principle, under the specious pretence of catholicity, or to promote a union of Churches. But there is such a thing as prejudice; it is difficult to free the mind from corrupt sectarianism; the strength of old prepossessions will blind us to the necessity of adjusting the position of the Church, so as to meet new dangers and new demands arising from the changes transpiring in society and the world; some special view may acquire an unwarrantable predominance in our minds; or some principle of the highest moment may be lost sight of, under habits of thought unfitting us to take the just measure of its importance. It is surely needful, if we aim at union, to pray that we may be set free from every such bias. We cannot otherwise be sincere in our endeavours to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace.

There is no doubt an equal danger, on the other hand, lest some vital principle be sacrificed in the desire for union. The inference is the same, and equally strong, that we should abound in prayer if we are to avoid this error.

At all events, our duty is to seek union. As Christians, we would be unfaithful to principle if we did not aim at it. As Presbyterians, we are pledged to the maintenance of the unity of the Church, beyond the Congregationalist or the Episcopalian. As Covenanters, we would belie the noblest memories and associations connected with our denomination, if we did not strive to heal division, and unite in one blessed confederacy the scattered ranks of Presbyterianism in Scotland.

The end is union—the means urged for the attainment of it is prayer. No true Christian surely, whatever scruples and difficulties may be felt about particular questions and measures which any movement for union must necessarily raise, can object either to the end proposed, or to the means for realising it now recommended.

Under the effusion and guidance of the Holy Ghost all difficulties may be surmounted. Without His blessing, success in the present negotiations would be a mockery and a snare. Let us be found lamenting after the Lord, the Spirit! In the name of the Reformed Presbyterian Union Committee. W. H. GOOLD, Convener.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Miscellaneous Contributions require to be sent before the 10th, Articles of Intelligence before the 16th, of the preceding month. In answer to several inquiries, copies of most of the past numbers of the "Reformed Presbyterian Magazine" may be had on application to the Publishers, or to the Agents. As the stock of some of the numbers is all but exhausted, early application is necessary.

Cloth Cover for the Yearly Volume.-Our Publishers have prepared a
neat cloth Cover for binding the "Reformed Presbyterian Magazine."
It may be had from themselves, or from any of the Agents for the
Magazine, price 8d. Covers for former years can also be had.

Printed by CHARLES GIBSON, at his Printing Office, 18 Thistle Street, and Published by
JOHNSTONE, HUNTER, & Co., at their Warehouse, 2 Melbourne Place, Edinburgh.

SERMON BY REV. GEORGE CLAZY, PAISLEY, AT THE INDUCTION OF REV. ANDREW SYMINGTON TO THE PASTORAL CHARGE OF THE REFORMED WEST SHAW STREET, GREENOCK,

PRESBYTERIAN CONGREGATION,
SEPTEMBER 1, 1869.

"To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things? For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ."-2 COR. ii. 16, 17.

It is often more from incidental allusions than direct declarations that we can truly learn a man's temper and spirit. We have many statements from various sources as to the zeal that animated Paul, and the labours he performed; but nowhere do his pastoral solicitude and Christian tenderness more affectingly reveal themselves than in the fact to which he makes reference in the immediately preceding context. He had occasion to write to the Church at Corinth in terms of severe censure and solemn warning. The conduct of many individuals, and of the Church as a whole, was unbecoming the Gospel of Christ. Pride and contention had crept in amongst them, incipient error touching doctrines of the faith was beginning to lift its head, laxity of discipline in the treatment of offenders was obtrusively apparent, and one case was so notorious and flagrant as to stamp the whole Church with infamy.

The apostle, in his zeal for truth and purity in general, and in

his fatherly anxiety for the spiritual prosperity of this Church in particular, which owed its existence, under God, exclusively to his personal labours, wrote to them his first Epistle, in which, amidst the deepest tenderness, he administers the most faithful rebukes and warnings, and authoritatively summons them to institute immediate proceedings against the noted transgressor. But he had no sooner despatched the letter than he felt concerned about its effect. Though he had the consciousness of having done his duty as a faithful minister and an inspired apostle, yet he feared lest the bad elements at work in the Church might turn into deadly poison the most salutary medicine, and his faithful remonstrances, instead of correcting, might aggravate the existing evils. So anxious was he as to the result, that he felt constrained to send Titus to Corinth to ascertain the facts, and bring him speedy word. But Titus had not yet returned to him; and, though he was engaged in an important field of Christian labour, and a door of entrance had been opened unto him of the Lord, he could not go in and prosecute his otherwise so much loved labours. He had no rest in his spirit, and he took leave of the brethren at Troas, crossed the Ægean Sea, came south into Macedonia, into the comparatively near neighbourhood of Corinth, and there eagerly awaited the arrival of his messenger. No sooner had Titus come and communicated to him cheering intelligence as to the favourable results of the letter, and the spirit of penitence and love and zeal it had evoked in the Church, than he was filled with joy, and poured out his soul in gratitude to God. "Now thanks be to God, who always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place."

