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enduring value to its labours, and shed the light of a satisfying hope around its close. How empty had all these bygone years been of God! True, he had not been wholly forgetful; many an adoring thought of the Almighty, as the great Creator, Upholder, Governor of the universe, had filled his mind, and many grateful feelings towards his heavenly Benefactor had visited his heart. But that, he now felt, was not enough. The clear unchallengeable right belonged to God over the full affection of the heart, the unremitting obedience of the life; but no such affection had been entertained; and it had been but seldom that a distinct regard to the will of God had given its birth or its direction to any movement of his past history. In name acknowledged, but in their true nature and extent misunderstood, he felt that his Creator's claims over him had been practically disallowed and dishonoured during his whole career. The meagre and superficial faith of former years could no longer satisfy him. It could not stand the scrutiny of the sick-room; it could not bear to be confronted with death; it gave way under the application of its own chosen test; for surely, even reason taught that if man have a God to love and serve, and an eternity beyond death to provide for, towards that God a supreme and abiding sense of obligation should be cherished, and to the providing for that eternity the whole efforts of a lifetime should be consecrated. Convinced of the fatal error upon which the whol scheme of his former life had been con-trund, Mr. Chalmers resolved upon a change would no longer live here as if her he live for ever. Henceforth and i would recognize h's immortality bering that this epigrimer was a scene of trial, a place of spinsual probation, he would dedicat in.self to the of God, and live ****a high aim ant purpose of one who was ***aining for eternity. It was a kind of life which had already been realized by countless thousands of his fellow men, and why not by him? It had been realized by Pascal in making the sublime transition from the highest walks of science to the still higher walk of faith. It had been realized by those early Christians whose lives and testimonies he was now engaged in studying. Surrounded with such a cloud of witnesses, a new ambition, stronger and more absorbing than that which had thirsted so eagerly for literary fame, fired Mr. Chalmers' breast. Every thought of his heart, every word of his lip, every action of his life, he would henceforth strive to regulate under a high presiding sense of his responsibility to God; his whole life he would turn into a preparation for eternity. With all the ardour

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of a nature which never could do anything by halves, with all the fervour of an enthusiasm which had at length found an object worthy of its whole energies at their highest pitch of effort, he gave himself to the great work of setting himself right with God. The commencement of such an enterprise marks a great and signal epoch in his spiritual history. It sprung out of his profound sense of human mortality; his vivid realizing of the life that now is in its connexion with the life that is to come; his recognition of the supremacy which God and the high interests of eternity should wield over the heart and life of man. It did not originate in any change in his speculative belief, induced by his studies either of the contents or credentials of the bible. In the course of that memorable transition-period which elapsed from the bsginning of November, 1809, till the close of December, 1810, important modifications in his doctrinal views undoubtedly effected. His partial discovery of the pervading and defiling element of ungodliness, gave him other notions of human depravity than those he had previously entertained, and prepared him not only to acquiesce in, but to appropriate to himself representations from which a year before he would have tu med., with disgust. And with a tered view of human sinfulness, there came also an altered view of the atonement. He was prepared now to go farther than he had gone before in recognizing the death of Christ as a true and proper sacrifice for sin. Still, however, while looking to that death for the removal of past guilt, he believed that it lay wholly with himself after he had been forgiven, to approve himself to God, to win the Divine favour, to work out the title to the heavenly inheritance. The full and precise effect of Christ's obedience unto death was not as yet discerned. Over that central. doctrine of Christianity which tells of the sinner's free justification before God through the merits of his Son, there hung am obscuring mist; there was a flaw in the motive which prompted the struggle in which Mr. Chalmers so devotedly engaged; there was a misconception of the object which it was possible by such a struggle to realize. More than a year of fruitless toil had to be described, ere the true ground of a sinner's acceptance with God was reached, and the true principleof all acceptable obe dience was implanted in his heart." pp.153-155.

Some years afterwards, reviewing this part of his life, Dr. Chalmers expressed himself thus, in a letter to a friend :—

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"I stated to you that the effect of a very

long confinement, about ten years ago, upon myself, was to inspire me with a set of very strenuous resolutions, under which I wrote a Journal, and made many a laborious effort to elevate my practice to the standard of the Divine requirements. During this course, however, I got little satisfaction, and felt no repose. I remember that somewhere about the year 1811, I had Wilberforce's View put into my hands, and, as I got on in reading it, felt my self on the eve of a great revolution in all my opinions about Christianity. I am now most thoroughly of opinion, and it is an opinion founded on experience, that on the system of-Do this and live, no peace, and even no true and worthy obedience, can ever be attained. It is, Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. When this belief enters the heart, joy and confidence enter along with it. The righteousness which we try to work out for ourselves eludes our impotent grasp, and never can a soul arrive at true or permanent rest in the pursuit of this object. The righteousness which, by faith, we put on, secures our acceptance with God, and secures our interest in his promises, and gives us a part in dose sanctifying influences by which we are to do with aid from on high, what we never caz do without it. We look to God in new light we see him as a reconciled Father; that love to him wich terror scares away, re-enters the heart, and, with a new principle and a new power, we become new creatures in Jesus Christ our Lord."" PP. 185, 186.

