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on which the city now stands has on one side of it a very dangerous precipice.

Susan. The Saviour was not hurt by this violence, for he passed through the midst of the crowd, and marvellously escaped out of their hands.

Olympas. Which way then did he go, James?

James. To Capernaum, a town in Galilee.

Olympas. Did he work any miracles there, Susan?

Susan. Yes, there was in the synagogue a man tormented by a very foul spirit, crying with a very vehement voice, which Jesus cast out. Olympas. And what was the effect of this display of beneficent power, Susan?

Susan. "They were astonished at his doctrine, for his word was with power."

Clympas. Any other miracles, James, at Capernaum?

1

James. Peter's mother was instantly cured of a fever, and from the imposition of his hands many sick persons of all manner of diseases were healed; many devils were cast out, crying out and saying, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of God; but he rebuked them, saying that they should not speak who he was; for he knew that he was the Messiah."

Thomas. These evil spirits could not be human maladies, for I never read of human maladies knowing that Jesus was the Christ.

Olympas. The Neologists of Germany, France, and England, have converted them into eastern metaphors, but by a most violent outrage on all the rules of interpretation. "Demons came out of many, crying out and saying, "Thou art Christ the Son of God." "Jesus rebuked them, and suffered them not to speak; for they knew that he was Christ." Could any rhetorician or grammarian, not infatuated with some extravagant fancy or theory, suppose that any physical malady could not only be gifted with speech, but with more intelligence than the person himself who was the subject of the disease. What epilepsy ever came out of a man saying the Doctor was a person of divine science, and when rebuked by the Physician became dumb as a stone!! Or, to allegorize the whole passage:-Diseases came out of many persons intimating by their manner of departure that the person under whose practice they migrated was a great Doctor. But when the Doctor's life became endangered by his rivals because of his excessive fame among the people, he inhibited these diseases from proving that he was possessed of more than common skill.

Thomas. Really, that would be rather a ridiculous version of the

matter.

I wonder that any person of common sense could read Luke

iv. 41., and then affirm that demon is only another name for palsy, epilepsy, or some physical malady.

William. What, were those demons, father?

Olympus. They are called 'unclean spirits,' and is not that enough? William. What kind of spirits, father?

Olympas. We know of only two classes of spirits-human spirits and angelic spirits; but as to the properties or personal attributes of the one or the other, we know nothing positive and clear. They can think, reason, and speak; but they have neither flesh, blood, nor bones. They have great strength, and evil spirits are fond of using it malignantly. All those legions of evil spirits or demons spoken of in the Testament appear to be the unclean spirits of dead men. But if any one imagine them to be fallen angels, he has as good a right, political and ecclesiastical, to cherish and express that opinion when called upon as 1 have to give mine. It is not with me absolute faith, but plausible opinion; and I think there is more reason and historic evidence, and less difficulty in the way of this opinion, than of any other of which I have heard But we may have a better opportunity of dilating on this subject hereafter.

A. C.

PRESBYTERIANISM AT HOME.

THOSE Who wish to see the good old mother Kirk of Scotland in her glory, must attend at St. Andrew's Church, Edinburg, during the annual sittings of the General Assembly. They meet in May. The following I copy direct from the Edinburgh Witness of May 21, 1842:

"On Wednesday evening, according to ancient custom, the Losd Provost and Magistrates of the city proceeded to Holyrood House the present residence of the Marquis of Bute, whom her Majesty has been graciously pleased to depute as her Representative in the General Assembly of our National Church, to present to his Grace the keys of the city. The Lord Provost and the Magistrates having been introduced, presented the keys to his Grace in common form, which were immediately returned with the remark, that he could not perform a duty more satisfactory to his Sovereign nor more agreeable to his own feelings, than to resign them into the hands from which he had received them. The Lord Provost and Magistrates were then invited to dine with his Grace, a party of about forty of the elite of the city and neighborhood having been at the same time invited. Among them we observed Lord Greenock, Lords Murray and Mackenzie, Sir Neil Douglas, Commander of the Forces in Scotland, and Captain Douglas, his Aid-de-Camp; Sir F. W. Drummond of Hawthornden, Bart.; Sir James Gibson Craig of Riccarton, Bart.; Sir Adam Hay of Hayston, Bart; Sir P, M. Thriepland of Fingask, Bart.; Sir Tho

