many of the numbers of years between one event and another being divisible by 7 or the powers of 7. It were of importance, ere we gave in to his conclusion, first to ascertain how many should be so divisible by the doctrine of chances, and to see whether there is any marvellous excess over that number. There is something grotesque in his fixing on some such interval as that between the death of Arphaxad and the league of Smalcalde, and then telling us that because of its being divisible by 7 or 72, there must be some deep-laid scheme of Providence in all this, when so very many of these chronological intervals must have this property. The same may be said of his Timal Fractions." P. 19.

"The early ages of the world, and more especially its sacred history, bear evidence to the power of the principle of population. The land of Goshen, where the children of Israel dwelt, was a fruitful territory; and they soon multiplied up to its capabilities. The original civilization, which declined afterwards, was favourable to this increase in primitive times; and to one now thoroughly enlightened in the doctrine of Malthus, there is nothing incredible in the vast and speedy augmentation of numbers which took place in countries not yet fully peopled, and where the extent of yet unappropriated soil was of itself a safety-valve for the outlet of those emulous passions, which in after times gave rise to such desolating wars." P. 108.

“O Lord, may I glorify Thy name-expressive of essential existence, and which, if fully understood, might guide the inquiring spirit into the very depths of the Godhead. I have at times dwelt on the supposition of an eternal nullity-and in contemplation of the alternative between entity and non-entity, have been tempted to put the question-How is it? or what the springs and principles of that necessity are upon which the former of the two terms is the one that has been realized? Humble me, O God, under a sense of this inexplicable mystery; and prepare me for that state when in Thy light I should clearly see light." P. 112.

"God hardened Pharaoh's heart, and contemporaneously with this He multiplied signs and wonders before his eyes-the effect of which multiplication was to enhance the guilt of Pharaoh's resistance. All this we hold to be consistent both with the ethical and the mental philosophythough there be a transcendental difficulty in the contemplation which stands related to God's part in it, as in every question that is any how connected with the origin whether of moral or physical evil." P. 120.

"There seems more of creative power in the miraculous production of organic creatures than any other kind of miracle-than in the conversion of water into blood, for example, or the bringing on of universal darkness, or in the cleaving of a river or sea, or even in a work of general death and destruction, as of the first-born in Egypt. The manifold collocations of an animal structure, impress me with a greater sense of supernatural power in such visitations as the frogs and flies and locusts in Egypt, and quails in the wilderness, than in all the other, though more dread and stupendous prodigies, which were exhibited in that season of extraordinary manifestations. To my imagination they stand the foremost among these wonderful works of old." P. 122.

"The tendency is to wonder at the minute and manifold directions

given for the erection of so elaborate and complicated a structure as the Jewish tabernacle; and we are apt to regard them as unworthy of the wisdom and enlargement of the Divine Architect. But truly they were not more mysterious than is the complex organism of our own bodies, where so many thousand parts and circumstances are made to meet together, every one of them essential to the functions and enjoyments of life-even though God, we are prone to imagine, could have grafted all our capacities, both of thought and feeling, on a simple uncompounded elementary atom. In this respect, then, the tabernacle, constructed according to the pattern shown in the mount, is quite of a piece with the best and highest of our physiological structures, framed as they are according to the primary conceptions of Him who sitteth in the heavens. But while unable to resolve in either case the mystery of such a complication, let us bless the Maker of all things for the palpable and known uses of whatever we find in both; and most of all let us prize that mercyseat which is so beautifully emblematic of the great Propitiatory whom God hath set forth, (Rom. iii. 25,) through whom it is that He meets and holds communion even with the guiltiest of us all." Pp. 160, 161.

Sometimes there come out simple and natural, but rather unexpected reflections upon particular passages: reflections which show how his mind took hold of every topic, and how, in reflecting upon Scripture, they all stood around him, as it were, to be illustrated in turn. Take a specimen :

"And yet what respect is evinced by God to natural securities; when, instead of repeating any further the assurance of miraculous gifts, He bids Moses look at Aaron, and take courage in the thought of that natural eloquence which he had. Let us not, after this, undervalue_the importance of natural gifts for a clergyman." P. 114.

