words! God is "the God of peace." Why, we might have been charged to tell you that God is "a man of war." But no; we have to proclaim him to you as "the God of peace." He has a peaceful disposition toward you; and he has proved this by raising up Jesus Christ from the dead.

It is possible that we may have erred in telling you that this is your privilege, and not dwelling sufficiently on it as your duty. It is your duty to believe; it is a great crime you are guilty of in not coming to God for the pardon of your sins, when he has told you so plainly and so repeatedly that he waits to bestow that pardon. You believe the word of your fellow men; to-morrow you will take their word, perhaps, twenty times in the day, in the course of your business; but you will not take the word of God; you must behold something extraordinary, you must have some miracle performed, before you believe God! and is not this most marvelous, most unreasonable? Will it not be infinitely better to take him at his word, and receive the blessing? Why, part of his word you do believe; you do believe his threatenings, when he says that "the wicked man shall surely die." This you firmly believe. But another part of his word—that very part which is most suited to your case—you put away from you! You say that you are not ready yet; that you are not worthy yet! O the marvelous absurdity of this unbelief! Men under the influence of this vile principle will absolutely believe all but that which they are required to believe that which most of all concerns them to believe-that ". THIS IS A FAITHFUL SAYING, AND WORTHY OF ALL ACCEPTATION, THAT JESUS CHRIST CAME INTO THE WORLD TO SAVE SINNERS." I now proclaim it to you; take it home to yourselves; say,

"Who did for every sinner die,
Hath surely died for me."

For me he hath obtained that redemption which is, of so much value; that, without which I must forever have perished! Sayest thou this? Then thou art the very man for my Saviour. Thou art the very man on whom he now looks down, on whom he now waits to be gracious!

I have already trespassed so unwarrantably upon your time, that I must leave you to apply this train of thought to other cases of unbelief which will present themselves readily to your mind. We may learn from this subject,

1. The marvelous corruption of human nature, from whence all this unbelief originates. If man was as he came out of the hands of his Maker, he could receive with simple, confiding love, all that he has said, and listen implicitly to all his assurances. Faith has its seat in the heart and so has unbelief; hence we read of "an evil heart of unbelief.” Man is very far gone from original righteousness. Now, as unbelief took us away from God, so faith alone can bring us back to God, and prepare us for an ultimate admission into heaven. See also,

2. The necessity of the agency of the Holy Spirit. This is necessary, that faith may be inspired, and kept in exercise, and brought to maturity. If unbelief be in the heart by nature, it is not the nicest train of reasoning, it is not all the power of moral suasion that can produce faith. True faith is supernatural; the apostle tells the Philippians that it had been "given them to believe in his name." You must believe; believing is your act; but it is an act of a heart renewed by the grace of the Holy Spirit; by the same almighty and efficacious power by which Christ was raised from the dead. Look at the case of infidels; other means are employed in abundance, but they remain infidels still; while others have been converted from infidelity in the absence of all human means. Look at the case of Saul of Tarsus; he was a most bigoted Pharisee, and a furious and determined persecutor; and he was not made into a sincere and humble Christian, and a zealous and successful preacher, by books, or by human argumentation. The miraculous light, and the voice from heaven, might arouse his attention; but it was by an immediate and direct interferenee of the Holy Spirit, that the change was effected, and true faith was inspired. The conversion of Vanderkemp, also, is a case fully in point; a conversion scarcely less remarkable than that of the Apostle Paul. From a German infidel, infidelity, perhaps, of the most specious and dangerous kind, Vanderkemp, without human interference, became a zealous Christian. I do not mean to say that good books, that wise and pious information, are to be despised; but I do mean to say, that the great fault is in men's hearts; and that it is necessary that the heart should be prepared by the operation of the Spirit, to receive the truth in the love of it. And that, though the mind may be prepared, in some measure, by knowledge, yet that true faith is the immediate effect of a direct influence of the Holy Spirit.

As to all the instances of unbelief we have specified, and as to all others which may occur, go direct to God; pray against your unbelief; beseech him to cure you of this dreadful infatuation.

And let the disciples-let those who are set to guide souls to Christlet all the Church say, 66 LORD, INCREASE OUR FAITH !”

DISCOURSE XL.

HUGH MACNEIL, D. D.

DR. MACNEIL, of Regent's Park, Liverpool, is one of the most powerful preachers in England. He is a native of the province of Ulster, in Ireland, and was in youth a very thoughtless young man, fond of the drama and light literature. After his conversion he gave himself to the work of the ministry, and was, for a time, one of the most popular preachers of the London pulpit, and was presented afterward with the living at St. Jude's in Liverpool. His labors there were blessed to the conversion of hundreds; and while there he signalized himself as a controversialist on the Romish question Under his ministry the church became far too small, and hence his removal to Regent's Park, where he occupies a very handsome and capacious church. He is known as the author of several works on prophecy, among the rest a very excellent treatise on the Restoration of the Jews. In common with many of the evangelical school in England, he holds Millenarian views, although he does not go the length of some of the less sober and intelllgent writers on these questions.

