his spirit, or of the influence of the christian religion generally. Let me guard against misapprehension. We do not object to the expressions which I have been explaining as improper expressions; we do not doubt their being strictly true, in the sense intended by the sacred writers; nay, we do not object to the use of the same or similar expressions in devotional compositions at the present day, as being more lively, expressive, and affecting. But when used, let them be used understandingly. Let us remember that, by a common figure, they make the name of Christ stand for his doctrine, for the christian dispensation.

A regard to this rule of interpretation is necessary to a right understanding of the passage; 'Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and forever.' We do not suppose the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews to mean in this place, the immutability of Christ himself, either in his person or office; for this would be to contradict the express declaration of Paul. And when all things shall be subdued unto him (Christ,) then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.' Then cometh the end, when he (Christ) shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father.' Here certainly is change. We are not at liberty to believe, therefore, that Christ himself is the same yesterday, today, and forever; and the immutability asserted is only true of his doctrine. His name in this place stands for his doctrine; it is his doctrine only that is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

But what is meant by the immutability of the christian doctrine? While the apostles were yet alive many varieties of opinion had crept into the church. The usurpations and impositions of popery were the slow accumulation of ages, each year adding or altering something. And since the Reformation began, what a host of sects have risen up, each one insisting on something new? Catholic writers compute the number of these sects, to which a single century gave birth, and which they are pleased to represent as the spawn of Protestantism, at about three hundred. Certainly, therefore, it cannot be said, that the christian doctrine. is immutable, understanding thereby the christian doctrine as actually professed and held by men calling themselves Christians.

Perhaps it will be said that these diversities of faith are the heresies, with which the church has been afflicted; that there always has been, nevertheless, an orthodox body who have held fast to the same form of sound words. This, however, is not true. Who is yet to learn that orthodoxy is neither more nor less than the opinions of the majority for the time being. At one time it required men to worship the Virgin Mary as the mother of God; at another to believe in the metaphysical quibbles of the schoolmen; at another to regard the rant and extravagance of fanatics as the work of inspiration. With regard to the doctrine of the trinity, too, orthodoxy has explained it, now as meaning merely three modes in which one and the same person operates; now as meaning literally three

persons as distinct from one another as Peter, James, and John; and now as meaning neither three modes of operation, nor three proper persons, but three indefinable distinctions. Orthodoxy at the same moment, also, is different in different places. At this very moment, orthodoxy at Rome consists in believing that Pius the Eighth holds the keys of heaven and hell; orthodoxy in England in admitting the Arminian construction of the Thirtynine Articles; orthodoxy in this country in professing to hold the Assembly's Catechism, for substance, while almost every article of it is denied or materially qualified in what is called orthodox preaching, and in the orthodox periodicals. Orthodoxy, therefore, is very far from being the same thing yesterday, today, and forever.

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What, then, I ask again, is meant by the immutabili

of the christian doctrine? It means that the leading principles, the central and fundamental truths of our religion, as taught by Christ and his apostles, are forever the same. They have been variously combined by human ingenuity, and sometimes almost wholly obscured and neutralized by the traditions, or inventions, with which they have been connected; still the truths themselves change not. They will be, and perhaps they ought to be, differently illustrated and differently applied in different states of society, according to the circumstances of the church, and the progress of the human mind; still, as the central and fundamental truths of the gospel, they are and must be the same yesterday, today, and forever. The body, the outward

forms and ceremonies, the costume, if I may so express it, of Christianity, may put on, and perhaps with propriety, new shapes and appearances, to accommodate itself to the changes in the public taste, and the public necessities; but the great central principles which constitute its essence, its vitality, its very soul, must be, like the God from whom it emanated, without variableness or shadow of turning.

If this be so, we may conclude that they are the wisest, who, rejecting the wood, hay, and stubble, that have been built on the true foundation, are chiefly anxious to adhere to the simplicity there is in Christ, which is all that will endure. Every age has had its controversies, and these controversies have been continually changing their subjects, as the advancement of knowledge has had the effect to loosen one error after another from the mass of antiquated and cherished superstitions. Each controversy rages for its little day, and perhaps to but little purpose; but meanwhile the great reformer, Time, goes on with his silent work, and the controverted doctrine is at last abandoned by both parties. Some may fear, perhaps, that in this process of reducing Christianity to its great elementary truths, the whole system will be refined away. Those who apprehend this, however, do injustice to that providence which is pledged to protect the church against the gates of hell. It is the opinions, the speculations, the systems of fallible men, that are continually yielding before the searching and inquisitive spirit which is

abroad. The truths of God are, and of necessity must be, the same yesterday, today, and forever.

J. W.

THE LAW OF LOVE.

It is painful to witness the number of those, who have been driven to hostility against Christianity, not by what this religion is in itself, but by the spirit of hatred, exclusiveness, and dominion with which so many of its professed advocates have disgraced it. 'Is this the religion,' it has again and again been asked,

of which you boast, and which you would have us adopt-a religion which, for doctrines, at best but speculative, mysterious, and hard to be understood,exalts one and another set of men to the dignity of favorites of heaven; bestowing upon them, frail and erring though they be, a sanction for warring with and oppressing their fellows; breaking up brotherhoods and families; slaying many a good man by that very slowest and worst of deaths, the destruction of private reputation; cursing such as God hath not cursed; and consigning to a terrible, everlasting wretchedness, even those who profess to draw from the same spiritual fountain with themselves, and who, for aught we can perceive, are as pure, and generous, and noble, as any who tread the earth? Can you