living substance-dwells in him richly. And thus is his character formed. Every creature acts according to the nature which God has given to it. Its life-laws direct its activities. The law of God is the grand, ramifying life-law of the regenerate believer. He is a tree of righteousness, the planting of the Lord; and when he is established in the full health and vigour of that divine life, he is "filled with the fruits of righteousness;" and men, seeing his good works, glorify God through Christ Jesus, who saves his people from their sins, and of these good works makes them zealous. The true nature and excellence of the law are thus practically exhibited. The holiness of God speaks in the law. The believer, a partaker of his holiness, declares this by willing subjection, cheerful obedience to the law. Viewing the law in its letter, the mind may not reflect upon its value, nor perceive its beauty. But in the believer it is shown not in theory, but in practice. It is seen-imperfectly, but yet, if he properly maintain the “life hid with Christ in God," distinctly and truly-in his character; and in proportion as the law appears in it, it is lovely, commanding, and admirable. The wicked, even while they feel themselves rebuked, are compelled to approve. His conduct is evidently that which man's ought to be. Directions which look well enough on paper, often fail when reduced to practice. They are seen to be unsuitable to individuals, whether personally or relatively considered. But the “ good works ” of the Bible, the law in practical operation, is seen to be every way suited to man. The happiest family is that which is regulated by the law of God. And as to the crimes and disorders of society, they are plainly infractions of the law of God. Conceive of society universally thus animated and directed, and society in its best and highest state is present before your mental view. It is felt, that the law harmonizes with conscience; it is seen, that it is suited to the moral wants of individual and of social man. Our Lord taught us to pray, “Thy will be done on earth, as it is done in heaven;" because earth would thus be brought to its nearest approximation to heaven. It is in obedience to the law that man glorifies God, because then he both exhibits and proves that "the law is holy, and the commandment holy, just, and good." Every true student of nature perceives and acknowledges that each class of organized being upon earth furnishes clear and decisive proof of the wisdom and goodness which formed them, and fitted them for their proper ends. Galen, with his imperfect acquaintance with anatomy, Heathen as he was, yet beheld the physical structure of the human frame with such admiration, that he declared, in what might almost be termed a divinely-suggested imagination, that it was a "Hymn to the Creator." It is only sin that prevents the moral system of man from suggesting the same conclusions. Let the love of God be thus put into our inward parts, and written in our hearts; let it thus by the Holy Spirit become the very life of our soul, developed in our actions; and the whole moral system of man shall exhibit the adorable wisdom and benevolence of Him who created us in his image and after his likeness, and furnish a hymn of praise to our Creator and Redeemer. Even now, such contemplations suggest to enlightened piety hymns of devout and ardent prayer, in such language as this:

، Father, if justly still we claim

To us and ours the promise made;

To us be graciously the same,

And crown with living fire our head.

"The Spirit of refining fire,

Searching the inmost of the mind,
To purge all fierce and foul desire,
And kindle life more pure and kind :

"The Spirit breathe of inward life,

Which in our hearts thy laws may write ;
Then grief exp res, and pain and strife;

'Tis nature all, AND ALL DELIGHT."

We cannot, then, be in the least degree surprised at the Apostle's earnestness, that his language should thus be framed, so as to declare to us on this subject "the mind of the Spirit." To make void the law is in itself an immense evil; but the evil is inexpressibly heightened, when it is done through the instrumentality of faith. Some of the noblest expressions of evangelical thought in man have been employed to illustrate and prove that wonder of wonders, that manifestation of the glory of the divine character, shining to our view "full-orbed, in its whole round of rays complete," the admirable adjustment of the—to human, and even to celestial, intelligences-irreconcilable claims of the holiness, the justice, and the mercy of God, by the incarnation and atoning sacrifice of the eternal Son. That adjustment appears in the whole evangelical system. We see there that grace reigns; but we see that it reigns "through righteousness unto eternal life." Than this reconciliation of what seem to be diametrical opposites, this harmonizing of what appear to be such essential discordants, there is nothing more astonishing, nothing more admirable, in the whole range of subjects within the reach of human thought. Nothing more completely shows, not merely the narrowness of the self-wrought wisdom of man, but the mental debasement which sin occasions, the absolute blindness of the understanding on which its blight has fallen, than the fact, that this, the chief aspect under which divine inspiration represents the evangelical scheme, scarcely ever attracts attention. On a large scale, unregenerate men, wearing what is, after all, only the mask of Christian profession, "make void the law through faith." Boasting moralists are real Antinomians: boasting rationalists see only half the truth, and that half only most imperfectly, and through a fog so dense as to allow the object no regular outline; and to present it only as a mass, with all its particulars concealed from view. In praising morality, therefore, they use merely the language of earthly compliment,-language in reality unmeaning as used by the original speaker, it was significant; as used by them, it is echo, resounding as from a dead wall. The Gospel declares mercy, and enjoins charity: this they profess to accept; but mercy and charity from their lips are not the mercy and charity of the Gospel. The Gospel, also, speaks of justice and holiness, and of the glory of their combination with mercy; but this glory of the Lord they neither reflect nor perceive. They are not changed into the same image of the righteousness of spotless purity, blended with the kindness of a well-principled, tender, and universal philanthropy. With all their boasting about morals, they reject the true moral system of the universe. That low, obscure faith which they profess, is powerless and dead in all points but one, they just adopt enough of the Gospel to cause them to make void the law through faith.