mas Dick Lauder of Fountainhall, Bart.; Sir C. D. Ferguson of Kilkerran, Bart.; Sir James Campbell, Sir William Drysdale, the Dean of Faculty, Mr. Sheriff Speirs, Allason Cunninghame of Logan, Esq., Colonel Hill of the 53d, Colonel Hutcheson, R. A., Colonel Emmet, Captain Nunn, North British Staff: Dr. De Grave, Rev. Dr. Gordon, Dr. Welsh, &c. &c.

On Thursday forenoon his Grace held his first levee in the Throne Room of the Palace, which was much more numerously attended than on any previous occasion in our recollection, there being upwards of 600 persons present. Among the presentations were

Sirs T. D. Lauder, A. Hay, W. Dunbar of Mochrum; W. F. Dunbar of Boath; F. W. Drummond; P. Murray, Thriepland; C. H. Hastings, G. Macpherson Grant, E. S. Lees, D. Brewster, J. G. Dalyell, W. Foulis, James Campbell, James Spittal, George Ballingal, James Ramsay, A. Agnew, General A. Halkett, General Neil Douglas, and R. Mowbray, &c. &c.

The Lord Provost, Magistrates, Treasurer, and several members of the Town Council; the Magistrates, and Treasurer of Canongate; the Provost, Magistrates, and Town Clerk of Leith."

And a hundred other Honorables, Baronets, Lords, Colonels, Advocates, Esquires, Consuls, Admirals, Captains and Commodores, Principals, Doctors, and Divines.

"About 12 o'clock his Grace proceeded to the High Church in the following order of procession:

Detachment of Dragoons.

Magistrates of Canongate in their Robes.
Town Councillors of the City in their Robes.

The Magistrates and Treasurer of the City in their Robes.
Carriage with City Mace and Sword.
The Right Honorable the Lord Provost in his Robes.
Band of the 53d Regiment.
Enniskillen Dragoons.

A party of the City Police in Full Dress.
Six Trumpeters in State Dresses.
Carriage and Pair with Ushers.

His Grace's State Carriage, drawn by Four Horses, with Pages and
Mace-Bearer

Yeomen of the Scottish Guard.
Enniskillen Dragoons.

His Grace the Lord High Commissioner,

Attended by his Purse-Bearer and Chaplain, in the Royal Carriage, drawn by Six Horses.

Yeomen of the Scottish Guard.

Party of the City Police.
Enniskillen Bragoons.

His Grace's Private Carriage.

Then followed the Carriages of the Nobility and Gentry, with several Carriages of Private Gentlemen,

amounting altogether to between forty and fifty.

A detachment of Dragoons lined the High Street; from whence, as far as the High School, the road was kept by the 53d regiment. The

whole line of procession was crowded,-in some parts to excess,-far surpassing the attendance on any former occasion.

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The Rev. Dr. Gordon, Moderator of last General Assembly, preached a suitable discourse from Matthew v. 13.-"Ye are the salt of the earth," to a numerous and attentive audience. Divine service having been concluded, his Grace the Commissioner proceeded to his state carriage up the High Street, down Bank Street, the Mound, up South Hanover Street, to St. Andrew's Church, which has been given gain for the accommodation of the Assembly.

The Assembly being convened and constituted by a solemnizing prayer from Dr. Gordon, the Clerk called over the roll of members."

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If such be the salt of Scotch earth, how miserably insipid is our American soil! I should like to have a copy of said sermon on the salt of the earth. Will some of our Edinburgh friends send us a copy of it? A. C.

THE CRISIS IN BRITAIN.

THE following exhibit from an eloquent editorial found in the aforesaid "WITNESS," on the crisis of affairs in both the established church of England and that of Scotland, cannot be without interest to our readers. Mark in it the signs of the times! A. C.

