are wrong, and bring them right. Style is the echo of thought. What excuse can a man offer for rejecting Christianity, as a practical rule of life, when it is explained to him as clearly as a point of business, every excuse or objection calmly cleared away, and he left, palpably, a wrong-doer in the sight of God?

These remarks have struck us in reading Mr. Rowland's works. To show that we have not misapprehended, we will make some extracts. We are sure our readers will sympathize with us in our admiration of the simplicity, and consequently, force of manner. Ornament seems to have been purposely avoided, as one of our officers in Mexico laid aside his parade sword, and ground sharp a good cutting common blade for service.

"The Path of Life" is intended to show our exact position while unreconciled to God, and just what we must do to enter upon and pursue a religious life.

"Light in a Dark Alley," answers the objections and difficulties men meet with, and unfolds the state of mind in which a man gropes about, who is thinking of religion, yet cannot see into the evangelical system.

We quote from the Path of Life, pp. 93, 4. The reader will note the manner in which philosophy is made to yield to practical common sense. The object of Mr. Rowland is not to produce a recondite theological treatise, but to come to "all sorts and conditions of men," with the truth:

God ** devised the plan of salvation, provided a Saviour, appointed a day of grace, and made the proclamation of mercy in the gospel; and He accompanies these provisions of grace with the converting influences of His Holy Spirit. In this sense He is the author of all good, and the source of spiritual life in the soul of man. The new heart, and all its associate Christian graces, are His gifts, and are conferred according to His good pleasure.

Converted sinners make themselves their new hearts, by yielding themselves up to God, under those influences which he exerts upon them for their conversion. There is no impropriety in the statement that God turns the sinner into the path of life, and that the sinner turns into this path; for both these forms of expression are true. When it is said that God turns the sinner, it is meant that He uses the divine influences which produce this result; and when it is said that the sinner turns, it is meant that, under the divine influences, he goes to God and gives Him his heart, believing in Jesus.

This use of language is of daily occurrence in the common affairs of life. A wealthy proprietor may point to his mansion as having been built by him; the contractor may do the same; and the carpenters and masons may claim it as their work; and all these claims may be proper in the sense in which they were designed to be understood. The proprietor furnished the means, and gave the plan to the contractor; the contractor undertook the work, and the carpenters and masons were the active builders. So are we, spiritually, God's workmanship. He converts the sinner, or turns him into the path of life, through His influences specially directed to this end; and the sinner, under His influences, turns to Him.

Dr. Spencer, a clergyman of the other branch of our Church, says of the Path of Life-we quote his language instead of using any of our own, as there can be no suspicion of too favorable bias :—

Of its kind, it is beyond all question, unequalled. It is worth forty such works as James' Anxious Inquirer. Its simplicity, plainness, point, tact, and truth, are exactly appropriate to the nature of its subject, and consequently, its taste is faultless. It has no equal in the language. The brevity of it, too, ought to be named as one of its very first excellences. I have not a doubt of its very extensive sale, and very extensive utility. It will live as long as the English language lives;-such is my opinion.

IV. Dr. Stearns has in press a book of about two hundred and twentyfive pages, on the history of the Presbyterian Church at Newark, and the fathers of East Jersey. We have been favored with a glance at some of the sheets, and venture to predict a work of no common interest, especially as what the French would call a "mémoire pour servir" towards a complete history of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. To confirm the position recently taken in our Review, as to our early history, we only need the facts brought out impartially from the sources. But we are anticipating. Meanwhile we wish to notice another production by the same author: Justification by Faith. A Sermon delivered before the Synod of New York and New Jersey, in Poughkeepsie, N. Y., on Wednesday evening, October 20th, 1852. By the Rev. Jonathan F. Stearns, D. D., Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Newark, New Jersey. Published by the direction of the Synod. John A. Gray. 1852. pp. 36.

This sermon is indicative of that freedom of thought which is especially characteristic of our Church. Within the circle of the Calvinistic system there are various minor shades of belief, arising either from different modes of philosophizing, or from early training, or special idiosyncracies. They are cheerfully tolerated, and their interaction, we all hope, will produce more and more liberality of feeling and clearness of thought, and so tend to the establishment of a purer truth as well as a more enlarged charity. If it be asked why the circle of our sympathies is bounded by Calvinism, we reply that we are Calvinistic by conviction, and this being settled and drawn out in our creed, which we have cordially adopted, we think it unnecessary to re-open that matter.

