to the question proposed at the outset, the spirit of the pulpit must be conformed to right theory, so as to meet the wants of the times. Men must preach the gospel with a living sense of their grand mission to save souls. For want of space, we can barely indicate what needs to be brought out in this connection. Dr. Wayland, in his work on the "Christian Ministry," has clearly shown that ministry to be, not a profession, and not on a level with the professions, but most widely separated from them in being a calling. A call to this great and solemn work, direct from the living God, is the first thing requisite-a call which shall make a man cry out, under a sense of his responsibility, (with Paul,) "Woe is me if I preach not the gospel." Then the vocation of the minister demands intense sympathy with Christ in the work of saving souls. This can only come through the knowledge of God's word in all the forms of theology, from didactic, polemic, historical, exegetical, all the way in to the intimacy of acquaintance with that word which belongs to practical theology, and through the rich indwelling of the Spirit of Christ. Moreover, there must be that complete knowledge of men, and sympathy with them, which can come only from intimate and constant contact with them, both as a man and a pastor. Add to all, large expectation of results. "Preach the word, and leave the results to God," so we are wont to say. We hold this form of statement, as it is sometimes meant, to be neither scriptural nor true. Preach the word, and expect results from God, is truth and Scripture. It recognizes faith as a substantial element of power. Men must feel that their work is one of life and death, and, at the same time, a work in which God and Christ are more interested than they can be-and then, with correct theory working in the right way, and in the proper spirit, they may expect that perishing men will assuredly be reached, and by God's grace, saved. Would that the whole truth concerning the mission of the ministry might be written on the heart of every messenger of God with a pen of fire, and in perpetually burning words, for without it thus fixed in the soul, there can be no such thing as success in the highest and truest sense. The little work of Bonar, entitled, "Words to the Winners of Souls," presents the idea with great force. True it is that a certain class of men cry out against what they are pleased to denominate its "legal spirit," and to declaim against it as setting up an unscriptural standard by which to try the work of the ministry, but we believe that earnest and sincere men cannot but plead guilty to every charge it brings against us of this day. We need a new life in the ministry. We quote from Bonar. "The infusion of new life into the ministry ought to be the object of more direct and special effort, as well as of more united and fervent prayer. To the students, the preachers, the ministers of the Christian church, the prayers of the Christians ought more largely to be directed. It is a living ministry that our country needs, and without such a ministry it cannot long expect to escape the judgments of God. We need men that will spend and be spent-that will labour and pray that will watch and weep for souls." And without such a ministry, without such men, there is no salvation for us! The glance which a living church to-day casts down from the eminence to which the ages have brought her, cannot but be an anxious one. Looking out upon the world, and noting the signs of the times, we cannot resist the conviction that we are at the dawning of an eventful period in her history. Perhaps this should be characterized as the age of Christian action. At least it must be admitted an age which specially calls for such action. The growth of the modern missionary movement has been confessedly one of the marvels of the world. That God, for the coming of whose kingdom all things are working together, has prepared the way for it by the progress of science and art, which has already been noted. There has always been the same perishing world, but it has heretofore been a far-off world. The later centuries have been bringing it nearer and into oneness with us, until at last, by that mysterious electric power, which with equal ease spans the continents and oceans, God is gathering the nations into one mighty audience chamber of the gospel, to the remotest aisles of which every voice in the church may reach, and the touch of every hand vibrate. The rapidity of the flight of the angel of the Apocalypse, bearing the everlasting gospel, seems about to be realized. And in the movements of God's kingdom this nation has, by its geographical position, its political character, its commercial connection, and the orderings of Providence, been made a centre. Upon us the old world in all its parts has poured out its superabundant population. Besides the myriads brought near by the outward bonds and means of intercommunication, here are the millions from darkened Africa, from papal and infidel Europe, and from far-off heathen Asia, in our midst, furnishing, so to speak, the links in the chain of sympathy which is to bind to us the destinies of the world. The problem of the world's conversion has thus been forced upon us as upon no other people. Here is the learning requisite to translate the Bible