He

him-" My heart and my flesh fail, but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever." He paused on these words; and at length bidding adieu to his friend, said, "Pray for me." Another friend, who had visited him, on taking leave of him, was requested by him to engage in prayer, which he did. The dying believer stretching forth his wasted hand, and affectionately grasping that of his friend, exclaimed, "It is delightful-it is delightful"-meaning the delightful exercise of prayer. charged his youngest sister, with whom he had enjoyed many happy hours in childhood, and who was consequently a favourite with him, "to keep close to Christ." On his sister expressing regret and sorrow at his apparently near approach to eternity, he exclaimed, "Rather welcome that time when it comes! Oh, welcome it-welcome it!" And as a token that she would welcome it, he asked for a stanza that would express that welcome, on which she was brought reluctantly to repeat

"Welcome sweet hour of full discharge,
That sets the longing soul at large."

Here a break in the voice of the repeater, occasioned by the intensity of her feelings, gave the listening believer an impulse, and he finished the verse

"Unbinds our chains, breaks up our cell, And gives us with our God to dwell!" At length the hallowed morn arose which was to be the last of the "days of the Son of man" to him. Throughout the day his countenance bore a calmness of expression which gave evidence that all was peace within. Towards the evening he sunk gradually, though there were no signs of immediate dissolution. On his mother intimating her intention of staying with him, he entreated her to attend to the " evening service," saying, "Young ministers need encouragement;' alluding to his brother Richard, who preached that evening. At the return of his brother, he expressed a desire that his sisters would attend to his comfort after so much exertion. The brothers were together till twelve o'clock addressing the throne of grace, and conversing largely upon the compassion and love of their Divine Master-then the dying saint, who had spent his life in his hallowed service, exhorted his brother to "persevere and not faint." This was his last effort the advice he gave with his parting breath; after this he fell into

a kind of lethargy. It was a slumber in which his bodily faculties seemed suspended, and at five o'clock the following morning he fell asleep in Jesus.

"One gentle sigh his fetter breaks,
We scarce can say he's gone;
Before the willing spirit takes

Its mansion near the throne !"

He died on the 9th of April, 1838; and good evidence is there to believe that God smiled upon his labours," though his years were few-that the word preached by him, being mixed with faith in some that heard it, has "not returned to the Lord void :" and his death, which is now deplored by us, may, we hope, have the salutary effect of impressing our minds more deeply with the importance of the truths he preached. He has been removed from the circle of those below, whom he held dear, and by whom he was affectionately beloved; but he has been admitted into happier socicty-the society of those "who came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." Could the voice of affectionate warning from him reach our cars, it would be-"Hold fast the form of sound words, which ye have heard of me; in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus." "Work the works of him that sent you while it is day; the night is coming when no man can work." So would he speak to the young, who are prone to put off the work, imagining that a long day of improvement is before them. So might he have thought-but in vain. A long day of happiness and enjoyment appears before the young; but their sun may be darkened while it is yet noon. Therefore, Be ye always ready," and when the last messenger shall have announced your Lord's approach, you will be prepared to say, "Even so, come Lord Jesus."

66

His funeral sermons were preached on the 22nd of April, at Peterborough, by the Rev. R. Neller, from 2 Tim. i. 13; and at Aberdeen, by the Rev. Alexander Thomson, of George-street Chapel, Aberdeen, from the words contained in 2 Tim. iv. 6-8: these discourses, at both places, were listened to by crowded audiences with much interest, whilst a deep silence pervaded the several assemblies, all tending to evince the sincere esteem felt for the memory of the deceased. J. E. Cs.

Peterborough, October 12, 1338.

THE object of the following paper is to direct attention to a new and special proof that the six days of creation were literal days.

"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he resten on the seventh day from all his work which he had made."

According to the Mosaic chronology, "the heavens and the earth were finished" less than six thousand years ago, and were "made" in six days. Organic remains, however, are found in such a condition that six thousand years, it is stated, will not account for it. They are fossilized, or otherwise remarkably circumstanced. To suppose that they were created as found, is to suppose a physical contradiction; viz., death before life; unless, resisting the evidence of the senses, we say these conjectured organic remains are not such. This would be absurd, and be incapable of proof, even if true. It would destroy, indeed, the geological objection, but it would do so by forbidding us to use the only means we have to estimate its force; viz., our perceptions.

