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drawn, in his offer of mercy without price, and at once, they can still abide him. But let him proceed to grapple with them in resistless earnest-allowing no alternative than now, or never'just now on that spot whilst breathing that breath,' and then matters must come to an issue. There is no loop-hole of escape left -the question cannot be adjourned to another day without tremendous risks-it is indeed felt, that salvation must either be at once received, or distinctly refused. O! this is truly a blessed dilemma up to which to shut any soul, and were it more frequently attempted, the success of the ministry would be greater. A preacher with ordinary powers will find it no difficult thing to convince his hearers, that salvation is a desirable gift, and a gift within their reach. To bring a congregation thus far need not occupy much time. For the most part, an audience are at this point ere the preacher opens his mouth. But are they willing to be saved just now? That is a state few unconverted souls have come to, and therefore to bring them up to this conviction is at once the most arduous, but the most important part of pulpit duty. Mr Blunt seems deeply to have entered into this view, and acted upon it. He will on no account brook delay with the sinner, but uniformly presses upon him the instancy, as well as the freeness of salvation. A single passage will illustrate our remark.

"It is remarkable, how imperative the word of God is upon the season of forming an acquaintance with him. It never, in a single instance, speaks of any season for the great work, but the present. It has, indeed, threatenings which regard the future, and the future only. It has also promises which regard the future, and the future only. It has also joys and sorrows which regard the future only. But it has no such invita tions. It has not a single invitation which even hints at any other season than the present-most plainly intimating, that while you are perfectly at liberty to reject the invitation of the passing hour, God holds himself equally at liberty never to repeat it. Observe, only, how strikingly this fact is illustrated by the language of Scripture. Behold now is the accepted time.' 'Wherefore as the Holy Ghost saith, to-day harden not your hearts.' 'Choose you this day whom you will serve. And in the text, Acquaint thyself now with God,'-to-day, as soon as you hear the message-before the words of the preacher die upon your ear— before you leave this house. Wait not for to-morrow which may never come. Go this day, this hour, this instant, and throw thyself in faith at the foot of the cross.' 'Christ is as near you at this moment, as your sins are. He stands beside the ranks of those your enemies, and one faithful prayer to him, one strong resolution, the effort of his own grace, to cast yourself at once upon him, and the victory is insured."-Sermons, pp. 100-103.

Is not this Saviour-like anxiety for souls, and true urgencygospel compulsion-in dealing with the unconverted? Too many sermons are couched in such language as permits the sinner to wait, at

least for a little while-making him even suppose, that a future occasion may answer better than the very passing instant. But this treatment is not wise. It may suit indolent hearers, and timid ministers but it can plead neither authority, nor advantage. Instancy, such as Blunt's, is what God for the most part owns. It is they who look, as well as plead for, immediate faith-present resultswho are generally blessed in their work. God's good pleasure is to save, and all men should know that he would rather save to-day than to-morrow-this moment, than the next.

Mr Blunt's variety as a preacher is highly imitable. It is surprising as well as melancholy to find ministers so often feeding their people with long-gathered manna,—with bread almost stale. Their stock of ideas seems incapable of enlargement, and every text lands them on the same shore. This is discreditable, for the fault is all their own. No straitness nor sterility can be predicated of the Holy Scriptures. In them there is enough to fill an angel's eye, and occupy eternity. But not a few ministers are satisfied with the science, and criticism, and theology they acquired when fulfilling their curriculum, and from anything like systematic, pains-taking, enlarged, resolute study, they ceased, so soon as they embarked upon their active duties. The literature of divinity itself is boundless, and replete with surpassing interest. A lifetime would not exhaust it, and in just subordination, it would only tend, the more it was wrought, to qualify a teacher of others for his arduous duty. But scarcely are our clergy entered upon their office, than public claims swallow up every other obligation, until in the end the wellfurnished scribe' is sunk in the overdone pastor. This is a sore evil, -it is an evil to the minister himself, whose mind, instead of expanding every day, becomes dry, and shrivelled, and paltry,—it is an evil to his congregation, whom he should lead into all the counsels of God-the upper and the nether springs-but who are left just where he found them,-it is an evil to his brethren, who desire to learn all their life long the way of God more perfectly, but to whose stores he has nothing to add, and in whose conferences he has nothing to say. It is an evil to the church, for it brings discredit upon her name, whilst it prevents her occupying that position among the learned which it would be of advantage for her to acquire. We do not insist that all our ministers should be profound and accomplished scholars. But we do maintain that all our ministers should be multiplying their acquisitions in the literature of their profession, every year they live; and were they to do so, their public services, we feel assured, instead of being complained of as vapid and dull, would become always rich and edifying. It was so with Mr Blunt. He seems to have been alike studious all his life through, and accordingly, not only is he able to produce seventeen volumes of substantial writing,

VOL. XVIII. NO. II.

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but his volumes are diversified in thought, style, and subject. No doubt, his infirm health at various times, gave him important opportunities for prosecuting his researches, and accumulating his stores. But what sickness secured to him, every minister who desires to be useful must secure by regularity and perseverance. The multitude and diversity of our duties at present,' says Vinet, condemn us to a life, which except in its end and object, has all the characters of dissipation.' It may not, then, be any great wonder if our discourses are tame and superficial. Shall we, however, use no means for counteracting our disadvantages? Unless ministers are prepared to sacrifice everything to bustle and locomotion, they must claim the retirement which they need,- Jesus withdrew himself into the wilderness and prayed,—and as Paul enjoins, whilst fervent in supplication, 'let them give attendance to reading.'

