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strongly put and more thrillingly illustrated than in twó of these Sermons. With what force does the preacher plead for the efficacy of positive truth for the destruction of error as against the usefulness of mere negation! How trenchant and crushing is his polemic in opposition to those who teach that religion is an affair of dialectics, and that 'we have only to enlighten' in order to bring men to God! Scepticism is the natural offspring of superstition; civilization is not in the highest sense a regenerator; in things practical conscience, not intellect, is our proper guide; no set of circumstances can of themselves remedy the evils of the world; the Spirit of God alone can sanctify: these are theses on which he dwells with a subtleness of thought, a force of reasoning, a beauty of illustration, and a warmth of gentle earnestness, such as few modern preachers are able to rival. Flaming controversialists can do themselves no better service than to sit down and quietly read over his manly talk about cheap courage in the sermon, "The Glory of the Divine Son.' Doubters as to the reality of what is known as 'religious experience' are likely to find themselves shaken before they have got through the masterly though not always safe sermon on Realizing the Second Advent.' And we would commend the very sensible and weighty remarks which we elsewhere meet with on the mischief of morbid sorrow for sin; on the value of meditation and prayer; on the religious ends of affliction; on the evil of living to God 'second-hand;' and on the importance of holy activity as a means of grace; to all who desire to secure for themselves, and to promote in others a healthy, consistent, and serviceable Christian life.

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We have spoken more than once of the impressive practical teaching, and of the plain dealing with the conscience, which are a chief glory of Mr. Robertson's Sermon-remains. Had they but more of the doctrine of the Atonement and of the grace of the Spirit in them, they would be much more persuasive and powerful as a whole than they now are; but, even as they are, some of his pictures and appeals are among the most striking and affecting we ever met with. What a description, for example, is that which the sermon on Luke ii. 40 gives of the process by which religious impressions are often got rid of, and of the consequences of the loss of them! When God comes to the heart, and His presence is shown by thoughtfulness, seriousness, and distaste to common business, and loneliness, and solitary musings, and a certain tone of melancholy, straightway we set ourselves to expostulate, to rebuke, to cheer, to prescribe amusement and gaieties as the cure....Some of us have seen this tried; and, more fearful still, seen it succeed. And we have

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Practical Characteristics.

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seen the spirit of frivolity and thoughtlessness, which had been banished for a time, come back again with seven spirits of evil more mighty than himself, and the last state of that person worse than the first. And we have watched the still small voice of God in the soul silenced. And we have seen the spirit of the world get its victim back again, and incipient goodness dried up like the morning dew....And they that loved Him did it—his parents-his teachers. They quenched the smoking flax, and turned out the lamp of God lighted in the soul.' Who can read this, and not feel the tears rush into his eyes ? Here is another appeal. It is well for a believer to look on. you? Remember, out of Christ it is not wisdom but madness to look on. You must look back, for the longest and best day is either past or passing. It will be winter soon-desolate, uncheered, hopeless winter-old age with its dreariness, and its disappointments, and its querulous broken-heartedness; and there is no second spring for you-no resurrection-morning of blessedness to dawn on the darkness of your grave. God has only one method of salvation-the Cross of Christ. God can have only one; for the Cross of Christ means death to evil, life to good. There is no other way to salvation but that; for that in itself is, and alone is, salvation. Out of Christ, therefore, it is woe to the man who reaches forth to the things that are before.' One more example, though it too belongs to the predominant class of the appeals the pensive and solemn. 'Behold, the Bridegroom cometh: go ye out to meet Him. That is a sound that will thunder through the most fast-locked slumber, and rouse men whom sermons cannot rouse. But that will not make them holy. Earnestness of life, brethren, that is goodness. Wake in death you must; for it is an earnest thing to die. Shall it be this, I pray you? Shall it be the voice of death which first says, Arise, at the very moment when it says, Sleep on for ever? Shall it be the bridal train passing by, and the shutting of the doors, and the discovery that the lamp is gone out?...Let us learn what time is-sliding from you, and not stopping when you stop: learn what sin is: learn what never is. Awake, thou that sleepest !'

And now we have done, and with mingled feelings of satisfaction and regret lay down these remarkable volumes. We cannot consent that their author should be denounced in fierce and rugged language as a teacher of heresy; for there is much, as we have shown, both in the spirit and letter of his writings to set over against the theoretical mistakes which appear in them, and to reduce if not neutralize the practical mischief to which they tend. We can as little consent that he should be

taken as a pattern of Christian Preachers; for with all his devoutness, and earnestness, and fidelity, and interest in the weal and woe of his kind, both for this world and the next, we must stand to our conviction that in several important respects he misconceived the Gospel, and so failed to use it as fully, completely, and divinely as he might have done for the great ends of his ministry. But he is gone from us; and, we doubt not, understands far better now than any of those who may feel themselves bound to criticize him, 'the length, and breadth, and depth, and height' of the truth which on earth he loved to contemplate and teach. Were he here, he would be the first to pray, that none might ever suffer harm from any imperfection or error belonging to his writings. For ourselves it only remains to thank God for the example of his consecrated genius and evangelical virtues, and to do what in us lies to assist in securing to the Church of coming generations the grace of a godly, well-instructed, intelligent, zealous, and mighty pulpit.

ART. VII.-Reports of the Madras Auxiliary Bible Society for 1857, 1858, 1859, 1860.

