Chamberlain. The country has a greater right to demand explanations from the Whig Lord Chamberlain, than from the private

secretary of Cardinal Wiseman, who played the part of Sheriff White's chaplain for a day.

MAYNOOTH AGITATION AND MAYNOOTH CANDIDATES.

THE Maynooth question is daily increasing in importance. It will probably occasion more trouble to Earl Derby than Protection. His Lordship, as an intelligent and shrewd man, and not unskilled in the signs of the times, knows that the restoration to Protection is an impossibility, and gladly would he say so at once, were he not afraid of breaking up his party, and of experiencing the same fate as Sir Robert Peel. He is obviously prepared to throw Protection overboard upon the first convenient opportunity, and the appeal to the country is merely a feather-bed, placed so as to make the fall as gentle as possible. But what is to be done with Maynooth? It will turn the scale in many elections. There is a strong current setting in, which no Government, be it Whig or Tory, can much longer safely resist. Mr Loch, the member for the Wick burghs, has struck his flag, and has promised unreservedly to vote for the repeal of this obnoxious endowment. Had he declined to do so, he would have lost his seat; and the electors of the northern burghs deserve great credit for the stand, which they have so manfully and so early taken. Glasgow, having sent a petition, signed by more than 62,000 citizens, against Maynooth, and prisons for women, under the name of nunneries, in a free country, will surely not now send any man to Parliament who does not represent them on this great question. In the Stirling and Dunfermline burghs, both of the candidates have given a clear and unequivocal utterance; and a candidate for the suffrages of these burghs, however high his qualifications in other respects, would scarcely be listened to, who was not sound as to the public support of this Romish College. In Leith, the Dissenters, we are sorry to observe, are placed in a most painful position. On the one hand, there is a semi-Protectionist, who is opposed to Maynooth; on the other hand, there is a Free-trader, who will not pledge himself to the withdrawal of this endowment, or, in other words, who will support it. The Free-trader confesses that he is personally opposed to this endowment; that it was a political blunder, and has not served the purpose intended; and yet he will not be a party to its repeal. A Dissenter may say, "I am opposed to Protection. I am also opposed to Maynooth. I cannot vote with a free mind for either. What can I do? If I remain neutral, and do not appear at the pollingbooth, a Protectionist may get in, and thus, by standing aloof, I may keep out the person whose principles, except in relation to Maynooth, are most in accordance with my own. Is it my duty, in this case, not to exercise my privilege of voting?" We humbly presume that it is. It is worth while, in our opinion, to run the risk of a Protectionist being carried, rather than vote for a man who, in the teeth of his own acknowledgments, will perpetuate this error, because he was connected with the Whig Government, and expects to be so again. Dissenters need not be alarmed, though their stern adherence to principle should send a few Protectionists to Parliament. The Whig Liberals should look to this as well as Dissenters, and it is neither just nor courteous that all the concessions should be on one side. Protection is doomed. It will never raise its head again. No tricks of political galvanism can give even it a momentary appearance of life. It is dead, dead, dead; and hence Dissenters may the more readily hold aloof, and refuse to vote for

a Free-trader, who, with great professions of liberality upon his lips, will squander the public funds upon an institution which is pouring over Ireland and our colonies the seeds of disloyalty, impurity, mental slavery, and spiritual death. We most earnestly entreat Dissenters to take a bold and decided stand upon Maynooth. The great body of them, we honestly believe, do not see the value of gaining this outpost. They do not perceive how intimately connected it is with the Irish Protestant Establishment. They do not understand, that the nearest road to the Irish National Church lies through the Maynooth College. This Popish institution is, in our opinion, the strongest buttress of the Irish Church. The "Times" knows this fact better than many of our Voluntary friends, who are so very consistent that they will not destroy any of the vermin with which their house and grounds are infested, unless they can first gather them all together, and put them to death, in the same instant of time. Archbishop Whately knows this fact better than many of our friends, who, had they acted upon the same principles in material monopolies which they seem prepared to do in ecclesiastical, would have stood back, and refused a helping hand to put down the corn monopoly, until they had power sufficient to abolish the sugar monopoly, the timber monopoly, and the navigation monopoly, at the same moment. Dr Whately has no great liking for Romanism, but he has a very natural predilection for the Irish Church, and hence he advocates the endowment of Maynooth. We are much afraid, that Voluntaryism is not gaining much at present from the conduct of no small number of its professors. The suspicion is somewhat extensively entertained among those who hold the Establishment principle, that many Voluntaries seem more at home in demanding the repeal of Protestant than of Popish endowments. We are not prepared to say that this is the case; but certainly we should take care that our good be not evil spoken of. Something at least is gained, when we succeed in taking this fortress; and every monopoly, when overthrown, gives us greater facilities for taking the rest. Whenever a monopolist has his own privileges wrested from him, he joins your ranks immediately, and helps you to subdue those with whom he formerly co-operated, on the instinctive principle of self-interest. The number of petitions presented, up to the 31st March, is 206. The signatures amount to 102,448. This is hopeful. Let us bestir ourselves. The Glasgow Protestant Society has issued a spirited address to the Protestant electors, with which we fully sympathise. It concludes with these words "Let the overthrow of the Maynooth Endowment give unmistakeable evidence to the Government and the world, that the project of endowing the Roman Catholic church in Ireland is equally hopeless as repre

