nature, but "whatever is in the world;" the more decent habits of life, as well as the more profligate; that is, provided our morality of conduct does not flow from the operation of true religion. For we may be as exclusively living to the concerns of this life as much making ourselves "debtors to the flesh," while we are pursuing even our law. ful affairs in an unlawful and irreligious spirit, without any care for our soul or any reference to God or eternity, as if we were seeking our gratification in the most unworthy Indulgences of our appetites and passions. "Whatever is not of the Father," St. John teaches, "is of the world" or, in the language of St. Paul, it is "the flesh," and as such is to be renounced. For we cannot serve God and mammon; and, as professed disciples of Christ, it is the very test of the reality of our religion that we should deny ourselves, and take up our cross and follow him. Our obligations, as respects the things of this life, are plainly set forth in Scripture; we are to attend to our lawful concerns with care and diligence; we are to neglect no duty which our personal circumstances, or our various relations to our fellow creatures, require; but the world is not to be our God; we are to be in it as not of it: we are not to view ourselves as debtors to it, to comply with the vain or sinful demands which it would make upon our time and affections, to the neglect of working out our salvation, and to the exclusion of the service of Him "whose we are," and whom we are bound to love and to obey with all the powers which he has given us for the promotion of his glory.

Thus, from the consideration of what we are not to make ourselves debtors to, we may infer what we are debtors to: we are debtors to God; he has a claim on our best services; we are required to live after the Spirit, that is, as servants of God, as spiritual minded beings, who have set their affections on

things above, and not on things on the earth. We owe to each of the three Divine Persons in the Holy Trinity, a debt of love and gratitude, which we can never discharge. To the Holy Spirit we are indebted for our regeneration, in which we become partakers of the blessings pur. chased for us by the atonement of Christ; and it is due to Him that we should obey his godly motions, and govern our hearts and lives in conformity with his dictates.

The great obligation of our nature is to glorify God. Had sin never entered into the world, we should have done this uninterruptedly and without reserve. We should have had no law in our members warring against the law of the renewed mind; the flesh and the Spirit would not have opposed each other. But, in our present fallen condition, we require a change of heart before we can thus "live after the Spirit;" for all our corrupt inclinations bend the contrary way. There is not a gratification so ignoble, a pursuit so unsatisfactory, to which men will not consider themselves debtors rather than to the all-perfect law of God; that law which it is as much their privilege as their duty to obey. And is it not most merciful and condescending, that our Creator, who might have justly consigned us without remedy to destruction, for our disobedience to his commands, has himself provided an atonement for our transgressions, and is ever ready to receive us when we turn to Him; and even sends down upon us the influences of his Holy Spirit, that we may be converted and live? How then shall we escape if wè neglect so great salvation?

But, secondly, the Apostle does not only declare the fact that Christians are debtors not to live after the flesh but after the Spirit; but he further points out the consequences of neglecting or discharging this obligation. "If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live."

It is not then a matter of indiffer ence what master we shall serve; whether we consider ourselves debtors to the flesh, to fulfil its vanities and pleasures; or to the Spirit, to live after righteousness and true holiness. The former implies a state of spiritual death, the latter of spiritual life; and this spiritual death or life of the soul is connected with an eternal state of death or life in the world to come. It may not seem to many persons, provided they do not plunge into gross vices, a sin of great magnitude, that they are living as debtors to the flesh, in some of its more specious forms; that they are proud, or selfish, or covetous, or negligent of God; yet, for all these things will their justly offended Creator bring them into judgment. They have fixed all their enjoyments on a perishable world; and when they are called upon to quit it, they have no equivalent for its lost treasures. They find, at length, that they owe a debt of infinite amount where they have been least anxious to acknowledge their obligation. There was a time when, "forasmuch as they had nothing to pay," their merciful Lord would have forgiven them their debt; but they did not consider the value of this inestimable boon, or seek to obtain it in the way which he had appointed and now they perceive their guilt and folly, when it is too late to avoid the consequences of them; for the Judge delivers them to the officer, and they are cast into prison, without hope of pardon or escape.

But how blessed the alternative! "To be spiritually minded is life and peace." True, the "flesh," that is, the sinful and corrupt nature, is mortified; but the spirit, the immortal principle, the better part of man, that which constitutes his highest dignity, lives. Through the infinite merits of the Redeemer and the life-giving agency of the Holy Spirit, it triumphs over death and him

that hath the power of death. The true Christian can say with St. Paul, "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Infinitely preferable is even a scene of the greatest trial, with a promise of all necessary support by the way, and a prospect, at the end, of that "life for evermore" which consummates the felicity to which the Redeemer introduces his faithful followers, to all "the pleasures of sin for a season." Let us not then hesitate as to the course which we shall choose. Let us view ourselves as pilgrims and strangers upon earth; crucified to the flesh, but alive to God, by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and through faith in him. Such we all are in name, and in virtue of our baptism and Christian profession; and such must we be in reality, if we would truly obtain the pardon of our sins, and an in. heritance of eternal life. It is not merely a scriptural creed, or a course of life respectable in the eyes of our fellow-men, that will prove sufficient for our salvation ; since both of these may be found where there is no principle of love to the Saviour, no true faith, no holiness of heart, no one symptom of true devotion to God. We must go at once to the main object of inquiry; Are we living after the flesh or after the Spirit? Are we seeking our whole happiness upon earth; or are we aspiring after the happiness of heaven? Are we in heart the servants of the world, or the servants of God? By pursuing such inquiries as these, with a teachable disposition of mind, and with a humble prayer for the enlightening of the Holy Spirit, we cannot fail to ascertain what is our true condition in the sight of the great Searcher of hearts, and what our prospects for an eternal world.

Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer. PERMIT me, through the medium of the Christian Observer, to call the attention of the public to the manner in which the office of parish clerk is too often filled; so as in many instances to detract from the solemnity due to the service of God, and to bring disgrace and derision upon our national form of worship. It is highly desirable and necessary that suitable regulations should be issued, that in future no person should be appointed a parish clerk, who is not perfectly competent to the duties of the office. These duties are too often performed by men who can scarcely read; and who go on year after year, without ever considering the meaning of the words which they regularly repeat. This is not indeed the general state of the case; for in large towns and their vicinities, the churches are supplied with respectable men, who, in general, have had a moderate education. But not so in many country villages, where it is not much heeded by whom the office is performed; nor would it be easy in some cases to make any improvement in displacing the old, and putting a new clerk in his stead. But where an improvement could be made, the most respectable man who would undertake the office should be selected; one, if possible, who is truly religious, and who bears a good character in the parish; and the inhabitants should supply him with suitable apparel. The heads of the church might probably do much by their official authority in some cases, by their influence and recommendation in others, to remedy the evil; but the only adequate cure is to be found in the great body of the clergy, and enlightened laity, becoming duly alive to the importance of the subject, and zealously exerting themselves to give effect to a reformation. S. R. C.

Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer.

I MUCH regret that your correspondent S. should have so completely misunderstood my communication relative to the use of the Fathers, as he appears to have done. The fault may very possibly rest with myself; though I had hoped that I had expressed my sentiments with sufficient clearness to prevent the possibility of misapprehension. Be that, however, as it may, your correspondent has laboured to establish what I never once thought of denying; and has drawn a conclusion in favour of the reasonable sufficiency of Scripture, which I never once dreamed of controverting.

Since I have been so unluckily misapprehended, I know not how I can better clear up the matter than by accompanying your correspondent through his statement.

1. To establish the meaning of a passage in Scripture, he recommends the examination of the passage itself, I perfectly agree with him.

2. He further recommends, that, by a comparison of parallel passages,

we should make the author his own interpeter.

Again I quite agree with him.

3. He would refer to writings, with which the author was conversant.

Still I perfectly agree with him. 4. To these, your correspondent would add certain legitimate and approved canons of interpretation, to the authority of which no man, of whatever sect he be, can rationally object.

It is probable enough that certain legitimate canons may be propounded; but, if your correspondent anticipates their universal reception, so that by their aid disputes may be brought to an end, I fear he anticipates a mere desideratum.

5. The mode in which he would reduce his principles to practice is, I suppose, the following:

By a fair examination of Scripture, according to the rules laid down above, your correspondent, independently of the evidence afforded by the Fathers, is brought to a full conviction that the doctrine of transubstantiation is false, and that the doctrine of the Trinity and Christ's Godhead is true.

Here, again, it is my happiness perfectly to agree with him. So clear on these points do I deem Scripture, when legitimately interpreted, that, from Scripture ALONE, even if not a single father had come down to us, should I have been brought to the conclusions in question. Whence, obviously, I deem Scripture quite sufficient to determine my faith on these points, by its own specific independent statements. 6. Will your correspondent be now satisfied that I am really, and bona fide, a staunch Protestant? I trust that he will. But then he will probably ask me, If Scripture be sufficient, why call in the Fathers?

For this very plain and simple reason; Because, unfortunately, all persons do not agree in their opinions with your correspondent and myself. By way of exemplification, let your correspondent try the effect of his proposed rules of investigation upon either a Romanist or a Socinian. "Your process," they will severally reply, "may be very satisfactory to yourself; and your canons you may pronounce so legitimate that they cannot be reasonably controverted. But what is all this to us? We are not convinced either by your reasoning or by your mode of comparing Scripture with Scripture; nor do we at all allow the legitimacy of your canons. Doubtless they may convince you; but we perceive not why it should follow that there. fore they must convince us. On the contrary, we are fully persuaded that we are in the right, and that you are in the wrong. You will tell us that we are prejudiced, and that on the principles of legitimate interpretation we ought to think with you. This we crave leave to deny; and we

beg to assure you, that you prejudiced party, not we.

are the

Your correspondent may depend upon it, that some such answer would be given to the arguments which he and myself deem amply sufficient, by a strenuous Romanist or Socinian. In fact, every person, in the least acquainted with the Romish and Socinian controversies, knows full well that we may argue for ever, if we argue on certain topics from Scripture alone. The Romanist will still contend that the doctrine of transubstantiation is manifestly true; and the Socinian will still assure us that the doctrine of the Trinity is a plain corruption of primitive Christianity.

7. Now, precisely at this point of the dispute I venture to recommend the evidence, not the authority, of the early Fathers. If your cor respondent can discover a better plan of settling the dispute, I shall be happy to hear it. At the same time, it should be recollected that my own statement of the use of the Fathers was merely an answer to the letter of a prior correspondent. I am far from wishing to shut out either any better or any additional method of settling doctrinal disputa tions.

G. S. FABER.

Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer. IN addition to the remarks which have already appeared in your pages respecting the Apocrypha, the following particulars may not be unacceptable to your readers.

It appears from the researches contained in an interesting recent publication entitled, "A Plea for the Protestant Canon of Scripture, in op position to the Popish Canon," that the first English Bible did not contain the Apocrypha; and that, except in two subsequent editions, none of these books have ever been interspersed with the canon of OldTestament Scripture; that, in some cases they have been entirely ex