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External indications of the momentous change which had taken place within were speedily perceptible.

"His regular and earnest study of the bible was one of the first and most noticeable effects of Mr. Chalmers' conversion. His nearest neighbour and most frequent visitor was old John Bonthron, who, having once seen better days, was admitted to an easy and privileged familiarity, in the exercise of which one day before the memorable illness, he said to Mr. Chalmers I find you aye busy, sir, with one thing or another, but come when I may, I never find you at your studies for the sabbath.' 'Oh, an hour or two on the Saturday evening is quite enough for that,' was the minister's

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"The opening months of 1811, as they brought tranquillity and establishment to his own heart, so they gave a new character to his sabbath ministrations. It was not, however, re-establishment of his health, and the fulfiltill the close of that year that the complete enabled him to give full time and strength to ment of his engagements with Dr. Brewster, his compositions for the pulpit. The result which, delivered almost verbally as originally was a series of discourses, a goodly number of written, were listened to in after years by congregated thousands in Glasgow, and Edinburgh, and London, with wondering and entranced admiration. I have been able to trace to this period so many of the sermons afterwards selected by their author for publication, and have found so few alterations made on the riinal ma scripts in preparing them for the press. to satisfied that the three final years of his nanistry at Kilmany supplied as many, as abante, and as eloquent discourses, as any other three year in the whole course of his ministry. It was not the stimulus of cultivated audiences, and an int lectual sphere it was not the effort to win or to sustain a wide-spread popularity-it was not the straining after originality of thought or splendo of illustration, which gave to these discourses their peculiar form and character. They were, to a great extent, the spontaneous products of that new love and zeal which Divine grace had planted in his soul; the shape and texture of their eloquence springing from the combined operation of all his energies - intellectual, moral, and emotional-whose native movements were now stimulated into a more glowing intensity of action by that controlling motive which concentrated them all upon one single and sublime accompaniment-the salvation of immortal souls." pp. 417, 418.

"The discovery that pardon and full reconciliation with God are offered gratuitously to all men in Christ, had been the turning point

of Dundee could generally count a dozen or two of his fellow townsmen around him, while ministers from Edinburgh or Glasgow were occasionally detected among the crowd.

in Mr. Chalmers' own spiritual history; and the most marked characteristic of his pulpit ministrations after his conversion was the frequency and fervour with which he held out to sinners Christ and his salvation as God's free "All this told distinctly enough of the gift, which it was their privilege and their duty popularity of the preacher; but within the at once and most gratefully to accept. Most parish, and as the effect of such a ministry as earnest entreaties that every sinner he spoke to has been now described, what were the spiritual should come to Christ just as he was, and results?-Too delicate a question this for any 'bury all his fears in the sufficiency of the great full or satisfactory reply; but of one sabbath's atonement,' were reiterated on each succeeding service we shall tell the fruits. It was in the sabbath, presented in all possible forms, and spring of 1812, and the preacher's text was delivered in all different kinds of tones and of John iii. 16,- God so loved the world, that he attitudes. He would desert for a minute or gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever two his manuscript, that with greater direct- believeth in him should not perish, but have ness and familiarity of phrase, greater pointed-everlasting life.' Two young men heard this ness and personality of application, he might sermon, the one the son of a farmer in the urge upon their acceptance the gospel invita- parish, the other the son of one of the villagers. tion. He would bend over the pulpit,' said They met as the congregation dispersed. ore of his old hearers, and press us to take 'Did you feel anything particularly in church the gift, as if he held it that moment in his to-day?' Alexander Paterson said to his achand, and would not be satisfied till every one quaintance, Robert Edie, as they found themof us had got possession of it. And often selves alone upon the road. 'I never,' he when the sermon was over, and the psalm was continued, felt myself to be a lost sinner till sung, and he rose to pronounce the blessing, he to-day, when I was listening to that sermon.' would break out afresh with some new entreaty, 'It is very strange,' said his companion, 'it was unwilling to let us go until he had made one just the same with me.' They were near a more effort to persuade us to accept of it.'" plantation, into which they wandered, as the Pp. 417-420. conversation proceeded. Hidden at last from all human sight, it was proposed that they And what was the result of this, in should join in prayer. Screened by the opening regard to the hearers ?

