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We now take farewell of Mr Brown. We have striven to avoid all sharpness and personality. We trust that in some measure we have succeeded. We feel towards him as a brother in the Lord, and we feel also that the cause is one whose importance and solemnity ought to rebuke all bitterness. If in aught we have manifested a spirit at variance with the spirit of Christ, or have spoken words inconsistent with the mind and truth of God, we are not unwilling to express our sorrow. But let not our defective statements of truth be made the ground of condemning the truth itself.

We have not been able to overtake all the passages dwelt upon by Mr Brown. We were anxious to discuss fully those that we did take up, even at the risk of not overtaking all. Each of these passages is important, for each contains a separate and independent proof of the pre-millennial advent. Any one of them is sufficient to prove it; so that though we should have failed in demonstrating our sense of half of them or more, still the remainder would suffice for our purpose. They are all positive not negative. They all and each go directly to prove our position, not merely to withdraw a proof from our opponents. On the other hand, the utmost that can be said of these texts when expounded as Mr Brown thinks they ought to be, is, that they withdraw a proof from pre-millennialism. That is all. If Mr Brown be right, then (so far as these passages are concerned) there are so many proofs-less of our doctrine; but there are not so many proofs more of his. Our doctrine may be true, though every one of these were swept away; whereas his cannot be true if any one of these be abolished. The Socinian controversy may be taken as illustration of what we mean. Let Socinians explain away text after text regarding the Divinity of our Lord, they are merely withdrawing proofs from us, but not adducing positive proof for themselves; and so long as one single text remains unexplained away, it is sufficient to establish our position. The Trinitarian doctrine may be true, though every one of our usual proof-texts were annihilated; whereas the Socinian doctrine cannot be true, if so much as one of our texts remain untouched.

It is now sixteen years since this Journal sought to direct at

(res natura) ἀποκατασθήσεται εις τὴν ἀρχῆθεν (ante lapsum) ἡμεροτητα. As an authority for its signifying a spiritual restoration, he quotes Clem. Alex. Strom. ii. 22. ἀποκαταστήσει εις τὴν τέλειαν υιοθεσίαν. And then as to its meaning consummation, or TEλewσis, as Mr Brown thinks it should, he merely remarks, that the passage in Job viii. 6 will not bear out such an interpretation, but must mean restituere. We have no wish to undervalue Mr Faber's learning; but here is the unbiassed testimony of one of the most learned of German lexicographers against him. Nor does Bretschneider stand alone. All modern lexicographers agree with him. We do not know of any testimony to the meaning of a word more decided or more unanimous.

tention to the subject of unfulfilled prophecy. Frequently during this period have we endeavoured to lay it before our readers in many of its details, presenting the coming of the Lord as the church's blessed hope.* Our testimony has not been unblest. At that time there were few, very few, in Scotland, who could be prevailed upon to give the subject a patient hearing. Now the difference is immense. Inquiry into the subject is wide-spread. The belief of the pre-millennial advent gains wide and rapid ground amongst us. The fixed and fierce prejudice against it is narrowed considerably, as well as softened. It is proclaimed from many a pulpit, and advocated in many a circle. The circulation of premillennial works in Scotland is very great, and the avidity with which they are read is not a little remarkable. An association for the study of the prophetic word was formed during last General Assembly, among ministers of the Free Church. A course of lectures on the chief points of unfulfilled prophecy is projected. A prophetical journal will forthwith be commenced, supported by the friends of millennarianism throughout Scotland and England, so that though discontinued in one shape, our testimony will be prolonged in another. A series of Prophetical Tracts will ere long be thrown into circulation.

Yet all this is little; for the time that remaineth is short! The night cometh. The outriders of the king are arriving day by day. The sound of his chariot-wheels is already heard in the distance. The last earthquake has begun to heave. The world's thrones are dissolving, in preparation for the setting up of the throne of the Son of Man. The crowns of earth are falling from the heads of its princes, there to lie till He comes to gather them up, and place them upon his own head as the rightful heir of all.

ART. VI.-Letters of the Rev. Samuel Rutherford, Professor of Divinity at St Andrews. With Biographical Notices by the Rev. JAMES ANDERSON, and a Sketch of his Life, &c., by the Rev. A. A. BONAR, Minister of the Free Church, Collace. Containing several Letters not before published, a Fac-Simile of his hand-writing, an Appendix, full Index, and Glossary. Edinburgh: William Whyte & Co. 1848.

This is by far the best edition of these Golden Remains, with which we at least are acquainted. They deserved to be carefully revised, accurately arranged, and amply illustrated; and

"We do not mean to say that the Review was ever a distinct pre-millennial journal. There have been in it articles on both sides of the controversy.

here, we are free to say, they are presented to the Church of Christ in a form that befits their worth, and which demands the most grateful acknowledgment.

