the divine word, the diamond truth shines with an unclouded lustre, the more it is examined the more brilliant it glows! It pleased Jehovah to make his presence felt and his will known to his servant Moses, and to cause him to be filled with his goodness. He showed him as much of a present God, as his office required, and his spirit was able to bear. No created being but the only begotten Son of God could look upon the Infinite; who is wisdom and mercy-and glory and power! The disciples of Jesus were unable to bear the full manifestation of their master's glory in the mount of Transfiguration: and at the sound of the voice out of the cloud, they fell on their faces, and were sore afraid. Moses says to Jehovah: "I beseech thee show me thy glo ry." Jehovah knowing the weakness of his servant, places him, we are told in the cleft of a rock, covering him with his hand whilst his glory passes by-He is to see him as he passes from him, but not to behold his face. It was too daring a thought for the mortal to behold the immortal, except in his acts of mercy and the revelations of the past! Should we inquire on what subject God spake to Moses as to a friend, we find the faithful leader still true to his trust; interceding and pleading for his people. See verses 15, 16, and 17, of the chapter under consideration. CHAPTER XXXIV. Moses is again invited to the mount to come up alone to meet the Lord. It is needful to renew that great work which, on beholding the degradation of the idolatrous people, he had, in his despair, unwittingly destroyed. In verses 6 and 7, God proclaims himself in one of the sublimest descriptions ever announced to his servants. Moses makes haste, bows his head and worships, and implores pardon for himself and for the people. He feels that this sublime Deity is his God and their God. He beseeches again that he will go up with them. "And he said: If now I have found grace in thy sight, oh! Lord-let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance." "And he, (that is the Lord) said: Behold, I make a covenant before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the LORD: for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee." What was this which God was about to do? and what these great marvels, this terrible thing? It was to drive out before them the idolatrous nations, and to plant his chosen people in their stead; requiring strictly that they make no covenant with the idolater, nor spare to pull down and to destroy his altars and his groves. "For the Lord, whose name is jealous, is a jealous God." But was it for his own sake Jehovah so strictly enjoins the overthrow of these nations? What a question! The Maker of all worlds-could he not have punished these nations without the instrumentality of the children of Jacob? Nay, could he not have bowed down the children of Jacob themselves as one man? Is he not the omnipotent God, and what shall stay his arin? But, he who in wrath remembered mercy, caused the inevitable uprooting of these nations to become an instrument of good to others. Some are ready to exclaim: "Why did the Maker of all, who could do as he pleased, enrich one people by destroying another?" Consider caviller-thou who art disposed to such morbid compassion, God did not bring down the thunderbolts of his wrath on these idolaters until their time was fully come. So wisdom, which boundeth all things, must set limits even to compassion—when a nation is so thoroughly reprobate that its evil example, pollutes like a pestilential breath the air around, it must be rooted up, to save others, and to make manifest to all the world, the end of the ungodly. Let any person read the commencing chapters of Howitt's History. of Priestcraft; or Prescott's History of the Conquest of Mexico, and they will see that idolatry proceedeth, not from an error of judgment, but from the depravity of the heart! Let us also mark the omniscience of the Lord. He knew exactly when the iniquity of these nations would be full, and spared them *422 years after he first promised their land to Abraham and to his seed; we may rest assured this long interval was not alone for the sake of those who were to come in, but for their sakes, also, who were to be supplanted. Verses 18 to 27-Give a recapitulation of some of the minor commandments of the law formerly touched upon. In v. 21, speaking of the rest on the Sabbath, it is said: "in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest;" meaning, thou shalt not fear even at that time to give thy Sabbaths to the Lord. We lose nothing by check422 years up to this time when he spake to Moses. ing our vain excitements, and keeping the divine command. This is a truth that stands on eternal pillars. The literal word may change, the spirit never. Moses remained forty days in the mount neither eating nor drinking; the same length of time that Jesus remained in communion with his Heavenly Father after his baptism. CHAPTERS XXXV. TO XL. These chapters which conclude the Book of Exodus, contain an account of the labors of the various artificers in the service of the Tabernacle; of the great zeal they displayed; and also this remark we should make, that it is the Lord who gives wisdom, genius, and skill. And now the great work is finished. "Then a cloud covered the tent of the Congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle." * "For the cloud of the Lord was upon the Tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys." Dublin. M. B. JAMES DAVIS. Another from our band is gone, We knew him in the evil time, Which tried the man in word and deed. Th' Ephesian raised his Idol's cry, And Priest and Levite passed us by. The pure religion of the Soul, From hands we love, and hearts we know! Long may the flock, his virtues taught, And Zion dear for which he fought, And Peace and Holiness maintain The honor of their Pastor's reign-ST. DILLON. THE RECENT ATTACK, BY THE REV. DAVID MAGINNIS, ON THE NON-SUBSCRIBING ASSOCIATION, THE REMONSTRANT PRESBYTERY OF BANGOR, THE LICENTIATES AND STUDENTS OF THE REMONSTRANT SYNOD, &c. We are sorry, [In our Report of the Proceedings at the last Meeting of the Association of Non-Subscribing Presbyterians, we purposely omitted the Resolution relating to Mr. Maginnis, with the hope of putting an end, if possible, to what we regard as a very unpleasant controversy. however, that Mr. Maginnis has opened up the matter anew, and has thus compelled us to insert the following Letter from Mr. Doherty, in reply. We regret that Mr. Doherty has thought proper to introdnce the name of the Rev. J. N. Porter.] TO THE EDITOR OF THE