violence. Some time after, John's duties again called him to that city. When he had attended to all the other matters, he said to the bishop Well, bishop, restore the pledge which the Saviour and I entrusted to thee, in the presence of the congregation'! The bishop at first was alarmed, supposing that John was speaking of money, and charging him with embezzlement. But when John continued: 'I demand again that young man, and the soul of my brother,' the old man sighed heavily, and with tears replied: He is dead!' 'Dead?' said the Disciple of the Lord; ' in what way did he die?" "He is dead to God,' responded the old man; he became godless, and finally a robber. He is no longer in the Church, but, with his fellows, holds the fastnesses of a mountain.' The Apostle, when he heard this, with a loud cry, rent his clothing and smote his head, and exclaimed; 'To what a keeper have I committed my brother's soul! He takes a horse and a guide, and hastens to the spot where the band of robbers was to be found. He is seized by their outguard; he makes no attempt to escape, but cries out; 'I have come for this very purpose. Take me to your captain!" Their captain, completely armed, is waiting for them to bring him, but, recognising John as he approached, flees, from a sense of shame. John, nevertheless, forgetting his age, hastens after him with all speed, crying: 'Why, my child, do you flee from me-from me, your father, an unarmed old man? Have compassion on me, my child; do not be afraid. You yet have a hope to live. I will yet give account to Christ for you. If needs be I will gladly die for you, as us. Christ died for I will lay down my life for you. Stop! Believe! Christ hath sent me.' Hearing these words, he first stands still and casts his eyes upon the ground. He next throws away his arms, and commences trembling and weeping bitterly. When the old man approaches, he clasps his knees, and with the most vehement agony pleads for forgiveness, baptizing himself anew as it were with his own tears: all this time, however, he conceals his right hand. But the Apostle, pledging himself, with an appeal to God for his truth, that he had obtained forgiveness of God from the Saviour for him, implores him even on his knees, and the hand he had held back he kisses as if it were cleansed again by his penitence. He finally led him back to the Church. Here he pleaded with him earnestly, strove with him in fasting, urged him with monitions, until he was able to restore him to the Church an example of sincere repentance and genuine regeneration. To this narrative from the life of the holy Disciple, which bears so strikingly the impress of his heart, Jerome (Comm. ad Galat. vol. iii. p. 314, Mart.) adds the following trait: When John had reached his extremest old age, he became to feeble too walk to the meetings, and was carried to them by young men. He could no longer say much, but he constantly repeated the words :'Little children love one another!' When he was asked why he constantly repeated this expression, his answer was: "Because this is the command of the Lord, and because enough is done if but this one thing is done.'"-Dr. Tholuck. Theological Notes and Queries. OPEN COUNCIL. [The utmost freedom of hallowed thought is permitted in this department. The reader must therefore use his own discriminating faculties, and the Editor must be allowed to claim freedom from responsibility.] RECONCILIATION OF JOHN V. 31, AND VIII, 14. REPLICANT. In answer to QUERIST No. 8, p. 537. The context will easily decide the meaning of Christ in each of the above passages, and thus reconcile them. In chap. v. 30, Christ says that, as a man, He receives everything from God. Therefore it was necessary they should expect another testimony besides His own word regarding His real greatness; and for that other testimony He refers them to the works which He did, as a sufficient proof that the Father had sent Him. But in viii. 14, He takes a higher ground, and speaks of Himself not in relation to the Father, but to the world. "I am the light of the world." Here was 66 a higher self-consciousness, transcending in its confidence all doubt and selfdeception, the eternal light beaming through the human sciousness. (Neander's "Life of Christ,' p. 323.) He felt con sure that the Father was with Him, and His works were always a proof that He was "the light of the world," as they were that He had been sent from the Father. Thus in the one case He allows that His words without His works would not be sufficient proof of His divine mission, and on the other hand asserts that His word, backed by His works, was a sufficient Literary Notices. [WE hold it to be the duty of an Editor either to give an early notice of the books sent to him for remark, or to return them at once to the Publisher, It is unjust to praise worthless books; it is robbery to retain unnoticed ones.] THE REVIEWER'S CANON. In