The reaction in favor of belief has begun powerfully to operate in both false and true churches. Popery is evidently rising. Protestantism seems fast quitting the neutral ground it had so long occupied, by two opposite outlets, and aggregating its divided forces on opposite sides,-here advancing towards its original type,-there precipitating itself full on Rome. The felt reference to the spiritual nature and future state of man, exerts, as of old, its influence on human affairs.— Ecclesiastical questions promise to be no longer subordinate to merely political ones, and the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland is felt, in consequence of this change, even by worldly men, to represent one of the greatest interest of the kingdom. It is only fifteen years since Canning, in his place in Parliament, predicted that the first war in Europe would be a war of opinion. It was of political opinion he spoke. He had watched the accumulation, and marked the evident direction, of that power which has since produced the revolutions of France and Belgium, and extended the franchise over Britain and Ireland. But the present is, above all others, a time of sudden change; the tide, whose rise he marked, has since fallen, leaving no inconsiderable mass of impurity and corruption behind it, and the current is now setting in full in an opposite direction. The poliitical war is past, and the next great conflict of the world will be, in all probability, a conflict, not of secular, but of religious opinion.

It would be well to be prepared for it. There is no class of arguments which worldly men set aside with a feeling so ineffably contemptuous as the class derived from prophecy. There has been, no doubt, abuse in this province, as in all others; but it is the only pro. vince in which the sober and proper use has been denied in conse 40*%

VOL VI-N

quence. We shall venture to refer to it notwithstanding the virtual prohibition. Many of our more judicious interpreters of prophecy are much in error if the church be not entering, in the present time, on a period of protracted conflict, in which, though she may have to long often and vehemently for peace, as a blessing, she shall have to contend for the right as a duty,-nay, to struggle perchance for very existene If such is to be the event, it would be surely well for "him that believeth not to make haste." If there is to be no "discharge in this war," let us look well to the posts in which the providence of God has placed us, and exert ourselves in His strength that they be maintained. Let us not desert them. Better to be in his battle than in quiet elsewhere. The evening will at length come, and we shall lay us down and be at rest. It is scarce possible to take a cool survey of the various stages of the present conflict, without being struck by a remarkable peculiarity in its character. Cowley, in one of his graver pindarics, the Ode to Destiny,-describes a game of chess in which the various figures seem to move of themselves along the board, with apparently no hand to guide them. He sees skillful and unlucky A pawn rises to the top, and "becomes another thing and A knight, "that does bold wonders in the fray," amazes him with its success. He approves the gaining,-censures the losing party,-admires their better moves,-condemns the false and unfortunate ones. But their moves are not theirs: he raises his eyes from the board and sees two shadowy figures bending over it, and propelling the pieces along the squares. And such he exclaims, is the game of life.

moves.

name."

"With man, alas! no otherwise it proves,

An unseen hand makes all the moves,
And some are great, and some are small,

Some climb to good, some from good fortune fall,
Some wise men, and some fools, we call,

Figures, alas! of speech, for Destiny plays all."

Destiny is not the word. The Scriptures, and from these the Confessions and Catechisms of our church furnish us with a better. With this emendation, however, we have been often reminded of Cowley's seemingly extravant fiction, during the course of the present controversy. "An unseen hand makes all the moves." The game has got very palpably beyond human management. We would but ask the reader to call to recollection the various moves, if we may so speak, which have been made during the last nine months. It is enough simply to name them. The sympathy meetings,-the change of Ministry. the projected schism,-the great West Kirk meeting,-the Liberum Arbitrium negociations,-the utter failure of these,-Calsalmond, the high-handed and contumelious despotism of Sir James Graham, the military hastily recalled from Strathbogie, an apparent softening on the part of government,-the leading organ of the English press recognizing as just one of the master-principles for which the church is contending, and dropping in consequence the charge of rebellion, the defection of the Forty, the tone of government suddenly changed,-Monzie's non-intrusion bill withdrawn,-the same leading organ which had recognized the principle of spiritual jurisdiction. within whose precinc's the civil authority might be justly withstood, informing the church that, by way of special favor, she shall have yet

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