He

a man of God, and one earnestly desirous to honour him in all things, and attain to eminent holiness, he no doubt sought grace to conquer, and secretly deplored at the throne of mercy. His temper was rather hasty. was too easily made angry; and his anger was sometimes disproportioned to the magnitude of faults, particularly to those of his family, students, and servants. His feelings might be naturally quick; but intense study, too much anxiety, and too much labour, had rendered his nervous system exquisitely susceptible. Yet he was neither unappeasable, nor perseveringly unkind; he was abundantly willing, on reflection, to heal the wound which he had incautiously made, to offer explanation, and even to apologize when he perceived he had been angry without just or adequate occasion. usual intercourse must have been characterized by much benignity and kindness, as it is well known that those who most frequently felt his dis pleasure, continued to the last to evince towards him the sincerest respect, and the utmost warmth and tenderness of affection. His conflicts are now over, his sighs are exchanged for songs, his mental struggles for heavenly repose, and his weapons of holy warfare for the palm of immortal victory.

His

As a husband he was affectionate and respectful. His beloved wife had, doubtless, something to bear arising from his infirmity of temper; but she had much reason to love him. She knew how really harmless he was, notwithstanding his irritability, how ready to apologize when the excitement of feeling had subsided, and how solicitous to diffuse the gleams of his affection over every one around him. He owed much to her, and he loved her much. As a father he was extremely solicitous to promote the piety of his sons, and raise their standing in society. Enthusiastically devoted to the pursuit of knowledge himself, he was willing to make any possible pecuniary sacrifice in order to give them a liberal education, and set them forward in the world. Nor was he less solicitous for their spiritual welfare. It is needless to observe how much God blessed his endeavours, and to what extent he answered his prayers. As a companion he was very agreeable, and often instructive. His desire to please, his affability, his readiness to listen to the opinions of others, and even place himself in the position of a learner, rendered him a very pleasant friend in the parlour. No one was deterred from speaking in his presence by the anticipation of rude contradiction, or contemptuous remark. He would correct an erroneous statement by inquiring whether the true view of the subject was exactly what had been stated; and was forward to give full credit to any young friend who had made a just observation. His character as a minister has already been delineated. As a tutor he excelled in the tact with which he brought out the faculties of the students, and stimulated them to self-improvement; and it must be owned that he raised the tone and taste of the young men under his care to a degree which far exceeded the most sanguine expectations of his friends.

The writer of this memoir has not performed the task of a mere eulogist. He has endeavoured in the spirit of benevolence to record the exact truth. Had he had a diary of Mr. Stevenson, or a series of his letters, he might have written a much more extended and instructive account. He trusts that the worthy young ministers whom Mr. Stevenson had under his care will be incited to follow his example. His zeal in the pursuit of mental improvement, his passion for doing good, his fervent piety, his loving and

catholic spirit, his regard to system in the employment of time, and his constant preference of the practical to the merely speculative in the accumulation of knowledge, are views of his character which the writer cordially and respectfully commends to their respectful consideration. He is now at rest: "he will stand in his lot at the end of the days." "They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.' Was not our revered and lamented brother one of these characters? Was he not honoured as the instrument of converting many from the error of their ways? As we believe he was, we may be assured that special honours will be conferred upon him at the last great day; and when its transactions are completed, his blessed spirit, in conjunction with those whom he has been instrumental in saving from death, and with all the millions of the redeemed, shall shine through eternal ages with the lustre of knowledge and purity, and with the beamings of divine glory. JOSEPH WALLIS.

THE CONNEXION AND THE TIMES.-No. II.*

TRUE PROSPERITY.

THE spiritual prosperity of our Churches is of the first importance. It is only in proportion as they are in a healthy, vigorous state, that we shall be prepared for our peculiar generation-work, enabled successfully to combat the forms of evil, allure our fellow-sinners to the cross, and maintain a course of powerful and effective aggression on the empire of darkness. However mighty through God may be the weapons of our spiritual warfare, however keen the edge of the sword of the Spirit, and however soulsubduing and omnipotent the truth as it is in Jesus, their power and influence will be unfelt by the world except as the Churches of Christ are in a condition to wield these weapons and to declare that truth. It matters not that the arsenal is well stored with the munitions of war, while the army is in a sickly and disordered state. However desirable the spread of pure and undefiled religion may be, it will never make progress in the world except as it first progresses in the Church, and just in proportion to its progress in the Church, that is, to the vigour and influence of true piety in professing christians themselves, in that same proportion will be its progress in the world amongst the ungodly and perishing. So that it scarcely seems hazarding too much to affirm, that the Church herself must be re-converted, and afresh baptized with the spirit of Christ, before she will awake to her high vocation, or be qualified for her lofty work as God's instrument in the conversion of the world.