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"It was not long till the whole aspect of the sabbath congregations in Kilmany church was changed. The stupid wonder which used to sit on the countenances of the few villagers or farm-servants who attended divine service, was turned into a fixed, intelligent, and devout attention. It was not easy for the dullest to remain uninformed; for, if the preacher sometimes soared too high for the best trained of his people to follow him, at other times, and much oftener, he put the matter of his message so as to force for it an entrance into the most sluggish understanding. Nor was it easy for the most indifferent to remain unmoved, as the first, fervours of a new-born faith and love found such thrilling strains in which to vent themselves. The church became crowded. The feeling grew with the numbers who shared in it. The fame of those wonderful discourses which were now emanating from the burning lips of this new evangelist spread throughout the neighbourhood, till at last there was not an adjacent parish which did not send its weekly contribution to his ministry. Persons from extreme distances in the county found themselves side by side in the same crowded pew. Looking over the congregation, the inhabitant

foliage, they knelt on the fresh green sod, and poured out in turn their earnest petitions to the hearer and answerer of prayer. Both dated their conversion from that day. Alexander Paterson went shortly afterwards to reside in the neighbouring parish of Dairsie, but attended regularly on the sabbath at Kilmany church. His friend, Robert Edie, generally convoyed him part of the way home. About one hundred yards from the road along which they travelled, in the thickly-screened seclusion of a close plantation, and under the shade of a branching fir-tree, the two friends found a quiet retreat, where, each returning sabbath evening, the eye that seeth in secret looked down upon these two youthful disciples of the Saviour on their knees, and for an hour their ardent prayers alternately ascended to the throne of grace. The practice was continued for years, till a private footpath of their own had been opened to the trysting-tree; and when, a few years ago, after long absence on the part of both, they met at Kilmany, at Mr. Edie's suggestion they re-visited the spot, and renewing the sacred exercise, offered up their joint thanksgivings to that God who had kept them by his grace, and in their separate spheres had honoured each of them with usefulness in the church. Mr. Paterson has now laboured for

twenty-two years as a missionary in the Canongate of Edinburgh, not without many pleasing evidences that his labours have been blessed; and I have reason to believe that by his efforts in behalf of bible and missionary societies, through means of sabbath schools and prayermeetings, and by the light of a guiding and consistent example, Mr. Edie's life, while one of active industry, had also been one of devoted Christian usefulness." pp. 427-430.

The surrounding clergy, however, proclaimed that he was mad; and this was believed and reported, even after he had entered upon another scene of labour.

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'A gentleman and his wife, one sabbath, going to church in Glasgow, met a friend who spoke to them, and inquired where they were going. They said, 'To hear Dr. Chalmers.' He said, 'What! to hear that madman?' They said, if he would agree to go with them, and hear Dr. Chalmers for once, and if after that he persisted in talking in such a manner of him, they would never dispute the matter with him again. He accompanied them; and, singular to relate, it happened that, when Dr. Chalmers entered the pulpit that day, he gave out as his text, I am not mad, most noble Festus, but speak forth the words of truth and soberness; and the gentleman, who I rather think was a medical man, became from that day a changed man,—a convert to evangelical Christianity." pp. 504, 505.

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"And here I cannot but record the effect of an actual though undesigned experiment which I prosecuted for upwards of twelve years among you. For the greater part of that time I could expatiate on the meanness of dishonesty, on the villany of falsehood, on the despicable arts of calumny; in a word, upon all those deformities of character which awaken the natural indignation of the human heart against the pests and the disturbers of human society. Now could I, upon the strength of these warm expostulations, have got the thief to give up his stealing,

and the evil speaker his censoriousness, and the liar his deviations from truth, I should have felt all the repose of one who had gotten his ultimate object. It never occurred to me, that all this might have been done, and yet the soul of every hearer have remained in full alienation from God, and that even could I have established in the bosom of one who stole, such a principle of abhorrence at the meanness of dishonesty that he was prevailed upon to steal no more, he might still have retained a heart as