every work regard the author's end, Since none can compass more than they intend. SERMONS, by JABEZ BUNTING, D.D. Vol. I. London: J. Mason. Sold at 66, Paternoster Row. THE author of these sermons was for many years one of the most enlightened, active, and leading, ministers of the respectable, influential, and growing communion of Methodism. These discourses for the most part were composed and delivered in the earlier stages of his ministerial life. Those who would look for startling originality of conception, a far-reaching philosophy, or a gorgeous rhetoric, in sermons, would perhaps be disappointed with this volume; but they who look for other and higher qualities; such as a fulness of evangelic doctrine, stated with a convincing perspicuity, and a genuine pathos, and applied with the hand of a master, to the reason of the man, and the conscience of the sinner, will find here that in which their soul may delight itself in fatness." Had we space we could furnish many extracts displaying a pulpit capability of the highest type. On the text "Secret things belong to the Lord our God," &c., the following passage occurs, which we quote, because it bears against an intellectual evil, rife in this age of ours. "Seek not out,' says 66 the wise son of Sirach, 'the things that are too hard for thee, neither search the things that are above thy strength. Be not curious in unnecessary matters.' Our great epic poet is, perhaps, right in the view he gives of the employment of fallen spirits. A relish for useless and unhallowed speculation is found only in those who are more or less fallen from the simplicity of holy love to God and childlike confidence in Him. Such a disposition is sinful as well as foolish. It occasions a sinful waste of time, a sinful diversion of our faculties and attention from profitable to unedifying inquiries. We all perceive and blame the folly of Archimedes, who is said to have employed himself in drawing geometrical figures on the sands of Syracuse at the time when the city was stormed by the army of Marcellus; and so perished, though the soldiers had received special directions to spare him, in consequence of his unseasonable and inordinate attention to his favorite study. Equally great is the folly of those who, instead of working out their salvation with fear and trembling, unnecessarily busy themselves in the pursuit of those things which, however innocent or even excellent in themselves, have no tendency to promote the present or everlasting welfare of themselves or others. All studies, all pursuits of knowledge, which do not directly or indirectly contribute to these ends, are, in dying creatures like us, impertinent and vain, unsanctified and sinful." THE NATURE OF THE ATONEMENT, AND ITS RELATION TO REMISSION OF SINS AND ETERNAL LIFE. By JOHN MCLEOD CAMPBELL. Cambridge: Macmillan & Co. It is somewhat late in the day for us to call the attention of our readers to this remarkable volume. We can only say that had the publishers forwarded it to us sooner, it should have had a speedier notice. To canvass with a rigorous honesty and an independent judgment, the various theological theories of the atonement, and to propound conclusions strikingly original on the wonderful subject, requires in these days, when vulgar heresy-hunters abound, no ordinary amount of intrepidity of soul. The man to pursue such a course, must be one who "Would not flatter Neptune for his trident, Nor Jove for his power to thunder." Yet one devout student of the Holy Book has as much right to prosecute inquiries into this subject, and publish his views, as another. The author of this work displays qualifications for such investigations equal to those of Calvin or Luther, Owen or Edwards, Payne or Wardlaw; and, as honest seekers after truth, we are as much bound to give him a candid hearing as we are to attend to their cogitations. It is confessedly, of all Biblical doctrines, the most vital and the most beclouded by human theories and vain speculations. We are not prepared to say that Mr. Campbell has reached the true rationale of the subject, or to express a hope that such a point will ever be gained in the march of theological inquiry; but we do assert that his book is the most valuable on the subject that has ever fallen into our hands. In it he discusses the various Calvinistic theories of the atonement, the ends it contemplated, its retrospective and prospective aspect, the elements in which he conceives it to exist, and several other bearings of the subject. Though the style often offends us by its verbosity and involvedness, the thinking is most fresh and thorough, the argument consecutive and cogent, and the spirit candid, magnanimous and devout; it has none of the narrowness, the acrimony, and misrepresentations, which have too often characterized the history of such discussions. JOHN FENTON, PRINTER, LOUGHBORO' PLACE, BRIXTON. |