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Observer, Oct. 1, 72.

of Ireland to Arianism? Can it be said that the Church of Scotland has been preserved in the adherence to a Scriptural faith by human creeds? Alas! these interrogations are too easily answered. They have not. The Congregational Churches, inclusive of the Baptists and Independents, are clear and sound on the great fundamental doctrines of the Gospel. Every day they are manifesting greater earnestness and power, greater symptoms of life and usefulness; and yet these have no creed except the Scriptures. They recognize no king but Jesus, and no law but His Word; and yet, while other churches are being overrun with error, delusion and superstition, they are becoming clearer, purer and morally more influential.

From the first their motto has been, We shall be guided by the Scriptures alone-not the fathers-not tradition-not the church; but the law of God as revealed in the inspired Word. And they have not found it an insufficient guide in the absence of all human creeds. True, there are questions raised among the latter class of churches, and freely discussed, that are not mooted in those ecclesiastical hierarchies, which have everything determined for them by their creeds and confessions. But free discussion is not regarded as a calamity by those who have strong faith in the Bible, and who only wish to know the truth. These churches present a happy contrast to those who would close all religious discussions. The Diet of Worms wished to prevent the great German reformer giving free utterance to the truth; the examinators of Bunyan trembled lest that in his defence he should shake their confidence in the Prayer Book. Both, while endeavouring to maintain uniformity of sentiment, were the real, though unintentional instigators of discord and division. But those dissenting bodies of which we speak are not afraid of free enquiry and open discussion. Every man is frankly invited to come out with his sentiments. These shall be tried in the light of revelation. The truth fears not open conflict with every false system. "The prophet that hath a dream-let him tell a dream; and he that hath my Word-let him speak my Word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord.”

It must be evident that they who take the Bible as their only rule have a mighty advantage over those who regard it as insufficient, without a human creed to guard its purity. Whatever is Scriptural in the formularies we have in the sacred volume. Grant that they were Scriptural from beginning to end, still we have it all in the Bible. A few years since a Presbyterian asked an old soldier, who fought with Nelson at Trafalgar, and who was a member of an Independent church, "Where his church took its creed from?" The aged warrior replied by asking, "Where does your Church take its creed from?" "From the Bible, to be sure," was the rejoinder. "That is just where we get our creed also," said the veteran, 'but the difference between you and us lies here: you take your creed out of the Bible, while we allow ours to remain in it." The latter evidently pursues the wiser course.

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In the Church of England the candidate for office signs the articles in the most solemn manner, declaring them to be in harmony with the Word of God, and henceforth he preaches in direct opposition to his own oath. This the Presbyterian is not allowed to do. He must at his ordination bid farewell to the privilege of preaching according to his own convictions, should these be contrary to the confession of his church. We leave the Episcopalian and Presbyterian to settle between themselves who has the

Observer, Oct. 1, '72.

best of it; but we cannot fail to discover that their creeds prove a snare to their consciences.

Where is the consistency of such employing the Protestant maxim against the Romanists. An amusing discussion took place a few years ago in the city of Glasgow, between a Roman Catholic and the Lecturer of the Protestant Layman's Association, the question discussed being, "Is the Bible the only rule of faith and practice?" The Protestant, of course, took the affirmative, and the Romanist the negative, side of the question. It was a sad discussion for the Lecturer of the Protestant Layman's Association. The Romanist pursued the argumentum ad hominem with great power and skill. He confuted, defeated and confounded his antagonist at every turn of the argument, and wound up the discussion with shouts of triumph. Addressing his opponent, vanquished and silenced, he said: "You and I, sir, do not differ on that question. You hold that the Bible is not sufficient without the Westminster Confession of Faith; I hold that it is not sufficient without the testimony of the church." In our judgment the Papist has the best of the argument; but we deny the authority of both creed and tradition, and regard the Bible as the divine and only rule of faith and practice. A. C. G.

REASONING.