To suppose these remains to have become fossilized, or circumstanced as they are, since their creation, (which is the only alternative,) is to impeach Moses of error, if we take him to affirm that they are of no greater antiquity than six thousand years: for the state of physical science (so the scientific aver) justifies the opinion, that it is impossible the remains in question should have become so fossilized, or circumstanced, within the period assigned, without miracle; and to resort to miracle as a solution of the difficulty, every one must acknowledge would be to evade rather than to meet it.

Either, then, Moses is wrong, or he is misunderstood. It is proposed by some to meet the difficulty by interpreting the six days to mean six indefinite periods of, perhaps, many thousand years each.

Admitting the force of the difficulty, I much prefer the solution of Drs. Buckland and M'Culloch, and other geologists; and, amongst divines, of Mr. Faber, and Drs. Pye Smith and Redford, he Mosaie account of the

creation of "the heavens and the earth" that Moses had, and that we have to do with, does not begin with the first verse of Genesis, but with the last clause of the second verse,-" And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters," -the previous words describing only, generally, the fact, that at some period, not specified more particularly than as"In the beginning-God created the heaven and the earth," allowing this any latitude that discovered facts require, and science, in their name, de

mands.

But it appears to me that the hypothesis which would construe" day," in the particular case, as an indefinite period, is fraught with mischief to Biblical interpretation; nay, more, to the interpretation of language generally, and wholly inadequate to answer the end proposed, involving other difficulties quite insurmountable, and indicating the danger connected with interpreting the Scriptures thus loosely to truth in general.

I submit that, to offer it as an explanation of the assumed difficulty in the Mosaic chronology, that "day" expresses an indefinite period, is not only opposed to legitimate, and, therefore, to safe principles of scriptural interpretation, (because such explanation is unnatural, unsupported by true parallels,

or

even fair analogies, and contrary to the principles upon which we construe language in general,) but is insufficient. If "day" express such a lengthened period as that six such days, so far as duration is concerned, might account for the elaborate natural processes which geologists say have demonstrably occurred, there are other things, besides requisite duration, which they will not account for, and a new difficulty arises. How were the processes in question carried on when there was no alternation, as at present, of day and night? For the hypothesis, that "day" means an indefinite period, unavoidably assumes that during the whole six days of creation, there was no such day and night as now, even if it will allow us to stop there, and admit that, from the close of the sixth indefinite period, we may date

By "such," I mean a period answering to one day, and consisting of a brief alternation of light and darkness, which might be before the sun became visible as such.

the course of nature that now prevails. (What was the seventh day?)

The light was called "day," the darkness was called "night;" and the days of the creation, whatever they were, consisted of an evening and a morning, that is, an alternation of darkness and light, day being, according to Moses, as now, the general term for the light portion, and the comprehensive term for the whole diuturnity, comprising all its light and all its darkness.

If these days consisted of, say, ten thousand years each, some ten thousands of years must have been unintermitted light or darkness; for it is positively affirmed that each day consisted of an evening and a morning. No such days and nights, therefore, as ours could have occurred throughout the several supposed indefinite periods. No, not even after the sun, moon, and stars appeared; for the fourth day, on which these and these only were the results of the Almighty energy, was, just like the other days, composed of an evening and a morning. The sun, and moon, and earth, co-existent and correlated, but no diurnal or other rotations, for myriads of years, answering to the present course of nature; although, during those very ages, earth, air, and waters teemed with living tribes, and vegetation was luxuriant ! What will philosophy, general philosophy, say to this? If geology claim a very lengthened period as necessary to what it discovers, will not the other branches of natural philosophy exclaim against the violence offered to its laws, by the supposition that those processes were conducted while the earth was subjected to an unintermitting glare of day, or gloom of night, through some thousand years?

Were the remains in question-the coal, animals, shells, &c.-produced and perfected in either unmitigated light or darkness? Chemical, botanical, physiological science, will as loudly protest against this as geological science does against the denial of their antiquity; while all the analogies of nature's economics, and all our notions of congruity -to say nothing of astronomy, silenced then in some of her most imperative demands, and thrown out in some of her most laboured and best-considered calculations respecting the reciprocal and necessary influence of bodies in given relations, will revolt at the inevitable assumption set up. The hypothesis will

be, that sun, moon, and stars did not commence their present office-in relation to this world-until after they had been in existence three "days;" that is, perhaps, until thirty, or three hundred thousand years had witnessed their creation as parts of our system!