But this application of the principle, though every way a correct one, and bringing into the Antinomian class those numerous vain-boasters who ignorantly declare their opposition to it, is not the one which the Apostle appears to have had directly in his view. He refers to those who had

really embraced the Gospel, but who, unhappily, cherished such views of mercy and faith as made them comparatively negligent in attention to the law. They were not disobedient in relation to commands which could not be overlooked. Grosser evils they avoided; palpable duties they performed. But they had not such powerful convictions of the supreme authority and excellence of the law, and the necessity of having its righteousness fulfilled in them, as would have led them to seek, in the written word, an increasingly clear acquaintance with its minuter details, and to examine, with the most careful and impartial scrutiny, their own actual character, for the purpose of ascertaining whether it included anything that the law prohibited, or was deficient in anything which it enjoined. Right in the main, in particular instances there was too much that was wrong. Perhaps they had a sort of vague feeling that now such exact attention was not necessary; or that, somehow, in a way which they could not have explained, the power of God, without their own efforts, would produce all the results that were necessary; that the Spirit would work without the word; that the tree would flourish without bringing water to its roots; or that there would be some sort of influence which would supply its place: whereas, the Scriptures attribute growth to the divine blessing on the right use of the word. He delights in the law of the Lord, and meditates therein continually; therefore shall he be like a flourishing and fruitful tree by the watercourses. “Desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby." This is the scriptural account. But they seem as if looking to be cleansed from every scale of leprosy merely by divine power. Water is to become wine, not by the well-watched, welldirected inward process, but by the will and word of Christ. And therefore do they, in many respects, treat the law as a nullity. In reference to its proper purposes, they make a right use of faith; but they do not add to their faith another system of operations, as plainly enjoined as faith, and equally necessary for other purposes. Nay, they apply their faith to these purposes in the place of the other operations; and thus, practically, in some important instances, through faith they make void the law. They are, though unconsciously, Antinomians. They are not, to the fullyrequired extent, "the children of God, blameless, harmless, and without rebuke;" and the reason is, that, through some of their views of faith, they do not seek to be so.

This, taken altogether, viewed in its nature, its operation, and its extensive influence, may be considered as the most powerful, subtle, and successful temptation by which the members of Christ's church were ever assailed. Others have been adapted for particular persons in particular circumstances; this, for all persons in all circumstances. This, with the cunning and malignity which it discloses, and the effects it has produced, sufficiently evinces its origin: "An enemy hath done this." It is the device of that unhappy one, "who is archangel fallen ;” and who, hating mankind, and most of all the church, has laid this snare to obscure the lustre of the church and weaken its power, and repel mankind from its gates. Nor this alone: if we may so speak, reverently employing human terms, and applying them to the mind by which so bold, and often so triumphant, a scheme was invented,—it is bitterly insulting to God. It is making the great instrument of salvation the means, too often, of destruction. Faith, in the divine wisdom, was appointed to save man, and establish law, and thus to save man in accordance with law: by diabolical artfulness it is thus perverted so as to produce a result entirely opposite.

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Can the Christian seriously contemplate this without holy indignation? or without having a godly jealousy awakened, and a resolute determination to examine himself and his ways, that he may not enter into this temptation, nor be in any degree influenced by it? Surely in vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird." Wherever there is an enlightened and spiritual sincerity, to know the danger is to be guarded against it. Instead, therefore, of here closing our observations, and contenting ourselves with pointing out the principles and evils of this practical Antinomianism, some illustrative instances shall be added,-some of the symptoms of the morbid temperament of those who have inhaled the deathly poison of this infectious epidemic. E. T.

THE HOUR OF TRIAL.

EVERY man shows fair in prosperity; but the main trial of the Christian is in suffering any man may steer in a good gale and clear sea; but the mariner's skill will be seen in a tempest.