Though the references to passing events are not so numerous as one might have expected, yet the few that do occur are full of interest. His mind seems generally to have been exercised. regarding them in the way of prayer, or in looking at them as the will of God. Thus in March 1842, he expresses himself respecting the failure of the Church's negociations with Govern

ment.

"As a specimen of God's dealing with His people, this passage is a highly instructive one. When any promise of deliverance comes, we long for its fulfilment, and our hopes-often sanguine as our wisheslook for its being instantly realized. But it is not so that God disciplines even His best loved children. He lengthens out their adversities by delays and disappointments, even after the expectations which either by His Word or by His Providence He Himself had inspired. It is thus that He is often pleased to exercise the spirits of his chosen; and they, led by this schooling to wait upon God, are nurtured in the faith and patience of the saints. We have just met with a prolongation of this sort in the reversal of a hope for the Church of Scotland-and that too from an unlooked-for determination on the part of men in power. May

we be led thereby to the grace of waiting and still looking upwards, while God lengthens out our probation, and regulates His administration by such periods and successions as to our puny optics look immeasurably long." P. 116, 117.

In the October just before the well-known Convocation which preceded the disruption, we have his mind thus meditating on the Sustentation Fund in connection with Israel's gifts.

"Here the summation of the whole is fully rendered. It was a result made up of separate items-the very way in which I should like great results come at for the service and good of religion at the present day. It is truly grievous that great things should be attempted in any other way; and still more so that when proposed in this way they should stand charged with Utopianism. There is nothing preternaturally gigantic in any of the separate contributions; and nothing surely can be less imaginative or more perceivable than the plain arithmetic by which you arrive at the reckoning of the sum-total. It requires no magic or feat of necromancy to summon up the means for the sustentation of a Free Church in Scotland. Would but each real friend do his duty in his own moderate sphere, the thing were accomplished." Pp. 264, 265.

At the same period we find the following entry as to the growing coolness of many of the aristocracy towards his schemes.

"In the present state of our own Church they stand aloof from us, and we are forced to shift our applications from the higher classes to the bulk of our common people. O my God, may I receive direction and encouragement from Thee, in the absence of all countenance from my fellows. I pray, O God, that I may not faint and be weary in my mind. Enable me, O God, to pass a wise sentence, and deliver an upright testimony, on every subject that comes before me-and more especially in all that concerns the good of religion in these lands. If it be Thy blessed will, enable me to compensate for the desertion of the rich and the powerful by effectually calling forth the offerings of the general population, and chiefly those of Thine own devoted servants in the religious public of Scotland." Pp. 262, 263.

A day or two before the Convocation, or rather, we suppose, on the very day in which it assembled,* he thus writes his meditations on the disheartening report of the spies.

"It is thus that the fears and faint-heartedness of a few operate infectiously, and spread a like spirit among the many; and it is thus, I observed, that in the present circumstances of our Church, the timidity and irresolution of certain of her friends, may restrain the religious public from taking as they might possession of the land. . . . There was great distrust in all this on the part of the spies-that want of faith, which is

* The days are not given; but counting from the commencement of the month, and omitting the Sabbaths, we suppose it must have been the same day.

spoken of as a great provocative, and which is adverted to as such in the epistle to the Hebrews. Caleb and Joshua alone stood out against this, and proved faithful. Let us, in like manner, uphold our confidence in God in the midst of all that looks hard or menacing-assured that He will not forsake His Church in this the hour of her sore adversity. My God, I feel the need of guidance from on high.” P. 275.

Two days after the above, he thus writes again:

"Let us have the warrant of His call, be it of His word or His providence, for the place we occupy, or the path we are walking in; and we may count on all needful strength to protect and to uphold us. It is a truly different thing when we presumptuously go forth to the exposures of danger or difficulty, of our own will and in our own strength-making an experiment as it were upon God." P. 278.

