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the power of faith: "All things are possible to him that believeth," not because there is any intrinsic power in him, or in his faith, but because it fulfils the conditions on which Divine power must act in our behalf, and act to the full extent of our need, or God's word of promise must fail.

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The principle under consideration is of universal application. Christ has made provisions full and complete for all our needs, temporal and spiritual. He loved the Church and gave Himself for it, that "He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that he might present it to Himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish," and has revealed Himself as able to save unto the uttermost them that come unto God by Him." "The very God of peace" has not only revealed Himself as able, through the Spirit, "the power which worketh in us," to make all grace abound toward us, so that we, having all-sufficiency for all things, may abound unto every good work," and as "able to do exceeding abundant above all that we ask or think," but has bound Himself by absolute promise, we believing His word and trusting His grace, to "sanctify us wholly," and preserve our whole spirit and soul, and body,

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blameless unto (until) the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." All these provisions of grace, all this power to save, to sanctify, and to preserve in blameless purity and obedience are of no avail to us, but a blight upon our temporal and eternal peace, without faith on our part. When we do believe, however, God, the eternal Spirit, will, and must, render all the resources of divine grace and power absolutely effective to our full justification, total sanctification, preservation in blameless obedience, and fulness of joy and peace. To possess all this becomes just as possible to our faith. as was the sending of that spark into those magazines to that child in the relations in which it was placed. As the sending of that spark was just as possible to that child as it was, or could have been, to any other human being, so the possession of this grace and power is just as possible to any one believer as it is or can be to any other. All are equal in the totality of their self-insufficiency, and all are in the

same relations to the Divine all-sufficiency and the faith, on the condition of the exsistence of which that Divine all-sufficency endues us with, "an all-sufficiency for all things," the exercise of that faith is just as possible to any one believer as to any other. In the church God designs that there shall be an endless diversity of natural talents and special gifts. In personal holiness, divine followships and fruitions, and in "the power of the Spirit," any one believer should be equal to any other.

Review.

M.

NEWNESS OF LIFE. By Rev. W. H. M. H. Aitken, M.A., Mission Preacher.

In a late issue we commended this book to the special regard of our readers. At the same time we stated that many of its utterances were so important that we should call attention to some of them on some future occasion. As a Mission Preacher, Mr. Aitken occupies a position in this country hardly less influential than Mr. Moody in America. In the sphere of religious thought, the former unquestionably ranks higher than the latter. The special teachings of such a man as Mr. Aitken on such a subject as Newness of Life must be a matter of deep interest to our readers on both sides of the Atlantic. To some of these teachings special attention is now invited.

We begin by citing the last sentence of the first discourse, Newness of Life; a discourse which can hardly be too highly commended. "Shake yourself loose of every encumbrance, turn your back on every defilement, give yourself over like clay to the hand of the potter that He may stamp upon you the fulness of His resurrection glory, that we, beholding as in a mirror the glories of the Lord, may be changed from glory unto glory as by the Spirit of God."

The most instructive of all these discourses, perhaps, is the second, entitled, "The Three Laws." In this discourse, our preacher gives a very able and conclusive exposition of the reasonings of Paul in the 6th, 7th, and 8th chapters of Romans, one of the ablest and most conclusive expositions we have yet met with. In chapter 6, the apostle, says Mr. A., "indicates the relation which is established between the justified man and sin. This relation he represents as being the reverse of that which previously existed. Formerly, sin was the master, and man was the slave. Now, by death and resurrection, man is freed from sin (Rom. 6, 7). Sin has lost its dominion, and we are free to yield ourselves to a life of righteousness." But how may the soul pass from a state of servitude under sin, to a state of freedom from its dominion? To answer this question is the express object of the apostle in the 7th and 8th chapters last named. In elucidating the nature of the apostle's reasoning

