It is im

Having once passed into this state of death and misery' through whatever cause, there was no power of deliverance or restoration in the transgressor nor in the law which he had violated. Restoration could only come through and by a power above and independent of the transgressor. The sinner must remain in his lapsed state, and suffer all the miseries belonging to it, unless restored, through some provision made, or favour conferred by the Author of the law. possible for the law itself to restore the one who transgresses it; for in doing so, it would stultify itself, and destroy all authority and government. The Author of the law can provide and accept a satisfaction for the violators, and pardon the offenders. In human governments this fact is fully recognized. The law-making power can, and does, say what it will accept as a satisfaction from the transgressor; but this fine does not make him any the less an offender, nor his offence any the less a violation of law and a crime. When the satisfaction is ассерted by the author of the law, the transgressor is released, and is treated as though he had always been obedient. Christ is the end of the law-the only ransom; and there is no other deliverance from the penalty of the violated commandment. So far as revelation goes, no such provision was made for the angels who kept not their first estate. The simple story of their fate is: "Reserved in chains, under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day." But for man we know that a satisfaction has been provided, and that it is offered to all without money and without price. This ransom, so freely offered, has been accepted, as most satisfactory, in the most public manner, by the Author of the law that man has violated. Whosoever accepts this is pardoned and goes free! The law does not pardon, but the power that makes the law does, when the ransom is accepted.

The author of the law must be reconciled to the transgressor before he will or can bestow the pardon, which shows that the ransom he brings must be something of great value. Our ransom is nothing less than the only-begotten Son of him whose law we have violated. Whosoever accepts Christ comes to possess the most valuable and most precious boon the universe contains, and one which is sure to secure pardon to every one who has it. He that hath the Son hath life." His name

God's commandment, otherwise we could not justify the ways of God towards them. So that the reason of their fall just lies in this, that they gave heed to the seductions of the tempter rather than to the prohibition of God, hedged round as it was with threatenings and warnings. But we doubt not that the reverend Doctor fully agrees with us in this observation. -Ed. E. R.]

No. 9.

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Vol. 3.

is above every name, and is one at which every knee shall bow. This dear name alone, written upon the white stone, will admit the bearer to the hospitalities of the mansions made without hands. The unrestricted freedom of the creature runs through all this scheme; and the declaration, "Whosoever will," shows that the ransom is freely offered to all transgressors, and that the sinner must of his own will accept it, or as freely remain under the bondage and curse of the violated law.

Two distinct systems of doctrine take their rise here. One teaches that this ransom and satisfaction was provided for a certain definite number of the common transgressors, and for no others—this number being particularly and unchangeably designed, and so definite and certain that it cannot be either increased or diminished. The other teaches that the ransom was provided for all, and in the very same sense; so that all offenders stand on an equality before God and his law. It adds also, that whosoever will may accept it, receive pardon, and be saved in Jesus Christ.

By the first system there is no ransom, pardon, or redemption for any but the definite, chosen number; and whether they be infants of a day, or of the years of Methuselah, the principle is the same. They can only await the end, and suffer the doom to which they were unchangeably foreordained before the world was.

By the second system the glorious gospel is fully recognized and declared that Jesus gave himself a ransom for all, and tasted death for every man. Therefore the ministers of this free gospel may go into all the world, and, without restriction or mental reservation, say to every creature, "Come, for all things are now ready"; and "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." This is all the more cheering, because it is the unqualified declaration of him "who created all things, who is before all things, and by whom all things consist."

UNION WITH THE CONGREGATIONALISTS.

WE do not generally, in this magazine, direct attention to what may be called the news of the day; since the programme laid out for us, when our publication scheme was launched, was that, not of denominational intelligence, but of theological literature. The subject, however, which is indicated by the heading of this article is so important, and so vitally connected with our interests, as a separate body of Christian people, that we feel constrained to lay before our readers some thoughts upon the topic.

It is already well known throughout the country, that Dr. William Pulsford, of Glasgow, in April last, delivered a deliberate and elaborate address at the annual meeting of the Scottish Congregational Union, on certain reforms and ameliorative measures, which he thought essential to the Union's well-being. Leaving the climax to the last, like a skilful orator, he urged the ministers and laymen before him, finally, to appoint a committee, whose duty it should be to prepare a scheme, or draft of a scheme, "for securing closer union with the Evangelical Union of Scotland, and that on the principle of comprehension, and not of compromise." Dr. Pulsford's proposal was received with repeated bursts of applause, from at least a section of his hearers; and, as no counter-resolution was moved, we are warranted to conclude that it was not viewed with anything of the nature of dislike by any members of that conference.

We suppose that the committee which has been appointed, will take steps to draw out the scheme referred to, before the next meeting of the Congregational Union, in April, 1877. Meanwhile it is proper that brethren in the religious bodies interested should speak out their minds, both that the committee may be helped in their rather delicate task, and that public opinion may be prepared for that judgment on the matter which must ultimately be pronounced.

For ourselves we must confess that, during the theological controversies of thirty years ago, of which we have recently given a detailed account in the pages of this Magazine, we always took the ground that our brethren should not have gone the length of ejecting the students from the Academy who were charged with holding "new views," nor of withdrawing from the fellowship of the churches whose pastors were similarly suspected. Consequently, to be logically consistent, and not to speak meanwhile of higher ground, if we were unwilling to be cast off, we should not be unwilling to be taken back, when overtures to that effect are made.