to a

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In taking up any collection of letters, such as Cicero's or Cowper's, our first desire is to learn all we can of the writer. We like to be informed as to his era, his extraction, his habits, his pursuits, his associates, his character. And in the sketch, prefixed to this volume by Mr A. A. Bonar, of Rutherford's life, we have all that has been preserved of the sainted man, and which can bring him vividly before our eye, narrated with equal beauty and succinctness. Much of the interest, however, that attaches Correspondence," and also of its importance, depends upon our knowledge of those to whom the Letters were addressed, irrespective of the pen from which they proceed, as every one must have felt in reading Carlyle's Life of Cromwell. But this also is most elaborately and skilfully furnished in the edition before us for the Letters of Rutherford. With indefatigable zeal, Mr Anderson and others have traced out whatever could be discovered of the various individuals with whom Rutherford corresponded, and the substance of their researches is given in a short, but tasteful memoir of each. Light is also shed upon the correspondence of all public men, by connecting it with the history of the period, and minutely ascertaining the events to which it directly or tacitly refers. And in the marginal notes subjoined throughout in this volume, this department of an editor's duty has been faithfully attended to. Rutherford's historical allusions have been sought out with persevering industry, and through this means, not a little that otherwise would have been unintelligible or obscure, has been successfully elucidated. In addition to all this, if we are to mark the ebbings and flowings of a man's soul, if we are to compare epoch with epoch, and so estimate his progress or declension, we must not only read his letters, but read them besides in the order in which they were written. And this advantage we unquestionably and for the first time possess in the case of Rutherford, by the edition of his Letters now under review. An attempt to do the same thing had been made previously, we are aware; but not at all to the extent, nor with the precision and success here exhibited. Even in this volume, we have noticed a few mistakes or oversights in the arrangement of the Letters; but with these inconsiderable exceptions, each letter is placed according to its date, so that the whole collection forms a sort of chronological diary of the writer's experience.

We must not omit to state, that one or two letters of Rutherford which had not seen the light before, are given in this edition, and as breathing the same spirit with the rest, they are most

welcome and refreshing, though not possessed of great intrinsic value. No portrait of Rutherford is known to exist, else an engraving of it would have been gladly obtained by the publishers of this volume; but in default of what would have given such interest to their edition, they have kindly supplied us with a facsimile of his hand-writing. And what to us is not its slenderest recommendation, there are annexed to the volume three separate tables of index, embracing in one or other of their columns, all that is important in the subjects treated of, or in the events referred to.

On the whole, we can without reserve or qualification pronounce this to be the standard edition of Rutherford's Letters, and though in shape it is not quite so elegant as it might, had it been divided into two volumes, and though not altogether so cheap as we should like to see a book which ought to be found in every household, yet it is entitled to take precedence of all others, and cannot fail to secure the favour it has earned. Cecil calls these Letters "a classic," and at last they have been edited like a classic. No trouble of research, and no minuteness of criticism, has been spared to render the text as accurate and pure as may be. No liberties have been taken; but every word has been considered, the various readings weighed, needful illustrations furnished, copious indices annexed, and the whole, as much as possible, given to the church in the very form the author would have preferred had he revised and published his own work.

So far as our information extends, this edition of Rutherford is but the third of a superior stamp, and aspiring at genteel circulation whilst editions of a coarser description have been multiplied without number to meet the demand of our rural and operative classes. It would, therefore, seem as if the "Letters" of the Aberdeen exile were more congenial to an illiterate than refined taste, and though well enough for the arctic region of a low-bred peasantry, were little better than fustian and rhapsody at the equator of our savans and nobles. And we rather are disposed to think that this was the case. *

To account for it may not be so easy, and the causes which led to the depreciation and neglect of Samuel Rutherford may have been various. He was a voluminous controversialist, and a subtle dialectician, and so it might have been supposed that he was ill fitted for devotional meditation. He had been a public man,

*The editor of Kirkton's History ventures to denounce " the Letters," as "replete with blasphemy, obscenity, and nonsense." We are satisfied that, to Mr Kirkpatrick Sharp, they must have been unmitigated "nonsense," though we do not feel quite so sure that he would have objected to them in the terms employed, had they really been "blasphemous and obscene."

who had borne himself strenuously in support of right and truth at all times, and it was almost too much to expect that a Presbyterian and a Protester would evince as a writer all the serene unworldliness of Thomas a' Kempis, or Jeremy Taylor. He had been, with men as holy, lampooned by Milton, and even Baxter allowed himself at times to write bitterly of him, so that we wonder less when we find so low a theologian, but so high a prelatist as Heber, trying a contemptuous gird at his illustrious memory. But after giving all weight to such considerations, we do not feel that they explain the circumstance we have alluded to, and our conviction is, that the grand reason why Rutherford has found such scanty favour among those who can admire genius, and are not inimical to devotion, is the impossibility of rising from the perusal of his "Letters" without being obliged to admit the personality and preciousness of the Son of God.

Wilberforce's "View" was a religious work, but it awakened hostile passions, and was carried onward as much on a tide of aristocratic hate, as popular favour. Doddridge's "Rise and Progress," was a christian work; but as contributing somewhat to the idea, that man could help himself to a large extent, and at least prepare the way for his salvation, it was sure of being approved. Baxter's "Saints' Rest" was an experimental work; but its scenes of glorious bliss met the taste, and animated the hopes of many who cared not to make ready for its enjoyment. Bunyan's "Pilgrim" was a spiritual work, and full of intensest Calvinism; but the very form in which it was so exquisitely arrayed, enabled all who chose, to luxuriate in the allegory, whilst they set at nought the truth. But Rutherford strikes his keynote in unison with the harps of heaven, and "worthy is the Lamb"-worthy, worthy, all-worthy, only-worthy-is the inspiration of his musings and the chorus of his song. Take up these Letters" where you may, the eye is sure to light on Christ. Be the correspondent noble or unknown, the theme is still Christ. When the clouds of sorrow are around the sufferer, he lies silent on the bosom of Christ, and amid the returning sunshine he walks abroad in active zeal with Christ. It is this feature that marks off these "Letters" from all other works of a spiritual character. They are not merely based on Christ; they are impregnated with him. Christ is not only the chief figure on the canvass; he starts from the picture at every corner; he is the centre of every group. Boston would draw the soul to Christ, and with Guthrie Christ is paramount. But in Rutherford we find that we have come nearer the meaning of the expression, Christ "all and in all." In his "Letters" we have another "Canticles." Each "Letter" is a sonnet to the Lamb. One can almost persuade himself that

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