Three Laws above referred to, namely, "The Law of the Mind," of the conscience, or moral nature of man, "The Law of Sin in the Members," or "The Law of Sin and Death," and "The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus." In Rom. vii. 14-25, we have portrayed the experience of the Legalist in his attempts to attain to obedience to the Law of Righteousness "by deeds of Law." The experience here described cannot, our author argues with absolute conclusiveness, be Christian experience, because but two laws are represented as acting here-the Law of the Mind, and the Law of Sin in conflict with the former, with the inevitable result, the absolute servitude and wretchedness of the subject under this Law of Sin. Christian experience is possible, but under "the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus," which Law has no place whatever in the experience described in this passage. Of the exposition which represents this passage

as "

describing the normal experience of the true Christian," Mr. Aitken thus speaks: "I can conceive of no more fatal perversion of Holy Scripture than such an interpretation, and I cannot but believe this passage, so employed, has been a most effective instrument in the hands of Satan (who knows well how to quote Scripture) in his most favourite work of injuring and degrading evangelical piety."

How is it, when the Third, the New Law, comes in, and by faith we become subject to the Law of the "Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus," and Christ Himself coming into the Inner Man, "uniting our nature to His, welding our will to His will, communicating His nature to ours, and forming Himself within us the hope of glory? The certain result is, "the destruction of the body of sin," "the emancipation of the believer from the Law of Sin and Death," and "the fulfilment in him of the Righteousness of the Law," the moral rectitude which the Law requires. "In forming Himself within us, Christ does not," says our author, "destroy our personality. Our individuality must remain intact for all eternity." Let the reader give special attention to what follows: "Nor again (as the writings of some Christians would almost have us to suppose) by the addition of His own individuality to ours in such wise that we ourselves continue to represent the old man, while He Himself represents the new, so that one part of our nature is depicted as soaring in the clouds, while another is grovelling in earthliness and sin. This is but the seventh chapter of Romans reproduced under a new terminology, and the error is the more perilous because less obvious than the first. Our New Adam identifies Himself with us. He becomes our life; He forms His own nature in ours, and in doing so conforms ours to His." "As He is, so are we in this world. The power which fitted Him for service is the same which is to fit us; and thus in our measure, that which is true of the Head is also true of the Spiritual members." With these citations and remarks we again commend this book to our readers.

M.

I FEEL that there are two things it is impossible to desire with sufficient ardor!-personal holiness, and the honor of Christ in the salvation of souls.-McCheyne.

Intelligence.

Lanoli Camp Meeting.

In a late number we gave the call for the Camp Meeting above named, a call issued by a few friends of Christ, in Bombay, who are earnestly desiring and praying for a full "Baptism of the Holy Ghost" upon all believers in India. The only avowed object of the meeting, the first ever held in that country, was the obtaining of this Pentecostal blessing. The call was undenominational, and so was the meeting. The Bombay Guardian of April 27, forwarded to us, contains an account of this meeting, an account from which we take the following most interesting extracts.

"The Camp Meeting closed on Tuesday evening about 10 o'clock. It commenced on the morning of the 17th inst, and was thus seven days in session. They were days that will be long and gratefully remembered by those who had the privilege of being present. The site is admirably suited to such a gathering. The place is one of nature's own Cathedrals. Noble trees intertwine their branches overhead, yielding not a dim religious light, but rather an undimmed religious light, while shielding from the fervid heat of the sun. The temperature of the place was most agreeable by day and by night. Many parts of India.were represented in the meetings.

The

"Many came up with no very strong confidence that the meetings would be successful. But we have not heard of any who remained more than a day who did not gladly testify to the great spiritual power of the Meeting. It had been convened specially that Christians of different localities might spend a season in waiting on the Lord for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit; it had been preceded by much prayer; and the blessing granted was really beyond the expectation of the most sanguine. From the first day, and more and more every day, it was evident that the power of the Spirit was gloriously present, fusing all hearts together, and producing on all the feeling that God was in the midst. addresses were almost all on the subject of the Holy Spirit. Prejudices and doubt fled away; hungerings and thirstings after righteousness sprang up in many hearts; the spirit of consecration descended; confession was made of shortcomings and failures and half-heartedness in the Lord's work; and it was not long before the Spirit seemed to descend on all the assembly. It was with no selfish desire to have a mere season of religious enjoyment that the majority came together, but rather with the idea that they needed to receive a refreshing from the Lord that would fit them to work the better for the Lord. And there is good reason to believe that this end has been and will be realized. Every day there were conversions of those who had not previously submitted to the Lord, and were awakened and led to Christ in these meetings.

