the Lord's second coming, which is denoted by the varied particulars given in the several addresses to the seven churches. But why seven? The number seven is confessedly a mystic number. It occurs so frequently in the Word and so obviously involves a deeper meaning than merely natural number, that it is scarcely possible to avoid the conclusion that this is the case in the text. The evidences of this fact are nowhere more strikingly presented than in the Apocalypse itself. The seven stars held in the right hand of the Son of man; the seven golden candlesticks in the midst of which He is said to walk; the seven horns of the Lamb, and his seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth; the seven lamps of fire before the throne, which are also the seven spirits of God; the seven angels which stood before God, and the seven trumpets they were prepared to sound; these, and many other intimations of this number, evidently involve a spiritual sense. It is a number of perfection, and denotes what is full and complete, and thus in relation to any subject and to the numbers of which it is composed, all that pertains to it. The seven Churches in Asia, therefore, are all of the Christian world, who at the time of the Lord's coming retain somewhat of the light of truth in their minds and the practice of it in their lives; who are thus prepared to receive the Lord at His advent, and who form the beginning of the new and better dispensation which is then to rise in the world. In an age of darkness they are the light of the world; the dim remaining candle, which extends its light into the darkness of the night. And in relation to the individual Christian, and to the work of his regeneration, they indicate the remaining and dimly shining light of early instruction which in the ascendency of passion and evil still lingers in the mind and teaches repentance, obedience, and faith, and leads to newness of life. These supply the means, and are the hope, of our return to the Father of mercies when we have wandered far away from the light of His truth and the love of His goodness. The remnants of goodness and truth thus mercifully preserved are as an oasis in the desert, or as one or other of these seven Churches, occupying so small a space in the world lying in wickedness around them, and yet having a relation of light and salvation to all the earth. R. S. H.

B

18

A NEW YEAR'S WISH FOR THOSE WHO HAVE
ENTERED ON LIFE'S NEW YEAR.

O YOUTHFUL lips! with smiles bedeckt:
Throughout the coming days,

God keep these portals of the mind,
And fill them with His praise.
O youthful eyes! so keen to see
With youth's glad lustre bright;
God keep them free from vanity
And fill them with His light.
O youthful hands! so strong to do,
Through all life's weal or woe,
God aid them with His own right hand

To work His will below.

O youthful feet! so swift to run

Through all the earthly race,

God guide them through life's dubious paths

Unto His Holy place.

O youthful spirits! fresh to earth,

God fill them with His love;

And lead them stainless through this world,

Up to their home above.

ISABELLA STUART.

"THE SANDY FOUNDATION SHAKEN.”

THE sandy foundation is now as favourite a building-site amongst the nominal followers of Fox and Penn as it is with the rest of the religious world. It is to be hoped, however, that the fashionable sands are more advertised in tracts and sermons than actually built upon. Penn's celebrated pamphlet contains so much truth, in refutation of the favourite doctrines of the day, that it ought not to lie unread by those who can receive the sound doctrines forsaken by the modern Quakers. The Sandy Foundation Shaken is not now read or published by the Society of Friends, though it is included in the volumes of "Penn's Works," kept in the libraries attached to most meeting-houses.

It was first published in 1668, and has never been formally repudiated; though modern Friends have been "disowned" or excommunicated for publishing similar doctrines.

The title-page of the pamphlet runs thus: "The Sandy Foundation Shaken, or Those so generally believed and applauded Doctrines of One God subsisting in three distinct and separate Persons, The impossibility of God's pardoning sinners without a plenary satisfaction, and The Justification of impure Persons by an imputative Righteousness-refuted, from the authority of Scripture Testimonies and right. reason-By William Penn, a Builder on that Foundation which cannot be moved." Then come the texts from 1st Cor. viii. 6, Micah vii. 18, Exod. xxiii. 7.

In the body of the work he quotes and comments on a number of passages in the Old and New Testaments, including Exod. xxiii. 7, Isa. lv. 7, Jer. xxxi. 31-34, Micah vii. 18, Matt. vi. 12, xviii. 21-25; from the last of which he shows that forgiveness is exhibited of pure mercy, and without any "satisfaction" of vindictive justice, adding, "How blasphemous, may I not term it, for any to assert that forgiveness is impossible to God, which is not only possible but enjoined to men."

From John iii. 16 he argues that "God's love is not the effect of Christ's satisfaction, but Christ is the proper gift and effect of God's love." On 2 Cor. v. 18, 19 he observes, "How undeniably apparent it is that God is so far from standing off in high displeasure, and upon Hi own terms contracting with His Son for a satisfaction, as being other wise incapable to be reconciled, that He became Himself the Reconcile by Christ, and afterwards by the Apostles, His ambassadors, to whom was committed the ministry of reconciliation.

