fully agreed upon before man was created. In the Miltonian views, the Almighty foreordained the first of created beings, pre-eminently distinguished as His Son, to be the medium by whom the demands of His justice should be satisfied; the whole work being determined in like manner by a sort of covenant between the two.

In both these "schemes" of salvation the reader is beguiled by the copious use of Biblical phraseology, but so interpreted as to entirely obliterate the most glorious gem in the girdle of Revelation—the absolute oneness of God.

The Orthodox system divides God into three equal and distinct parts. The Miltonian theory assumes that the incommunicable attributes of the one God can be so shared by a creature as to endow him with Omniscience, Omnipotence, and Omnipresence. Thus, repeating the old danger, Milton, trying to escape Scylla, falls headlong into Charybdis.

The scriptural idea of Redemption differs in toto from these perplexing dogmata; for God is there depicted as the very and only Fountain of all love to the sinner; as Himself becoming the Redeemer and Saviour, condescending to take upon Him man's fallen nature, and therein satisfy at once all the claims of Divine justice and mercy by placing Himself in a new and more intense relation to His creatures; reopening the door to the Divine Presence, first, by the glorification of His human nature; and secondly, by communicating His Holy Spirit to men.

The general reader is apt not to discriminate between the loose use of terms in religious books and their more definite and significant sense in Scripture. Milton himself, however, was a master of language, and carefully weighed the force of the words he employed. Without positively contesting in his poems the arguments of orthodoxy, he imbued his diction with his cherished Arianism, yet retaining the dogma of a vicarious sacrifice as the only clue through the tangled labyrinth of Romish and reformed theology. Confounding the mystery of the Trinity with the mystifications of Tritheism, he ventured to cut the Gordian knot of apostolic faith with the sword of Rationalism, severing the Lord's human nature from Godhead; and the fate of Alexander has followed him. Held up for a time as the great authority of the Christian world-Orthodox, Arian, Socinian, all by turns mingling their plaudits of admiration—his empire is now hopelessly divided; the Church is consummated, and a new departure is everywhere demanded. In the next paper I propose to examine another page of the Miltonian theology, and consider how far it accords with the "Reasonableness of the Christian Religion." ROBERT ABBOTT.

THE SABBATH.

ONE of the most conspicuous institutions of the Church is the Sabbath. Weekly we are interrupted in the course of our ordinary occupations and led to observe a season of rest, of public worship and religious instruction. The members of the Church are especially interested in the observance of this Divine institution. The Sabbath was made for man. It is adapted to all his wants, both mental and physical. It ministers to his religious wants and aids his social progress. Habitual Sabbath-breaking is a certain pathway to moral deterioration.

To see the beauty and excellency of the Sabbath we must attend to the law of its institution, and seek to understand its meaning. The law of the Sabbath finds its authority in the beginning of the creation itself. It is established in the nature and constitution of things. "In six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day, and hallowed it." The six days of creation are not to be literally interpreted. It is only in their spiritual sense that we learn the true meaning and exalted usefulness of the Sabbath.

The Sabbath in its highest sense has relation to the Lord in His humanity. The six days of labour represent His states of temptation and conflict with the powers of darkness in the process of our redemption. The day of rest is His state of glorification, when, "having put all enemies under His feet," He becomes to all His true followers the source of internal rest, the Lord of the Sabbath, the ever-living and the everlasting Prince of Peace. In a subordinate sense the Sabbath represents the state of internal tranquillity and peace of the regenerate man. The six days of labour are the states of conflict with the evil and error to which he is naturally prone; and the seventh day, the day of rest, the holy Sabbath, is his state of regeneration, when, having conjoined in his will and understanding the principles of goodness and truth, he enters into peace, and the Lord alone is exalted in his interior affections and desires. The regeneration thus attained is the appointed means of preparation for "an inheritance which is incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away." The peace which passeth understanding, the rest which remaineth for the children of God, is not in this life. The highest and holiest development of internal peace, tranquillity, and joy is in the future. Here we have spiritual trials and worldly anxieties. Here we have spiritual warfare and earthly contention and strife. There, in the Lord's heavenly

kingdom, the home of His regenerate creation, is secret tranquillity, internal peace, and everlasting joy. The voice of tumult and contention is hushed. The strife of tongues is no longer heard. Every heart is filled with a Divine love, and every life is guided by a Divine wisdom. And these Divine elements of a perfected humanity abide in settled and everlasting peace. The Sabbath, therefore, in its relation to man represents heaven as the state of peace into which we enter after the conflicts of earth; and hence the apostle expresses the rest which remaineth to the children of God by a word (sabbatismos) which has relation to the Sabbath.