Dr. MacNeil possesses all that impetuosity of temperament, that versatility of talent, that exuberance of imagination, and that affluence of imagery, which have characterized some of the most celebrated of the sons of the Green Isle. His appearance in the pulpit is most commanding. He is tall, handsome, and erect. His hair is now flaxen white; his complexion ruddy, without any tendency toward corpulency; his voice is clear, sweet, and melodious, possessing all the tones, from the lowest bass to the highest alto, and under the most perfect control; his preaching is impassioned and telling; his argumentation is well put; his expositions are clear; his illustrations to the point; and his appeals never fail to reach the heart. Rev. Dr. Tyng, in his "Recollections of England," describes glowingly the abilities of Dr. MacNeil, and speaks of him as combining, in an extraordinary degree, the "unrivaled excellences of subject, mind, and matter." In preaching he is wholly extemporaneous, and holds a little pocket Bible in his hand, from which he makes his quotations. It is said that he has admitted not less than a thousand souls to the church, who have been savingly converted to God under his ministry. It was hoped by many of the evangelical friends of the Church of England, both in Canada and in the eastern provinces, that he would have received the appointment of Bishop to some of the recently-vacant provincial sees; and no man in England better deserved such a preferment. Dr. MacNeil would be widely useful to the British colonies of North America. The discourse from his master pen which we subjoin, was first preached in 1834; Dr. Chalmers once heard it, and declared it to be one of the best productions on the subject to which he had ever listened.

MYSTERIES IN RELIGION.

"Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour."-ISAIAH, xlv. 15.

"Be still," saith the Lord of heaven and earth, "and know that I am the Lord." "I will be exalted among the heathen; I will be exalted in the earth." "O taste, and see," saith the Psalmist, inviting the people of God to the enjoyment of their privileges, "taste and see, that the Lord is good." And again: "To know thee," saith the Saviour, in his prayer to the Father, "is eternal life; to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." Among all the objects by which the human understanding can be exercised, or the human affections engaged, the most important beyond comparison, and, with all who believe that there is a God beyond dispute, is God himself-God in the mysteriousness of his person and existence-God in the sovereignty of his creation and providence-God in the riches of his atoning love in Jesus Christ-God in the energy of his saving power by the Holy Ghost.

"Verily, thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour." Such was the exclamation of the prophet, when sinking under the weight of the revelation that had been given to him. Something of God was made known to him; but much remained unknown. A beam of light had fallen upon him, but it was only sufficient to make him intelligently conscious of the unfathomable depth of the Fountain of Light itself. More light hath fallen upon us, and, with the New Testament in our hands, we might truly say, "Verily thou art a God that revealest thyself, O Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour." And yet, when that revelation is examined, and examined, if possible, with apostolic skill, we must exclaim, in unaffected apostolical humility, in ignorance, conscious and confused, "O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! His ways are past finding out! Who hath known his mind? Who hath been his counselor ?" "Of him, and through him, and to him, are all things; to whom be glory forever and ever."

I am persuaded, my brethren, that one of the most important features in the subject which I now desire to bring before you, is the indispensable necessity that exists for a mystery. The indispensable necessity of a mystery: for the human mind is so constituted, that either it abuses the mystery into superstition, or it rejects the whole truth because of the mystery, and plunges, however unconsciously, into infidelity. To recognize, without abusing, a mystery, is the attitude to which a finite mind must be brought, in rightly receiving a revelation from the living God. For observe: suppose God to make a full and adequate revelation of himself, there is a point in the examination of that revelation, at which

man's understanding must fail; for man's understanding, at the best, is finite: God is infinite. The finite can not grasp the infinite; and, therefore, there must needs be a point, at which the power of the finite understanding that can take in that infinite communication, would cease; and at a particular point, there would be a horizon to man's perceptions of truth. That is, to us there would be a point at which the revelation would cease to be explanation, and a man's view would be bounded, and a mystery would commence. For what is a mystery? A mystery is a revelation unexplained; a truth told-told distinctly-but not reasoned upon and explained; a truth so told that we can boldly say what it is, but not so explained as to enable us to say how it is. The personal existence of God, as declared in Holy Scripture, is a mystery; it is a revelation unexplained-a statement unreasoned; and it presents a horizon to the human understanding, which fades into mystery. And I wish to show you how unreasonable the man is who will reject the objects in the foreground, and in the center of the landscape, because he can not, with equal precision, discern the objects in the horizon.

GOD; Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; one God-distinct, yet not divided; separate, yet still one. The Son; co-equal and co-eternal with the Father; yet begotten of the Father. The Holy Spirit; proceeding from the Father and the Son. The Son sent by the Father, and filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit received from the Father, and sent by the Son. The Father God; the Son God; the Holy Spirit God; and yet there is but one God. "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one God." God saying of himself, "I am, and there is none else; I know not any." God saying to himself, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." What human understanding can grasp this? There is a revelation unexplained; the Trinity is an imperfect discovery, not a contradiction. There is a great difference between these two things. The intellect, to which nothing is mysterious, must be infinite: but a finite intellect can take cognizance of a contradiction. There may seem to be a contradiction in the truth; but the cause is in the infirmity of the creature, and not in the infirmity of the truth itself. The subjectmatter of the proposition is too high; it is beyond our reach. We can not demonstrate a contradiction, for we can not enter into the matter of the statement. If such a statement were made concerning three men being one man, the subject-matter of the proposition being within the boundaries of our cognizance, so that we can reason concerning it, one should be capable of proving the contradiction; but when such a statement is made of God, the subject-matter of the proposition is beyond our reach; and though this statement may seem contradictory, the fault is here in man's understanding, not in the truth.

Is not this the same in other things, as well as in religion? Do we understand ourselves, my brethren? The metaphysician inquires into the human mind; and the anatomist searches into the veins, and arteries,