hands smeared with blood! Such would be the verdict of the fleshly intellect, but it would be all delusion. Cain was rejected and his face was darkened; Abel was accepted and honoured. By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain." As there must be testimony where faith is in exercise, it follows that the will of God, in regard to animal sacrifice, had been distinctly made known. Cain forgot, or ignored, in his offering the ruinous blight and moral darkness which had descended upon man and the earth, acting as if all the primal harmonies reigned in a sinless world. Abel, though his insight might be small or nil as to the underlying prospective work which gave animal sacrifice a meaning, had simple faith in the appointment of the Lord, and so was a spiritual worshipper. In consequence the face and the spirit of the unbeliever were darkened by tumult, wrath and vindictiveness, and in the murder of his brother he opened that crimson spring which became so great and terrible a river before the age closed in the Deluge.

Cursed from the earth which received the blood of the slain Abel, and driven out from the presence of the Lord, Cain, the vagabond with the brand upon him which was at once revelation and protection, goes forth to his destiny.

The sixth chapter of Genesis opens in this manner"And it came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair, and they took them wives of all which they chose." "There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that when the sons

Observer, May 1, '71.

of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown." We have lighted upon a document which has been fruitful in controversy -not likely to be settled until our lights are greater. Some of the most profound doctors of the Jewish law, some of the memorable fathers of the Christian Church, and a few distinguished men of modern days have mingled in the conflict. It would neither be valour nor wisdom to ignore the dispute; but we can do something better than take a side, viz., present an impartial and rapid outline of the arguments on both sides, and so provide the reader with materials for the formation of his own judgment. The point in debate has been-Were the "sons of God" mortal men, or did they belong to another order of being?

On the side of those who affirm ordinary mortality the argument stands thus:

1. That the seed of Seth, who was the image and likeness of his father, were a right holy seed, and, from the birth of Enos, began to call by or upon the name of the Lord, which implied some public solemn worshipsome assembly where sacrifice and prayer were added to the private reverence and devotion which had already prevailed.

2. That such federation for worship in the midst of general license marked out the Sethites as the "sons of God;" not only did they call upon the name of the Lord, but they themselves were called and distinguished by His name put upon them.

3. That after a memorable period of protest against prevalent corruption, by worship and holiness and separation by marriage among themselves, they were seduced by the exceeding beauty of the women among the ungodly party and gradually lost their purity and distinctive standing, even their assembly broken up and wrecked amid the encroaching ungodliness.

4. That this demoralization of the Sethite "sons of God" was one of the chief moral causes which brought to a head the corruption of the human race, there being no longer any embodied protest against the impiety of the seed of Cain.

On the other side it is argued :—

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1. That the language in respect to the multiplication of men merely sets forth an increase of population on the face of the earth, without any regard to moral character, and that the sons of God," in antithesis with the "daughters of men," indicates another order of being. In a mingling of the godly and the godless the "sons of men" would surely likewise have discovered the beauty of the "daughters of God."

2. That so far as men are concerned, "sons of God" are much too early, anticipating the truth and reality more than two thousand five hundred years. There were no sons of God" among men until the blood of the Redeemer was shed, and the Holy Spirit given, and the Church of the first-born manifest in Pentecostal power-" Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the "sons of God."

3. That the meaning of "sons of God" on old covenant ground is determinate. When God created the world "the sons of God" shouted for joy-" when the sons of God' came to present themselves before the Almighty," Satan likewise came. The form of the fourth in the furnace was like 66 a son of God," explained in the same chapter as an angel. That such language invariably denotes an earlier order of being— the host of the living God.

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4. That the union of the godly and godless, though a sore evil, will not produce a race of giants; experience decides this, to say nothing of physiology. But the result of the ancient disorder was a race of beings immense in stature, combining the power and profligacy of their parentage, and complicating the evils of society by the most appalling violence.

5. That Jude confirms this view when he speaks of the "angels who kept not their first estate," the manner in which they sinned being indicated in the context-for the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrha "in like manner went after strange flesh."

Whichever of the views be sound, the universal corruption was a fact, and equally the universal punishment. "And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, the end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth." The seventh chapter of Genesis gives such a comprehensive and sweeping description of the death of all men and all cattle and all living things on the face of the earth, that we are not surprised that the mass of readers insist that the whole world was submerged. But when we come to meditate on the matter, it does not seem reasonable to conclude that America, Europe and Africa should be submerged in order to destroy the inhabitants of Central Asia.

