hundred souls. They fall short of that number now, several of them being absent on business, &c. A short time before the church was constituted, there was but one family in all the place who pleaded for primitive Christianity. Then an Episcopal family, one of the first in the city, became obedient unto the faith. Beset on all sides by a stout-hearted, organized, and merciless opposition, they went forward, wielding" the sword of the Spirit, the word of God," relying with unwavering confidence on the promises of God, and trusting to the potency of divine truth, until their enemies, subdued by the suavity of their manners, the simplicity and power of their faith, halted in their unkind career; bent a willing ear to the arguments and motives of the gospel; and, finally, like the priests at Jerusalem, "became obedient to the faith."

Shortly after their organization the lamented brother John Henry visited them and baptized a large number of disciples. In his death, which occurred about six months ago, the cause in that section of the country sustained an irreparable loss. He left behind him the savour of a good name. The invidious breath of sectarianism was seldom if ever breathed against him. The brethren were to have their yearly meeting near Cleaveland on the first Lord's day in September, but to my great regret, I was unable to stay and enjoy their society, and be taught of them more thoroughly the things pertaining to the new kingdom. An appointment near to my father's, in Eastern New York, made it necessary for me to leave before their meeting commenced.

I would like to say much more, by way of reflection and improvement on what I have observed and heard since I left Lexington, but the lateness of the hour admonishes me to close. Had not your readers often been entertained with descriptions of Niagara Falls, I do not know but I would attempt to say a word on that subject. My failure to do so must not be taken as evidence of my inability to appreciate this grand, stupendous work of the divine hand, but rather as evidence of the poverty of all the language of which I am master, to express a tithe of the feelings which the whole scene awakens.

With fervent prayers for the success and triumph of the truth, I am yours in the hope of a blissful immortality, W. R. M'CHESNEY.

Niagara Falls, August 28th, 1844.

POPULAR QUOTATIONS FROM SCRIPTURE.

THERE are some passages of Scripture which are constantly in the mouths of the religious world, the correct translation of which is very doubtful. Such is the case with the two following: Gen. vi. 3, and Jer. xvii. 9.

With regard to the first, "my Spirit shall not always strive with man," it is to be observed, that the Septuagint, or ancient Greek version of the Old Testament, renders it, my Spirit (or breath, as the word also means) shall not always dwell in man." Now our present Hebrew copies read yadoon, to strive or contend in judgment; but with the slight difference of a single stroke in one of the Hebrew letters it would read yaloon, to dwell or remain; this latter reading the Greek translators have doubtless found in their Hebrew copies, which copies would be far more ancient than any now existing. It is most probable that theirs is the true reading, for it will be found to agree remarkably well with the context, if we consider the spirit here mentioned in connexion with the following passages: (Gen. ii. 7) "God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." (Job xxvii. 3) "All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils.” (Isaiah xlii. 5) "He that giveth breath to the people upon the earth, and spirit to them that walk therein." According to the Greek version then, the passage will run thus: "My Spirit (the breath or life I have given), shall not always remain in man, seeing he is but flesh, yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years:" that is, his life shall no longer be extended to such vast longevity as in the antediluvian period, but shall be greatly shortened. According to the received translation, the one hundred and twenty years are understood to mean the time in which the ark was building and the antediluvians were spared; but we have no evidence at all that this was the case, and it is very improbable. From the time of the deluge, however, the age of man was gradually diminished, and from the accounts we have of the patriarchal age, this period of one hundred and twenty years, appears to have been about the average duration of life in that period.

(Jer. xvii. 9) "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked: who can know it?" Here the Greek

translators have, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and man-who shall know him?" and they have authority and majority on their side; for the original word enosh, translated in our version "desperately wicked," in ninetynine cases out of a hundred means man. What occasion then could there be for our translators to take this uncommon meaning, when its common signification makes perfect good sense? Parkhurst, however, in his Hebrew Lexicon, denies that the word ever had such a meaning as "desperately wicked." Let not the reader infer from these observations, any wish in me to dispute the doctrine of the general depravity and apostacy of man, until renewed and sanctified by the Spirit of God through the truth; I only wish for inferences to be drawn, and doctrines to be proved from Scripture correctly translated, the meaning of which is well established. J. G. COLLINS.

ASPECTS OF METHODISM FROM THE INNER TEMPLE.-No. III.