It gives us great pleasure to find that Mr Blunt dealt so much in Lecturing. Indeed, he seems to have regarded this mode of exhibiting the truth of God, as the most effectual he could use, and to have employed it more frequently, even than the commoner mode of the sermon. This course involves more anxiety, and trouble, and faithfulness, a larger grasp of Scriptural knowledge and Christian experience, a more courageous enforcement of God's truth on all individuals and all cases, and a great deal more of that apostolic 'reading' to which we have just alluded. But it is the course which, all things considered, conduces most to the edification of the hearer and the minister's own growth in holiness, by causing both always to live in contact with the mind of God. We neither would discard the sermon nor disparage it. In connexion with lecturing it is invaluable, and the two should always go together. What we plead for is an equal proportion, at the very least, of lectures and sermons, and though our rule might exact more labour, there would be an abundant recompense. Our people have the idea that to lecture is no trial of ability, and that we would trifle with them were we to deal more in exposition than in discourse. They consider a lecture as just a commentary, and imagine that out of so many commentaries as we have, it would be easy either to select, or compile a good one. This is a great mistake. A commentary is not a lecture, but differs from it just as a lexicon differs from a translation. If I read a commentary, I shall become acquainted with the meaning of the words I find in Scripture, as in reading the Clavis Homerica I get a knowledge of all the terms used in the Iliad. This, however, is to proceed but a little way. After acquiring all the vocabulary of Homer, if I wish to catch the spirit of his epic, I must advance in my translation of him, till the ideas which are imbedded in his page begin to live and move in my own mind. And in like manner, if I am truly anxious to breathe the atmosphere of the Bible, I must not

rest satisfied with the lexiconic understanding of it supplied by a commentary, but must seek to have its thoughts domiciled among my thoughts, its imagery reproduced in my own fancy,-its truth made a part of my intellectual constitution: All which is the object of lecturing-for, as if through the medium of a spirited translation, I am introduced by a correct and comprehensive expositor, into the very heart of Scriptural truth, and God's mind and my mind meet. Lecturing is thus not only a far more arduous study for a preacher, but it is a more solemn exercise for a hearer, than an ordinary discourse, inasmuch as it applies the finger of God more directly and more repeatedly to the soul, and makes the whole transaction of the pulpit, more of a transaction betwixt the sinner and his Judge. Robert Hall felt this, and Henry Blunt felt this,—and for the most part all have felt the same who care less for the artificial science of sermonizing, and are more intently set upon the Divine art of winning souls.

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One other remark must conclude our notice of these edifying volumes. Mr Blunt's courage we should have liked to illustrate, and his tenderness, and his growing spirituality. Especially would we have wished to bring out the latter feature, for it is evident that his tone became holier as he advanced in his course, showing that he did not merely preach the truth as a minister, but lived upon it as a believer. Our space, however, forbids enlargement, and leaves us no more than room to commend this characteristic of Mr Blunt as a preacher, that when disabled from the pulpit, he prosecuted his ministry through the press. Indeed, his Family Exposition of the Pentateuch, we find dated at Rome, when travelling over foreign lands, in search of that health which he was destined never again to find till he reached the land where the inhabitants shall no more say that they are sick, because their iniquity is forgiven.' This shows how Mr Blunt, like his Divine Master, always carried his flock upon his shoulder, and remembered them ofttimes to the exclusion of his own suffering. It would be good for them, if our own ministers caught a little of this spirit, and gave their own health the last their people's salvation the first place in all their thoughts. And let our ministers be also taught by this devoted servant of the Lord, to be ready to glorify God, and execute their ministry, in the way that may be traced out by Providence. It is in the pulpit that for the most part, we think, the great ends of our office can alone be accomplished; and many are not afraid to speak of being laid aside from usefulness, when debarred from the pulpit. Such a notion is weak,-such a course full of danger; and were the matter probed, perhaps morbid indolence, or oppressive languor, would be found at the root. It will at times occur, that ministers are wholly laid aside from all manner of exertion. But this, we are

persuaded, is a rare case, and for the most part it will be found that when indisposition is sent upon any of Christ's labourers, it is not with the view of exiling them from the vineyard, but changing their mode of service. Surely, if God calls a man to the pulpit, it is God also who calls him from it. He is still, then, under the call of God, and bound to exercise the function with which he has been clothed, for the glory of his Master. The latter call modifies, but does not supersede the former. Sickness alters the channel of pastoral usefulness, but does not release us from it; it places us on another road of duty, but it does not carry us off the field. We do heartily desire, therefore, that as Mr Blunt did, all those ministers of our church, who may for a season be like him laid aside from their usual routine, would bear in mind that their ministerial function is not suspended, and that their opportunities of usefulness remain as abundant as ever. The press is open when the pulpit is closed. The pen ought to be industrious when the voice is silent. The flock that enjoyed the services of the active, has an equal right to the experience of the afflicted pastor. And though the production of an invalid, or suffering counsellor, might not exhibit robust thinking, or refined diction, it would abound in genuine feeling,— it would be vital with hallowed emotion,-and the fruits of trial, gathered as they fell from the shaken tree, would have a far sweeter relish than when dried and kept for years, and served out from memory.

ART. VIII.-Proceedings of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland. Folio. No. I. to X. Published by Authority.

1845.

OUR Church has passed through another General Assembly. We say passed through; for an Assembly is not, what it once was, and may still be elsewhere, a mere processional pageant, flagrant and noisy enough, but unvital, unblest,-an event minuted in the records, announced by the newspapers, and then forgotten. The General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland is what so solemn a council ought to be,-the sensorium of the body it represents. And as there, all the vibrations of its innumerable pulses meet, so from thence, go forth new streams of energy to guide and quicken. The day is not far past when an Assembly was either the servile echo of government, or a fierce arena of conflict,- -a hall of state, or a battle-field. Now, it is an alembic through which the actings of the church over its various branches must be severely passed, and also a telegraph from which the fleet are to derive their signals, af