THE

UNITED PRESBYTERIAN MAGAZINE,

FOR MAY, 1852.

Miscellaneous Communications.

CHRISTIANITY SUITED TO MAN.

THIRD ARTICLE.

IN our former communications, we have endeavoured to show the suitableness of Christianity to man's intellectual and moral constitution, as manifested in his restless desire to obtain some revelation; in his delight in the assurance of immortality; in his deep conviction of his own sinfulness; and in his presentiment of the final judgment. We shall endeavour now to demonstrate the suitableness to man of the christian plan of mercy. We have been hitherto among the outworks, but we come now to the citadel. What we have said was necessary to bring us up to this position, and we must occupy it, or very little has been gained. The doctrines mentioned above, though belonging to Christianity, and though revealed in the New Testament with a distinctness and power of evidence altogether unequalled, are not peculiar to Christianity-so that even if all our reasoning hitherto has been conclusive, we have only established the fact that some things about Christianity, some doctrines which that system has in common with other systems of religion,-are in accordance with man's intellectual and moral nature, rather than that Christianity itself is in accordance with it. Let us look, then, at the great truth of Christianity, the salvation of man from guilt and depravity through the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We have already said that man is distinguished by a conviction more or less decided of his sinfulness, and that the consciousness of guilt has shown itself in all ages in the sacrifices of slain beasts. Disturbed and perplexed, man is afraid to approach a holy God. He sees in the world many indications of benevolence; he looks on the fields covered with corn, and the hills with flocks; he listens to the singing of birds, and marks with delight rejoicing nature-but he cannot shut his eyes to facts that tell of anger rather than of love,-to indications of justice, to the famine and the pestilence, the earthquake and tornado,-confirmed as these indications are by his own mental forebodings. Hence, in order to avert the displeasure of God, painful rites have been observed; flocks of sheep and hecatombs of oxen have been im

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molated, men have sacrificed the fruit of their body for the sin of their soul, and have devoted themselves willing victims to the most cruel tortures and most painful deaths. That the origin of sacrifices is to be found in the direct appointment of God, we have very little doubt; for reason cannot very satisfactorily vindicate the doctrine. It seems neither merciful to slay the innocent, nor just to substitute them for the guilty. But whatever may be our views on these points,-whether we are disposed to regard the practice of sacrifices as the result of Divine appointment or not, and whether we regard the doctrine of sacrifices as reasonable or not, we must admit, from the universal prevalence of sacrificial rites, that the stern maxim is inscribed on the heart of man,-"Without shedding of blood there is no remission." If there be any nation who have no such sacrifices as those to which we have previously referred, even among them it is obvious that the feeling of penal satisfaction cleaves to the heart, and suggests some other expedient to assuage the desperation of guilt. Let it be granted, for the sake of argument, that these are idle fancies, wild frenzies, superstitious dreams, where is the man who is without them? They belong to the heart of man, and are interwoven with his moral constitution.

If the argument which we have now stated be correct, then it must appear obvious that Christianity, as a scheme of salvation through means of substitutionary sacrifice, is suited to man's intellectual and moral constitution. It comes to those whose souls are prepossessed in favour of the doctrine of propitiation. To the man who has watched the quivering limbs of his victim, or who has lacerated himself and undergone the most painful penances, uncertain if these will avert the wrath which conscience declares has been incurred; to men feeling, as multitudes do, the conflicting emotions that arise from the assurance, that without some rite of expiation, although they know not what, they cannot approach the Almighty, Christianity says, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." To him who tremblingly asks, "Where is the lamb for a burnt-offering," it says, "God hath provided for himself a lamb." God in his paternal character is unfolded. The perplexed and troubled spirit is pointed to the Eternal Father giving up his well-beloved Son, and to that Son giving up himself, that Jehovah, in bestowing forgiveness, and in receiving sinners into fellowship with himself, might show himself " a just God and a Saviour." Abundant mercy is proclaimed, but it is mercy in harmony with righteousness; a full salvation, but a salvation in the procuring of which the rights of the King of the universe are maintained. The restless and agitated spirit falls prostrate at the cross, and cries in wonder, and penitence, and joy, "This is my rest." The hard heart of man is melted; the love of Christ constrains him; the hope of immortality glows in his bosom; he nails the body of sin to the cross, and glories in the act of crucifixion; he is a new creature, actuated by new motives and aiming at new ends. He listens to the truths of Christianity, every one of which finds an echo in his soul. The assaults of infidelity and the doubts and perplexities of his own spirit, are met by the averment, "I know and feel that Christianity is true,-its testimony, its demonstration, are imprinted in indelible characters upon my heart."

