but also an avowal of their regard for the great doctrines of the Reformation.

The proclamation of one doctrine in particular the doctrine of justification by faith alone-was the instrument which God appointed and blessed in opposing the wretched and soul-destroying system of Romanism. It declared that the moral Governor of the world, by an act of grace, reckons to all who believe the gospel the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ, and thus pardons their sins, and gives them a title to everlasting life, for which they are made meet by the sanctifying operation of the Holy Spirit, in perfect accordance with the glory of his character and of his administration. Justification and sanctification are distinct, but yet allied. Justification is a change in the state of the individual; sanctification is a change in his character. Being justified, we are accounted righteous; being sanctified, we are made holy. No one can be sanctified without being justified; every one who is justified shall certainly be sanctified. Justification is complete as soon as the soul trusts sincerely and alone in the mediation of Christ: but sanctification is progressive throughout the earthly course of the believer. Justification is granted in the exercise of faith without works: sanctification ensures good works as the fruit of faith-the only satisfactory evidence that men can have of their faith being true, vital, and saving.

Amidst, then, the zealous and persevering efforts of Romanists, and of a party in Oxford well known for their active dissemination of semi-popish sentiments, let us remember that in the scriptural doctrine of justification we have an antagonist to all the diversified forms of error. Simple as it is, it must triumph, because those who dispense it, are "fellow-workers together with God." No evil, however gigantic, can withstand

let us undertake, in dependance on the guidance and blessing of the Spirit of God. The instrument may appear feeble; but it must be effective, because, like the rod of Moses, and the sling of David, and the pitchers and lamps of Gideon, it is accompanied by omnipotent energy. Under this conviction, another volume of the Visitor is commenced. Always devoted to the cause of truth, we wish it to be so still more fully. May the God of wisdom greatly prosper this, and every other effort to make known "the faithful saying, which is worthy of all acceptation."

VEGETABLE CHEMISTRY.

No. I.

NOTHING Seems more calculated to arrest the attention and excite the wonder of the most superficial observer of the vegetable creation, than the immense and boundless diversity of objects which it offers to our attention. Every variety of every species would seem to exhibit something new. The differences of form, structure, configuration, texture, colour, odour-cannot be enumerated, and even render futile any attempt at classification, except so far as the possession in common of some few leading characteristics, may tend to assist the memory, and thus enable us to arrive more readily at a knowledge of their properties and uses. 'How manifold, O Lord, are thy works!" But the researches of vegetable chemistry have revealed one fact more extraordinary still, "In wisdom hast thou made them all.' From them we learn, that this endless diversity, this infinitude of effect, is brought about merely by a difference in the proportion and arrangement of a very few elementary principles. The works of man require various materials, operose machinery, and complicated apparatus, perhaps even for the accomplishment of a single result. But not so those of the Divine Artificer. In them, simplicity of operation is no less astonishing than the amount of differing results, and the beauty and harmony which they uniformly exhibit.

It must be borne in mind, that by elementary principles, in the language of chemistry, are intended bodies, which in the present state of our knowledge, can