THE power of the law is twofold-it has authority to command obedience and authority to condemn because of disobedience. Now in the first place, all who object to the doctrine of justification by faith alone, make the law of none effect in its commanding power. By the very act of attempting to earn for themselves a title to acceptance in the sight of God, they prove that they do not consider the law of God so holy as he declares it to be. The great lawgiver declares that he will accept of no obedience which is not absolutely perfect. But the legalist, or self-justiciary, instead of keeping the commandments of God perfectly, however much he may do in the way of external obedience, transgresses the whole law, and is guilty of innumerable iniquities. Instead of yielding an obedience to the law of God such as it requires, he endeavours to reduce the law to the standard of his own mutilated obedience, in the vain expectation that God will forgive him for his defects, and reward him for what he does imperfectly. And thus he at once evinces the highest contempt for the authority of the great lawgiver, and tramples his commandments under foot.

And in like manner it might be shown that all who object to the doctrine of justification by faith alone, make void the law in its condemning power. They demonstrate by the arrogance of their pretensions in attempting to justify themselves, that they have never felt themselves to be thoroughly lost sinners. So long as any individual continues to oppose the scheme of redemption revealed in the Gospel for the recovery and salvation of sinners, he, in fact, bids defiance to all the threatenings of the law, and flatters himself that he shall have peace though under a sentence of fearful condemnation. It is solemnly declared that the curse of God rests upon every one who continues not in all things written in the book of the

* Extracted from an able sermon by Mr. Munro, on Rom. iii. 31; preached some years ago in the High Church, at Inverness. At the request of Sir Culling E. Eardley who happened to be present, the printed, and is published by Austin and Son,

Hertford.

sermon was

law to do them-that the soul that sinneth it shall die; and that tribulation and anguish, indignation and woe, shall be the everlasting portion of the workers of iniquity. Until the curse of a violated law be removed or cancelled, nothing which the sinner does can be acceptable in the sight of God. And therefore all who expect justification by the deeds of the law, do in fact expect justification for that which deserves condemnation. And it matters not whether the sinner expects justification in whole or in part by the deeds of the law; he equally makes the law of none effect in its august and inviolable authority.

And thus it is manifest that while on the one hand, the advocates of a legal righteousness, whether in whole or in part, though they may pretend to peculiar morality and profess peculiar sanctity, do, in fact, trample the commandments of God under foot, and vacate the authority of the law; every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ does in reality fulfil the law. He gives it all its due by trusting in the righteousness of the Redeemer. And the law so far from being lowered when the sinner is saved through faith, is magnified and made honourable, and all the attributes of God are illustriously glorified. The man who has never been convinced that his best righteousness is but as filthy rags, that he must be born again, and united to the Lord Jesus Christ in order to be accepted in the sight of God; that he has destroyed himself, and that no good thing dwelleth in him; such a man will never submit to the righteousness of God revealed in the Gospel, but will be ever and anon looking for something in himself that may serve to recommend him to the favour of God

and thus, though he may be sensible of his need of a better righteousness than his own to supplement his deficiencies, he never can come thoroughly emptied of self and in the humble attitude of a needy sinner to the Saviour; renouncing all pretensions to merit in the sight of God, and relying solely on the righteousness of Christ for justification. There is something that will continually interpose bewixt him, and a complete closing with

Christ. And thus it is that multitudes perish in their own deceivings, and go down to the grave with a lie in their right hand, with a profession of faith in Christ and a form of godliness, and even with an apparent zeal for holiness, who have never experienced the great change of regeneration, or been quickened together with Christ, to walk in newness of life; to deny themselves, and be willing to be indebted to free and sovereign grace, flowing through the channel of Immanuel's mediation, for wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.