IRISH UNITARIAN MAGAZINE. SIR,In a short but most injudicious article written by Mr. Maginnis, and published in your number for July last, an attempt was made, under the pretence of zeal for the better education of our students, to disturb the harmony which has so long prevailed among the various independent bodies of which the Non-Subscribing Association is composed. One Presbytery has been invidiously compared to the others, and a preference awarded to it which it neither claims nor merits, and the whole body of Unitarian Ministers in Ireland have been represented, most offensively, and I hesitate not to say, most erroneously, as being inferior, in point of learning to their brethren of a like denomination in England. "When we com pare," says Mr. Maginnis, our Ministers with those of our denomination in the And again, "as a body we are sister island, how far below them do they sink!" infinitely inferior to our English brethren in the amount and variety of our know.. ledge." He then proceeded to publish the following ungenerous, unmanly, inde66 We," cent, and libellous statements respecting the Licentiates under our care. that is the Remonstrant Synod, "turn out half educated men as the people's instructors in concerns of the highest moment, men than whom the mechanic in his workshop has read more-knows more-studied more." Had those allegations been as true, as I shall presently show that they are entirely unfounded, Mr. Maginnis acted with the utmost indiscretion and impropriety in publishing them to the world. It cannot be urged in palliation of his offence, that it was required to call the attention of the “Non-Subscribing Association" to the education of our Students; for that Body was to meet within three weeks of the time of the publication of his Letter; and, as he is a Member of it, the subject of education could have been calmly and appropriately introduced at the Meeting. This wise and moderate course, however, was not congenial with the views and temper of Mr. Maginnis: it might, indeed, had a necessity for any change been shown, have led to an amended education of our Students; but, it would not have tended to embroil the several constituent branches of the Association, to cast a slur upon the Remonstrant Presbyteries, to bring unjust odium upon our Church over the whole world, and to gratify our enemies by enabling them to point to the printed estimate of our talents and attainments, as set down by one of ourselves. When the Association met, the invidious comparisons instituted by Mr. Maginnis, were passed over in silence, both by the Presbyteries and the Association. It seemed, indeed, to all, a very unbecoming display of vanity and ill-temper on the part of one of the very youngest members of the Association; and one also who had been in no way distinguished above the humblest of the young gentlemen of his own standing. It was silly,, although it may not have been unnatural in an injudicious young man, to laud vehemently, and even unjustly, at the expense of others, the Presbytery of Antrim, under whose care he had been so recently educated, as thereby he might hope that a portion of the assumed honour would be reflected on himself; and as to the alleged inferiority of the Unitarian Ministry in Ireland to those of the "sister island," it was thought unnecessary to express any opinion, as the folly of the writer and the obvious inaccuracy of the statement would prevent its being believed by any one capable of forming a right judgment on the subject. But whilst the members of the Non-Subscribing Association would not stoop to notice these impotent attacks upon themselves, they found themselves imperatively called upon, in common justice, to defend the character of their Students and Licentiates from unjust, calumnious, and highly injurious imputations cast upon their characters as educated men and candidates for the high office of public instructors in Christian truth. Therefore, after a calm consideration of the subject, and a full hour spent by almost all the senior members in trying to induce Mr. Maginnis to explain or modify his statement, which he positively refused, the following resolution was passed condemning his assertion in the strongest terms :-- Resolved "That having read in the July number of the Irish Unitarian Magazine, a statement that the Licentiates of this Church were 'turned out half-educat ed men, than whom the mechanic in his workshop had read more, knew more, and studied more,' this Association declares the statement to be unfounded in fact, and calculated to injure their Students; that on the contrary, the Association has reason to be proud of the attainments and characters of the Students and Licentiates who have emanated from the various independent bodies of which it is composed." Every one hoped that Mr. Maginnis would, notwithstanding his strange obstinaey at the time, have retracted charges in support of which he did not attempt to produce the slightest evidence, and which had drawn down upon him the publicly pronounced disapprobation of the Association. Unfortunately for himself, however, he has repeated his offence, and published a still more calumnious and aggravated libel upon the young Ministers and Licentiates of our Body. On this occasion, however, he has thought fit to direct his attacks, principally against the Presbytery of Bangor, and Doctor Montgomery, in particular; and he seems determined to lay to the charge of the latter, all presumed faults of the body in general, and all conceivable deficiencies in the Students. The truth is, however, that during the five years specified by Mr. Maginnis, Doctor Montgomery was engaged, so constantly, in public matters connected with the interests, stability, and success of our Body, that he was able to attend, comparatively, few meetings of Presbytery. In 1843 he was on one occasion three, on another, four months in London, and we all know how 1844 was spent by him, in urging forward the Dissenters' Chapels Bill, and in enduring on a bed of pain, the long and dangerous illness consequent upon his labours in our cause. During all this time, Mr. Maginnis was a member of the Presbytery of Bangor,-even Moderator for one year,—yet he never made any objection, in public, nor entered any protest against those proceedings of Presbytery which he now so strongly condemns. Every one asks, why did not Mr. Maginnis lay the matter before the Presbytery of which he is a member, and thus have it considered in private by that court which only could provide a remedy? The motive is quite plain, it was because he desired to |