"A friend who was there from the opening, has favoured us with the following jottings:

"The conviction among God's people that they were not doing their duty and were too weak, faint, and ignorant to do the work God had given them to do, led them to inquire if there were not in these chapters, Mr. Aitken presents the

some better way of life and labor than any they had hitherto found. They became convinced that the tidings of this power are in the fulness of the Holy Spirit. And as they saw that in the Scripture the Holy Spirit is promised to all who persistently ask for him, and that they are commanded to ask and receive the Holy Spirit, and to be 'filled with the Spirit,' they conld think of nothing better than to withdraw themselves apart from the scenes of care, business, and pleasure, and unite themselves in the earnest pursuit of this inestimable gift. This they have done, and the results have been highly profitable and promising. From the first to the last God was evidently among the people.

"The preaching was plain and simple, and often nothing more was attempted than an exposition of some text or of a Scripture doctrine, in a conversational way; nothing learned, eloquent, or striking was attempted. But never was better attention given by any audience. Every word was eagerly taken up as the thirsty earth drinks the rain. Evidently because every sermon and address had special reference to the work of the Holy Spirit. Only this one theme was constantly pursued and with the happiest of results. first solemnity, and then sadness, seemed to prevail as the people began to see their privileges, and to realize how far short they had come,-soon they began to confess before God their felt wants, their backslidings in heart and lifetheir failures and little fruit, and want of faith, love, meekness, patience, self-control, gentleness, longsuffering, zeal, watching and prayer.

At

"This was followed by contrition and a dedication of themselves anew to God, as they saw their privileges in the new light thrown on their minds. They did not hesitate to come boldly forward and state their wants and distresses, nor were they ashamed to kneel in numbers in front of the stand, and call on God alone and beseech him to heal them and grant them the promised gift of the Holy Ghost.

"Numbers testified that they had received such an increase of love to God, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, that they had no doubt they had been heard and their prayers answered. This state of things went gradually on until every body seemed filled with joy and peace in believing.

"The doctrine taught showed to believers that it was their privilege to be saved not only from sin but from sinning, that is to say, from unholy passions and un-Christlike tempers, from all that is contrary to the mind of Christ, the being so filled with the Spirit as to exclude all uneasy, disquieting, and corrupting passions and tempers.

“That they may have power to work the works of God; and that they may have this now in answer to believing prayer many were led to ask believingly, and it was wonderful to observe the change produced in their spirit, conversation, and manner.

"The sad and desponding were filled with joy and gladness.

"People who confessed that they had been impatient and imperious became forbearing and gentle. Others who had been in bondage to pride, fear or shame of the Cross of Christ found deliverance. Some who had lost their relish for

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Philadelphia Friday Meeting.

Before the hour of meeting, Wesley Hall was vocal with songs of praise. At the appointed time, Rev. Mr. Elliott led in prayer. Dr. Levy read the 32nd chapter of Isaiah. "And the eyes

of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken. The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly." It is wonderful what provision is made in the gospel to remedy the defects of sin. Some teach that the Church is a hospital for the cure of diseases, hence, we may expect to find there defects of the ear and of sight; to behold the lame and the feeble. I do not believe it. The Church is a camp of well-disciplined soldiers, or it was intended to be such. Christ is ready to heal all who will come to Him. If we have the single eye the body will be full of light, and we shall hear the least whisper of the Spirit. Stretch out the hand and show what a cure Jesus can make.

This is the most pernicious teaching the Church was ever cursed with. In the waitingroom, just after baptism, a brother, who was very happy, said to one who referred to his happiness," Yes, but I don't expect to be so always, I expect to backslide." He did not get that from the teaching of God's word, but from some other professor. We ought to be astonished when any one backslides. If I understand the teachings of God's word, we are taught Christ can make a perfect cure, and keep us pure. When Lazarus was raised from the dead he did not bind the napkin round his face again; he threw his grave clothes away, and went forth as a man raised by the power of God. Friends, trust Jesus to save you fully. He will bring health and vigour to your soul. Not by the hospital process, but He will speak the word, and it shall be done.