hensible.

Printed by THOMAS MURRAY, of 2, Arniston Place, and WILLIAM GIBB, of 12, Queen Street, at the Printing Office of MURRAY and GIBB, North-East Thistle Street Lane, and Published by WILLIAM OLIPHANT, of 21, Buccleuch Place, at his Shop, 7, South Bridge, Edinburgh, on the 27th of April 1852.

THE

UNITED PRESBYTERIAN MAGAZINE,

FOR JUNE, 1852.

Miscellaneous Communications.

CHRISTIANITY SUITED TO MAN.

FOURTH ARTICLE.

WE have already endeavoured to show that Christianity is suited to man's intellectual and moral nature, not only as it declares his immortality and guilt, but also as it reveals salvation through the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have considered also the application of Christianity,—and we come now to look at the objection which has been sometimes urged, viz., hat faith is in Scripture ascribed to the influence of the Holy Spirit.

That the belief of the truth of the Gospel is ascribed to the influence of the Divine Spirit, we readily admit, and we are disposed to think that this belief is the result of the Spirit's direct and immediate agency. While we do not, however, profess to explain the mode of the Spirit's operation, we appeal to the consciousness of every Christian for proof that that operation is in perfect accordance with moral freedom. To the Christian whose eyes glance along these lines we would say, "You have reason to hope that a good work has been begun in your soul,-that you are to some extent under the influence of the truth as it is in Jesus; you enjoy in some measure the happiness, and exhibit in some measure the holiness, which the belief of the truth imparts; you are ready to acknowledge that it was God who took you out of the horrible pit, and out of the miry clay, and set your feet on a rock and established your goings; were you any more conscious of restraint when you believed the Gospel, than when you were violating God's law? were you ever for a single instant divested of the conviction that you were a free and responsible agent? Though convinced that the work has been the work of God, are you not as thoroughly convinced by the evidence of an indestructible consciousness that that work has been performed in entire accordance with your own intellectual and moral nature?"

There are some general considerations connected with the suitableness of Christianity to man's intellectual and moral constitution, to which we would advert in conclusion. The first of these is, that if Christianity be adapted to the constitution and circumstances of one man, it is adapted to the con

VOL. VI. NO. VI.

L

stitution and circumstances of all. It has no affinity with any local association, or with any national peculiarity. It is equally adapted to man, civilised and savage,-to men living in the Arctic regions, and in the torrid zone. It speaks to man as man. It speaks a language which men everywhere can understand, and in tones with which the springs of man's soul everywhere vibrate. It is not the religion of a nation or a class. It was made for man, and is the light of the world. Is there any emotion of the rational soul, we may well ask, which the religion of Jesus cannot sustain, or control, or dignify? Is there any fear which disturbs the human breast which the religion of Jesus is not fitted to assuage? Is there any hope that throbs in our bosoms, or any aspiration or desire that we entertain, which the religion of Jesus does not gratify or correct? Show us a man, we care not what may be his clime or colour-we care not whether his condition in the world be that of weal or woe; and we show a religion as exquisitely adapted to the whole compass of his being as light to the eye, or sound to the ear, or air to the lungs. The religion of Jesus displays the most comprehensive and penetrating knowledge of our nature. It apprehends fully the grandeur and meanness of that nature, and, what is its distinguishing peculiarity, it satisfactorily accounts for both of them. It recognises man panting after happiness, yet miserable and unsatisfied, ever grasping at the endless and infinite, yet ever painfully conscious of his distance from it;-it proves man beyond controversy to be what Pascal has described him," the glory and the scandal of the universe.".

