co us.' Wherefore the image vanished, clearly showing of whence it came."

It is pretty apparent that Luther was so possessed of the idea of the devil that, had Christ appeared to him, as He did to St. Paul, or to St. John in the Revelations, he would have said, "Avaunt thee, Satan!" and lost The benefit of the vision. This was the weak side of Luther. The devil, he imagined, was so outrageous at his war on the Papacy, that he haunted him day and night in a most vindictive manner. In the "Tischreden " or Table Talk" of Luther, written down and published by his friends, we have some scores of pages relating the personal appearances of the devil to Luther, and of his conversations with him, and the reformer's defiances of him. Luther saw devils in everything. He saw them in tempests, in diseases, in calamities. "Many devils are in the woods, in waters, in wildernesses, and in dark poolly places, ready to hurt and prejudice people; some are also in the thick, black clouds, which cause hail, lightnings and thunderings, and poison the air, the pastures, and the grounds. When these things happen, then the philosophers say it is natural, ascribing it to the planets, and showing I know not what reasons for such misfortunes and plagues as ensue." "I see him there, not very far off, puffing out his cheeks till they are all red, blowing, and blowing, and blowing against the light; furious, mad; but our Lord Jesus Christ, who, in the outset, gave him a good blow on his inflated cheek, still combats him vigorously, and will combat him ill the end of things." One day, when there was a great storm abroad, Luther said, "It is the devil who does this; the winds are nothing else but good or bad spirits. Hark how the devil is puffing and blowing!" Tischreden, 219.) "The devil harasses the workmen in the mines, and often makes them think they have found new veins, and they labour and labour, and it turns out all a delusion." Luther taking up a caterpillar, said, 'Tis an emblem of the devil in its crawling walk, and bears his colours in its changing hue. I maintain," he said, "that Satan produces all the maladies which afflict mankind, for he is the prince of death." He had absolute belief in the reality of witchcraft." Witchcraft is the devil's proper work, wherewith, when God permits, he not only hurts people, but makes away with them; for in this world we are as guests and strangers, body and soul cast under the devil. He is god of this world," &c. "Idiots, the lame, the blind, the dumb, are men in whom ignorant devils have established themselves; and all the physicians who attempt to heal these infirmities, as though they proceeded from natural causes, are ignorant blockheads, who know nothing about the power of the demon."

"In

many countries there are particular places to which devils more especially resort. In Prussia there is an infinite number of evil spirits. In Switzerland, on a high mountain, not far from Lucerne, there is a lake they call Pilate's Pond, which the devil has fixed upon as one of the chief residences of his evil spirits, and they are there in awful numbers. In Polters

berg, there is a lake similarly cursed. If you throw a stone into it, a dreadful storm imme

diately arises, and the whole neighbouring district quakes to its centre. "Tis the devils kept there prisoners, who occasion this." (Tischreden, 212). Luther attributed direct acts of violence and abduction to the devils. "Satan once tried to kill our prior, by throwing down a piece of wall upon him, but God miraculously saved him." "At Sassen, the devil carried off, last Good Friday, three grooms who had impudently devoted themselves to him."

Now nobody, now-a-days, need be told that Luther was attributing to the devil on many occasions the simple operations of nature, and nobody is called on to believe that the devil threw down walls, rotten probably by time, or flew away with impious grooms. The fact was, that Luther's openness to spiritual influences was made one-sided by his horror of being charged by the Papists with doing the sacred miracles, which in them he had charged to diabolism or trick. The whole weight of his spiritualism was thus thrown to the demoniac side, and on that side became exaggerated. He saw where devils were so frequently, that he at length saw them in appearances and causes where they were not. He is one of the greatest warnings against rejecting phenomena from prejudice, and not weighing well both sides, and thus arriving at a well-balanced cognizance of things. Shutting his mind against the fair side of spiritualism, he opened it not only to the palpably evil near him, but to the vague and dark beyond. There was, undoubtedly, in Luther's experience, a mixture of the real and the unreal, the unreal arising from this fixed onesidedness.

