effects, but not the agent or the process of his working. You have seen the wind's influences but not itself. But do you therefore marvel, or hesi tate to believe that it has been indeed abroad and working over the face of the earth? or do you ever doubt whether there be any such agent as the wind at all? No; you have heard the sound thereof, you have witnessed the stir and commotion of nature that told of its presence, and so you believe in its existence, though you cannot tell whence it cometh or whi ther it goeth.'

"So it is with every one that is born of the Spirit. You cannot see this mysterious agent any more than those natural agents of which I have spoken. But, as in the one case so in the other, though the agent is invisible, the effects of his operation are manifest. You perceive not the passing to and fro of a mysterious attraction between God and the soul of man, but you will not seldom see, as the needle is drawn to the magnet, some sinful soul, hitherto fixed in its worldly and selfish insensibility, as if touched by an invisible power, beginning to bestir itself, shaking off the torpor of worldliness and selfishness, and drawn in love and devotion to God and heavenly things. You do not see the gale from heaven-the breath of the Spirit-wafted over any sinner's soul, but ever and anon, if you watch carefully the moral history of your fellow-men, you may perceive, in the life of one or another hitherto careless man, a change more or less marked,—the visible witness of a hidden and invisible work. Sometimes with gentle touch the Spirit comes. When affliction has softened the heart, when solitude or bereavement has made the soul susceptible of serious thought, when the character is naturally amiable, gentle, impressible, when outward circumstances have been from childhood favourable to piety,-the Spirit of God has often but to breathe, as it were, an insensible movement into the moral atmosphere, in order to waft into the heart the seeds of holiness, and cause the fruits of holi ness to spring forth in the life. But sometimes in far different mood the Spirit comes as if in storm and terror-on the wings of the loud and winter wind. When the heart is hardened by sin or rendered stern and cold by long resistance to serious impressions, in these and similar cases the Holy Spirit has often come in influence of terror, and alarm, breaking wildly over the trembling soul and causing it quake with thoughts of guilt, and death, and judgment, and the wrath to come; and then it has been as if the inner world were shaken to the centre, and in the groans of its anguish or the cries of its penitence-now rising into hope, now sinking into despair-the soul has given witness how terribly the wind of the Spirit was working within it. But neither in His gentle nor in His rougher visitations is the working of the Mighty Agent ever immediately discernible. Only by its effects, by the fragrance and beauty of a saintly life, its truthfulness, gentleness, humility, self-denial; or, again, by evil passions rooted up, inveterate sinful habits bent and broken, obstacles to holiness swept away -by the sorrow, the self-abasement, the penitence, the prayers of a soul at the footstool of infinite Justice and Mercy,-only by these its outward effects, can the hidden presence and working of the Holy Spirit be recog nised."

From the powerful sermon on the Manifestation of God,—one of the most elaborate discourses in the volume,-we give, in justice to Mr Caird, the following lengthened quotation :

"That which is thus the deep-felt want of our natures, is most fully and adequately met in the Person of Jesus Christ. For here is one whom, while we may reverence and adore as God, we can think of as clearly, and love as simply, trustingly, tenderly, as the best known and loved of our

earthly friends. Here is a point around which our shadowy conceptions may condense, a focus towards which our aimless aspirations may tend. Here we have set before us the Boundless limited in form, the Eternal dwelling in time, the Invisible and Spiritual God revealed in that Word of Life which human eyes have seen and human hands have handled. No longer when we read or muse or pray, need our minds be at a loss, our thoughts wander forth through eternity in search of a Living God. To Him who lived among us, breathed our common air and spoke our human speech, loved us with a human heart and healed and helped us with human handsto Him, as God, every knee may bow, and every tongue confess. No longer in our hidden joys and griefs, in our gratitude and our contrition, in our love and in our sorrow, when our full hearts long for a heavenly confidant, to whom as to no earthly friend we may lay bare our souls, need we feel as if God were too awful a Being to obtrude upon Him our insignificance or to offer to Him our tenderness or our tears. Come unto me,' is the invitation of this Blessed One, so intensely human though so gloriously divine-' unto me,' in whose arms little children were embraced, on whose bosom a frail mortal lay; 'unto me,' who hungered, thirsted, fainted, sorrowed, wept, and yet whose love and grief and pains and tears were the expression of emotions felt in the mighty heart of God-' Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.'