ON February 16th, 1861, the Hon. William Ambrose Morehead, then governor of Madras, laid the foundation stone of the 'Madras Memorial Hall, destined to commemorate the exemption of the Madras presidency from the mutiny of 1857. One of the speakers on that occasion, in the course of his remarks, stated the use of the building about to be erected. 'The building which is destined to rise on the foundation stone now laid by our esteemed governor, is to be a Memorial Hall, available for religious, educational, benevolent, and other general purposes not inconsistent with Protestant principles and the glory of God, to be surrounded by offices for the Bible, Tract, and South India Christian School Book Societies.' The Bible Society is beyond doubt the most important of those which are to receive accommodation in the new Hall, and the event recorded affords a favourable opportunity for considering the history of the Bible in South India, its translation and distribution, and the results which have been, or are likely to be, obtained.

The Bible Society's house, with its associations, is soon to become a thing of the past. Let us sketch it before it is gone. Popham's Broadway is the principal street of Black Town, Madras. There the Anglo-Saxon proves on a foreign soil his hereditary love of shopkeeping, characterized by a jaunty,

The old Bible Society's House.

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gentlemanly kind of ease which would be deemed much out of place in the Strand, or Ludgate Hill. The Hindoo follows his conquerors' example keenly, quietly, gainfully. In the midst of these places of business there are, or were, till lately, in this street, two large printing establishments, under the control of missionaries; besides an electric telegraph office, the central post-office, a literary institution, two mission chapels, a Hindoo progressive seminary, and the house of the Madras Auxiliary Bible Society. Essays have been written on representative men; and if, after the same fashion, some one would spend a little thought upon the representative buildings so oddly thrown together in that dusty Broadway, he would learn much of the past, present, and future of India.

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The Bible Society's house has become throughly impregnated with the brown dust of the streeet. It boasts not a gleam of architectural beauty; the talent of its architect has been limited to four walls and a flat roof. A sign board informs the passenger by Tamil characters that it is the 'house of the book of the Vetham.' On entering, long files of bookshelves present themselves, whereon are stored in very modest coverings 'the leaves which are for the healing of the nations.' Beyond, a group of men, squatted on the floor, are engaged in binding or packing copies of the Scriptures. The Vishnarite, with glaring trident crossing the forehead, the Sevaite, with the sacred ashes running in the furrows time has traced, the Roman Catholic with the crucifix and charm about his neck, and the sign of the the cross stained upon his brow, all give their hands to the demolition of their own erroneous creeds. The same observation holds good of the presses where the Scriptures are printed; for though Christians are welcome to the toil, they are not sufficiently numerous to supply the required amount of labourers. The Trojans heartily aid in dragging the horse.

'Scandit fatalis machina muros,

Fota armis. Pueri circum innuptæque puellæ
Sacra canunt, funemque manu contingere gaudent.
Illa subit, mediæque minans illabitur urbi.'

Eneid. ii., 238.

Upstairs, we come upon a large room, around which more bookshelves are ranged; high-caste shelves these, with glass doors, containing English Scriptures handsomely bound, and the better sort of vernacular ones. Here we have the small but valuable reference library of the Society; great lexicons, and first translations in dwarfed volumes with ricketty type; means and end appropriately brought together; authorized versions,

around which the fibres of a nation's heart are firmly knit; tentative versions, which have crept from a studious brain, to see if they can bear the light; manuscripts which may be versions, and are at home when called for. On one side of the room, a pair of large doors may be seen generally closed. A year or two ago, when we visited the place, a hum of voices came from behind them. The bolts being removed, and the doors opened, we found ourselves in the midst of a swarm of Hindoo boys learning English. Part of the building occupied by the Society was then rented by the patrons of the Hindoo progressive Seminary,' a school set up in avowed opposition to the missionary establishments and the non-caste Government schools. Here Ramasawneys and Gopalsawneys could be taught the rudiments of English by teachers wearing the orthodox marks, learn morals from Esop's fables, enjoy every idolatrous holiday without let or hindrance, and escape the pollution of sitting on the same bench with a pariah. Strange that the Bible Society should have such a neighbour! The house, with its conflicting tenants, was a type of that great dwelling-place of diverse creeds and races, which is walled in by the Himalayas, two great rivers, and the waves of the sea.

In this upper room the committee holds its monthly meetings; and when the subject is one of interest, as, for instance, the preparation of a standard Tamil version, and consequently the room is full, the group presents many features of interest, and suggests many weighty reflections. Quondam servants, civil and military, of the 'loving friends' in Leadenhall Street, and missionaries of all denominations, mingle together. An agent of the Gospel Propagation Society and a Methodist stand pitted against an Evangelical and a Presbyterian in friendly discussion. One argument is vigorously pressed by a Free Church brother with a brogue fresh from the north of the Tweed, and is supported by a native minister speaking unshackled English, with a brogue almost as decided as his colleague. We have before us missionary scholars, men of the study, whose known philological attainments secure universal regard for their opinions. One has carried through the press a good portion of a monster lexicon; another, a patriarch among his brethren, is now busy in a similar undertaking: a third is the author of what is technically called 'the tentative version.' There are practical missionaries, men of the festival, the bazaar, and the market. They have gone in and out among the people, sounded their feelings, acquired their idioms, and are well able to give evidence on the current worth of any version. They hold the chief place in all discussions upon the tactics of Bible distribu

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