This furnishes occasion for the expression of his assurance of acceptance with God as a faithful minister of His Gospel in any case, whether the message were received or rejected,—" For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are being saved, and in them that are perishing." And then he further declares, in the verses we have selected as the theme of our present address, the solemn issues of the Gospel ministry, and the qualifications for its proper discharge.

THE MOMENTOUS ISSUES OF THE GOSPEL MINISTRY.

1st, To some we are the savour of death unto death; or, as the MSS. of highest authority give it to us, and as it is translated by the most competent scholars, "the savour arising out of death and tending to death"-that is to say, ministers have, in the estimation of those who perish, the odour exhaled from a dead Christ and not

a living Christ, and the consequence is death-the final ruin of soul and body in hell. They think of Jesus as an illustrious character of past history,-as superior to, but not essentially different from, many who have laid the world under obligation by their profound sayings and memorable doings. Whatever they may profess, they feel and act in relation to Him as if He were dead and gone, and had no real present personal existence. He is to them a dead Christ; not merely who died, but who is still dead; and He might as well be so, as far as any conscious, voluntary, living exercises of soul on their part are concerned. They have no breathings of heart towards Him, no trust in His sacrifice,-no love to His person,-no submission to His authority,-no spiritual communion with Him at the throne of His grace; they make no improvement of Him as the alone medium of access to the Father of Spirits.

What follows therefrom? In practice, they disbelieve the Word which proclaims Him as arisen and alive for evermore; they dishonour His person as the eternal Son of the Father; they reject His mediation as the alone and perpetual way to Divine fellowship; they deny His sacrifice as satisfying Divine justice for human guilt and reconciling man to God. To them, therefore, He is not the Messiah who was to come into the world as the hope of man; He is not the Son of God manifest in the flesh; He is not the Saviour from guilt and wrath, the only source of rest and peace, of life and holiness, to ruined souls. They may speak otherwise of Him to their fellows, and the articles of their creed may bear a different testimony; but these are of no avail against the life and the actual state of the heart, as seen by the All-searching eye. Christ is to them only as the good and great of former times,—a source of instruction, it may be; a pattern of virtue and goodness, it may be; but not a present living Saviour from guilt, and slavery, and death. He is a dead Christ, and ministers, as they speak of Him, are but as the odour of a dead man who is mouldering in the tomb.

What, then, is the necessary condition of those who reject the Gospel? They remain unchanged in state and character,-they continue under the curse passed upon them as transgressors,—the sentence of Divine justice for breach of law stands against them uncancelled, and they remain the willing, hopeless thralls of corruption. They were perishing before, and through neglect and unbelief they continue to perish. The Divinely-prescribed remedy has been despised, and the fatal malady runs its course. The pardon procured at such cost, and so graciously offered, has been refused, and the sentence of death takes effect. "Unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indigna

tion and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile."

But this is not all. High privilege having been possessed and neglected by those who perish, their guilt is greatly increased. It is a principle in God's moral government, in which our natural reason fully acquiesces, that responsibility increases with advantages, with means of knowledge and salvation. "To whomsoever much is given, of them much shall be required." "He that knows his Lord's will and does it not, shall be beaten with many stripes; and he that knows it not, and does it not, shall be beaten with few stripes." What a privilege, then, do you, to whom the Gospel is faithfully preached, enjoy! You have offered to you, not a dead but a living Christ,-one who has stooped to your low condition, released your deadly forfeit, arisen from the grave by His own undying power, and ascended to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give you repentance and remission. You have offered to you a living Christ, to impregnate you with His own life, to abide in you continually as the root and spring of your spiritual nature, to secure your acceptance with the Righteous Judge upon the footing of His own infinite merits, and to seat you upon a throne of glory and blessedness with Himself for ever. Shall any of you, through love of the world and the entanglements of sin-shall any of you, contemptuously or thoughtlessly, reject this divinely gracious offer? Who can estimate, then, the additional guilt you thereby incur? What excuse can any urge for this fresh act of wilful disobedience and base ingratitude? What plea can any one advance in arrest of double condemnation, of tenfold punishment? When to the breach of the law has been added contempt of grace, how overwhelming the criminality, and how just the heaviest doom! "He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?"

In addition to this increase of liability and guilt, caused by the increase of privilege and its neglect, there is to be considered also the aggravation of corruption, which the slighting of opportunities invariably produces. The apostle refers to this when he says, "I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died." It was aroused to greater virulence and activity, so that, by the revelation of holiness, he became worse instead of better. His slumbering passions were awakened into action.

For the time he was more of the demon than before. He