completely unturned to God, and as totally unpossessed by a principle of love to Him as before. In a word, though I might have made him a more upright and honourable man, I might have left him as destitute of the essence of religious principle as ever. But the interesting fact is, that during the whole of that period in which I made no attempt against the natural enmity of the mind to God, while I was inattentive to the way in which this enmity is dissolved; even by the free offer on the one hand, and the believing acceptance on the other, of the gospel salvation; while Christ through whose blood the sinner, who by nature stands afar off, is brought near to the heavenly lawgiver whom he has offended, was scarcely ever spoken of, or spoken of in such a way as stripped him of all the importance of his character and his offices, even at this time I certainly did press the reformations of honour, and truth, and integrity, among my people; but I never once heard of any such reformations having been effected amongst them. If there was anything at all brought about in this way, it was more than ever I got any account of. I am not sensible that all the vehemence with which I urged the virtues and the proprieties of social life, had the weight of a feather on the moral habits of my parishioners. And it was not till I got impressed by the utter alienation of the heart in all its desires and affections from God; it was not till reconciliation to him became the distinct and the prominent object of my ministerial exertions; it was not till I took the

scriptural way of laying the method of reconciliation before them; it was not till the free offer of forgiveness through the blood of Christ was urged upon their acceptance, and the Holy Spirit given through the channel of Christ's mediatorship to all who ask him was set before them as the unceasing object of their dependence and their prayers; in one word, it was not till the contemplations of my people were turned to these great and essential elements in the business of a soul providing for its interest with God and the concerns of its eternity, that I ever heard of any of those subordinate reformations which I aforetime made the earnest and the zealous, but I am afraid at the same time,

the ultimate object of my earlier ministrations. Ye servants, whose scrupulous fidelity has now attracted the notice, and drawn forth in my hearing a delightful testimony from your masters, what mischief you would have done, had your zeal for doctrines and sacraments been accompanied by the sloth and the remissness, and what, in the prevailing tone of moral relaxation, is counted the allowable purloining of your

earlier days! But a sense of your heavenly

master's eye has brought another influence to bear upon you; and while you are thus striving to adorn the doctrine of God your Saviour in all things, you may, poor as you are, reclaim the great ones of the land to the acknowledgment of the faith. You have at least taught me that to preach Christ is the only effective way of preaching morality in all its branches; and out of your humble cottages have I gathered a lesson, which I pray God I may be enabled to carry with all its simplicity into a wider theatre, and to bring with all the power of its subduing efficacy upon the vices of a more crowded population. pp. 430-432.

We hope to have other opportunities of directing attention to the career of

this honoured servant of the Redeemer, as subsequent portions of the memoir appear. Of the successive volumes of his Posthumous Works we have spoken repeatedly, and were we now to add anything it would be to renew our cordial recommendation of that which seems likely to be the most permanently useful of all his publications-the Institutes of Theology. Our attachment to works of this class is not strong, and our expectations from these two volumes were not sanguine; but we have found in them such an avoidance of the evils with which systematic theology is generally combined, so much humility connected with spiritual discernment, and such warm effusions from a heart steeped in New Testament influences, that we should be sorry to neglect a fair opportunity of mentioning them to any fellow Christians who value our opinion.

BRIEF NOTICES.

New Polyglott Bible. The Holy Bible: containing the Old and New Testaments, according to the Authorized Version. With Marginal Readings, and upwards of Fifty Thousand Verified References to Parallel and Illustrative Passages. The Historical Connection of the Old and New Testaments, to which is added a series of Useful Tables, intended to illustrate the Sacred Text. Glasgow: W. R. M'Phun. 1849. The Psalms of David, imitated in New Testament Language, together with Hymns and Spiritual Songs. In three Books. By the Rev. ISAAC WATTS, D.D. London: Printed and Sold by J. Haddon, Castle Street, Finsbnry. 1849.

A Selection of Hymns for the use of Baptist Congregations: intended as a Supplement to Dr. Watts's Psalms and Hymns. The Forty-third, being an improved and Enlarged Edition of the New Selection. London: Printed and sold for the Trustees, by J. Haddon, Castle Street, Finsbury, and by all Booksellers. 1849.

These three books bound together so as to make a handsome and yet portable volume, as now kept for sale by Mr. Haddon, have, to our

personal knowledge, caused young eyes to glisten. We have seen the effect produced and can fully account for it, there being an obvious convenience, as the purveyors for the young people of other denominations have found, in having in one pair of covers, all the chapters, hymns, and psalms, that are needed at the place of worship to which we are attached. The type, even for the bible, which is smaller than that used for the hymns, is sufficiently clear for the purpose; though for much continuous reading, a larger would be preferred by seniors whose sight has begun to decay. A few maps are inserted, on thin paper, which, like the tabular matter, add to the usefulness of the volume without making any perceptible addition to its bulk.

The Comprehensive Pocket Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments, Translated out of the Original Tongues, and with the former Translations diligently compared and revised. With Explanatory Notes, &c. By D. DAVIDSON. Author of the Pocket Commentary, Biblical Dictionary, &c. &c. Edinburgh: Printed and Published by James Brydone, South Hanover Street. 1848.

This is a highly respectable work, though

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