is impaired, their social circle invaded, their property taken away, or their pleasures interfered with. The divine demand, however, is, "Son, daughter, give me thy heart." Without this, the most scrupulous external acknowledgment, the most pompous worship, the costliest sacrifices, will not be accepted. "To what purpose,' it will be said, "is the multitude of your sacrifices? . . . Bring no more vain oblation." Unless we have such esteem for the divine character, such confidence in the wisdom and righteousness of the divine government, such sympathy with the divine plans, that we cheerfully acquiesce in the will and ways of God, and feel it to be not only right, but best, that he should direct the general affairs of the universe, and ours in particular, we cannot make a cordial surrender of ourselves to him. Such views, however, must be the result of the teaching of the Holy Spirit. They may not, will not, be always equally vivid and strong. It is the business of the Christian life to mature them under this teaching. Still, they must exist. We must give ourselves to God with our whole hearts, from sincere love and cordial preference. And why should we not? Is it not best, safest, for our highest welfare and happiness, that divine wisdom and goodness should dispose of all things-the least and greatest of our affairs? Would it be better to serve blind chance, or inexorable fate, or wicked men, or even our own selfish lusts? Is it not best that He who made us, with all our capacities,-who placed us in this world where is so much to promote our happiness, who has blessed us with so many temporal comforts, social enjoyments, and spiritual blessings, who gave his own Son for us, sends his Spirit, and affords us the means and opportunities of grace, -should direct and control us?

With this intellectual and hearty recognition of God's authority over us, however, there must also be a practical acknowledgment of this. We must act upon it in our daily lives. It is not a mere opinion, or sentiment, or profession, that is implied, but an habitual walk. According to the principles of human nature, the conduct will always be determined by the greatest apparent good. What is seen to be best, in such a sense that they choose because they love and have confidence in it as the way of peace, that will men pursue. The affections are the moving springs of life. They stimulate to action in every department of human pursuit. If, therefore, we are intellectually convinced that we ought to give ourselves to God, and have those views of his character and government that we feel that it will be safest and happiest for us to live to him, our habitual conduct will be regulated accordingly, and that in proportion to the vividness and intensity of these views and feelings. How, then, may we practically recognise God's property in us? 1. By habitually inquiring what he will have us do. The more we thus seek his direction, assistance, and blessing, in all that we undertake, going to him before we embark in any enterprise, looking to him continually while engaged in its prosecution, depending upon

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him for its success, the more do we practically recognise his authority over us. 2. By pleading with him through Jesus Christ for minds to perceive and hearts to love his service. But for the influence of sin, we would always be alive to his claims. What need have we, however, for the Spirit of God to work, quickening, enlightening, disposing as to what is right! 3. By seeking to order all our ways according to the will of God. Not in sacred seasons, devotional exercises, religious services merely, but at all times, in all places, circumstances, and things, in private and in public, in duty and in suffering, in sorrow and in joy, in prosperity and in adversity; with reference to health, talents, influence, time, property, friends, pleasures, business, every thing-whether we eat or drink, or whatsoever we do, doing all to the glory of God.

Such are the elements of that self-surrender that religion demands. It implies, indeed, that there is a ground upon which God can accept such a surrender by a sinner who has forfeited his favour. But this has been revealed in the gospel. Need we then motives to comply? Without it, no other service will avail with God. No acts of apparent obedience, no observances, no professions, can be acceptable to him except so far as they are the evidence and pledge of having first given ourselves to the Lord. Without this, no service will be agreeable to ourselves. This gift includes all others. If we are truly the Lord's, all that we are and have are his; our interests are his interests, and his interests ours. We become intimately identified with him and his cause. Duty, then, instead of being an irksome drudgery, becomes a pleasant service. Without this, moreover, no service that we render will be useful to others. Those who have not given themselves to the Lord will undertake little and accomplish less. But those who have will be ready to respond to every call, will even watch for opportunities, and, finding them, will enter the open door of service, not slavishly, but heartily, as to the Lord and not unto men. Is it not, then, wise to make a full surrender-to seek more and more an entire consecration to Him whose we are? The question is not whether God shall control and dispose of us, but whether we will cordially, practically, recognise his right. N. R. S.

ARGUMENTS FOR INFANT SALVATION.

