discrepancy between their teachings and the New Testament, you would rely on the former rather than on the latter. Then the instructions which Paul might have received from the immediate disciples of Jesus, were more ultimate than those which we can gather from the New Testament. But even the instructions of these immediate disciples were not ultimate enough for him. He would not learn even of them. He would go to Jesus Christ himself, and learn of the Master. Now the Bible is the work. not of the Master, but of the disciple; how then can sending us to the Bible be sending us to Jesus Christ, to the Master?

The New Testament is a record which has come down to us of the teachings of the disciples; or if you please, a record which the disciples have left us of the teachings of their Master; but we can conceive something more ultimate still; to wit, the original instructions themselves. Those instructions could you obtain them, you would value more than any record it would be possible to make of them. There is then, or there once was, a higher source of truth than the Bible. Paul held the disciples themselves not high enough. He would go above them, and learn from their Master, and is there any more reason why I should regard the Bible as high enough, than there was that he should count their instructions high enough? Why should not I as well as Paul go above the Bible, to the very source from which the Bible-makers themselves drew? Do I learn of Christ when I merely learn of the Bible, any more than Paul would have learned of him, had he taken only the lessons of the disciples?

But I may be told that Jesus Christ instructed Paul, as well as the other disciples, so that he might have another apostle to send forth into the field; and that since Paul evidently drew his instructions from the highest source, we should be content to learn of him. I am not satisfied with this. I know I am a sinner; but I do not know what I have done that I should not have as good evidence for my faith as Paul had for his: nor why I should not have as able instructors as he had. I know not wherefore Paul should have had Jesus for his instructor, and I only have certain letters Paul is said to have written for mine. Why such partiality? Am not I also a man? Am not I born as he was? Is not my nature as good as his was? Do I not stand in as much need of instruction as he did? Why then send him to the Master, and turn me off with the disciple?

Shall I be told that there was once indeed, a source of divine knowledge more original than the Bible, that then Jesus Christ was on earth, and his immediate instructions might be obtained; but that now all is changed, and we must receive our instructions from the written word only! I do not understand this. Is there not a Jesus Christ now as much as there was in the time of Paul? Was Jesus Christ any more accessible to Paul than he is to me? Beware how you answer these questions, lest you be found denying the resurrection. To say there was a Jesus Christ, but is not now, is only another form of denying the Lord that bought us. You might in that case believe, indeed, in a Saviour for Paul, but in none for me. But Paul himself

teaches you better than this. He tells you not to say within yourselves, "Who shall ascend into heaven? that is, to bring Christ down from above: or who shall descend into the deep? that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead. The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart." Christ is not dead, but ever living,-not off in some distant world, but ever present, ever abiding with us, and ever saying unto us, "Learn of me," for "lo I am with you unto the end of the world."

Most people, I apprehend, fancy that all supernatural revelations from God have ceased, and that Christ teaches now only through the medium of the written word. But are they aware, that to believe so is as good as to deny both God and Christ? To say that God has discontinued his revelations to man, is only saying in other words, that all intercourse between him and us, is broken off; which is vir tually saying that we are without God; at least that there is for us no living God, but only a God that was, but is not. A God that was but is not, is no God at all. To To say that there was a Christ who taught men, but is not now, is to assert merely a dead Christ not a living,-is in fact to deny the resurrection.

There is an error quite prevalent, even among religious people, that of believing only in a Divinity which was, but is not. All admit that God made the world, very few that he makes it. After having spent a whole eternity in the contemplation of himself, it is supposed that some six thousand years ago, he spoke the universe into existence with all its furniture of worlds and beings, impressed upon it its laws, wound it up as the clockmaker does his clock, gave the pendulum a jog, set it a-going, and then left it to go of

itself. Just as though the universe could subsist a moment if the Deity, as its cause, did not remain in it, its life and substance, and motion! So though they admit that God has once in a while concerned himself with the piece of mechanism he had constructed, and condescended to give a few directions for its management, yet it was all in the past, long ages ago. No interference now, no God to reveal himself to us, who stand so much in need of his instructions. So also they admit that a Saviour once appeared in Judea, was crucified under Pontius Pilate for the redemption of the world, but there is no Jesus Christ now. The Saviour did not rise from the dead, and there is only a traditional Christ in which we may trust. How has the age lapsed into infidelity!