:

"Not merely, however, by the constitution of His Person, but also by the moral beauty of His character and life, does Jesus Christ declare or manifest the unseen God. God is mirrored in the moral being of Christ. In that pure and lofty nature there was exhibited an image or likeness of the Holy and Spiritual God, such as the world before had never witnessed. Of all God's works, the soul of man is that by which He can best be manifested, by its structure it is the most transparent medium of the Divine. There is, indeed, much in God which humanity, even in its purest and loftiest type, is inadequate to represent. There is much in a great painting which the engraving taken from it fails to convey to the eye: for, though it may be an accurate representation of the drawing, it tells nothing of the beauty and harmony of colour in the original. There is much in the glorious landscape, or the living animated countenance, which the sun-picture, however correct up to its measure, leaves unexpressed lines, form, contour, relative proportions, may be accurately rendered, but the colour, the expression, the vari ety, the life, cannot be arrested and reproduced, even by the limner power of light. So there is that in the nature of the Infinite God which no copy graven on a finite soul, however noble-no reflection caught and fixed on the page of a human life, however holy and beautiful, can in the very nature of things fully render. Yet, though the finite can never be an exhaustive representation of the Infinite, of all finite manifestations of God, a perfect soul, a pure and holy mind, would be the noblest and the best. God can be imaged in a great and holy life, as He cannot be by the grandest objects which the material universe contains. If the soul of a little child were morally stainless, in that feeble tiny thing which a rude breath, it might seem, could crush, there would be a nobler and nearer representative of God, than in all the combined splendours of revolving suns and systems. For of a spirit a spiritual being alone can be the true portraiture. Matter can be moulded into the likeness of matter, mental and moral glory can be reflected and represented only by a mind. There may be something of God discoverable in the light of setting suns, and the round ocean, and the living air, and the blue sky;' but a living, thinking, loving soul, has in it that which mute and material things, however noble, can never possess a direct affinity with his own spiritual nature. Man alone, of all God's works in the universe, is made in His own image, after His own likeness;' and there

fore, if God would reveal Himself to us, the form under which the revelation can best be given is that of a human character and life.

"But in all ordinary specimens of humanity the medium has become sullied, dimmed, distorted, so that the heavenly light cannot shine through it, or if at all, only brokenly and fitfully. Only once in its history has the world witnessed a perfect human nature, a flawless, stainless, unmarred soul. Only once has humanity formed a medium through which, in its unmingled brightness and beauty the moral glory of God might pour its beams. In the profound yet unconcious wisdom, in the serene purity, in the tenderness, the forbearance, the persevering love, the combined magnanimity and lowliness of that faultless life of Jesus, we behold, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord.' As we ponder the record of His wondrous history who shrank with the recoil of Infinite Holiness from those unuttered thoughts of evil which only Omniscience could discover, the mind is borne upwards to Him who, while He searches the hearts of the children of men, yet is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. As we follow in his mission of unwearied beneficence, that gentle compassionate being in whom sorrow ever found its best consoler, and penitence its pure, yet pitying friend; as we note how, wherever He came the cry of the wretched awaited Him,-wherever he went, the blessings of them that were ready to perish followed His steps; how the hungry blessed him for food, the homeless for shelter, the heavy. laden for rest; how, one touch from His hand and the frozen blood of the leper flowed with the warm pulse of health,-one word from His lips, and the eyes of the blind gleamed back their gratitude upon Him; how too, far deeper ills than these-the pangs of conscious guilt, the woes of the troubled conscience, the incurable wounds of remorse, the inner maladies that oftenest baffle mortal skill, found ever in Him their most tender yet most potent healer; and finally, as we observe in the agent of all this wondrous working, a simplicity, a self-forgetfulness, a certain calm unobtrusiveness, that in His mightiest acts bespeaks no effort and courts no observation or applause; as we witness all this prodigality of goodness and majestic ease of power, does not the mind involuntarily ascend to that Being whose name is Almighty Love, does not the exclamation rise spontaneously to the lip, 'Surely God

is here ?'"

Ample material for farther quotation is before us, but we must forbear. Most cordially do we congratulate Mr Caird upon the appearance of this book, which is likely to be extensively read, and will, we trust, be useful. It will greatly increase our Church's reputation as regards pulpit oratory, and we doubt not that if life and health be spared Mr Caird will go on to give us farther specimens of his powers, discourses such as those which are contained in this volume, wherein, ever and anon, we find gems of thought and scintillations of expression suggestive of the poet's eye as well as of the preacher's earnestness.

LITERARY NOTICES.

A Defence of the Divine Authority of Episcopacy, against the Arguments and Objections of Presbyterians; being a Reply to Dr Crawford's "Presbyterianism Defended." By GEORGE MARSHALL MATHER, author of "A Vindication of the Liturgy." Edinburgh: D. R. Collie & Son.

