his prayers, and his extensive correspondence, whether they be in India, Europe, or America, cannot but feel this bereavement.

But while we thus mourn the loss of our beloved brother and cherish the most tender affection for his memory, it becomes us to beware of sinning against God under this dispensation. It becomes us to recollect that every thing which rendered him so dear to us and such a blessing to the cause of God, arose wholly from the grace of God so richly manifested in him. This grace still remains, an inexhaustible fountain. While we mourn his loss in the deepest manner, therefore, to suffer our hearts to sink in despondency, as though the Great Redeemer did not still live to carry on his own work, who is the Sovereign Head of his Church, and from whom come not only every gift intended for the use of his cause, and all that diligence and love which may enable a man possessing such to labour even more abundantly than others, but the blessing which must render these gifts and this labour effectual, and without which even a Paul might plant, and an Apollos water wholly in vain, would be, to sin against God, and to act contrary to the examples left us on divine record. When Saul and above all Jonathan, was removed, by whom the Lord had done such great things for Israel, David, in the midst of grief perhaps never exceeded, "bade them teach the children of Judah the use of the bow," to prepare them for future action, and exborted the men of Jabesh Gilead, who had already distinguished themselves by their activity and energy, to strengthen their hands, and be valiant, because of the affliction which had then overwhelmed Israel.- -When Hur, and Aaron, and even Moses were called to rest from their labours, the command of God himself to Israel was, to go for ward in their way, to be "strong and very courageous" amidst the overwhelming grief which must have filled their minds, at being thus deprived of all those who had gone in and out

before them for so many years;—and his promise was, that in thus doing he would be with them, cause them to overcome their enemies, and possess the promised land.

In the beginning of the gospel also, when Stephen was prematurely removed in the midst of his high career of usefulness, a man "full of faith and of the Holy Ghost," who so preached the gospel that its fiercest adversaries were not able to resist "the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake," how deeply must the loss of such a man have been felt by all who loved the cause of God, then so much in its infancy. We do not find however, that while they so feelingly "made great lamentation over him," the disciples and brethren had the least idea of lying down in despondency. On the contrary they took courage and "went every where preaching the gospel;" and respecting some of them, it is expressly recorded, no doubt for our encouragement, that "the hand of the Lord was with them and a great number believed and turned to the Lord." (See Acts xi. 21.)-And when, a year or two after this, James, one of the three disciples so eminently distinguished by our Lord during his life, and so justly esteemed one of the "pillars" of the infant apostolic church, was prematurely cut off by the sword, Peter also being seized and put in prison-we do not find that this had any other effect on the minds of the other brethren than that of causing them to make prayer to God without ceasing for Peter, and no doubt for the cause of God in general, that it might not suffer by these afflictions. And by far the greatest extension of the gospel was granted after this period. Unworthy as we are, we are still engaged in the same cause, and every degree of blessing must flow from the same source; and seeing we serve him who is "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever," we ought to renew our trust in his mercy and his Almighty power, and to abound more and more in prayer, and in the work of the

Lord, knowing that he will never fail nor forsake those who trust in him.

The brethren at Serampore indeed have been thus called to renew their trust in God, while wading through the depths of affliction, even from the beginning of their course. We do not here allude merely to the fire at Serampore eleven years ago, in which our dear brother now deceased was himself almost miraculously preserved, and which threatened to overwhelm us; but which through the Divine mercy, was succeeded by the Divine blessing, to a greater extent than had ever been experienced at Serampore before. We rather allude to the repeated afflictions we were called to sustain twenty-two years ago, when so many of our missionary brethren were in succession carried to the grave, in the very infancy of the cause here. Within eighteen days after our landing at Serampore, Mr. Grant was carried off in a fever, the four brethren and sisters having arrived on the 13th of October, 1799, and he being removed on the 31st. The succeeding July, Mr. Fountain was removed by a bowel complaint, within four years after his arrival in the country, and just as he had become ready in the language. The next July beheld Mr. Brunsdon carried off in a liver complaint, scarcely twenty-six years of age, and the most forward in the language, as well as the ablest English preacher among all the four brethren who came out together. And to complete the measure of affliction, the next October, Mr. Thomas himself, who had laid the foundation of the Mission in Bengal, and had come out with brother Carey seven years before, was taken away, at an age two years below that of our now deceased brother. At that critical period, that four of the only seven missionaries then in this part of India should be removed, and among them both the youngest and the oldest, the ablest

and the most active, was indeed overwhelming, had we looked merely to human aid. Yet nearly all that has been done in this part of India, has been the fruit of the Divine blessing since experienced, on humble and persevering effort, accompanied with constant prayer. Surely then in every affliction and bereavement, we ought to look directly and wholly to Him, with whom is the residue of the Spirit, who cannot be unmindful of his cause or of his promise, and who has declared that all nations shall be blessed in the Redeemer,-and that He, Jehovah, will accomplish this glorious work in his own time.