It is indeed true, that when a rude and violent separation has been made, and the party so separated has had time to be crystallized into a new sect, not only with its bishops and deacons, but with professors and students, magazines and historical books of its own, it is not so easy to reunite it with the old connection, as when it was in the liquid state of early and infantile excitement. But the proposal has been made in the interests of Christian union; and kind and considerate account has been taken, if we understand it aright, of all our existing institutions. These are to remain unaltered. The union is to be one of federation, on the basis of common Congregationalism, and not of denominational fusion, or literal incorporation.

It could not well be otherwise, at least at present. The Evangelical Union churches have been founded on the basis of resistible grace and conditional election. We are willing to admit that crude things may have been said by us, and crude things written at the time of our separation; but we have now maturely and deliberately settled down on that basis, and we do not think it likely that we ever will be moved from it. Moreover, we are most anxious that others should

believe as we believe on these points; and many in our fellowship know no other way of stating the Gospel as a ground of peace, whether to their own souls or to the souls of others, than this-a Saviour dying for all, and therefore for me-a Spirit provided for all, and therefore for me.

We are aware that many of the younger ministers, and thousands of the laymen in the Congregational Union hold these very views; but it is not likely that the older ministers nor the wealthier laymen would agree with us, or be willing that their students of divinity should hear such lectures on systematic theology as ours hear. Therefore it would be better, meanwhile, that the two academies should be kept apart. For although it may seem, at first sight, that very little keeps us separate, that little point sends the one body over to the Arminian or Free Will school of theology, and keeps the other on the Calvinian side of the house.

In these circumstances, it may be said, Why agitate for union at all, or be willing that it should be entered into? Our answer is, that the Christian church all over the world is sighing for union. The hosts of those who are opposed to Christian truth as a whole are marshalled against us in deadly array; and all good men who hold Christ the Head, are anxious to press more closely to one another, that so they may defend more efficiently a common cause against a common foe. Presbyterians are everywhere seeking to unite, on the ground of their common Presbyterianism; and why should not Congregationalists unite on the ground of their common Congregationalism?

Besides, although we differ on the points already referred to, those on which we agree are far more numerous. Perhaps we of the Evangelical Union have sometimes been prone to magnify too much our doctrinal peculiarities. Men have been eminently pious, and yet have not believed as we believe. Men have been eminently useful, and yet have not believed as we believe. Besides, there are depths in the foreknowledge of God on which we are not all agreed, and which we require to confess that we may not be able fully to fathom. On the nature of the atonement of Christ, moreover, divers views have been expressed amongst us; and it may be pertinently argued, that if we may be associated with those who are not exactly at one with us as to some aspects of the work of Christ, may we not be associated with those with whom we are not altogether agreed as to the operations of the Holy Ghost?

Are there any advantages to be reaped by us from this federal union with the Scottish Congregationalists which has been proposed? Dr. Pulsford, and they who support him, are not slow to confess that they will reap benefit from union with us. In the first place, the Congregational body would thus be made, as a whole, much stronger than it has hitherto been. In Scotland we are overshadowed by Presbyterianism; but when upwards of two hundred Congregational churches will be found in the ecclesiastical directory, the power of Independency will be felt, and will begin to be confessed. This

benefit, of course, we of the Evangelical Union will share with the Congregational brethren. Then Dr. Pulsford and his friends are kind enough to admit that their churches will be the better of closer fellowship with ours. They have already got several soldiers from our camp, who have fought so well that they would like to attract others to their ranks. They would like to hear our ministers more frequently; and this opportunity they would have if the middle wall of partition at present existing were broken down, and something like a mutual eligibility scheme established. Moreover, advantages not a few, we are free to confess, would accrue to us. In the first place, our status in the country would be improved. When known to be associated with such men as Drs. Alexander and Pulsford, and the Baxters of Dundee, we would be regarded with greater respect in the land. We need not deny that we have often felt sore on account of the stigma which alleged heterodoxy affixed to us. But with this largely removed, we would breathe more freely, and enjoy more fully the fellowship of all the Christian people of Great Britain. Then, secondly, our usefulness would be increased. We would, in all probability, gain access, both in pulpit, on platform, and through the press, to thousands from whom we have hitherto been shut out by prejudice. And, thirdly, our own spirits would be benefited by all this enlargement of sphere and association. It is possible that the isolated position which we have been called upon to occupy in this country hitherto may have acted unfavourably on our own spiritual condition. We may have been narrowed in our sympathies and stunted in our Christian charity. We may have been too apt to think that there could not be real Christianity unless our very theological standpoint was occupied, and our theological "shibboleth " repeated. But in the broad field of Christian co-operation with good men of other creeds and other churches, while not losing our love to our own testimony, our brotherly love might become a healthier plant, as it basked in the sunshine of our Christian brethren's smile.

Of course, we would expect that if such a union should be effected as has been proposed, the name "Evangelical Union" would be preserved as well as the name Congregational Union," and that the associated connection should bear some such appellation as the "Congregational Evangelical," or the "Evangelical Congregational Union." It would also be expected-indeed, gentlemanly as well as Christian feeling would commend the course-that after such an amalgamation, when occupying one another's pulpits, or speaking on a common platform, the ministers of the two bodies should avoid the controversial treatment of what might be called their respective specialtics, and dwell on the cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith.

In making these remarks, the editor of this magazine is to be regarded as speaking his own mind, without having had the opportunity of anything like formal deliberation on the subject with his brethren of the Evangelical Union. It has been represented to him. that something would be expected from his pen on the subject; and