Dr. Stearns inclines, in his philosophy, to the old methods of representing Calvinism. This we by no means regret. We regard it as healthful, that we should develope in our progression, a conservative element. We dislike change for its own sake, and will not deny that some of the modern Calvinistic divines may, in grasping fancied improvements, have lost sight of some of the nobler and more nourishing doctrines of our faith. Some, however, might question whether Dr. Stearns has not been led, by force of antagonism, too far in the conservative direction.

The opening sentences are admirable:

The basis of a vigorous and intelligent piety can be laid only in correct Christian doctrine. Those great truths which the Gospel requires us to believe, contain the reason and the source of all the peculiar traits of character which it requires us to possess. Displace one of them from the system, or

misstate and pervert it, and you give a new turn to the entire Christian life. Neglect them wholly, and your piety withers like a tree severed from its roots, or is driven by the gusts of enthusiasm like a paper kite cut loose from its string.

The various errors on the subject of Justification are considered in their order, the Papist, semi-Papist or Puseyistic, Arminian and Transcendental, which on this point, is Arminian, with a peculiar shading. The true doctrine is then very clearly stated; that "to be justified is, strictly interpreted, to be pronounced just in the sight of the law," and this on the ground of Christ's righteousness, only. In making the entire work of Christ "His whole mission, life, sufferings, and death," the basis of justification, we quite agree with Dr. S., and with great earnestness and cordiality sympathize in his strong faith in the union between Christ and the believer as the great Fact of theology. So far from thinking his expressions on this latter point too strong, we could bear much stronger ones. In fact, we think any theology jejune, which does not centralize in this truth, and lay thus a basis for intense emotion towards our glorified Redeemer.

Nor do we differ one whit with Dr. Stearns in the strength of our views as to the necessity of bringing all theological truth into its proper relation to law. Liberty, under law, is the great maxim for welfare in heaven and upon earth, and of course a system of theology unadjusted to law is dislocated. That Christ took the law-place of the sinner we fully believe, and that He satisfied the law, and more than satisfied it, for He magnified it. The sanction of law, in other words, so far from being less by the pardon of sinners, is immensely greater, the universe over, than if Christ had not died, and both angels and redeemed sinners will for ever have a more awful sense of law than if those very sinners had perished, all of them, for ever in hell. But while all this is deeply radicated in our theology, we have somewhat against Dr. S. which we will state by collating some passages of his

sermon:

We affirm that the idea of justification and that of pardon are, in the common use of language, totally distinct. The words mean, as applied in common life, not only different things, but things totally incompatible. Ile that is pardoned cannot be justified, and he that is justified cannot be pardoned; for justification plainly implies that there is no room for pardon, and pardon proceeds on the supposition that the object of it is not capable of justification. It is only through the glorious scheme of redemption that the two things are brought within the compass of the same act, and then, we insist, they are not confounded. p. 10.

This is part of an argument against the idea that justification is the same thing as pardon, in the scheme of salvation :

The defect on both sides seems to lie in a disposition to analyze too sharply a concrete whole. We except to the old view, that it is too rigid in its assignment of distinct offices to each part and aspect of the work of Christ; and to the new, that it throws aside, because it knows not how thus to distribute them, a precious portion of the Saviour's merits; thus weakening the bond which binds us to him, and making him less our substitute, and us less the offspring of his grace. * * The reduction of the whole matter to a scheme of debt and payment on the part of some, and to a rigid legal

process on that of others, has made it less a living thing, less full and rich, and wide-reaching, than as it lies on the pages of Scripture. These and similar representations are but approximations to the truth. They present correctly certain phases of it, and the legal scheme, especially, could not be discarded without marring the integrity of the doctrine. But yet there is far more in the gospel doctrine of justification than can ever be reduced to the forms and principles of human law, and there are forms and principles appertaining to human laws with which the doctrine of justification has nothing to do. Had this fact been always borne in mind, many of the objections which have been alleged against this doctrine would have fallen at once by their own feebleness. p. 19.