THE reconciliation of God to sinners through the mediation of Christ, by the prayers and intercessions of men, is an error so capital in the Methodist class-meeting system and their whole theory of conversion, that it demands at our hand a more explicit and thorough development and refu tation than was attempted in our last essay. In that article

we aimed rather at the statement of the error than at a full development of it. It is, indeed, only a new modification of that ancient and fatal mistake of the Jews, combated by Paul in the Epistles to the Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews. It is clearly propounded in Romans x. 3: "For they being ignorant of God's justification (righteousness), and going about to establish their own justification, have not submitted themselves to the justification of God"-that instituted by God. The Jews had a zeal for getting religion-" a zeal of God but not according to knowledge." For being igno rant of the fact that God had instituted a justification, they could not, of course, submit to it; and therefore, were vainly endeavouring to establish a plea of their own, for justification through their own endeavours. This error of the Jews sprang from their ignorance of the nature and designs of the

Messiah's death. They did not at all understand it as God's means of reconciling man to himself on honourable termsterms honourable to both parties. Hence their aims to effect a change in the Divine Mind by efforts of their own.

Precisely similar the error before us. These seekers are endeavouring to lay a foundation on which to rest their plea with God. Hence their prayers, screams, tears, vociferations, penances of kneeling at the altar, rolling in the dust, tumbling in the straw, and their agony, because of which God is to be reconciled to them. These are to call forth his mercy, to excite his compassion, and to elicit his favour. In one sentence, these are to change or propitiate God. Hence their exclamations of joy when they suppose that God has been overcome by their importunity. This is their triumph. The imagination that such has been their success, is in truth, their conversion, their new birth, their obtaining religion. Now if this be not to establish their own efforts, and to substitute them for the righteousness of God-for that system of justification which he has introduced through his Son, I know not how any one could presume to do it.

The ancient Christians were "reconciled to God through the death of his Son." The change was effected in them, not in God: and in consequence of their having submitted themselves to the proposition of pardon tendered them through the gospel, God received them into his special favour through the obedience unto death of his beloved Son, and not for any work, or penance, or righteousness of their own. says Paul, "When the love of God to man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we had done, but according to his merey he saved us, through the washing of regeneration. and the renewal of the Holy Spirit."

For,

pre

God, then, has set forth his Son as a propitiatory, and his blood as a propitiation, as a reconciliation, as the justification which he has provided. To this we have only to submit. We are to be reconciled to God, to his character, will, cepts, judgments. We must change; we must turn to God. He asks us to receive his grace, not to procure it; to accept his salvation, not to originate it; to repent of our sins and to be baptized into his death: and then, Jesus "is made to us wisdom, justification, sanctification, and redemption." Hence he that glories must glory in the Lord. He is waiting to be gracious. He says to us, "How long, ye

simple ones, will you love simplicity, and you fools delight in your scorning? Turn at my reproof, and I will pour out my Spirit upon you; I will make known my words you." He says, "I have no pleasure in the death of a sinner;" " 'Why will you die ?" "Hear;" "Come;" and "Your soul shall live;" "Let the wicked man forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him—to our God, and he will abundantly pardon." "We beseech you," says Paul, BE RECONCILED TO GOD." This developes the whole matter; the proper state of the question. "All things are ready" on his part. There is not even the need of a single prayer from any person to make God propitious. Return, come, receive, live, and bless the Lord! contrast with the dogma on which the religion-seeking system rests !!

What a

The gospel is one sublimely philanthropic proposition, which when understood, believed, and acquiesced in, leaves us nothing to do, but to bless God and live. It is a calm bright sunshine on the soul of a sinful man, in the midst of a refreshing shower of divine grace, whose every drop, like a polished prism, refracts the rays of mercy as they descend, and converts them into a radiant bow of promise around his elevated head. It leaves him nothing to do to reconcile God, to make him propitious, merciful, and kind. It fills his soul with grateful emotions, and calls forth all his powers of admiration and worship. Through the Holy Spirit it sheds abroad the love of God in his heart, and by its sweet attractive power voluntarily constrains his entire homage to the revealed will of his Divine Redeemer.

The genuine convert to Christ's own gospel, begins where the labouring class-room Methodist ends. After a long and hard probation, this child of storms and tempests finds a momentary calm in the imagination, that through his long agony of soul he has subdued God into an acquiescence with his desires, and has conquered him by the importunities of his long protracted and assiduous efforts. He feels pleased for the moment with his hard-bought triumph, and seems to himself thankful to God simply for having been overcome by him." From a wrestling Jacob" he has, in his own imagination, become "a prevailing Israel." This is his conversion. Indeed, if there be in the case any conversion at all, it is the conversion of God, rather than of the sinner; or, perhaps