We do not say that all to whom the simple truth of the Gospel is proclaimed, will be converted by its power; that it will carry to every hearer the demonstration of its truth and divinity. Alas! the tearful eyes and sad hearts of the messengers of the cross, both at home and abroad, tell us that it is not so. We hesitate not, however, in declaring our conviction that

the majority, the vast majority, of those who have been brought under the influence of christian truth, have been gained, not by elaborate reasoning on the credibility of the Scriptures, but by the faithful and affectionate application of the contents of these Scriptures to the conscience and heart. Were there not multitudes on the day of Pentecost who, when the evidence of miracles was presented to them, when they heard the apostles speak with fluency and accuracy in languages which they had never learned, said mocking, "These men are full of new wine," but who, when Peter declared "God hath made this same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ" cried out, "Men and brethren what shall we do?" God was not in the earthquake, and not in the fire, but in the still small voice. "The glorious Gospel of the blessed God we possess," says Dr R. W. Hamilton, "we verify it by abundance of authentic proofs. Miracle and prophecy surround it with an external divinity, yet were it our business now to arrange its evidences, we should willingly forsake the prouder signs, the more trophied monuments, dwelling upon that intrinsic credibility which it presents in its contrivance and adaptation to engage the faculties and reach the wants of man. He who was its author, knew what was in man, all the motives by which he can be affected, and all the relations in which he stands."

We have been hitherto employed in contemplating the objective truths of the christian system on the one hand, and the cravings of the human soul upon the other, and we have endeavoured to exhibit the wonderful-the perfect, adaptation. It seems necessary that at this point we should consider, for a little, the mode in which christian truth comes to bear upon the soul, and inquire if the application of Christianity is in accordance with the nature of mind.

The renovation of the human soul is undoubtedly not a physical but a moral change. The soul's introduction to the experience of Divine grace is not a change of its nature. but the origination of a new principle, by the operation of which evil is gradually subdued, and ultimately eradicated. This principle is faith, the perception of the truth, the authority, the importance, and the glory of Scripture statements. Christianity does not, like all systems of idolatry, attach importance to certain mechanical performances; it does not lay stress on the punctual observance of absurd and trifling ceremonies; but it presents to the view of the mind Deity, at once in the most awful and most amiable light as the supreme and universal Governor, immaculately holy, and inflexibly just, and as the universal Parent whose tender mercies are over all his works. The harmonious manifestation of justice and mercy, of righteousness and love, inspires confidence and attracts affection. Man's freedom, as an intelligent and responsible being, is not destroyed, is not interfered with, for truth is brought forward to act upon the intellect and conscience, just as truth is employed in the ordinary affairs of life. Christianity, as we have shown, brings the charge of ill desert against the sinner, and calls on him to repent, to change his mind, to believe in the Divine mercy, and to look to the atonement of the Mediator as the basis of reconciliation; and it declares, that he who thus repents and believes the Gospel, shall experience, from the nature of the truth believed, a renovation of his moral nature, love to God, delight in His law, peace of conscience, a joy above the joys of earth, comfort and support under the difficulties and afflictions of life, and a victory over death.

All holiness is the result of the knowledge and belief of truth. God is holy, perfectly holy, just because He knows-perfectly and eternally knows

all truth. He loves it with infinite and unchanging love; and He uniformly, and by necessity of his nature, acts according to it. To obey the truth, to do what is right, to do what accords with the fitness of things, is not slavery, but the liberty which God himself enjoys, for He acts according to truth, according to the dictates of his own perfect nature; but to obey a lie is slavery— to act in opposition to the truth. This is the slavery to which the depraved human soul is subjected. The Saviour said, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." The truth is peculiarly that by which the work of deliverance is accomplished, just because truth is the opposite of that error and falsehood by which man is enslaved. Whatever men believe is their master; if they believe truth, the control exercised over them is rational and salutary, but if they believe falsehood, then they are subjected to one or other of the varied forms of intellectual and spiritual bondage.