THIS pamphlet professes to answer the brochure entitled "Presbyterianism Defended," some time ago published by the Rev. Dr Crawford. The contro

versy is in itself a sufficiently dreary matter of speculation, and we cannot compliment Mr Mather upon having thrown any fresh light upon the subject. At the same time we are bound to confess that his production evidences an amount of research we certainly did not expect in one whose avocations lay in a sphere so totally different. The positiveness of Mr Mather's views may be judged of from the following extract which concludes his pamphlet :

6

"In conclusion then, to use the language of the learned Bishop Tomlin, 'It seems as clear as written testimony can make it, that Bishops were appointed by the Apostles; that there were distinct orders of ministers, viz., Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, in the primitive Church; and that there has been a regular succession of Bishops from the Apostolic age to the present time; and we may safely challenge the enemies of Episcopacy to produce evidence of the existence of a single ancient independent church, which was not governed by a Bishop; I mean after it was fairly established, for we are to consider not so much what the Apostles did in the beginning of their ministry, as after they had preached for some time, and the Gospel had made some progress. The want of attending to this distinction has, I suspect, been a principal cause of the difference of opinion which has prevailed upon this subject. The Apostles,' says Epiphanius, could not establish everything at once; nothing is complete at its beginning, but, in process of time, things are brought to a perfect settlement. While the Apostles themselves were alive, the churches were subject to their authority and direction, and we are not to expect the establishment of a permanent government, till their ministry was drawing toward a conclusion; and this accounts for the little which is said in the Acts and Epistles concerning the distinction and power of ministers, since they were all written, (except, perhaps, the General Epistles of St John, which have no connection with these points,) within about thirty years of the ascension of our Saviour, and while most of the Apostles were yet alive; and the Epistles of St Paul, which give the most information relative to ministers, are those which he wrote in the latter part of his life, after he had delegated to Timothy and Titus that power in the churches of Ephesus and Crete, which he himself had been accustomed to exercise.'"

Important Hints on the Care of the Teeth. By EDWARD AYTON,
Surgeon-Dentist, Edinburgh.

THIS is a useful little tract pointing out the evils arising from the use of powders and tinctures. It also contains hints for the preservation of the teeth from disease well worth the consideration of the public.

ECCLESIASTICAL INTELLIGENCE.

Presentation.-The Queen has been pleased to present the Rev. Andrew Gray, to the New Church of Dumfries, in the Presbytery and County of Dumfries, vacant by the death of Dr Thomas Duncan.

Presentation.-The Queen has been pleased to present the Rev. Angus Macintyre, to the Church and Parish of Kildalton, in the Presbytery of Kintyre, and the Island of Islay, vacant by the death of the Rev. Archibald M'Tavish, late Minister thereof.

Presentation.—The Queen has been pleased to present the Rev. Robert Stephen, to the Church and Parish of Renfrew, in the Presbytery of Paisley, vacant by the transportation of the Rev. George Alexander, to the Parish of Stirling.

Paisley. The Middle Church.-We believe that there is every probability of the Rev. Mr Kirke, of the Middle Church, Paisley, being presented to the parish of Hutton, Berwickshire. The patronage is vested in the Crown, and the congregation have forwarded an unanimous memorial in his favour to the Home Office. Tarbert.-The Rev. James Mackenzie, son of the minister of Kilchrennan, Argyleshire, and presently missionary minister at Kingerlock, has been appointed by the General Assembly's Committee on the Royal Bounty to their mission at Tarbert, Lochfine.

Steeple Church, Dundee.-At a meeting of the Town Council of Dundee, the Clerk laid on the table the deed of presentation in favour of the Rev. Mr Dodds, Montrose, to the vacancy in the Steeple Church. Mr Dodds has accepted the presentation.

Induction. The Rev. John Robertson, late of Mains, was inducted by the Presbytery of Glasgow, to the pastorate of the High Church, vacant by the death of the late Principal Macfarlan.

Rev. Mr Cumming of Perth.-This reverend gentleman, who is minister of the East Church, Perth, and who was taken so suddenly ill in this City, whilst preaching before Her Majesty's Commissioner, has, it is said, applied for leave of absence for three months, to travel upon the Continent, in order to re-establish his health.

Soiree and Presentation to Rev Dr N. Macleod of St Columba.-On Tuesday night, the 8th ult., a numerously attended Soiree was held in the City Hall, Glasgow, for the purpose of celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Rev. Dr Macleod of St Columba, and presenting him with a testimonial of the respect in which he is held by his congregation. Several interesting addresses were delivered, and the venerable doctor was presented with an excellent portrait of himself, from the pencil of the accomplished artist, Mr Graham Gilbert.

To the Editor of Macphail's Journal.

SIR,-Permit me, if you please, through the medium of your valuable Journal, to, simultaneously with another quarter, give the public my views of the nature and properties of Electricity. That Electricity is a substance airiform in its nature, filling all space, compressible and elastic without limit,—that Electricity is itself matter and not the property of matter as hitherto considered. That the terms positive and negative are respectively explained by condensation and rarefaction,— that heat is compressed Electricity,-that light is expanded Electricity, and that lightning is Electricity suddenly liberated from clouds which confine it.

Your obedient Servant,

J. D. MORRISON.

END OF TWENTY-FIFTH VOLUME.