The obedience which is rendered to the law by such individuals, to whatever extent it may proceed, is of a slavish nature. There may be indeed an outward reformation of character, arising from legal terrors, and the alarms of a guilty conscience; but there is no emancipation from the reigning power of sin. The sinner is fast bound in the fetters of corruption and carnality, from which no power of nature can deliver him. Sin may be repressed, but its domineering influence is never broken in the unregenerate soul, and though it may be driven from its out-posts, it rules with uncontrolled authority in the citadel of the heart. And while the sinner is in this condition, his obedience is constrained and compulsory, proceeding from the fear of punishment, and the dread of divine vengeance; and hence they who are in the flesh cannot please God, because they are not actuated by the proper motives either in the performance of duty or in abstinence from sin. They are in fact driven to the one, and from the other, by slavish fear, and God who searcheth the heart declares that their sacrifices and oblations are an abomination in his sight. And as the fear of punishment makes them of a servile spirit, the hope of reward makes them of a mercenary spirit. The unregenerate sinner who is labouring to fulfil the law in his own strength, expects to escape the penalty of damnation, and to secure eternal life, by his personal obedience, and hence he is at once both a slave and a hireling. He works to win his wages, and all he does is for reward, that he may merit salvation. And just in proportion as he multiplies his duties and outward observances, he imagines his title is surer to the inheritance of eternal life. It is slavish fear or sordid selfishness which prompts all the exertions of the legalist, and so long as this

is the case, it is utterly impossible that he can do anything spiritually good, or acceptable in the sight of God. His material duties may be performed with all the rigour of a Pharisaical precision, but all his duties are morally and spiritually defective. They want the animating breath of a divine and a heavenly nature, and that universality and uniformity of obedience which are ever found to characterize the new creature in Christ Jesus. So long as the power of sin remains unbroken in the soul, some corrupt propensity or other will have dominion over the sinner; and however secretly it may be cherished and indulged, it will mar and mutilate his obedience to the law as a covenant of life.

But he who, convinced of his own vileness and worthlessness, and utter inability to do anything spiritually good, has fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before him in the Gospel, establishes the law in all the authority of its precept, and in all the solemnity of its sanction. He acknowledges the absolute power of God over him; and demonstrates that he has obtained a just perception of the purity and sacredness of the commandment by resting on the righteousness of the Redeemer for acquittal from guilt, and acceptance in the sight of God. And by the continuous course of a sincere and circumspect obedience to the law, as a rule of conduct and of duty, he adorns the doctrine of his Lord and Saviour. The law is now received by him through the hands of a Mediator, and his heart and affections are animated by a constraining influence which prompts him to aspire after complete conformity to the image of God; to forget the things which are behind, and reach forward to the things which are before, and to press towards the mark for the prize of his high calling. And every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ likewise most solemnly authenticates the law in its condemning power. receiving the atonement, he sets to his seal that the law is righteous and holy in the sentence which it denounces against all the workers of iniquity, and accordingly he flees to the blood of the great propitiation that he may be shielded from the wrath to come, and the vengeance of violated and inflexible holiness. As his only confidence for acceptance rests on the obedience of the Redeemer, his only confidence for deliverance from condemnation rests on the blood of the

By

Redeemer. As he expects to be justified by the righteousness of Christ alone, he expects the pardon of sin through the sufferings of Christ alone. As he looks for heaven as the reward of the Saviour's fulfilment of the law, he looks for exemption from everlasting punishment to the vicarious sacrifice of him who bore the iniquities of his people in his own body on the accursed tree. In this way, there is the amplest reverence awarded to the law of God; and both the precept which it enjoins and the penalty which it threatens are acknowledged to be just and holy. That very righteousness which the law requires to magnify and make it honourable, is fulfilled in all who are united to the Saviour, and interested in his great atonement. He is received both for redemption and for righteousness, and by this process, through which faith conducts every Christian, the law is firmly and immutably established.