If

Take now a choice of difficulties. we must allow the six days of Moses to mean indefinite periods, because otherwise Moses will be contradicted in his chronology by facts, fossil animals being found with eyes, and under such circumstances as to prove that there were seeing animals before the time when Moses states light to have been created-(understanding by his six days six literal days)—so, if we take the six days to mean indefinite periods, the philosophy of Moses, in stating the said periods of, perhaps, ten thousand years, to have comprised only one alternation of day and night, will be equally contradicted. Fossil remains prove that there must have been the ordinary alternations of common day and night, in order to the production and existence of those (now) remains. The ground of proof is, that the evidences of their production and existence in the usual way, from their similar structure and physiological provisions to analogous structures and provisions of recent date, to the production and existence of which these alternations, with their attendant influences, are indispensable, are as strong as the evidence of there having been light during the existence of those fossil animals which have eyes.

Here there is choice of difficulties for those who will have it that the six days of Moses were not literal days. If they will not have the six days to be literal days because of some difficulties, they must take them to be indefinite periods, and encounter other difficulties as insurmountable. If they were intended by Moses to mean indefinite periods, his credibility is indeed unhurt by his chronology; but it is lost by his philosophy; and, lost in either case, he is falsified in his testimony. The indefinite period hypothesis has impeached his claim to be trusted in the one respect or the other; and, be it as it may, the inspiration of the Bible is discredited.

But this choice of difficulties need not be encountered. There is a clear and legitimate way of escape; a way, offering no violence, either to ascertained facts or plain understandings.

biting, and slandering the minister or ministers of the Gospel, by whom you have, in time past, professed to be instructed, converted, and edified? Indeed, common scandal does not now suit your pre-eminence; you must add your malicious words" to degrade, oppress, and ruin the usefulness of a true Christian, and, despite of your malice, an able minister of the Gospel! A sad preeminence this in malice, and nothing

more.

Now, pray notice again, how this malicious contemporary of the apostle proceeded from words to deeds. "Not

content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church." His worldly and lordly spirit led him to disown the brethren, not to receive them into his house or society, to lord it over them, and treat them as unworthy of his esteem. And if there were others of superior discernment, and of a more excellent temper, so as to receive and love one another, as the Lord had received them, this tyrant interposes and forbiddeth them; and, in fact, proceeds from bad to worse,-he by his influence "casteth them out of the church." Here the apostle closes his report of that great and lofty man, who had thus exerted his tyranny against the peace, and harmony, and prosperity of the church, wherever it might be. He was the root of bitterness, the very bane and curse of the church!

Again I must urge on your attention, your own spirit, temper, and example. How often has your haughty behaviour, your worldly spirit, your covetous practices, proved a hinderance to the increase and prosperity of the church? The poorer and dependent class of church members have been afraid of you, and the poor but faithful minister has often been depressed by your frown, thwarted by your influence, trodden down or "cast out," and literally compelled to quit a sphere of comfort and usefulness, by the withering blast of your tyranny! And this has been the case for many years;

and minister after minister has tried the post, and has found to his cost, that it was untenable, unbearable, insupportable.

In some of your early years, you have, perhaps, displayed feats of generosity; but this might be done to work your way into office and power; and now firmly fixed, the wealthy trustee, the pampered deacon, every one must bow and bend to you and your measures, or you will cast them out with a vengeance.

Had your destiny been that of a small tradesman, or a mere mechanic, your character could never have developed itself; or if it had, you would have been disregarded and despised: perhaps, long ago, you would have been cast out of the church yourself.

A grave minister once said to a deacon, who, to retain office, opposed the wishes of the church, 66 Sooner, my friend, than that I should stand in the way of the peace and prosperity of the church, I would find an abode at the land's-end, or betake myself to a foreign country." And, my friend Dio., let me suggest to you, that you would do wisely were you to give up your office, and relinquish your power in the church, or become a settler in Australia. And there, among convicts and culprits, you might find ample scope for the energies and tyrannies of your character. Leave the church, and its worthy pastor, to better hands, and expatriate yourself forthwith!

In conclusion, and in the fervent hope of your reformation, let me advise you to study the two eminent examples that the apostle gives in this chapter, whence your portrait is faithfully drawn. There were, the "well-beloved Gaius, whom he loved in the truth," and " Demetrius, who had a good report of all men, and of the truth itself." And these worthies are held up to the imitation and admiration of all the members of our churches to the end of time.

Trusting that my friend will not only bear with my fidelity, but greatly profit by it,

I remain, &c., &c.

the advantage of an exclusive devotion of their time, strength and talents, has been very properly pointed out in the