In the last number of this Magazine we published a short notice of an excellent volume, entitled "My Father's House," by the Rev. JAMES M. MACDONALD, D.D. On the subject of infant salvation, Dr. M., in addition to several sound and scriptural arguments, introduced one the validity of which we took the liberty of calling in question, and suggested to the author a reconsideration of that argument, expressing a belief that he would abandon it as unsound. The following communication has been sent us by Dr. M., which

we cheerfully insert in our pages, with the single remark that, upon a perusal of its contents, we do not see a sufficient reason for changing our former views. We think Dr. M. has satisfactorily proved the doctrine by other arguments, and therefore does not need this in order to sustain him in those precious and delightful sentiments which he entertains on this subject; and, in our opinion, the introduction of a doubtful argument, under these circumstances, diminishes the effect of those which are strong and convincing. But perhaps our readers may not agree with us in this opinion; and, that they may have the materials for forming a correct judgment, we insert Dr. M.'s letter entire, including a much longer quotation from the work than was given in our notice last month.-Ed.

REV. AND DEAR BROTHER :—

PRINCETON, Feb. 25, 1856.

I thank you for the favourable estimate you have been pleased to express of a book with which I have had some connection, entitled, "My Father's House," &c.

Among the arguments contained in that volume in favour of the doctrine of infant salvation, you call my attention to a particular one, and request me to reconsider it, expressing the opinion that the author "will find cause, on a review of the subject, to abandon it as invalid." Will you have the kindness to insert in the next number of the Magazine the entire paragraph in which that argument is contained, [which I have had transcribed and herewith forward for that purpose,] that your readers who have not the book may see precisely how it is presented therein?

"The rule which an apostle lays down [‘For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law; and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law, in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel:' Rom. ii. 12, 16] as that by which God will be governed in judging the heathen world at the last day, leaves us no room to doubt as to the salvation of all-the children of heathen as well as of Christians-who die in infancy. The standard of judgment is the light or knowledge which men have severally enjoyed. The heathen will not be judged by the revealed law or the Holy Scriptures, because they have never had this revelation. They will be judged according to the light which they possess, which is commonly called the light of nature. Having sinned against this light, they must give account thereof in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ. If the heathen will not be judged according to the revealed will of God because they have been ignorant of it, it is certain that infants who die before they have any knowledge of it will not be judged by it. And they are just as ignorant of the light of nature as they are of revelation, and cannot be judged by it; and, therefore, we conclude that there is no law which will condemn them on the day of judgment. Their intellectual faculties have not yet been developed; hence it is impossible for them to know God, or the invisible things of him, from the things which are clearly seen-namely, his works. It is impossible to teach them to understand God's holy Word. In other words, God has made no revelation of any kind to infants, whose intellectual faculties remain in embryo. Even were we to concede that the Scriptures are silent, as some have maintained, on the question of the salvation of infants, we might here perhaps discover the reason: the Bible was not written for them-is not addressed to them. If they are not referred to 'in its overtures of mercy,' it is equally true that they come not under its proclamation of duty' nor its threatenings of future punishment. And the salvation of the infants of pagans, of infidels, and of the most wicked men, is, in the light of this rule of judgment, just as certain as the salvation of the most devout and faithful Christians. 'There is no respect of persons with God.' Rom. ii. 11. He is perfectly impartial, and

treats all on precisely the same principles. All are alike ignorant of the written law, and as yet have not had a law written on their hearts; consequently, there is no standard of judgment by which any of them can be condemned. When the books are opened, the only one with which the small' who stand before God will have any concern is the book of life. There will be nothing in the book of nature, or the book of God's written law, or the books of memory and conscience, in which they will have any concern.'