And it is of importance to observe the security which is provided in the economy of the Gospel for a sincere and uniform, and withal a cheerful obedience to the divine law, a security which never can exist so long as the sinner is under the influence of a legal spirit which gendereth to bondage. The sinner who believes in Jesus is renewed in the disposition of his mind, and in virtue of this he delights in the law of the Lord after the inward man, and it is as his meat and drink to be doing the will of his Father in heaven. To make a man work against his will, it is to place him in the condition and circumstances of an abject and involuntary slave. But to give a man such work to do as he earnestly loves, and finds to be a delightful occupation, is to place him in circumstances of the highest possible enjoyment. The former is the state of the legalist who is labouring to fulfil the law, but who is a stranger to the joy and peace of believing. The latter is the state of the Christian whose heart is expanded with the love of God, and who therefore yields himself up a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God. He has received a new and a heavenly nature, and he finds that in every department of Christian duty the yoke of the Saviour is easy and his burden light. That law which is felt by the legalist to be a burden too heavy to be borne,-and that because of the sacred spirituality of its requirements, and the universal extent of its authority over every other thought and purpose of the inner man,-is to every believer in

Jesus the source of secret gratitude and joy. He knows that this is the will of God, even his sanctification. He knows that it is the perfect purity of heaven that will constitute the essential happiness of eternity. While the legalist drudges in all the duties of religion, and labours under the cold and freezing sensations of servitude in all that he does to God-the man whose moral nature is renewed to love the Author of Christianity and all that he approves, finds that in the severest acts of self-denial, there is a peace that passeth understanding, and a joy unspeakable, and a hope that is full of immortality. He knows that the grace of the Redeemer will be made sufficient for him, and that his strength will be made perfect in his weakness. And while the former is perpetually blundering in his attempts to conform his conduct to the law of God, and is ever deviating from the strict path of rectitude, because he has no strength but his own, the believer in Jesus goes in the strength of the Lord God, and rejoices as a strong man to run his race. There is a celestial spirit which hath descended upon him from above, and which likens him to those holy beings who surround the throne on high,-who serve God, not from the authority of a law that is without, but from the impulse of a love that is within; and who feel that obedience is indeed their kindred and congenial element. The law of God is written on the fleshy tablets of the heart in regeneration; and assuredly it is not the cold and frigid calculation of the legalist, of doing so much service for so much reward, that actuates the Christian in the duties of obedience, but the sweet constraint of love, and an ever-prompting sense of unbounded gratitude to the kindest and the best of benefactors. The law by which he is enjoined to regulate his life, is to him the law of liberty and when his heart is enlarged in the way of the commandments, he feels that in doing righteousness and in hating iniquity, he is already in the midst of those very delights than which he cares for none other in time, and will care for none other through eternity. He looks forward to heaven as the consummation of his happiness, just because it will consummate his holiness, and make him fit to serve the God whom he loves, without a single shadow of imperfection. In that land, to which every honest believer is bending his footsteps, the principle of love which is now implanted

in his soul, will attain its fullest and noblest exercise, and expatiate with zeal untired, and with immortal energy in the hosannahs of the upper sanctuary. There we read that his servants shall serve him; but just to prove that nothing tainted with the spirit of legality can enter the Jerusalem which is above, the everlasting employment of the redeemed from among men, will consist in ascribing the praise of their salvation to free and Sovereign grace. The heart will be attuned to the harmonious song of Moses and the Lamb by gratitude and love, and without any other or inferior motive to prompt their loftiest hallelujahs, these will sustain the ecstacies of paradise, and spread everlasting rapture among the myriads of the redeemed.

THE "MORNING HERALD.". Some

one in London connected with the Established Kirk of Scotland, and having access to the columns of the "Morning Herald," has been in the habit lately of inserting false and calumnious paragraphs concerning the Free Church of Scotland, and the English Presbyterian Church. In one week two such paragraphs appeared, containing statements so injurious that the Rev. A. Munro, of Manchester, and the Rev. J. Hamilton, of Regent-square, London, sent to the editor written contradictions, with their names signed. Contrary to custom and courtesy in such cases, the letters were suppressed, and having fallen into the hands of the writer, another paragraph appeared with worse misstatement. Who the editor of the "Herald" is at present we do not know, but he most probably does not give any attention to the filling up the details of the paper. But we appeal to Mr. Baldwin, the proprietor, as a gentleman and man of honour, for the sake of the respectability of the paper, to give directions that a check be put to this anonymous slanderer, or at least to allow the usual privilege of letters of contradiction being inserted, when signed, as in these cases, by clergymen affected by the calumnies.