In the month of March 1843, he thus anticipates the crisis of May, and pleads with God in reference to it—

"Grant, O Lord, that the spirit of liberality to our ecclesiastics may be revived in this land; but more earnestly do we ask that Thou wouldest give firmness of principle to these ecclesiastics, that they may be prepared to suffer all rather than renounce their fidelity to Christ and to His truth." P. 347.

And again, a few days after, he thus prays :—

"Pour forth a spirit of liberality, O God, over the land, now that the Church is cast on the offerings of the people." P. 352.

And once again, in April, he thus pleads for himself and his fellows in the conflict:

"May we be sustained so in the hour of our approaching warfare. Do thou fight for us, O God, and save us. Let us not be terrified because of our enemies; and may we be more than conquerors through Him that loveth us. . . . After the priest had inspired the soldiers with the right courage, the officers came forward and proclaimed the conditions or circumstances, in which or under which if any were placed, they might retire. None of these conditions are applicable to us, save the last. There can be no discharge from our warfare on the ground of personal or family convenience; but let the fearful and faint-hearted have leave to fall away. Yet let an army, O God, equal to that of Gideon remain with us—of men good and true, who shall be valiant for principle and be willing to give up all for the glory of the Redeemer and the good of his people in our land.” P. 357.

Let us hear some of his pleadings for himself and others. They may help us, they may stimulate, they may suggest―

"Give me, O Lord, the anointing which remaineth, the unction from the Holy One-the pure and not the counterfeit the true head-the true and living water. Let me not be satisfied with the virtue of nature -with the fervour of mere constitutional sensibilities, however ardent, and at the same time amiable. Give me fire from Thine own altar-the

oil of grace and gladness from the fountain of Christ's own fulness. It is true that the oil here prescribed was not (verse 32) to be poured on the people. But under his blessed dispensation all who are His are kings and priests unto God." P. 174.

Again, hear the following intercession:

66 "O may this blessing be realized on me and mine! What a forthgoing of spontaneous affection on the part of God to His own! My Father in heaven, thus bless me, and rejoice over me for good. Keep me from evil. Cause thy face to shine on me, and be gracious unto me. Manifest Thyself unto me: and let me behold Thy reconciled countenance, so as to have peace. O may Thy name be put in me, and not a name to live while I am dead; but let me have the power as well as the form of godliness." P. 260.

Or take the following paragraph, in the conclusion of which he intercedes for his country:

"The days were when the direct influence of such Old Testament addresses on the side of obedience was deafened to my ear by the imagination of an old Covenant, and the fear lest by giving way to the obvious effect of such addresses, I was violating the orthodoxy of the New Testament, and allowing the legal to carry it over the evangelical. This influence still lingers with me; but surely there is a perversity therein from which I long to be emancipated-that I may run with alacrity in the new obedience of the Gospel, and have the comfort of knowing that my labour in the Lord is not in vain. O that I were delivered from all which is calculated to freeze up the activities of my nature, and to restrain the free and fearless, and let me add, hopeful consecration of all my services and all my powers to Him who poured out His soul unto the death-and this to purify a people unto Himself, zealous of good works. O that my light may shine before men; and that men might recognise in the followers of Jesus who call on the name of the Lord, that with them indeed there is true wisdom, and in the worth and excellence of their character the only elements of true greatness. I pray for my country, that the righteousness which exalteth a nation may be theirs-and I pray also for my children, that I may bring them up in the holy admonition of the Lord." Pp. 331, 332.

Lastly, take the following pleading for himself. It is truly touching. And all the more so, because his petition, in one sense, was not granted him. He might say with Paul, "For this thing I besought the Lord thrice;" yet the only answer is, "My grace is sufficient for thee."

"Here we are presented with the number of serviceable men in the three classes of Levites; and I again repeat the interest and satisfaction which I feel in the term of serviceableness being limited within the ages of thirty and fifty. O my God, if it be Thy blessed will, allow me an old age of piety and peace. Save me from the fatigue and discomfort of those harassing controversies. But yet if Thou willest otherwise, pre