Christianity is fitted to every grade of intellect, and to all stages of improvement, to the mind of the sage, and to the dawning intelligence of the child. Nay, more, it affords scope for every mental idiosyncrasy, Is reason predominant in a man, Christianity has a history and a philosophy for his investigation? Is imagination predominant in a man? Christianity makes the most sublime discoveries, and hints of things more glorious. conscience powerful in a man? There are here the purest morality, the strongest motives, and most comprehensive requirements. Is a man distinguished by exquisite sensibility? Christianity says to him, "Love is the fulfilling of the law."

Is

Christianity is a religion of principles rather than of precepts, and it is this which gives it the character of universality to which we have just referred. It has no summary of commandments, or authoritative code of statutes, like those of Judaism, which was local and limited in its nature and design, but all its doctrines are presented as motives and encouragements to virtue, and in connection with the practical influence they are fitted to exert.

There are many that tell us that Christianity is a worn-out thing-an effete system-something which suited the infancy of the race of man, but which is unsuited to the mature intellectual and moral development of the present day. Much of this cant is to be found, directly or indirectly stated, in the more than semi-infidel writings of our time-in England and America, as well as in Germany,-in the works of Carlyle, Emerson, Newman, Morell, Froude, Parker, Greg, and others of the same school. Where shall we find, O ye apostles of intellectual and moral development! the people or the individual in whom the idea of Christianity is fully realised? Where shall we find the people or the individual whose intellectual and moral development is greater than that of multitudes who have yielded to, and rejoiced in, the truth as it is in Jesus? Where is that spot on earth in which vice is unknown, and man is all purity, all justice, and virtue, and happiness; where the character of Jesus of Nazareth is an every day character; where men

flourish in all the dignity of reason, in all the fervour of pure affection, in all the sensibilities of a refined intellect, a pure taste, and a sublime devotion towards their Creator?

If the doctrines of Christianity-startling as some of them are to speculatists, and different as some of them are from the theories of ancient and modern philosophers-are seen when carefully examined to harmonise with the essential characteristics, the individual experience, and the universal emotions of human nature; if, when these doctrines are employed as a key to unlock the mysteries of the human heart, or as a balm for its wounds, or as a sphere for its aspirations, there be found the most exact agreement, the most delicate fitting, to what conclusion can we naturally come, but that these doctrines have come from Him who formed man, and endowed him with the intellectual and moral nature which he possesses-have come from Him who "needeth not that any should testify to Him of man, for He knows what is in man"?

And if Christianity is true, if it is from God, what is our duty in regard to it? Surely to receive it, and to yield to its elevating and purifying influence, and to pray and labour that that influence may be brought to bear on the understandings and consciences of all our fellow-countrymen-of all our fellow-men. If we can discern the signs of the times, and if regard is to be had to the views and fears of thoughtful Christians in all parts of the world, our faith is destined to be subjected ere long to a fierce and fiery ordeal. The testing process has indeed begun. Infidelity in a form different from what it has assumed for many centuries is now boldly and industriously propagated. O that these observations on the suitableness of Christianity to man,-on the "6 portable evidence," as Dr Chalmers called it, may tend to the confirmation of the faith of those who have perused them, and may in some degree assist them in giving to them that ask a reason of the hope that is in them with meekness and fear! Our Christianity is not only the foundation of our immortal hopes, but it is also the security of our social and political well-being. Look to the history of France-poor, misguided, infidel France-during the last sixty years. Does not that history show a perpetual oscillation between the extremes of anarchy and despotism? France has had absolute monarchy and constitutional monarchy; she has had the elder and the younger Bourbons; she has had the republic of Danton and Robespierre, and the republic of Arago and Lamartine; she has had the Napoleonism of the uncle and the nephew, and in what state is she now? "France is tranquil," but it is with a gagged press, a sham senate, and an imperious soldiery. "France must have more of God," as was said by M. Monod in May 1851, "ere she can be happy." The Christianity of Britain is her real safeguard; the Bible is our great charter. There is much ignorance of christian truth, and much profligacy among the highest and lowest classes of our population, but the intelligence and right principle of our middle classes furnish an element of hope. Let us prize, and improve, and disseminate the truth. If we abandon it, farewell peace of mind, farewell all security of life and property, farewell political freedom, farewell all that is glorious and of good report, farewell the hope of everlasting purity and joy.

J.