cheerfully replied, They must all live on the 6th of Matthew, Take no thought for your life, &c.; and he often sung with his family, Psalm xxxvii. 26, &c. And Mr. Henry hath noted concerning him in his diary, some time after he was turned out, that "he bore witness to the love and care of our Heavenly Father, providing for him and his in his present condition, beyond expectation." One observation Mr. Henry made not long before his death, when he "had been young and now was old," that though many of the ejected ministers were brought very low, had many children, were greatly harassed by persecution, and their friends generally poor and unable to support them; yet in all his acquaintance he never knew nor could remember to have heard of any nonconformist minister in prison for debt.-Life of Rev. Philip Henry, by his Son, Matthew Henry.

STATISTICS OF AN EXETER HALL COLLECTION.

THE following is an analysis of the collection made at the anniversary meeting of the Ragged School Union this year at Exeter Hall. This Society being one of catholic interest, and the audience therefore not being so much denominational the collection may be taken as a good as at most other religious Anniversaries, average of the offertory at an Exeter Hall May Meeting.

The sum collected was 767. 10s. 6d., in the following manner:

Copper.-472 Halfpence 378 Pence Silver. 12 3d.-pieces 323 4d.-pieces 749 Sixpences

534 Shillings

...

92 Half-crowns

Gold. 9 Half-sovereigns 7 Sovereigns...

£ s. d.

0 19 8

1 11 6

0

3 0

5 7 10

18 14 6

26 14 0 11 10

0

Supposing that not more than one coin was contributed by each the person, number of contributors would be 2,576; a little more than two-thirds of the whole audience. There were probably 3,500 present at the meeting. We must leave our readers to make their own speculations on the proportions of the different species of coin, which are suggestive of various interesting facts connected with the meeting.

S

FOREIGN MISSION.

THE Treasurers have received since their last announcement, as under, and which they gratefully acknowledge; and have again respectfully to request that the remaining collections may be forwarded with as little delay as possible:

WIDDRINGTON.-Rev. M. Edwards ...... £1 0 MORPETH.-Rev. James Anderson........ NEWCASTLE.-Rev. P. L. Meller.

Collection

Sabbath-schools

Collection

3 15

BELFORD.-Rev. John Watson.

Sabbath-school Children.. 0 15

6

HAMPSTEAD. Rev. Henry L. Berry......

MANCHESTER.-Rev. Robert Cowe.

4 11

0

6

200

1

James Ferguson...

5 4 1 12

0

Latin and Greek, daily at eleven.-REV.
PROFESSOR LORIMER.
Logic and Mental Philosophy, daily at
ten.-REV. PROFESSOR CAMPBELL.
Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, on
Mondays and Tuesdays at twelve.—
REV. JAMES FERGUSON.
Hebrew and Biblical Criticism, daily at
ten.-REV. PROFESSOR LORIMER.
Ecclesiastical History, daily at nine.-
REV. PROFESSOR CAMPBell.
The Christian Evidences. (Time not yet
fixed.)-REV. ALEXANDER MUNRO.
Systematic Divinity, Thursdays at twelve.
-REV. WILLIAM NICOLSON.
Pastoral Theology, Wednesdays at twelve.
-REV. JAMES HAMILTON.
Students designing to attend this
session are recommended to communicate

CHINA.

By a letter dated April 24, we thankfully learn Mr. Burns' continued health and prosperity. Besides preaching on Sabbath to the Presbyterian residents and soldiers, he is encouraged to persevere with his schools for Chinese boys. Of these he had about fifteen in daily attendance, committing to memory every morning a verse from the Chinese New Testament, in addition to the lesson from a Christian book which they have been getting from the beginning. Besides the instruction which they receive from the native teacher, Mr. Burns gives them a short lesson in English every day.

The Protestant missionaries of all communions now in China amount to sixtyseven. We hope that a colleague for our own dear missionary is much on the mind and in the prayers of our Church.

From an American newspaper we are glad to find that at Canton the angry feeling towards foreigners has again subsided. The prevailing tone of the American missionaries in their communications is cheerful and expressive of progress.