DIED, July 7th, 1876, MAGGIE E., daughter of James and Rebecca J. Burneson, in her 20th year. The deceased was a member of the R. P. congregation of Beaver Falls, having made a profession of her faith October 8th, 1875. She was of a very quiet and reserved disposition, and would scarcely speak even of her bodily sufferings, unless urged to make them known. She had been declining for some time, but passed away rapidly at the last. And yet she was expecting her Lord's coming. When her little brother was told that she was dead, weeping bitterly, he said: "She told me that she was going to die, and wanted me to meet her in heaven." We then learned that she had been anticipating death for several days, and had spoken to different members of the family privately, earnestly pressing upon them the daily study of the word of God, and regular attendance on secret prayer. A few moments before her death, being asked if she was afraid to die, she repeated with great calmness, the 4th verse of the 23d Psalm : "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death," &c. These and many other evidences assure her friends that she was under the saving influence of the Holy Spirit and could truly say: "Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory." COM.

BOOK NOTICES.

WE call the attention of our readers to the valuable reprints by the Leonard Scott Publishing Co., 41 Barclay street, New York, of Blackwood's Magazine, and the London, Edinburgh, Westminster and British Reviews. Any one of the periodicals, $4 a year; the five, $15 a year. Blackwood for January contains, The Shadow of the Door, Inside the House of Commons, A Woman-Hater, Part VIII, George Sand, Weariness, a tale from France, Cupid Schooled, The New Year.

The contents of the January Edinburgh Review are, The Authorship of the Fourth Gospel, Travels in the Caucasus, Forel on the Ants of Switzerland, Mediterranean Deltas, The Paston Letters, New Arctic Lands, Fitzmaure's Life of William, Earl of Sherburne, Wood's Discoveries at Ephesus, Von Reumont's Lorenzo de Medici, Turkey and Russia.

The British Quarterly Review for January contains, Julian's Letters, The Poetry of the Old Testament, Alexander Vinet, Friesthood in the Light of the New Testament, H. Spencer's Sociology—its ground, motive and sphere, Guizot's History of France, The Servian War, Contemporary Literature.

LITTELL'S LIVING AGE. The numbers of The Living Age for the weeks ending January 27th and February 3d contain, The Anglo-American Churches of the United States, from the London Quarterly; Dr. Schleimann's Discoveries at Mycenæ, Nature; Prince Bismarck's Literary Faculty, by Francis Heuffer, Gentleman's Magazine; The Marquis of Lossie, by Geo. MacDonald, Part VIII. Advance Sheets; A German Bath, Blackwood; Self-help in Science, Good Words; Fields and Field-Sports in Madras, Fruser; The Wordsworths at Brinsop Court, Temple Bar; John Wilson Croker, Quarterly Review; The Jews in the East, Suturday Review; Caprices of the Nile, Chambers' Journal; The Storm-Wave in Bengal, Saturday Review; Earldoms, Pall Mall Gazette; The Shadow of the Door, Blackwood; an instalment of "Carita," by Mrs. Oliphant, and the conclusion of" What She Came Through," by Sarah Tytler, together with poetry and miscellany.

The back numbers containing the first instalments of MacDonald's new serial are still sent gratis to new subscribers for 1877. For fifty-two numbers of sixty-four large pages each (or more than 3,000 pages a year), the subscription price ($8) is low; while for $10.50 the publishers offer to send any one of the American $4 monthlies or weeklies with The Living Age for a year, both postpaid. Littell & Gay, Boston, are the pub. lishers.

In his letters to Corinth and to Rome, the apostle Paul refers to certain members of the church as the strong, and to others as the weak. We gather from the passages that by the weak he means persons who had scruples as to the propriety of eating meat that had been offered in sacrifice to idols, and as to drinking wine that had been poured out (that is, a portion of the wine) as a libation to the gods. The strong were those who, knowing that the gods were only the imagination of the heathen, and that the idols were vanities, could buy and eat without scruple whatever was exposed for sale in the markets of these heathen cities. The strong were tempted to despise the weak, as being under the dominion of a narrowminded spirit, and the weak were apt to condemn the strong and to class them among the profane.