Again, on James ii. 21, 23, he says, "By which we must not conceive, as do the dark imputarians of this age, that Abraham's offering personally was not a justifying righteousness, but that God was pleased to account it so; since God never accounts a thing that which it is not, nor was there any imputation of another's righteousness to Abraham but, on the contrary, his personal obedience was the ground of that just imputation; and, therefore, that any should be justified from the imputation of another's righteousness, not inherent, or actually possessed by them, is both ridiculous and dangerous."

Penn goes on to show the irreligious consequences of the prevalent false view of the doctrine of Faith.

"It flatters men, whilst subject to the world's lust, with a state of justification, and thereby invalidates the very end of Christ's appearance, which was to destroy the works of the devil, and take away the sins of the world-a quite contrary purpose than what the satisfactionists and imputarians of our times have imagined, viz., to satisfy for their

sins, and by His imputed righteousness to represent them holy in Him, whilst unholy in themselves; therefore, since it was to take away sin, and destroy the devil's works, which were not in Himself (for that Holy One saw no corruption), consequently in mankind, what can therefore be concluded more evidently true, than that such in whom sin is not taken away, and the devil's works are undestroyed, are strangers (notwithstanding their conceits) to the very end and purpose of Christ's manifestation!"

For the truths put forth in this pamphlet, William Penn was imprisoned, on the false accusation that he denied the Divinity of Christ. To vindicate his innocence of this crime, he published

Innocency with her open face, presented by way of apology for the book entitled, The Sandy Foundation Shaken, to all serious and enquiring persons." In this treatise he brings forward many Scripture passages, from which he argues with singular clearness "that Christ is God." As from Ps. xxvii. 1, Isa. xlix. 6, lx. 20, John i. 9, 1 John i. 5, Rev. xxi. 23; that if Christ is the Light, and the Light is God, then Christ is God. From Isa. xliii. 11, Hos. xiii. 4, Luke i. 47, John iv. 42, 2 Tim. i. 9, 10, 2 Pet. i. 1, &c. ; that Christ is the Only Saviour, and therefore God. From John i. 1-32, "I am still confirmed in the belief of Christ the Saviour's divinity, for He that made all things, and by Whom they consist and are upheld, because before all things, He was not made nor upheld by another, and consequently is God."

He sums up his faith with this creed, "I sincerely own and unfeignedly believe in One holy, just, merciful, almighty and eternal God, Who is the Father of all things; that appeared to the holy patriarchs and prophets of old at sundry times and in divers manners; and in One Lord Jesus Christ, the Everlasting Wisdom, Divine Power, true Light, only Saviour and Preserver of all, the same One, holy, just, merciful, almighty and eternal God, Who, in fulness of time, took, and was manifested in, the flesh and Who said that

His disciples should see Him in the Spirit; for the Lord Jesus Christ is that Spirit, in which Holy Spirit I believe, as that same Almighty and Eternal God, Who is now (after this tedious night of idolatry, superstition, and human inventions, that hath overspread the world) gloriously manifested to discover and save from all iniquity, and to conduct unto the holy land of pure and endless peace; in a word, to tabernacle in men."

21

THE LESSONS OF ADVERSITY.

A SERMON PREACHED IN CROSS STREET CHURCH, ON SUNDAY, OCTOBER 22, AFTER THE GREAT FIRE IN CHICAGO.-BY REV. R. L. TAFEL.

"Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore; ye are of more value than many sparrows."MATT. X. 29-31.

How much comfort there is contained in these few words for a soul that has a sincere trust in the Lord, and in His Divine providence! For we are there assured that nothing whatever happens in this world, without our Father in heaven knowing all about it; and that not even a sparrow, two of which are sold for a farthing, is allowed to fall on the ground without our heavenly Father. If, then, the Lord takes such good care of the sparrows, and of all the rest of the animal creation, how much better care will He take of men, who are of more value than many sparrows. And if nothing evil ever befalls a sparrow without our Father, how much less will anything evil befall us, without our Father.

With regard to men, we are even assured in the words of our text that the very hairs of our head are all numbered; by which is meant, in the spiritual sense, that the Lord has a knowledge of the quality of every least thing in man; and that in accordance with this knowledge He arranges and disposes everything in connection with man, and never allows any real evil to befall him; wherefore also He calls upon men in the words of our text not to fear, but to place their trust always in the Lord.

By not fearing is here meant, that men should not distrust the Lord, and should not cease to love Him, and to do His commandments, even though it may seem at times as if He were far away, and as if He had withdrawn His hand entirely from the children of men.

Especially does He call upon us not to fear, i.e. not to distrust Him in the presence of famines, of the horrors of war, of earthquakes, inundations, and conflagrations, for in the presence of so many evils, the faith of many is apt to grow weak and unsteady, and they ask "Can the occurrence of these evils, of such heartrending misery among men, be reconciled with the idea of an omniscient and omnipotent God, whose inmost being, we are told, is infinite love towards the children of men?" But to these the Lord says in the words of our text, "The