"And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever." This full assurance of faith means sanctification, and no one ever had it whose heart was not purified from all sin. We are to have it by faith, and it is to be an abiding experience. I rejoice in having an experimental knowledge of this. I am a witness to the full assurance of faith. My experience is grounded on the word of the Lord Jesus Christ.-Christian Standard, U.S.

Revivals in the United States.

On Friday, May 10th, Messrs. Moody and Sankey closed their labours in New Haven, Ct. About 1,000 persons were present to listen to the farewell services; persons who had been converted, or quickened, during the revival. Messrs. Pentecost and Stebbins continue the meetings

with great promise of success, crowds of solemn listeners attending their services.

Upwards of 800 converts have already joined the various evangelical churches in Hartford, as the result of the work of grace in that city.

Upwards of 300 individuals were hopefully converted, through the labours of Messrs. Pentecost and Stebbins, in the city of Middletown in the same State.

As the result of Rev. E. P. Hammond's winter campaign in Western Virginia and Ohio, between five and six thousand individuals have avowed themselves as converts to Christ. Messrs. Moody, Sankey, and Hammond, have now "turned aside to rest awhile," their exhausting labours demanding it. The usual Camp Meetings in that country are near, when the work of God may be expected to go on with increasing power.

Northern Home Counties Clerical and Lay Association.

On the 4th and 5th of June, the Seventeenth Annual Meeting of this Association was held at Ware. There was a large attendance of the members and of the general public. The subject of Holiness, we rejoice to learn, engrossed very largely the attention of the Association, several important and carefully-prepared papers being read by different individuals upon the subject. Of these papers the most important of all was read by Canon Hoare. Holiness was rightly defined by the speaker in the following words: "Holiness is nothing else than conformity to the mind and will of God. It is the reflection of His character, in the character of His adopted child. It is the holiness of God written by the Holy Ghost upon the mind and heart of the believer. In following out this definition, we shall find that there are three constituent parts in this conformity: likeness, consecration, and nearness." The subject is elucidated with much ability in this address, and with hardly an utterance which we do not fully endorse.

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Our gratification in reading this address was a little marred, however, by the fact that the speaker deemed it expedient to turn aside from so sacred a subject, and aim a needless blow at servants of Christ, who, had they been present on the occasion, would have "sat under his shadow with delight, while his fruit would have been pleasant to their taste." "I think," he we shall all be agreed that assurance is says, not holiness. This seems so obvious that you may wonder at my thinking it worth the while to make the statement. But for the last few years I have been convinced that in many modern writings the two things are frequently confounded." He then refers to the following sentence found in DIVINE LIFE, as containing "a remarkable confirmation of this opinion." The sentence is this: "As early as the year 1742 the wife of President Edwards, a very eminent lady, sought and obtained what was then called 'the full assurance of faith,' what the Methodists called entire sanctification, perfect love, &c., and what is now called the rest of faith, higher life, holiness." We seriously question whether Canon

Hoare is not the only reader of the article from which that sentence is cited who had the remotest apprehension that in it assurance and holiness were confounded. In that article, holiness, as he has defined it, is, in fact and form, spoken of as the cause of "full assurance of faith," and the latter as the result of the former. In the expression, "full assurance of faith," as representing the experience referred to, assurance was never, before the confusion took form in the mind of Canon Hoare, understood as confounded with holiness. So with all terms referred to. In Heb. xii. 14, we are required to "follow holiness," and in chapter vi. 11, we are exhorted to "have the same diligence (Alvord) with regard to the full assurance of hope." Does Paul here confound assurance and holiness, or set them before us as two separate things to be pursued at different times? By no means. one case he speaks of the substance, holiness; and in the other of its necessary result, assurance; and of each as implying the other. So in the writings referred to, holiness is presented as the cause or antecedent of assurance, and the latter as the consequent of the former; and they are never, even in appearance, confounded one with the other. We hope that this is the final instance in which, in the elucidation of holiness, the subject will be so far departed from as to make individuals" offenders for a word." One paragraph in this address is so important, that we cite it entire :