The palpable personal appearances of the devil to Luther are amongst the most curious passages of his life. Everyone is familiar with the fact of his throwing the inkstand at the devil's head as he interrupted his translation of the Bible in the castle of Wartburg, and many, like myself, have seen the reputed mark on the wall. The matter-of-fact manner in which he relates these occurrences is amusing. "When in 1521, on. my quitting Worms, I was taken prisoner near Eisenach, and conducted to my Patmos, the castle of Wartburg, I dwelt far apart from the world in my chamber, and no one could come to me but two youths, sons of noblemen, who waited on me with my meals twice a day. Among other things they had brought me a bag of nuts, which I had put in a chest in my sittingroom. One evening, after I had retired to my chamber, which adjoined the sitting-room, had put out the light and got into bed, it seemed to me all at once that the nuts had put themselves in motion, and jumping about in the sack, and knocking violently against each other, came to the side of my bed to make noises at me. However, this did not harm me, and I went to sleep. By-and-by I was wakened up by a great noise on the stairs, which sounded as though somebody was tumbling down them a hundred barrels one after another. Yet I knew very well that the door at the bottom of the stairs was fastened with chains, and that the door itself was of iron, so that no one could enter. I rose immediately to see what it was, exclaiming, 'Is it thou? Well, be it so!' (meaning the

devil), and I recommended myself to our Lord Jesus Christ, and returned to bed. The wife of John Berblibs came to Eisenach. She suspected where I was, and insisted upon seeing me; but the thing was impossible. To satisfy her, they removed me to another part of the castle, and allowed her to sleep in the apartment I had occupied. In the night, she heard such an uproar that she thought there were a thousand devils in the place."-(Tischreden, 208.)

"Once," he says, "in our monastery at Wittenburg, I distinctly heard the devil making a noise. I was beginning to read the Psalms, after having celebrated matins, when interrupting my studies, the devil came into my cell, and there made a noise behind the stove, just as though he was dragging some wooden measure along the floor. As I found that he was going to begin again, I gathered together my books and got into bed.

Another time in the night, I heard him above my cell, walking in the cloister, but as I knew it was the devil, I paid no attention to him, and went to sleep.

"It is very certain," says Luther, "that as to all persons who have hanged themselves or killed themselves in any other way, 'tis the devil who has put the cord round their necks, or the knife to their throats." "If we could see how many angels one devil makes work, we should despair." There are, according to Luther, three things that he is afraid ofridicule, God's word, and sacred songs. He says he has often made him fly by calling him "Saint Satan!" and telling him that, if Christ's blood shed for man be not sufficient, he had better pray for us. Our songs and psalms sore vex and grieve him. Yet Luther had the profoundest idea of the devil's intellect and power of reason. "The devil, it is true, is not exactly a doctor who has taken his degrees, but he is very learned, very expert for all that. He has not been carrying on his business during thousands of years for nothing." (Tischreden, 224.) "I know the devil thoroughly well; he has over and over pressed me so close that I scarcely knew whether I was alive or dead. Sometimes he has thrown me into such despair that I even knew not that there was a God, and had great doubts about our dear Lord Christ. But the word of God has speedily restored me." (Tischreden, 12.)

""Tis marvellous," says Bossuet, "to see how gravely and vividly he describes the devil coming to him in the middle of the night, and awakening him to have a dispute with him; how closely he describes the fear which seized upon him; the perspiration which covered him; his trembling, the horrible feeling of his heart throughout the dispute; the pressing arguments of the devil, leaving no repose to his mind; the sound of the evil one's powerful voice, and his overwhelming method of disputation, wherever question and answer came immediately one upon the other. 'I felt,' he tells you, 'I felt how it is people so often die suddenly towards the morning. It is that the devil can come and strangle men, if not with his claws, at all events with his pressing arguments," (Variations de l'Eglise, ii. 206.)