Brethren, I believe in a living God, in a God who not only made the world, but who makes it; who is not only above and independent of his works, but who is ever present in them; who not only revealed himself to men in past ages, but who also reveals himself to men even now, and who is always seen by the pure in heart, and everywhere. I contend also for a living Saviour, not for a Saviour who lived and died in Judea, a temporary and local Saviour; but for one who fills all space, and is the same "yesterday, today, and forever." I have no sympathy with the Arian heresy of ancient times, nor with the Socinian heresy of modern times, which the church seems almost universally to embrace, save in name. The Christ in whom I believe is one with the Father, and he lives now, and is as much within the reach of the humble seeker after truth to-day as he was when Jesus walked about in Jerusalem and Galilee. Beware how you seek for your Saviour in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. Seek not the living among the dead. Christ has risen, and ever liveth to make intercession for us. O, deny not the glorious doctrine of the resurrection. Deny that doctrine and you are without hope in the world, and there is left you no redemption from sin.

The Christ from whom we are to learn the Gospel is not an old Christ, a Jewish Christ, a dead Christ, but the RISEN Christ, who comes to us not as the Son of Mary, clothed in flesh and subject to its infirmities, but as the Paraclete, the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Truth, who was to lead us into all truth. The Holy Ghost, though distinguished in name, is one with the Son, the Christ, who is also one with the Father. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are

not three Gods, but one God. What is predicated of the one, under the relation I am now considering the subject, may be predicated of the other. The teachings of the Holy Spirit, are the teachings of Christ. This Holy Spirit, the Comforter, was to be ever with us, and Jesus said, "He shall take of mine and show them unto you." The manifestations of this Spirit are given unto all men to profit withal. The teachings of the Spirit are the Gospel of Christ, and to learn the Gospel from the Spirit, is to learn it from the Master.

The teachings of the risen Christ, the ever-abiding Christ, the universal Christ, the true Light which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, I hold to be superior to all other teachings. They are more ultimate than the written word, and to them we may appeal even from the Bible, if there be occasion. It is this, sometimes termed the inward Christ, because a spiritual Christ, and not a corporeal, that judges the Bible, interprets the Bible and vouches for its truth. This is the Master, the Bible is merely the disciple. This Christ is near unto every one of us, knocking ever at the door of our hearts and praying for admission, and we may all let him in and receive his instructions. Whomsoever he instructs is the equal of the Bible, the peer of Peter, James, or John; for Peter, James, and John had no means of knowing divine truth, which you and I, my brethren, have not also within our reach.

I come now to the conclusion I have all along been aiming at; to wit, the entire independence of every individual mind, as it concerns every other individual mind, in the acquisition of truth and the formation of its creed. God is impartial. He dispenses light alike to all men, of all ages and nations. All may know the truth, may know the Gospel, one as well as another. Every one has the great teacher within. No one therefore need go to another to be taught. The witness is within, and may bear witness that he is born of God.

Now in learning the Gospel you must do more than go back and explore the archives of Judea, more than pore over the records of the past. The past is silent, and darkness broods over it. The light by which you shall behold it, the spirit by which you shall revivify it, and give it a voice and a meaning, must be borrowed from the great teacher within. You must seek the revelations of the Spirit, you must com

mune with the Divinity within you; and the word which you shall hear uttered within you shall be superior to any written word whatever; it shall prove to be the living word of God, which proceedeth forth from the Father, which was in the beginning with God, and which is God.

If every one have this great teacher, this primal source of truth in himself, there is no one dependent on another. No child of God is disinherited, and obliged to depend on an elder brother for support. No one then has the right to call another to an account for his belief. All are equals, and where all are equals no one has the supremacy.

If this be true, then whoso learns of Christ, of the inward Christ, has authority to teach. He may utter his words, whatever they may be, for they are not his words, but the Spirit's. If the Spirit bid him bear his testimony against the traditions of the elders, the usages of the churches, the lessons of the doctors, so be it; let him do it and fear nothing. He must needs speak as the Spirit giveth him utterance. Let those whom he offends look to it, that it turn not out that they are offended, not at him, but at the Spirit of God. He may indeed mistake the teachings of the Spirit, he may misinterpret his instructions; let him therefore be modest, humble, prayerful, that he may not hear amiss. And let all who are wedded to old usages, who are ever pointing to our pious ancestors as if truth must needs have died with them, know of a surety, that truth is an immortality, and over it time and change have no power. Its bloom is as fresh and fragrant to-day as it was on creation's morn. The grave hath no power over it. Though crucified, buried in a new tomb hewn from the rock and guarded with armed soldiery, it rises and ascends to its Father, leading captivity itself captive. Forbear, then, to war against it. What you have that is true will survive; what you have that is false, must pass away, weep and howl as ye will.

CHAPTER XIX.- -SOME PROGRESS.

Mr. Morton, after the meeting was out, at Mr. Howard's invitation, accompanied us home and spent the remainder of the day and evening with us. I found him, as his ser mon had led me to expect, free from the usual cant of his profession, but serious and even enthusiastic. He appeared to be a man conscious that Heaven had raised him up for some important work, and he could not rest till he had