Paul seeks the peace of the churches to which he wrote, and exhorts both parties to work in harmony. As to the question at issue, he is not neutral. He believes there is no longer a law against partaking of the meat and the wine that had been offered in idol-worship. He must be classed with the strong, but yet he urged that both strong and weak submit to another law, from which neither party can claim exemption-the law of love-they are to seek to be mutually profitable. This law of love is over them, as they are both in Christ; strong and weak alike are his, he accepts them both. All that they do is to pass under his review, and harmony will exist if the strong forego their freedom in the presence of the weak, if they abstain from animadversion upon their scruples.

Questions of casuistry need to be discussed, if for no other reason, that we may see in what matters we are to agree to disagree. We are to turn to the Scriptures for instruction. In its study the greatest attention must be used, to see what are matters of indifference, and what are not. The able scholar, Dean Alford, went, as we all judge, far astray when he wrote in his edition of the New Testament, in considering Rom 14: 5, "I infer

that sabbatical obligation to keep any day, whether seventh or first, was not recognized in apostolic times."

This is nullification of a law of God; for to grant, as he does, that the Sabbath is to be kept as a holy rest, as unto men for their edification, but not unto God as our duty, is to abolish it as an institution of God's appointment. This is not a law for the operation of the directions as to strong and weak. How then are we to know to what we are to apply the directions of the apostle, and in what way to use them?

There is a very easy method in vogue now with many, as to certain questions, and very fitted, if carried on, to allow men to do anything they please with the laws of God, even with those they acknowledge to be binding. It comes from the present use of the word offend, and then the application of this to 1 Cor. 8:13, "If meat make my brother to offend." They reason, "The one offended is the weak brother. Whoever is offended by our conduct is therefore the weak brother! Hence we that do what we please are the strong." This is simply to play upon a word. word. To offend, is to cause to stumble, and the offended brother is the brother our conduct has led into sin; this is the weak brother, not the one who judges our conduct will make men sin. This puts the matter in an entirely different light, and sets us all before the bar of God's law in its wide application, as laid down by Paul, and brings thus our liberty to the true test. What then was the nature of the law whose observance was not a matter of conscience? It was an obsolete law. It belonged to a ceremonial economy, which stood in meats and drinks. Hence, Alford is then consistent in his language in saying, as to the observance of the Sabbath by men of his opinions, that it is "binding from considerations of humanity and religious expediency, &c., &c." We seek peace by observing the law of love. The way to meet him is to show that the law of the Sabbath is not obsolete, and to make that a duty for him as unto God, which he thinks to be not so; but for us who believe the law of the Sabbath not to be obsolete, but binding on all men in all ages, the law of charity does not apply simply to the law as a law. We are bound to cease from a course that leads other men into sin, in following our outward act as a rule. All cases of exemption are exceptions, and the onus probandi is on the one claiming exemption. The law of charity comes in, in considering what are the acts which we shall allow as of necessity, &c.; and in judging of personal necessity, we are to consider the bearing of our practice on men who may imitate our actions, knowing nothing of our motives. Is the act in this light still necessary? If we do not so consider, how are we our brother's keeper? All men claim some care for their brethren. None reproved more harshly than did Norman McLeod the men who took his arguments against the continued obligation of the Sabbath for a cloak of sin. Yet his Memoirs show to the world that his actions were based on his principles. He had cut away the basis of the law, and wondered that men did not keep it, as if the law of Christian charity is that which men follow even in the church, in the most of matters. All

classes of men see the error in excess in certain even of their own practices. The liquor dealer will join the temperance man in denouncing the abuse of liquor, and even the steady drinker has a word of reproof for the drunkard. We remember to have heard one of these men say of a junior who reeled by, "He is too young to drink whiskey." He ought to have waited till he was of an age to drink!

We have no intention at present of following out these remarks. We are content simply to try to set forth the misconception that exists in many minds as to the one to whom we are to have regard in this law of charityit is the one we may lead into sin by our example. In matters of indifference we are to yield to the law of charity. In matters of acknowledged obligation we are to watch narrowly and to study well the cases wherein we claim exemption on the plea of necessity.

We judge much of the reform in the practice of church members which many seek, must be sought in clear views of this subject.