The case immediately referred to is the

grand argument given by Luther in his treatise De Missâ Privatâ et Unctione Sacerdotum," and quoted at length in Audin's "Vie de Martin Luther." Luther, according to this famous colloquy, had celebrated private mass nearly every day for fifteen years. The devil, as Luther supposed the spirit to be, commenced by throwing in a doubt whether the wafer and the wine were really the body and blood of Christ, and whether he had not all that time been worshipping merely bread and wine. He upbraided him with putting the Virgin Mary and the saints before Christ, and thus degrading and dishonouring Christ. In the second place, that he had abused the institution of the mass by using it privately, contrary to its ordained purpose, and thus committed sacrilege as a consecrated priest. He supported his arguments by the most apposite references to Scripture. He reprehended him for depriving the people of the sacrament, taking the elements only himself: whereas it was clear that Christ meant all His followers to partake of His sacrament. He called in question his very consecration as a priest, as having done contrary to the institution of Christ, and telling him that, in that case, he had performed mass without due authority, and at the same time withheld the sacrament from the people. He upbraided him as impious on this account; that in the mass there was wanting the end, the design, the fruit, the uses for which Jesus Christ established the sacrament-that it should be eaten and drunk by the whole flock. That it was not there that Jesus Christ was himself taken in the sacrament, but that it was not intended that a priest should take the sacra ment himself, but take it with the whole church. With these and many other arguments the spirit pressed home the matter on Luther, threw him into the deepest distress. and so completely convinced him of the sinfulness of private masses, that he never again practised them.

And here we may ask whether this powerful spirit was, as Luther supposed it, the devil, or a devil? Is it likely that the devil if Luther was in the practice of an iniquity would come and reason him out of it? All the spirit's arguments are sound and scriptural. and convince the Reformer. Is that the language or the object of a devil? On the contrary, the whole scene, and the whole of the sentiments, go to prove that the spirit was a great as well as a powerful spirit; but which Luther, from his crotchet that al spirits appearing to him were devils, could believe nothing else. Many readers, however. will move the previous question, and dou whether Luther really saw and conversed with spirits at all; whether he were not under s mere delusion of his excited imagination. On that point I should myself have doubted toe had I not seen so many things of a like nature of late years, and that only in common with some millions of people. Luther, no doubt was a great and open medium. This was essential to his great mission. To call a man a great religious reformer is the same as calling him a great spiritual medium. With out this mediumship-this communication intimate and enduring, with the spiritual world. with the Holy Spirit and His holy angels

3. Am I sincere in all that I do? 4. Am I consistent in my profession?

5. Am I aiming to please God? 6. Is His will the law of my heart?

7. Does my faith overcome the world?

8. Have I a conscious communion with God?

9. Am I at peace with myself and with all men?

10. Do I honestly pray for my enemies?

11. Have I the Spirit of Christ?

12. Do I do to others as I would have them do to me?

13. Have I been careful of the reputation of others?

14. Have I made restitution for wrong?

15. Have I sustained or destroyed my reputation?

16. Have I been Christ-like to the poor?

17. Am I, or do I intend, to be a good example?

18. Am I willing to search my heart

to the bottom, and act out my convictions?

19. Am

God?

I truly consecrated to

20. Do those who know me get the impression that I really care for their souls?

21. Do I prevail in prayer?

22. Am I conformed to the world? 23. Does the world engage me sooner than God?

24. Do the impenitent expect to be appealed to when they meet me, and do the wicked on that account fear me?

25. Am I controlled by prejudice? 26. Do I honour religion? 27. Am I more attentive to my own or others' faults-more disposed to censure or confess?

28. Have I kept my covenant? 29. Am I honest in all my excuses? 30. Do I control my temper and my tongue?

31. Am I circumspect in my mily?

32. Am I humbled by the past?

fa

Finney.

MR. GIBSON opened by referring to the origin and early history of the AngloSaxon race, called as it had been by the Great Ruler of nations to occupy a conspicuous place in connexion with the civilisation and Christianisation of the world. Spain and Portugal had anticipated England by a whole century in the work of colonisation, nor was Virginia planted till 1607, a hundred and six years after Sebastian Cabot had proclaimed the existence of the New World. America was planted largely by a race of Protestant men, whose whole activity owned evangelical religion in its grandest animating principle. Spain had possession of Mexico and of Peru a century before, but the moral forces were wanting which alone could render her colonisation a blessing to the nation. The two