A KIND correspondent writes us expressing difficulty as to "finding God by the reasoning powers." He thinks that He is to be found only by some teaching of the Holy Spirit, which is better adapted, at least, to the untrained mind. This teaching of the Spirit, he thinks, is got by mighty wrestling in prayer. We think we understand our correspondent exactly, and need not consider it a very difficult task to enable him to understand himself better than he yet does. First of all, before there can be prayer It is wonderful that this should be lost

in reality, God must be "found." sight of. To pray in reality you must have some one to whom to address your prayer, and that one must be found, or he cannot be rationally addressed. This is still more forcibly clear when there is to be "wrest"ling." There must be some one with whom to wrestle or there can be no wrestling, and so that one must be found ere the wrestling can begin. When Jacob wrestled, and would not let the blessed One go until he had His blessing, he had not only found that One, but held Him fast. If there is to be mighty wrestling it can never be with some one whom we have not yet discovered. We think nothing can be more clear than this. But there is another thing equally clear. The glorious One with whom Jacob wrestled came to Jacob, and so found him. He came to the patriarch for the purpose of making Himself more fully known, and hence the prayer and wrestling. Jacob had not only found this blessed One before he prayed to Him, but it was by this One's seeking and finding Jacob that the whole intercourse of that memorable wrestling began. We see clearly the finding before the praying, but also God's seeking before man's finding. It is this that makes God say, "I was found of them that sought me not." Does not this put us right as to a teaching of the Spirit leading to a finding of God, given as the result of a mighty wrestling in prayer? The teaching of the Spirit is before the finding, as the finding must be before the

Observer, Oct. 1, "72.

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prayer. If this teaching comes only after man has found God, and so has mightily wrestled with Him, then man begins the work of salvation, and not God. If, on the other hand, God strives with man by His spirit, and so finds the wanderer and brings him back to His own love, the case is entirely different. God then is first in this great work, as He is also last, and the one who carries that great work through. "The effectual, fervent prayer" is that of one who has found God, and that because he has been found of God, by the earnest working of that Holy Spirit who never ceases to do the best that can be done to win every human soul. But now comes the question as to "reasoning powers." Is it in the right use of these that a man is found of God, and so finds that God? That is, does the Holy Spirit address himself to men as rational beings? If He should come visibly as He seems to have done to Jacob, does He appear to the ordinary eye? or if He speaks is it to the ordinary ear? or if He merely suggests thought is it to the ordinary thinking of the soul? The word which He has inspired, is it written so as to affect the usual thinking faculties? Surely there can be but one answer to such questions. If we are to see Him when He appears it is by looking on Him. If we are to hear Him when He speaks it must be by listening to Him. If we are to be enlightened by His suggestions, it must be by entertaining them in the usual way. If we are to understand His writing to us, it must be by treating it as we do any other writing which we are willing to understand. How can He find us and discover Himself to us, except in this manner? Yet this is what is apt to be called finding Him by the reasoning power," or by "unaided reason." It is this, too, that seems to be set aside in favour of some inexplicable mode of finding Him through mighty wrestling before we have Him to wrestle with! There are are two extremes in each of which some err in this matter. One is seen when a man sets to work to dig out the knowledge of God from what he calls Nature, on the understanding that God has no more desire to be of him than the rivers in Africa have to be discovered by Livingstone! The other is when a man sets to work wrestling with a God which he has not yet found to wrestle with, and that as if that same unfound God had the very greatest reluctance to be found! The Eternal Father and fountain of all good must be ever desirous to be known and trusted by the creatures He has formed and ransomed that they might know and trust Him. He has done and is doing all that can be done to tend and win every one of those creatures. But all that can be done must be done in accordance with the nature He has given them, and that is a reasoning nature. Then, as to the untrained mind. Our Lord tells us that it is the child who is best capable of entering into the kingdom of God, and the child has had the least of moral training. Alas! for the character of what passes, and too currently, for such training! It does not by any means tend to the finding of God. It is neither by sustained thinking, nor yet by scientific method, that a soul understands even the most fundamental truth in all theology. It is only by honest attention to what God is ever revealing. Take the most simple of all minds, and let it only attend to what Jesus says of the Father, such as His making His sun to shine on the evil and the good, and His sending His rain upon the just and the unjust, let that mind only listen in reason, and it will find God. Nay, let that mind but honestly listen to those very thoughts which the shining sun and the fructifying rain suggests, and it will find the way to listen to

Observer, Oct. 1, 72.

the truth as it is in Jesus, so as to find God in Him. It will come to know the use of prayer, and of wrestling with God also, but that will be after it has found Himself, and been found of Him too.

J. K.

AN EGYPTIAN RECORD OF THE ISRAELITISH EXODUS.