SAVING FAITH.

WHAT must I do to be saved? is a most important question. The answer is briefly given in the Bible, and clearly exhibited in the subordinate standards of the Presbyterian Church. The Bible answer is, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." This faith (or believing in Christ) is explained in the form of sound words, as "saving grace, whereby we receive and rest upon him alone for salvation, as he is offered to us in the gospel"-a saving grace because always connected with salvation, and because it has special respect to the Lord Jesus in his mediatorial and saving work. It is the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart of a sinner. The exercise of it is the work of the sinner himself, aided by the Spirit. By the Holy Spirit the mind is enlightened. The man believes that he is a sinner, that his "sin deserves the wrath and curse of God, both in this life and in that which is to come." He realizes his misery and earnestly desires relief. He has no hope from himself, and he sees no help in any creature. The gospel reveals the Lord Jesus and salvation in him for sinners. The Spirit enables him to see this, and to realize that this Saviour is offered to him. He believes the message and is willing to accept Christ for salvation, as offered in the gospel. The phrase "as offered in the gospel" is very significant. Our faith must rest on the divine testimony. We must receive just what is offered, and for the purpose for which it is offered. Hence the importance of the question, How does faith receive the Lord Jesus? or, plainly stated, How does a sinner convinced of sin accept the Lord Jesus? Answer, as offered in the gospel.

1st. He accepts the person of Christ. A mistake here is fatal. Believing is sometimes spoken of under the emblem of the marriage relation. The Redeemer is the husband, the believer is the spouse. In marriage it is not enough for the woman to be willing to take the

name, the social position or the protection of the husband; she must marry the man, submit to his authority and acknowledge him as her husband, or she has no just claim to the honor and privileges of his wife. So it is here. Many seem willing to be called by the name of Jesus, to hold fellowship with his people, enjoy his protection and share in his mediatorial glory, but they do not submit to him as husband and head, and refuse to acknowledge his authority. They have little respect for his person. In the gospel he is offered as a Divine Person, the son of the Living God. And our "Mediator must be God, to keep the human nature from sinking under the infinite wrath of God and the power of death, give worth and efficacy to his sufferings, obedience and intercession, and to satisfy God's justice, procure his favor, purchase a peculiar people, give his Spirit to them, conquer their enemies, and bring them to everlasting salvation." He is in the gospel offered as man, made in all respects like unto his brethren. And "it was requisite that our Mediator should be man, that he might advance our nature, perform obedience to the law, suffer and make intercession for us in our nature, have a fellow-feeling of our infirmities, that we might receive the adoption of sons and have comfort and access with boldness to the throne of grace." He is offered as God and man in one person, and it "was needful that the Mediator, who was to reconcile God and man, should himself be both God and man, and this in one person, that the proper works of each nature might be accepted of God for us, and relied on by us as the works of the whole person." The sinner in the exercise of saving faith believes him to be God, to be true man, God and man in one person, and as such accepts him. When the person of Christ as offered in the gospel is not accepted, there is no more hope of salvation for the sinner, whatever his morals, his position or profession, than there is for an impenitent murderer. In accepting the person there is safety.

2d. He accepts him as a Saviour. In this character he is offered in the gospel. "Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins." In this character the sinner needs him, and as his only Saviour, accepts him. However numerous his sins or aggravated his offences, he believes that Jesus is able to save him. He is the Christ (the anointed). The word has reference to his being set up or anointed as the covenant Head from all eternity-as sanctified and sent into the world duly commissioned by the Father, specially to his being fully furnished with all authority and ability for his great work; anointed with the Spirit above measure. There is an allusion to the anointing of persons under the old dispensation when invested with office, whether king, priest or prophet. It is the clear view of Christ's offices which inspires the sinner with confidence in his ability to save. We are ignorant, we have lost the knowledge of God and of ourselves, we can never find it. Christ meets the case. He is a prophet. He teaches sinners the way and leads them to the Father. We are guilty. We cannot answer for one of our many transgressions. He is a Priest. He has made a perfect, a full satisfaction to divine justice for sin. His sacrifice has been accepted, and he lives to make intercession and manage the sinner's case with God. "If any man sin, we have an advo