nations descended of the Anglo-Saxon race now shared between them almost the whole of the continents and islands of the New World. The gold discove ries, also, which had given such a mighty impetus to colonial enterprise, had been reserved to the present powerful epoch, and had the balance of power been doubtful, this alone would have turned it in favour of those nations as the masters of the world. Though far away from Europe, America occupied a most commanding position on the globe, being placed between the two barbarous and idola trous continents Africa and Asia. Radii drawn from its eastern, western, and southern shores reached almost all Pagan, Mohammedan, and Papal lands; while those brought up in these climatic extremes were fitted to go forth into

regions of like temperature, to carry thither and teach the principles of learning, liberty, and religion. For the present, alas! America was arrested in its onward movement, and a disastrous eclipse had darkened all the western sky; but were the thunder-cloud of war dissolved, there were grounds to augur for that great community a futurity of influence and usefulness such as perhaps no nation had ever equalled. To it, as well as to ourselves, belonged the. heritage of all that was most precious in the memory of our sages, and saints, and martyrs. It was impossible not to have strong faith in the recuperative powers of such a people, or to believe that at such a crisis it would be consigned to permanent retrogression and decay. With reference to the means by which evangelisation in our colonial possessions and elsewhere might be best accomplished, it might be observed in general that the work of missions would, perhaps, be best accomplished by the zeal and energy of the several churches, each acting according to its own particular constitution, while at the same time each cultivated friendly relations with the rest, merging denominational aggrandisement in a desire to promote the glory of their common Lord. It was too manifest, however, that they were not sufficiently alive to their responsibility in this matter, and that the most hopeful aspects of the times—

the re-opening of Japan to the intercourse of Christian nations, the signs of religious inquiry among the Mohammedan population of Turkey, the exploration of Africa from every side, the increased security and facility of Christian labour in India-all this, which one would imagine would have fired the churches, like the opening of the last seal of prophecy, hardly kindled throughout the Christian host any perceptible enthusiasm, so immeasurably was the providential enlargement of the field of operation in advance of the agencies and resources available for its occupation. Might not the inquiry, therefore, be raised, whether there was not too much of a reliance upon established forms and usages of missionary agency, as if to keep the machinery in fair working order were equivalent to the evangelisation of the world? Some such conviction seemed to have occupied the mind of the late Dr. James Alexander, of New York, when in one of his familiar letters he inquired,

among other things, whether the world's conversion would not, result, under God, from an action more universal, more cheap, and more flowing from great affections in every church and every member of it? And the late Dr. Addison Alexander, in his commentary upon Acts viii. 4, had remarked it was most natural to understand the verse as referring, not to preaching, in the technical or formal sense, but to that joyful and spontaneous diffusion of the truth which was permitted and required of all believers, whether lay or clerical; ordained or unordained. And did not the records of the young ages of the faith accord with this representation? The first disciples, by virtue of their discipleship, carried with them, into every region where they were scattered, the light of the glorious Gospel, and wherever they went proclaimed Christ crucified as their Lord and King. No doubt the church, as an organization, had its special work to do in the diffusion of the truth, and it was especially devolved on her, and her distinctive function, to evangelise the nations; and doubtless there were peculiar facilities in the early times, in consequence of the unity of the Roman empire, and for other reasons, for spreading abroad the truth and publishing salvation; but the grand secret of the matter was, that every one who professed the name of Jesus felt constrained to make Him known to every creature within the range of his influence. Here lay the strength of the new religion-plain, simple-hearted men, feeling in their inmost soul the power of a new life, infused that life into the very heart of society. And was there not a lesson here for the present times? While the most comprehensive plans and the most efficient organisation were necessary, and while the highest order of minds, subject to the highest preparatory training, were demanded for the work, yet what a mighty impetus would be given were there brought into the field the agency of Christian colonists going forth to plant themselves as living representatives of Christianity in Pagan lands? Here were a nobler mission for the Anglo-Saxon race than any which it ever dreamed of; and if, in laying out his plans for life, every private Christian should ask himself, "Where can I do the most in my lifetime for the cause of Christ and the salvation of men," and if the answer to that question should