We are taught to "remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy." To remember the Sabbath is to keep it continually in mind, and to faithfully obey its precepts. Under the law this observance of the Sabbath was secured by most severe enactments. To violate its laws was death. This severity under a representative economy was necessary to make manifest the spiritual consequence of violating the internal principles of faith and love, and thence of peace and joy, which were denoted by the Sabbath. Under the Christian dispensation these laws in their external form are abolished. Under the spiritual law of the Gospel men are not to be driven by the fear of punishment, but drawn by the Divine law of love. This larger liberty of the spiritual dispensation is unhappily attended with much neglect of the duties of the Sabbath, and often painfully exercises the lovers of order and the promoters of the better observance of the Sabbath. The Christian as well as the Jewish Sabbath is a day of rest from earthly labour. And in no period of the world's history was this external rest more needful than in the present. The exactions of worldly business, the eager pursuit of wealth, and the restless anxieties and feverish excitements of our ever-varying commercial life, exhaust the nervous energy of the body, and intensify the call for rest. When the world thus occupies the whole range of active thought, how important, how needful, and how refreshing the quiet moments of peaceful meditation and the hallowed enjoyments of the public worship of the Lord! Yet how often is this needed rest rudely interfered with, and the season of peace converted into a day of excitement and pleasure! With, alas! too many the duties of public worship and private meditation on Divine subjects are thrust aside by the allurements of the world. A pharisaic or puritanical observance of the Sabbath, which converts a day of peace and cheerful observance of religious duty into a day of mental depression and spiritual gloom, is neither taught in the New Testament nor encouraged by the example of the Lord. There

are, doubtless, allowable interruptions to the strict observance of the Sabbath. Works of necessity and mercy cannot be put aside. The sick must receive needful attention. The duties of domestic life cannot be wholly suspended; and sometimes our social life will put in claims it would be difficult to resist. Christian institutions possess an elasticity which did not exist under the former dispensation. Under the law was the fixed forms of the external representation of internal things. Under the Gospel is the living form of spiritual faith and celestial love—a form instinct with life and perfect in beauty. The danger is that this necessary relaxation of external law may lead to abuse by professed members of the Church. How is this abuse to be avoided? How are we best to promote an orderly and diligent observance of the Sabbath?

These questions occupy at the present time the thoughtful and anxious attention of many earnest and eager Christian minds. Nor is their consideration confined to one section of the Christian Church. All Churches are affected by the laxity of Sabbath observance. Trifling excuses suffice to keep from the sanctuary those who should be eager to be present. Circumstances which would not for a moment detain men from the business of the world are quite sufficient to keep them from the house of God. The only remedy for this coldness and indifference to the services of the Church is Christian culture, and thence the attainment of the principles which the Sabbath represents, and whence arise all its internal peace and inexpressible delight. And it is this which is denoted by remembering the Sabbath. It is to have it continually in mind. There is in every mind a secret dominant thought a sentiment which, either latent or openly manifest to the consciousness, exercises supreme control in all the secret movements of our inner nature. This thought is connected with our secret affection, and is the revelation of our veriest self. When the love and truth, the peace and rest which constitute the true Sabbath, obtain their fixed habitation in the spirit, we shall be in no danger of forgetting the Sabbath. Its remembrance will be a part of our very being, of our self of selfs, and we shall, from inmost affection, call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shall honour Him, not doing our own ways, nor finding our own pleasure, nor speaking our own words. R. S. H.

LETTER TO A FRIEND JUST MARRIED.

JERSEY, June 1874.

MY DEAR FRIEND,-It was with much pleasure that I read the circular announcing the fact of your having entered upon that most blissful of all human conditions, the matrimonial. Having been myself at an early age shipped by Cupid on board the Conjugialis, and having been cruising about therein on the sea of Time a whole halfcentury and more, and experienced the many told and untold delights of such a life, you will allow me to congratulate you most heartily on having found your counterpart, with whom only you could have become a happy voyager in a craft of the same Line; and having commenced a course, the aspect of which promises fair for an abundance of felicity. Doubtless you will as you proceed make many discoveries, even unexpected ones. The sun of your love sometimes sending its heart-warming rays down from exceeding high altitudes, elevating your souls almost into the heaven-state; at other times under cross winds and blackening skies, you learn the existence of dangerous rocks and quicksands, to be avoided only by skilful management of the helm. The vessel you have just embarked in, as it is of the Domestic Line, you will find has very marked peculiarities. For instance, sail where you may, it will never take you from home, so that in every road or port you may harmoniously sing, "Home, sweet home, there's no place like home." Again, instead of having the entire command given to an individual, in these vessels the captain and his mate hold equal authority, for the conjugial laws forbid either to dominate the other. The reason of this, I apprehend, is because conjugiality can neither rule nor be ruled. With Love's compass in the binnacle, and the correct chart on board, the united hearts need no authority between them; and having the Shipowner's instructions in a language understood by both, and having His warrant for believing in His lovingkindness towards them, they can unitedly comply with His wishes with loving hearts. Understanding that you have shipped no lack of stores, mental and physical, for a hopeful commencement and procedure of your voyage, and knowing by experience the readiness of the munificent Owner to send you fresh supplies continually as they become requisite, I can but repeat my congratulations on your happy lot. Although it is very possible that adverse winds may occasionally meet you requiring strictest attention to the proper rules of navigation, your desire to preserve the freight unharmed for the great Owner's use, and to well protect each the other in every danger, will keep you on the alert, and so prevent the evil spirits that come in every stormy