To illustrate the statements which we have just made, we might refer to the belief in judicial astrology and witchcraft, by which the minds of our ancestors were bound and oppressed. We referred in our first article to the general belief in these as indicative of man's craving for direct intercourse with the unseen world; we refer to it now as illustrative of the enslaving effect of error, and of the emancipating influence of truth. The belief that the heavenly bodies influenced the affairs of life, and that some human beings were invested with superhuman knowledge and power, in the exercise of which they were directed by Satan, held the minds of men in continual terror, and interfered fatally with right notions and feelings respecting the government of Divine providence; but this gloomy tyranny passed away, just as science advanced, and the man who would now manifest alarm at an eclipse of the sun, or the appearance of a comet, or the crowing of a cock, or the mutterings of an old woman, would be pitied and laughed at for his weakness, and ignorance, and folly. The idolater believes that the sun, and the moon, and the stars, or the mountains and rivers, or the figures of gold and silver, and wood and stone, which he has made with his own hands, are gods; and he is kept in perpetual bondage by the fear of offending them, and by attempts to obtain their favour when he supposes it has been lost. Let the truth be lodged in his mind that these are no gods-that his belief in their divinity is a delusion, and he is freed from the bondage in which he was held. The Papist believes that his priest has the power to forgive his sins, and that his sins must be confessed to the priest if they are to be forgiven; he believes, that after death his soul will be subjected to the pain of purgatorial fire, and that, by the purchase of masses, he may speedily be delivered, and admitted to the full enjoyment of the felicity of heaven. This belief holds him in bondage-a bondage from which he can be freed only by his being convinced that the system which he has received as true is a system of falsehood and imposture.

It is not difficult to see the bearing of these illustrations on the subject under our consideration, namely, the application of the redemption of Christ Jesus to the soul of man. Man is the slave of sin. "The cool, sagacious philosophic observer thinks so; the devout christian observer thinks so; the illuminated dying estimator thinks so." Might we not add to these words of Foster, that God shows, by many distinct statements in the Scriptures, that He thinks so? Man is alienated from God, and this alienation is a sad captivity. Scripture and experience tell us that man does not naturally love to think of God; that, instead of delighting in the perception and acknowledgment of his presence, in all places and at all times, he turns away from the unwelcome subject. Man struggles to get away from God; and,

instead of wishing to go to that world where there are to be obtained fuller manifestations of God, and more intimate communion with Him, man's thoughts cling to earth; and if God is thought of at all, it is with feelings of fear, distrust, and aversion. Man is not only alienated from God, but strongly and universally in love with sin. "Suppose a man," says Foster, "bound by some strong coercion in a servile connection with a malignant but specious lord who sets him to one occupation and another, with a mockery of making it delightful at first, but still turning it into painful drudgery -showing him dainties, letting him taste, and then snatching them away, or mingling something bitter and nauseous, smiling and acting the villain, overruling and frustrating him in any design or attempt to escape, subjecting him to still greater grievances the longer he remains, and at length reducing him to utter degradation and contempt. This is but a faint simile for the slavery of sin." When reason and conscience are dethroned, and when lust and passion reign, the soul is subjected to the most wretched bondage. Now how, in accordance with his intellectual and moral nature, is man to be freed? Is it not by his receiving truth, by his being convinced that sin, instead of being the good and pleasant thing which he thinks it is, is evil in its nature, and fatal in its consequences; that it never will, and never can, afford true and satisfying enjoyment? Is it not by his being convinced that God, whom he fears and hates, is the most excellent, and glorious, and lovely Being in the universe; one who loves his creatures, and desires their welfare; one who yearns with unspeakable affection over the sons of men ; one who has sent his only-begotten Son to toil, and bleed, and die, that men might be redeemed? This is precisely the scheme revealed in Scripture for the recovery of our fallen nature. God is made known to us as the greatest, and wisest, and most powerful, and most august, and most holy of beings; if we believe Him to be such, shall we not reverence and fear Him? He is revealed as infinitely munificent and compassionate, the Father and the Friend of mankind; if we believe Him to be such, shall we not love Him? He has made many and pregnant promises, and is revealed as faithful and true; if we believe this, shall we not put our trust in Him? Shall we not recognise His claims on our obedience; and in the possession of His love, the contemplation of His character, and in the grateful and affectionate discharge of the duties He has assigned us, shall we not find suitable and lasting happiness?

The objection that faith is in Scripture ascribed to the influence of the Holy Spirit, together with some general reflections, will form the subject of another article.

J.

CAFFRARIAN CONVERTS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN MAGAZINE.

MR EDITOR,—In the present disorganised and disastrous state of the Caffre Mission, it must be interesting to many of your readers, to receive information concerning the condition and safety of its converts. When the war broke out, there were about a hundred and twenty baptised converts, residing at the three stations of the society. About seventy sat down at the Lord's table, when the Sacrament of the Supper was, a little before the commencement of the war, celebrated at Chumie. They are now scattered as sheep without a shepherd, in the kloofs of Caffreland, or