Again let the reader glance at the note on page 17, annexed to the part of the discourse which defends the doctrine of the imputation of the righteousness of the Redeemer. This, it will be carefully observed, is not the precious and priceless doctrine of salvation alone through our Saviour's merits, but that philosophical explanation of it called Imputation. "Every science," says Dr. S.," must have its technical terms, and if there be such a science as theology, it is better to adhere to those terms whose meaning has become fixed by long usage and the authority of standard writers, than to resort to new ones, which will require a generation at least to make their meaning equally determinate."

I know it will be alleged, that great improvements have been made in the nineteenth century, and why not in theology? It has been claimed, that our own branch of the Church deserves to be held in honor, as having made valuable modifications of the ancient theology. But, my brethren, I must confess, I stand greatly in doubt of those modifications. Some of them, I apprehend, are but adaptations or adjustments to a superficial style of thinking among us, which is neither sound nor destined to stand the test of the more penetrating style of thinking which a better age will ere long bring into favor. I am sure we have no modifications sufficient to erect a school upon, which will not peril the soundness of our foundations. p. 35.

The second of these extracts answers in great part the others. Its animus is different. It is born of the deeper part of the author's nature. Let us set this matter forth a little :

And first as to the use of new terms. No science restricts itself in the manner in which it is attempted to bind theology. What we wish to reach is scientific truth. Sometimes a new coinage gives sharpness and clearness. Require a theologian to define as much as you will, but why forbid him to use any words that will more accurately express his meaning? Besides, words sometimes come to shelter errors. A falsehood grows up in the shadow of the word which once expressed the truth. Or a clearer philosophy may lead to some explanations of a true doctrine, which may make some new terminology necessary. We have a right always to require a theologian to declare exactly what he means, and what he believes, and if we do this, how can words protect his errors? Each generation expresses things, at least partly, in its own way. Why restrain freedom of opinion and expression? Rather let each man utter his thought after his own manner, being responsible for the abuse of the privilege.

The Atonement was for the whole race. Justification must be conceived

in accordance with this fact. There is danger that it may seem to be like what we have no word for, but what the French call an affaire du bureau—a kind of private transaction between the individual and the government, instead of one involving the foundation principles of the national existence and character, in which the individual is only part of a mighty whole.

The truth is, the Atonement transcends all finite thoughts, feelings and analogies. It is a great and solemn mystery of eternity and immensity. The child and the poor slave are saved by it, comprehending and feeling some rays of its glorious sunshine. As we progress in knowledge and in faith we know more and more of it, and the angels who desire to look into it now, will forever find material not only for deep emotion, but for the exercise of their brightest and still expanding intelligence. Still, though so vast it is not vague. Its outlines are so clear and distinct that he who runs may read, as may be seen in the definition in our Shorter Catechism.

But earthly language cannot fully contain such mighty ideas, nor can earthly things furnish perfect analogies for them. When it is said, therefore, that Christ suffered an equivalent for the penalty of the law, we agree to it as giving one idea of the great truth; when it is said that He paid our debt or became our surety, we accede to it as giving another view of the doctrine; when it is said that He was the victim, the lamb slain, it adds another most important idea, as does that of redemption, or purchase by his own blood; so when the doctrine of substitution is indicated by the word imputation we have no special objection to it, provided it be understood to mean the fact that for Christ's sake, and in such a manner as to preserve law inviolate, sinners are freed from condemnation. (We are glad to see that Dr. S. repudiates entirely the idea of a transfer of moral qualities in imputation.) When justification is represented as forensic, we say it is true-in the court of heaven-though this is, after all, like the rest, an illustration, and as such has been pressed too far and made too rigid. But why not also admit of the exercise of the pardoning power as an illustration, more especially as the Catechism as its very first explanatory clause says, "wherein he pardoneth our sins?" Isaac Taylor has beautifully set forth Atonement as pardon with a reason. Indiscriminate mercy would introduce confusion into the universe, pardon for the awful reason of Calvary, magnifies law. And this idea of magnifying law, shows plainly that the transaction is not strictly legal-not mere debit and credit-not mere military substitution—not merely setting a criminal free. For if it were, law would be only upheld. But Atonement does far more. It glorifies law, makes it more illustrious, magnifies it.

If we might be allowed our illustration also, it would be somewhat thus: Of an immense structure gleaming through foliage, surrounded with varied scenery, its foundation among mountains, washed by streams, having verdurous glades stretching in vistas in every direction around it, you cannot obtain a complete idea, by one view, or from one quarter. From the top of a neighboring mountain by moonlight; floating in a summer's sunset under its