The human mind, however, which is continually prone to run to the extremes either of presumption or despondency, is ever apt to misinterpret the dealings of God with his church. Thus when any of the servants of God are taken away, peculiarly fitted for some particular work in their day and generation, we are ready to sink in despondency, and to exclaim, "such and such an eminent servant of God is taken away, and how can the loss be repaired? how can the cause of God now go forward?" We forget that these servants of God thus peculiarly gifted, were raised up to do a certain work; and that if they are now called to rest, the precise work no more remains to be done for which Divine wisdom thus raised them up and endued them with peculiar talents. Thus Divine wisdom has suffered no disappointment; for these have fulfilled the work they were intended to accomplish, and have now entered into the joy of their Lord, leaving to others whom Divine grace may raise up, that work which is suited to their capacity and intended for them to fulfil. Therefore while we so heavily mourn those removed, who are necessarily dear to us for their work's sake, we should consider that Divine wisdom has removed them, only because their peculiar work in the church

militant below, was fully accomplished; for had it not, their Saviour, who has the keys of death and of the unseen world and who"shutteth and no man openeth," would surely have detained them longer below.

Thus respecting our beloved brother, while he was so endeared to us in every capacity, that had our feelings been consulted we should never have suffered him to enter into rest, but with ourselves; the work for which God pre-eminently raised him up was evidently that of Printing the Scriptures in India; and we believe that to him was shown herein grace and favour granted before to very few men in that particular line. To the language of the apostle, which the brother who came out with him well recollects seeing in his diary in the course of his voyage, thus applied with reference to his own circumstances, "unto me who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given, that I should print among the heathen the unsearchable riches of Christ," could he have foreseen the Divine goodness to him, he might have added-" in twenty of their languages;" for the twentieth version of the New Testament in the languages of India, printed under his eye, had advanced to the book of Revelation at the time of our beloved brother's removal; and we believe it has been granted to few men in the church of God, ever to print the New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in twenty languages, spoken among the heathen. But for the preparation of all those founts of types which they required, and most of which had never before been seen in India, was his thorough knowledge of the art, his nice discernment, his assiduity, his indefatigable diligence, his love for the cause of his Redeemer and the souls of the heathen, peculiarly suited. Yet all these founts prepared, and the difficulties attending these First Edi

tions of the Scriptures overcome, the way is now made easy: Second and succeeding editions with the same types, involve so little difficulty, that the various native Christian brethren and others trained up by our beloved brother for so many years, can go on with the work under common European superintendence.

Seeing then that infinite wisdom and love thus guide all things however mysterious, and that these are ever the same, what remains but that we all, who have seen so many of the servants of God around us removed in the past year, adore in humble silence what we are unable to comprehend, take new courage and go forward in the work of Him who will cause his church to increase, till, like the stone cut out without hands, it shall have filled the whole earth. And to animate us thus to abound in the work of the Lord and do our own peculiar work in our day and generation, what can tend more than the example and the end of our beloved brother; whose life, at least for the last twenty-four years, amidst all the difficulties and trials he had to share with his brethren, was one uniform course of high usefulness and happiness of mind; and who, after so long a course of bodily and mental labour and spirituality of soul, was in heaven adoring before the Throne of the Lamb, within forty-eight hours after he had delivered his last message for his glorious Redeemer below! Let us then lift up the hands which hang down and confirm the feeble knees, and looking to Jesus, be steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as we know, that however prematurely, as to an eye of sense, we may seem to be called away, our labour, worthless as it may be, shall not be in vain in the Lord.

THE name of JOHN THORNTON, of London, is, we know, associated in the minds of many of our readers

with almost every thing that characterizes fervent piety, and distinguishes Christian liberality. He was not however distinguished as a writer; and we did not know that he had ever attempted poetry, till we cast our eyes on the following lines in the Evangelical Magazine for December last, which are there said to have been "written by that great Christian philanthropist, John Thornton, Esq. of Clapham, upon his receiving a mourning ring from a cousin of his own name, lately deceased.

"Welcome, thou presage of my certain doom!

I too must sink into the darksome tomb;

Yes, little prophet, thus my name shall stand,

A mournful record on some friendly hand: My name?'tis here,-the characters agree, And every faithful letter speaks to me! Bids me prepare to meet my nature's foe, without a sigh to quit the toils of time, Serene to feel the monster's fatal blow; Secure of glory in a happier clime: Then mount the skies-forsake my old abode,

And gain the plaudit of a smiling God; Receive, Lord Jesus, body, soul and spi

rit;

Behold my plea-thy sufferings and thy merit."

The writer of these lines died in the Lord 1790, aged 71.

NATURE OF THE ATONEMENT. A Discourse delivered Aug. 17, 1823, by James Murdock, D. D.

(Continued from p. 84.)