In

Man

"Such holiness as this can only be wrought by the in-dwelling power of the Holy Ghost. may imitate man, and may rise to man's standard, but he has no more power to work himself up to the mind and character of God than a sparrow has to work itself into an eagle, or a bramble bush into a vine. It is only by God the Holy Ghost that the character of God can be written upon the mind of man, and hence when we long for holiness we must open our hearts, as it were, for the presence of the Holy Comforter, and plead with Him to come in, and dwell there in full possession. I believe that it is sometimes said that we are not to pray for the Holy Spirit because He is already given, but surely such an opinion is the result of a low and material view of that sacred and Holy Person. If we were speaking of a past change like the new birth, I can perfectly understand why true believers should not pray for it, inasmuch as they reverently trust that they have long since been born again. Or if we were speaking of some gift which we have earnestly desired, and which we humbly trust has been given to us, I can perfectly understand again why we should leave off praying for it, as the woman of Canaan left off praying for her daughter when she was assured that the Lord had answered her prayer. But if we look on the Holy Spirit not as a thing but as a living, loving Person, one that may come and that may go; one that may dwell within the soul, but one that may be grieved, and driven from his resting place; then surely we must regard Him as one that may be invited, and we must open to Him the doorway of the soul, entreating Him most earnestly to enter in, and reign supreme within the heart."

DIVINE LIFE dictated, not by arbitrary will, but by in

SEPTEMBER 1st.

OUR CIRCUMSTANCES.

UR circumstances are of two kinds

OUR

those with which we rashly surround ourselves, and those with which Providence, without our choice, encircles us. In regard to the former, our immediate duty is to repent of our sin, and seek deliverance from the consequences of the same. This deliverance we may always expect. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness; " that is, to remedy the consequences of our own guilt and folly. Such is the infinitude of Divine grace.

Suppose, on the other hand, that we find ourselves in circumstances not of our own ordering, but which encircle us by the orderings or permission of Divine. Providence. If these surroundings appear to us unpropitious, it is our right and duty, we being able to do so, to change them for others seemingly more favourable. We may also by prayer, as Paul did in regard to the thorn in the flesh, seek to have them changed by our heavenly Father. Suppose, however, that we find that we cannot, and that God does not, change them. How shall we then regard such orderings? All such circumstances, President Edwards affirmed, among his recorded resolutions, that he would regard as the most propitious possible, most propitious for his own spiritual life and growth in grace, and for his usefulness as a servant of Christ. In that resolution that man of God revealed himself as possessed of a wisdom most divine. Nothing happens to a child of God by chance, by arbitrary fatality, or mere will even of God. All our surroundings are by specific Divine appointment, appointment

fallible wisdom and infinite love, and all as a necessary means to the best possible ends -our own highest moral and spiritual improvement, most perfect and enduring peace, and fulness of joy, and most perfect and abundant fruitfulness in the vineyard of the Lord. It would be an impeachment of every attribute of the Divine Nature and of every revelation which God. has made of Himself in His Word to suppose the opposite. "God is light," and "God is love." Absolute wisdom, purity, and love, and these exclusively, determine and characterize all His dispensations and providences, the vast and the minute alike.

Subject to His orderings, and encircled with circumstances of His selection and determination, we have but one exclusive concern, and that is, to learn of Him just what He would have us think, and how He would have us feel and act in respect to every one of His allotments, and to obtain from Him grace fully to meet His good and perfect will in respect to the same. Thus doing, all our mental states and visible life will be in perfect accordance with God's will, those states and acts being, all in common, determined in all respects by His Providence and Spirit, while the divinest virtues will be continuously taking form in our heart and character, God, in the meanwhile, keeping us in perfect peace, and inducing, through us, the best and most abundant fruit for His kingdom and glory. We shall then "be careful for nothing, but in all things, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, shall make known our requests unto God, and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep our hearts and minds by Christ Jesus." We shall never "speak of want," but shall "learn in whatever state we are therewith to be content. We shall know both how to be abased, and shall know how to abound. Everywhere, and in all things,

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