If the penalty be as wide as the guilt, and it include all humanity except the souls saved in the ark, that seems to meet all the requirments of the narrative; and it is worth notice, that Stillingfleet and other able men had taken such ground before the geologists began to insist that the interior structure contained no evidence of a deluge prevailing over the whole surface of the globe. Geology, however, while establishing a series of catastrophes on the earth in early ages, does by no means exclude the last and greatest of them. As to the wide diffusion of tradition among the descendants of Noah who replenished the world, Alexander von Humboldt bears emphatic testimony; and he is a most unexceptionable witness, being a person of encyclopedic information and by no means distinguished for faith in ancient supernatural verities. He says-"The traditions of the Deluge held by the human race, which we find scattered over the face of the earth like the ruins of a great shipwreck, are of the greatest moment in the philosophy of history. The cosmogonic traditions of the nations have everwhere the same character,-a family resemblance which produces astonishment. In the main, with respect to the destruction of the animated creation and the renewal of nature, the traditions hardly vary at all, though every nation gives them a peculiar local colouring. On the great continents and the smallest islands of the Pacific it is believed that the men who were saved fled to the highest mountain in the neighbourhood; and the event always seems the more recent the more uncultured the people, and the less the distance the knowledge they have of themselves goes back."

It would be impossible by language to set forth adequately the wild alarm, the strange growing horror, the helplessness, or the collected despair of the masses, as the penal waters closed in upon them, pursuing them to cliff or mountain with wrath not to be assuaged and vengeance from which there could be no deliverance.

We rather turn with pleasure and relief to that ship of life and hope which carried the mariners of faith into a new world. The Lord shut them up, and no storm ascending or descending from rifted earth or blackened heavens could harm the inviolate sanctuary. It is in a similar transi

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tional manner that the water of baptism carries men of faith from the city of destruction into the heavenlies with Christ Jesus. Eight souls were saved by water. So the antitype-baptism-doth also now save us, not the putting away the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God by the resurrection of Christ from the dead.".

(To be continued.)

F. FERGUSON AND HIS CO-PRESBYTERS.

G. G.

THE Rev. Fergus Ferguson, of Dalkeith, whose exposition of 1 Peter iii. 19. has created much alarm among many of his co-presbyters, and evoked their bitter opposition, was again before them at a special meeting held in Edinburgh on the 20th March last. The committee who had been previously appointed to consider the speech of Mr. Ferguson on the passage mentioned, laid their report on the table, pointing out that the views of Mr. Ferguson were in opposition to the doctrines of the Church. Dr. Davidson moved that the report be not adopted, and among other objections to it he stated that it could not be received with confidence, as the committee repeatedly complained of the difficulty they felt in apprehending the meaning of Mr. Ferguson's language. He was convinced that the presbytery would not do a wise or safe thing if they adopted the report. For, if it were adopted it must be followed up, either with a libel or with some other process, and how that process might end he at least had no idea. A counter motion was proposed that Mr. Ferguson be called upon to disavow the sentiments which were found objectionable, and admonish him to be more careful in future. After considerable discussion Mr. Ferguson made a statement in defence, and argued that his views had been seriously misapprehended. His speech was bold and stirring, and the following extracts will show how deeply Mr. Ferguson desires a return to "the simplicity and spirituality of the apostolic age," and how satisfied he is that a human basis of union, with its "hard and fast" lines, should be altogether ignored :

"I am sorry that I cannot agree with Mr. Brodie in his definition of a revolution. A revolution is simply the turning of a thing completely around. That is the first and simplest definition that can be given, and it shows that Mr. Brodie's definition from a scientific point of view is radically wrong; for a revolution can take place, as we see in the heavenly bodies, without involving a thorough change in the system—(a laugh)—so that matters become essentially different from what they were before; and, on the other hand, the most thorough changes are those which are effected without revolution. Indeed, an absolute revolution only brings matters round to the point from which they started. It is very much the same in the sphere of religious opinion. All existing theologies might be swept away, and the vital interests of religion remain very much where they were. If we could only have a revolution so complete as to bring us round full circle to the simplicity and spirituality of the apostolic age, it would, I think, be an infinite blessing to the world. (Applause.) Is not Christianity founded upon eternally established facts? Why, then, all these alarming and hysterical outcries, as if the spiritual interests of the world were in a hazardous condition whenever men dare to peep or mutter, except as has been prescribed for them hundreds of years ago? (Applause.)

Going on to assume the point that ought to be proved, we have repeatedly heard hints to the effect that the proper and honourable thing to do is to resign one's charge. I may be permitted to say that that is not the view I take of the Church or the Christian ministry. He that has put his hand to the plough must not look back in that way; and if a man, earnestly ploughing the field of truth and duty, finds something which he thinks has not been sufficiently attended to, he ought, I think, to call attention to it, and not abandon his calling. When an officer of a regiment discovers what he deems a new point of advantage over the enemy, must he cast up his commission on that account? If the Church were a secular association founded on a human arrangement and mere voluntary compact, a society got up to compete with the older Establishment on the