On the foregoing you remark, (1) "That the apostle had no reference in that passage to infants, but adults, and that it cannot be applied to infants without a perversion of its original design." Your readers will see that I did not pretend or imply that the apostle had any such reference. And they will see, with equal clearness, that there is a striking analogy in respect to the rule of judgment in the case of the heathen and that rule in the case of infants. The heathen are not judged by the written revealed law of God, because they are "without" it; nor will infants be judged by that standard, for the same reason,-viz.: they are without it; nor will they be judged by that standard against which the heathen have sinned and by which they are condemned-the law written in their hearts, or the light of nature; for they are without this too. You say, (2) "That the apostle does not teach that the heathen possessed sufficient light to save them, but only to justify their condemnation." Neither does "My Father's House," in the paragraph under consideration, nor in any part of it, advance the sentiment that the heathen had sufficient light to save them; on the contrary, it distinctly maintains [see pp. 320-323] the doctrine of the apostle, that the heathen can no more abide the test by which they are to be tried than those who have the gospel can stand the severer test by which they are to be judged. Again, you say, (3) "That the argument derived from it [the passage in Rom. ii. 12, 16] for infant salvation is inconsistent with those which follow, and with other parts of Scripture which teach the fall of all mankind in Adam, infants as well as adults, and that their salvation is an act of grace, through the righteousness of Christ imputed to them and the work of the Holy Spirit regenerating their corrupt natures; whereas this argument assumes that they are saved as an act of justice." I confess I cannot see wherein there is any want of consistency between the reasoning that neither the rule which will condemn those who possess the gospel nor the rule which will condemn the heathen in the day of judgment will be made the standard of judgment in the case of infants, with the doctrines of Scripture that all mankind fell in Adam, and that the salvation of infants is an act of grace, and is the work of the Holy Spirit, all of which doctrines are maintained in this volume. If they have original sin, how can they be saved as an act of justice? or how can they be saved without an atonement or without the renewing work of the Holy Spirit? Now, the atonement of Christ, according to the apostle, (Rom. v. 12-21,) has so far removed the penal effects of the sin of Adam that no man will be finally condemned irrespective of inherent depravity or actual transgression. In referring to such as have sinned without the written law, (Rom. ii. 12,) but against light sufficient to render them inexcusable, he limits the condemnation to those who have actually sinned against this light. Considering, then, what is here said respecting the ground of condemnation of such as are without the written law, in connection with the reasoning in chap. v., it appears that, as the ground of condemnation in question cannot apply to infants, because they are not yet a law unto themselves, are acquainted

with no law whatever, there is no law that will condemn them on the day of judgment. The redemption of those who had "not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression,". according to the apostle's reasoning, is to be taken for granted. He introduces the case of infants for the sake of illustrating the "exceeding riches" of divine grace in saving actual transgressors. The reasoning of the apostle "also supposes," says the Rev. David Russell, Dundee, in an admirable work on "The Salvation of all Dying in Infancy," published in Edinburgh in 1823, as quoted by the Rev. Dr. Smyth, of Charleston, South Carolina, in his work on the doctrine of infant salvation, "supposes that justice in the infliction of punishment is limited to desert, while grace, when not obstructed in its exercise by the claims of offended righteousness, can be imparted in the most unlimited abundance, according to the good pleasure of the divine will. It seems then necessarily to follow that, under the present dispensation, no exclusion occurs where nothing additional to the sin of Adam has taken place, since all obstructions in the way of the honourable exercise of mercy and grace have been completely removed by the infinitely precious sacrifice of Christ." "Those that perish," says Dr. Hodge, remarking on Rom. v. 17, "perish not because the sin of Adam has brought them under condemnation, nor because no adequate provision has been made for their recovery, but because they will not receive the offered mercy." Yours respectfully, JAMES M. MACDONALD.

Bousehold Choughts.

MEDITATIONS ON THE SICK AND THE DEPARTED.

METHOUGHT the angel of death was hovering over our household; for our youngest-born, a boy of a twelvemonth in age, was drooping, and apparently about to die. It was an anxious period. Death, we thought, was commissioned to nip the tenderest bud in our nursery; but we were enabled by grace to say, "It is well"— the will of the Lord be done!

While anticipating the severing of the tie which bound this precious lamb to life and entwined him around his parents' hearts, we were led to reflect upon scenes connected with eternity, and past occurrences and future probabilities occupied our minds and thoughts.

Six years since, a lovely babe of twenty months was removed by death from the family group, and taken, we believe, to Jesus' bosom. He was a child of the covenant; for we had devoted him to God at birth in our hearts and in our approaches in prayer to the throne of the heavenly grace, and we renewed this covenant by going to the altar of God with the infant in our arms, and, in the presence of the church and in view of heaven and its inhabitants, offering him to the Lord in baptism, and having the name of the Father,