me, yet will I trust in Him." Daniel was a righteous man, a man greatly beloved; his unshaken faith in the Most High even prevailed to shut the mouths of hungry lions into whose den he was cast: yet, when declaring the vengeance He would take on a guilty land, these were thrice repeated: "Though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness." Ezekiel xiv. And if not for a temporal, how little may man's righteousness avail for the spiritual deliverance of his brother!

We have carried these remarks to a great length, and have written them under much sorrow of heart. In transcribing the lowly confessions of sin used by our dear Hebrew brethren, we have gone along with every acknowledgment, feeling ourselves guilty, condemned, and helpless before God. We know the doctrine, which Abel also understood, of the absolute necessity for the shedding of blood in sacrifice; and the burden of sin, and dread, would be greater than we could bear, had we to provide an atonement for ourselves. An offering must be clean; we are unclean; and "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one." Job xiv. 4. We know the blessedness of believing God, but wherein should we find it a blessing, if He had not spoken any good concerning us? He is merciful, we know; but He is also just, and will not exalt one attribute at the expense of another, for He is perfect. Blessed be the voice that tells us His mercy is free, because His justice is satisfied! the voice that has cried, concerning poor lost sinners, "Deliver him from going down into the pit: I have found a ransom." Job xxxiii. 24.

The voice that says, "Come unto me all ye that travail and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Yes, we must rejoice that there is a root of Jesse, which stands for an ensign unto the people, to which Gentiles also may seek, and whose rest shall be glorious ere long, as now it is perfect. We know it is vain to expatiate on this to our Hebrew brethren; but we cannot read in their own books their sorrowful complaint after the glory that is for the present departed, without imploring them to search, with prayer to God, their ancient scriptures, for the testimony which we know they bear to Him, the very Paschal Lamb that was sacrificed for us all.

If salvation be not of the Jews, it is no salvation; for God has declared that of them it should be. To Abraham and his seed were the promises made. The Jews possess in their own scriptures a treasure that enriches us; and at the hazard of losing that kind feeling which we so dearly prize, and of being counted an enemy to those whom we love as our own soul, we must say, Dear brethren! receive the record that God hath given of His Son. Look at the second Psalm, at the twenty-second, at the twenty-fourth, at the hundred and tenth, and compare them with the authentic narrative of the life, the teaching, the death, the resurrection and ascension of Him in whom we believe, even the crucified Jesus of Nazareth. Is it derogatory to the dignity of your Messiah that he should have given himself a costly ransom for the sins of his people? You admit the divine institution of atoning sacrifices, while reason and justice plainly tell you that the blood of an animal cannot possibly wash away the guilt of a soul; and surely it must have had some ulterior significancy, to be discovered,

if prayerfully sought after. In the privacy of your own chamber, with the word of God in your hands, and the fear of God in your hearts, and the faith of your father Abraham still in the Lord's power to bestow on you as freely as it was bestowed on him, can you be led into error, by honestly seeking to be confirmed in all truth? There is not under heaven a subject so important as that on which we have been unexpectedly called to explain our views-the pardon of sin, and justification of the sinner and we ask you to appeal to the inspired oracles which you, God's chosen witnesses, have alone kept, to be a blessing unto the ends of the earth. We say no more; but from the innermost core of a heart filled with love for Israel, and with a full assurance that the time of their glorious restoration is at hand, we join in their oft-repeated supplications, "And therefore, O Lord! grant honour unto thy people; applause unto those who fear thee; a pleasing hope unto those who seek thee; and confidence unto those who wait for thee; joy unto thy land, gladness unto thy city, a revival of the kingdom of thy servant David, and an ordination of renewed splendour to the son of Jesse, thine Anointed, speedily, in our days." Amen! Amen! Lord God of Israel, O grant the prayer! AMEN.

CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH.

Review of Books.

THE OFFICE AND WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. By the Rev. James Buchanan. One of the Ministers of the High Church, Edinburgh.— Johnstone, 1842.

It is matter for deep and devout thanksgiving in and for the Scottish Church, that the divisions with which she, in common with all Christian Churches in these troublous days is visited, do not, as with us, affect the sound doctrine taught by her authorised ministers. The question there is one of Church patronage, involving indeed a great trial of faith and patience, but not tending, like Puseyism in her sister Church, to the setting up of abominable idols, and rejecting the word of salvation. May the Lord preserve undimmed the lamp of her Protestant truth!

This book of Mr. Buchanan's is eminently scriptural and important. Generally speaking, the work

of the Holy Spirit is not brought so prominently forward by religious writers as the scripture model of teaching would suggest. It becomes, therefore, the less a matter of surprise that unsound doctrines, superseding the office of the Holy Ghost by attributing to mere ordinances such power and efficacy as belong to HIM alone, should have been privily brought in. That important point, a main gate of our citadel, was not sufficiently guarded. We hope this volume will be made useful in an eminent degree, in keeping many minds awake to the vital reality of which it treats. Part I. sets forth The Spirit's work in the conversion of sinners.' A chapter on the Regeneration of Infants,' the last in this portion, is most temperately and admirably written, to overthrow the popish dogma of baptismal regeneration as held by too many nominal Protestants among us. Mr. Buchanan, as most divines do, confines the blessing to elect infants, as contradistinguished from other infants. So, indeed do we; but we most confidently believe that none but the elect die in infancy. Of course, we do not regard election as either the cause or the consequence of early death: but while heartily assenting to the doctrine of infant baptism, and knowing that only to such as the Lord hath chosen, is the precious gift conveyed of infant regeneration; we do from our inmost soul repudiate the idea of such a thing as infant damnation. Part II. consists of illustrative cases from Scripture of what has been set forth in Part I. and is very interesting, and Part III. treats of the Spirit's work in his renewed people, as the Spirit of holiness, of adoption, of prayer; and as the Comforter.

On the principle that filling the sack with good