into every tongue within the lifetime of a single generation. Here is the steam-press with which to print a copy of it for every son and daughter of Adam within the same period. Here are the men from whom messengers might in the same time be sent to every hamlet on the face of the globe. Here are the great thoroughfares by which the missionaries and Bibles might be sent. And here is the gold with which to accomplish all this work in so brief space. Here are the glorious possibilities,-what shall the actual be? A complete Christianity, working with full power in this land and out from it, would, we doubt not, in the course of the next half century, compass the globe with its saving and elevating influences. Shall all this be done? It will depend, in great measure, under God, upon what the ministry of the present and coming generations shall be, and upon what the character of the preaching for the next quarter century shall be. ART. II.-The Trinity in Redemption. THE Supreme Being is not revealed to us in the Bible as One Person: the Deity is tri-personal, not uni-personal. God is not the Father alone; nor the Son alone; nor the Spirit alone: not a single Person, nor two of the Persons, but the three Persons are the "one true eternal God”* of Creation and Redemption each of these severally considered possesses, absolutely, perfectly, and eternally, the essence, the nature of Divinity in equal measure and glory; and each is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. While thus in the proper attributes and perfections of the Divine nature the Three Persons are One, all communicating in the same numerical and infinite essence, each of the Three has distinguishing and peculiar personal characteristics. Their Personality, unlike their Deity, is not the same. That of each is perfect in its kind, but the Three are personally diverse from each other. The orthodox creeds are unanimous in their statements and expositions on this subject. It is the property of the Father, who Himself is of none, neither begotten nor proceeding, to beget the Son: Paternity is the personal sign and distinction of the First Person. It is the property of the Son, who Himself is neither made nor proceeding, to be eternally begotten of the Father: Filiation is the personal mark and characteristic of the Second Person of the Godhead. It is the property of the Holy Spirit, who Himself is neither made nor begotten, to proceed from the Father and the Son from all eternity: Procession is the distinctive personal mark of the Third Person in the adorable Trinity. And as different as Paternity, Filiation, and Procession are from each other, just so different are the Persons of the Godhead, as Persons each from the others. So that the making of One Person out of the Three (which is Sabellianism) is impossible: and, as these Three all partake of * Larger Catechism, Quest. 9. VOL. XXXVIII.-NO. IV. 70 and communicate in one essence, one indivisible eternal nature, so it is impossible that there should be three Gods in the three Persons. The Scriptures exclude alike a Modal Trinity and Tritheism. On this revelation of a Tri-personal Jehovah is founded the whole revealed scheme of the Divine administration throughout the universe: and in nothing is it more luminous and more glorious than in the economy of our salvation. One other preliminary: Along with the statement that God is tri-personal, not one Person, let it be observed concerning the Divine Agency, that though all the Divine Persons concur in it, so that each Divine act is the act of the whole Godhead, yet, that, generally, when it is said in the Bible that God or Jehovah did or purposed to do anything, it is to be understood that One of the Persons of the Trinity is intended; and usually the immediate context will enable us to decide which of the Persons is meant. For example, we read, Gen. i. 26, "God said let us make man in our image," where evidently the First Person is the speaker. "God so loved the world that He," i. e., the Father, "gave his only begotten Son," &c. "The Word was with God," i. e., with God the Father. "God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God," i. e., the Father, "sent his only begotten Son," &c. "Feed the church of God which He hath purchased with His own blood," and "God was manifest in the flesh," when the Second Person is intended. "Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God," when the Third Person is referred to. Now the agency and relations, the love and manifestation of these several Divine persons in our redemption, are, according to the Scriptures, determined and characterized by their personal peculiarities.** The Father being of none, neither be * John iii. 16. 8 Acts xx. 28. † John i. 1. 1 Tim. iii. 16. 1 John iv. 8, 9. ¶ Acts v. 4. ** And our duties toward the Great Supreme are similarly determined and characterized. Bishop Waterland, vol. iii. p. 416, admirably states this: "If God be Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the duties owing to God will be duties under that triune distinction; which must be paid accordingly; and whoever leaves out any of the three out of his idea of God, comes so far short of honouring God perfectly, and of serving Him in proportion to the manifestations made of Him. Supposing our doctrine true, there will be duties proper |