Dr. Murdock, having finished his exposition of the text, proposes these two questions for discussion: 1. Why was an atonement necessary? 2. And how did the mediation of Christ answer the purpose? But before he enters on the discus sion of these points, he undertakes to answer, as a preliminary, the following question: "What are the reasons which either induce or require God, to inflict any punishment whatever on transgressors ?" For this he assigns three reasons; first, the intrinsic evil of sin; secondly, the good order and happiness of his kingdom; and thirdly, the personal benefit of the individuals who transgress. All these, however, might be included in one. The only reason for which God punishes sin is its evil. If it were not evil in its own nature, it never could interfere with the good order and happiness of his kingdom. This

is only one way in which the intrinsic evil of sin is manifested. This reason is not, therefore, properly distinct from the first; and as to the third, it is still the evil which is in sin, that requires that it should be punished even in the children of God. But we should not have found any fault with these reasons, if we had not perceived that on these distinctions the author builds his whole system of the nature of the atonement. With the first of these reasons, according to him, the atonement has nothing to do: "nothing that a Mediator could do would remove it." But an extract from the sermon will best convey the professor's meaning.

"Of the three grounds of punishment just enumerated, the first is, in the na

ture of things, removeable in no other in God or in the sinning creature. Noway than by a change of character, either thing that a Mediator could do would remove it. The holy and unchangeable God can never cease to abhor sin. He must forever feel differently, and be inclined teous and the wicked. Nothing can ever to conduct differently, towards the righbring the infinite mind, which is purity

itself, into harmony with the polluted souls of sinning creatures. They must be come holy; this, and this only, can remove the first ground of punishment. And this certainly will remove it; because when creatures cease to be sinners, they must cease to be odious in the sight of God. Their new and holy characters render them now lovely in his view; and he can therefore feel no repugnance, so far as their present characters are concerned, to embracing them as his dear children. Such a change in the sinner's character, will likewise remove the third ground of punishment, which was the reformation of the sinner himself. Because this object is already obtained, by the change supposed.

"Only the second ground of punishment then remains to be removed; and to remove this, and this only, is the proper business of an atonement."

Here we have the true foundation of Dr. M.'s theory. Though sin might be punished in the transgressor, on account of its intrinsic evil or ill desert, yet the sufferings of a Mediator have no respect to this; they can have no effect upon it. This is only to be removed by making the sinner holy, which, we are told, is all that is necessary. As these radical principles are all important in this subject, we might have expected something in the way of proof; but the preacher has contented himself with a string of assertions, to which it would be easy to oppose as many negations. But our object now is to exhibit to the reader, a just view of Dr. M.'s theory; our remarks upon it shall be made in due time. We shall therefore extract a number of passages from the discourse, that it may be clearly seen that we do no injustice to the learned professor, in the representations which we make of his system.

"Thus far we have been examining and attempting to ascertain, precisely, the nature of the difficulty which it was the business of the atonement to remove.

The difficulty, it appears, consisted wholly in the second ground of punishment; that is, in the necessity of distributive justice to the well being of the universe. "To remove this difficulty, and to enable God righteously to pardon the re

penting sinner, the atonement must give the same support to law, or must display as impressively the perfect holiness and justice of God, as the execution of the law on transgressors would. It must be something different from the execution of the law itself; because it is to be a substitute for it, something which will render it safe and proper to suspend the regular course of distributive justice.-If such an expedient can be found, then an adequate atonement is possible; otherwise it is not.*

"Now such an expedient, the text represents the sacrifice of Christ to be. It is "a declaration of the righteousness of God; so that he might be just,"-might secure the objects of distributive justice, as it becomes a righteous moral governor to do;" and yet might justify," or acquit and exempt from punishment, him that believeth in Jesus. It was in the nature of it, an exhibition or proof-Evdεiğis

of the righteousness of God. It did not consist in an execution of the law on any being whatever; for it was a substitute for an execution of it.—It did not annihilate the guilt of the transgressors, or cause them to be either really or apparently innocent; for this was impossible: it rather proclaimed the atrocity of their guilt.-It did not fulfil the law, or satisfy its demands on transgressors; for then their acquittal would have been an act of justice, not of grace; and the atonement would have been but another mode of executing the law itself, not a substitute for it. Its immediate influence was

not on the characters and relations of men as transgressors, nor on the claims of the law upon them. Its direct operation was on the feelings and the apprehensions of the beings at large, who are under the moral government of God." how this exhibition was a display of the "The only difficulty is to understand righteousness of God. To solve it, some have resorted to the supposition that the Son of God became our sponsor, and satisfied the demands of the law on us, by suffering in our stead. But to this hypothe

*See F. G. Süskind, über die Möglichkeit der Straffen-Aufhebung oder der Sünden-Vergebung, in Flatt's Mag. für christ. Dogm. St. I. S. 1—68. and C. G. Brettschneider's Handbuch der Dogm. §. 158. Band II. S. 248-278. Also Dr. J. Edwards, Three Serm. in Selectt. on Atonement, pp. 330-337. Dr. Maxcy's discourse, ibid. pp. 206-208. Dr. Smalley's Sermon, ibid. pp. 112-114. Dr. Griffin, on the Extent of the Atonement, pp. 22-27. Mr. Burge, Essay on the script. doctr. of Atonement, pp. 39-66.