Herein the Christian goes beyond the Pagan's, not practice only, but admiration. "We rejoice in tribulation," saith the chosen vessel. Lo here a point transcending all the affectation of Heathenism. Perhaps some resolute spirit, whether out of a natural fortitude, or out of an ambition of fame or earthly glory, may set a face upon a patient enduring of loss or pain; but never any of those heroic Gentiles durst pretend to a joy in suffering. Hither can Christian courage reach; knowing that "tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed."

Is he bereaved of his goods and worldly estate? he comforts himself in the conscience of a better treasure, that can never be lost. Is he afflicted with sickness? his comfort is, that the inward man is so much more renewed daily, as the outward perisheth. Is he slandered and unjustly disgraced? his comfort is, that there is a blessing which will more than make him amends. Is he banished? he knows he is on his way homeward. Is he imprisoned? his spirit cannot be locked in: God and his angels cannot be locked out. Is he dying? to him "to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Is he dead? he "rests from his labours," and is crowned with glory. Shortly, he is perfect gold, that comes more pure out of the fire than it went in: neither had he ever been so great a saint in heaven, if he had not passed through the flames of his trial here upon earth.-Bishop Hall.

ECCLESIASTICAL AFFAIRS IN GERMANY.

BY A TRAVELLER.

THE AIX-LA-CHAPELLE RELICS.

THE pastorate of the Church of the Trinity in Berlin, vacant by the death of Dr. Philip Marheincke, (who was long a colleague and zealous disciple of Schleiermacher,) has been bestowed on Consistory Counsellor Otto von Gerlach, and his place, as Pastor of St. Elizabeth's, supplied by the appointment of the Rev. Mr. Kunze, hitherto second Preacher at the Orphan House. Both Gerlach and Kunze are decided advocates of positive Christianity; and their selection at this moment to important charges in

the gift of the crown gives cheering evidence of the side conscientiously taken by the Prussian Monarch. There is, however, cause of grief as well as joy; as the nomination of the successor to Pastor Kunze's late post in the Orphan House rests with the Berlin magistracy; and as his strict orthodoxy has more than once been complained of by them, there is reason to apprehend a man of different principles will be intrusted with the weighty charge.

The Prussian Synod is prorogued, and their proceedings will shortly appear before the public through the medium of the press. They will doubtless be very voluminous, as well as interesting; but I shall do my utmost to convey in a succinct form to your readers the substance of what has been accomplished. It is believed that the Synod will re-assemble after an interval of three months to conclude the consideration of some undecided questions. Meantime the form of ordination prepared and voted last month in the Berlin Synod has given rise to much discussion, and, it is to be hoped, “searchings of heart," among the friends of light. The question debated is, in how far they can conscientiously subscribe to this new formula. Some argue for the old Jesuitical practice of separating between their official subscriptions as Ministers, and their private belief as men, contending for freedom, and incompatible with the prominent part many of them have already taken in opposition to the doctrines so unequivocally set forth in the formula. How the matter will end, it is, of course, impossible to foresee; but one thing seems plain, that the "neither hot nor cold" will not be much longer suffered in the Lutheran Church; and this most desirable consummation has been mainly brought about by the bold infidelity of such men as Konig and Uhlich! This too "cometh forth from the Lord, who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working,” “who taketh the wise in their craftiness,” and causeth the very enmity of men to praise him by furthering that Gospel which they seek to uproot.

Dr. Rupp, the Rationalist dissenter from Lutheranism in Konigsberg, has been excluded from the Gustavus Adolphus Association, by the vote of a general meeting, on the ground that it is a Society for the support and protection of Gospel principles. This too evinces a change of sentiment in the majority of that Society, such as could not have been anticipated a few months since.

The Roman Catholic movement is no longer a novelty, and might perhaps have become even uninteresting to the public in its quiet progress, but for the attempts lately made to throw discredit on its importance, and blast the character of two of its supporters. On the motives of this attempt I presume not to pronounce. Misapprehension and mis-statement certainly marked all its phases, and it is well if neither were wilful. Every lover of truth, however, must rejoice that, though the mystery of their occurrence has not been cleared, the accusations themselves have vanished before the searching light of Christian examination. After the strong interest which during nearly two years I have felt in Czerski, and the laborious share I have had in bringing him and his writings fairly before the public, it was matter of deep disappointment to be unavoidably absent from home when he and Post came to my house on their way to London. But as things turned out, I rejoice in what seemed to be at the time a most untoward occurrence; for now their justification stands on far higher grounds than any testimony of mine could have placed it. What the correspondent of the late Continental Echo thinks of the Schneidemuhl Pastor, or of the Catholic reform movement, is as mere dust of the balance, compared with the testimony which