THE Cologne Gazette publishes the subjoined:-"Doctor Eisenlohr, Professor of the University of Heidelberg, and a learned Egyptian scholar, went to England a few months since to examine a papyrus found in a tomb by Mr. Harris, editor of the Hieroglyphical Standard. This is the finest, largest, best written and best preserved of all that has hitherto been discovered in the country of the Pharoahs, forming a roll of 134 feet in length, and 16 inches wide. It dates from the end of Rameses III. (the Rampsinit of Herodotus), and is thus more than 3000 years old. It contains most valuable information relative to the political and religious civilization of Egypt at that distant period, and is written in hieratic characters, that is to say, a mixture of hieroglyphics and signs for letters and syllables. The text is an allocution from Rameses III., ' to his people and all the men on earth,' on the great deeds of his own reign and those of his father Setinecht, and grandfather Maneptah II. Seti, acts which had brought to a term a period of religious evolution, highly important for the study of biblical writings. Rameses himself recounts how he re-established the ancient Egyptian worship, re-built the temples, and endowed them with a munificence on the effects of which he dwells largely. At the end of his address, the king enumerates his warlike exploits and all services he had rendered to his people. The religious movement alluded to relates to the period of Moses, to the monotheistic worship founded or restored by him and comprises all the events which terminated in the ruin of monotheism in Egypt, and the exodus of the Jews. This papyrus is, consequently, of the highest interest for the study of the Mosaic religion and legislation, and is eminently useful to explain, co-ordinate and confirm a great variety of details. Dr. Eisenlohr recently gave a lecture on this subject at Heidelberg, at a meeting of the Historico Philosophical Society, and read a complete translation made by himself, of the historical address of Rameses to his people. A report of the sitting has just been published by Hinrichs of Leipsic."

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Observer, Oct. 1, '72.

Mr. Edwards to purchase a few articles, and were now on their way home. There was no smile on the face of Mr. Lewis now, but a very grave expression indeed-grave almost to sternness. The words of his wife had taken him altogether by surprise, and, though spoken lightly, had jarred upon his ear.

The truth was, Mr. Lewis, like a great many other men who have their own business cares and troubles, was in the habit of bringing home a sober and, too often, a clouded face. It was in vain that his wife and children looked into that face for sunshine, or listened to his words for tones of cheerfulness.

"Take that home with you, dear!" Mrs. Lewis was already repenting the suggestion, made on the moment's impulse. Her husband was sensitive to a fault. He could not bear even an implied censure from his wife; and so she had learned to be very guarded in this particular.

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"Take that home with you, dear!" she repeated to herself. Ah, me! I wish the words had not been said. There will be darker clouds now, and I am sure they were dark enough before. Why can't Mr. Lewis leave his cares and business behind him, and let us see the old, pleasant, smiling face again? I thought this morning that he had forgotten how to smile; but I see he can smile if he tries. Ah! Why doesn't he try at home?" Thus soliloquised Mrs. Lewis as she walked along by the side of her husband, who had not spoken a word since her reply to his query," Take what home?" Square after square was passed, and street after street was crossed, and still there was silence between them.

"Of course," said Mrs. Lewisspeaking in her own thoughts-" of course he is offended. He won't bear a word from me. I might have known beforehand that talking out

in this way would only make things worse. Oh dear! I'm getting out of all heart!"

"What then, Carry?" said Mr. Lewis.

Mrs. Lewis almost started at the sound of her husband's voice breaking unexpectedly upon her ear in a softened tone.

"What then?" he repeated, turning towards her and looking down into her shyly upturned face.

"It would send warmth and radiance through the whole house," replied Mrs. Lewis, her tones trembling with feeling.

"You think so?" said her husband. "I know so!" she replied. "Only try it, dear, for this one evening."

"It isn't so easy a thing to put on a smiling face, Carry, when thought is oppressed with care," said Mr. Lewis.

"It didn't seem to require much effort just now," said Mrs. Lewis, glancing up at her husband with something of archness in her look.

Again a shadow dropped down upon the face of Mr. Lewis, which was again partly turned away; and again they walked on in silence.

"He is so sensitive!" Mrs. Lewis said to herself the shadow on her husband's face darkening over her own. "I have to be as careful of my words as if talking to a spoiled child."

No; it did not require much effort on the part of Mr. Lewis to smile as he passed a few words lightly with Mr. Edwards. The remark of his wife had not really displeased him; it had only set him thinking. After remaining gravely silent, because he was undergoing a brief self-examinaation, Mr. Lewis said, "You thought the smile given to Mr. Edwards came easily enough?”

"It did not seem to require an effort," replied Mrs. Lewis.

"No, not much effort was required," said Mr. Lewis, and his

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