It is the solemn duty of every one who has joined the ranks of the faithful, and who desires the advancement of religion in the world, earnestly to pray for, and by all other possible means to seek the peace and prosperity of the Church of Christ. Many examples are recorded for our instruction in Scripture of a prayerful solicitude for the interests of Zion. "Moses and Samuel," "Noah, Daniel, and Job," with Elias, were celebrated for it. -Jer. xv. 1, Ezek. xiv. 14, James v. 17, 18. How intense were the emotions of Moses and Paul, when for Israel's sake they would have been

* At page nine, in the last No., eight lines from the bottom, for harness read leanness.

content to be blotted out of God's book, and to be accursed.-Exod. xxxii. 32, Rom. ix. 3. How deeply was Isaiah affected with the calamities of the Church when he laid up his earnest prayers in store a hundred years before the threatened judgments occurred.--Isaiah lxiv. 9-12. How were Hezekiah and Nehemiah overwhelmed with the afflictions of Jerusalem when they poured out their souls in supplicating mercy for it.-Isaiah xxxvii. 14, 15, Neh. i. 4-11. How often in the Psalms do we find the same holy and melting importunity breathing out its desires before God. "O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever? why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture? Remember thy congregation which thou hast purchased of old; the rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed; this Mount Zion wherein thou hast dwelt. Arise, O God, plead thine own cause." O that every christian, and every Christian Church, possessed a similar spirit, then speedily "the peace of Jerusalem would flow as a river, and her righteousness as the waves of the sea."

There are various symptoms by which the spiritual condition of a people may be ascertained with as much ease and accuracy as a physician would tell the bodily state of his patient. One indication of prosperity in the Church, is an ardent love for the Word of God. "O how I love thy law, it is my meditation all the day," "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." "Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom." It is essential to real prosperity that it be based upon an enlarged and intimate acquaintance with divine truth. That Church does not enjoy a state of moral soundness which is not characterized by love of the pure, unadulterated Word of God. It may indeed have the semblance of prosperity; its numbers may be daily increased, its members may be full of life and zeal, and all its secular affairs may be in a flourishing condition, but still we dare not trust such prosperity: it is defective at the core-it is cankered at the root. There is in it no safeguard against every pernicious heresy that may fly through the land. It has nothing to secure the people from being led into the wildest extravagance and fanaticism. Have we not seen persons apparently very sincere and anxious to do good, but whose minds seem to be hung on wires, ready to catch every new-fangled doctrine, every nonsensical opinion that may come in their way; persons who are like children, tossed to and fro, and carried about by every wind of doctrine? Nothing but a deep and growing acquaintance with divine truth can prevent the oft recurrence of such cases, and without this, the more any Church appears to prosper in other respects, the more frequent they are likely to be. It is a fearful sign, when forsaking for the most part the Sacred Scriptures, persons rest in the names of human teachers, however excellent, or in the traditions of antiquity as their authority for any matters of faith and practice. The Bible is not a sealed book; its heavenly pages are open to every one, and from them every christian should deduce the principles of his belief, and the rules of his practice. Our motto should be, "The Bible, and the Bible alone;" and we should resolve to receive nothing, even from the ministers of religion, but what is clearly shown to be taught in that holy book. We see in the present day, on a most extensive scale, the tremendous evils connected with a departure from this rule. Look at the fearful rapidity with which a system, containing all the essentials of Popery, has spread in the so-called Protestant Establishment of our country. Who, when this specious system first arose as 66 a little cloud like a man's hand,"

would have supposed that the heavens would so soon have been covered with blackness, and that so terrific a storm would thus early have burst upon the adherents of that Church? Who would have ventured to predict it five or seven years since? An eminently judicious and useful writer, in one of his works published as late as 1837, alluding to the effort then making by some of the Oxford divines, remarks, "But it will not succeed. If it should, then may it be safely affirmed, that the Establishment is destined to die, not by the hand of any of its foes, but by the matricidial violence of its own children. But there is far too much genuine, healthy, and determined Protestantism in the Church of England to warrant any great apprehension of such a result." Would that the man of God in this instance had proved himself a true prophet! But how is it? On what principle can we account for so sudden and dangerous a transition? The simple reason of the matter is a departure from the pure Word of God. The traditions of the fathers, erring men like ourselves, are held to be of equal authority with the Scriptures, and thus the door is opened for every kind of mystic doctrine and superstitious mummery. The Saviour's reproof to the Pharisees is strikingly appropriate in this case, "Ye have made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. In vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men."

It is not enough to delight in the Word of God, and receive it as our only guide in religion; we should study it in its connexions and proportions. We should not select a few isolated passages, without any reference to their connexion, to support some favourite theory. This is handling the Word of God deceitfully; and in this way it might be made to say any thing. We should place one part and one passage by the side of another, and so endeavour to gain a clear and comprehensive view of its instructions as a whole. We should not delight in its doctrines, and neglect the duties it enjoins; nor in its promises, to the forgetfulness of its precepts. We should love truth, and study it in those measures in which God has revealed it. Every truth which God has revealed is important, but all are not equally so. Every member of the human body is useful and important in its place, but some are much more vital and essential than others. Let the promises and threatenings, the warnings and invitations, the doctrines and precepts of divine truth receive their due and proportionate share of our consideration. Where such a child-like deference and love to the Sacred Scriptures prevail among a people there is one of the surest indications of true prosperity. Such a Church cannot be inactive or lifeless. Its members, prepared to follow wherever the truth of God leads the way, will diligently observe the ordinances, and improve the privileges of religion: they will abound in every work of faith and labour of love. There will probably be less pomp and display, but more real life; less noise, but more power. Instead of the roar and foam of the cataract, there will be the depth of the mighty river flowing onward with unfailing constancy, increasing as it flows, and scattering peace and fertility on every side.

A lively and general attachment to the means of grace is an indication of prosperity in a Church. "The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob." How strong was David's love for the sanctuWhen banished by the wicked conduct of his unnatural son far beyond the Jordan, he sighed not for his palace or his throne, but for the house of his God; we hear him exclaim, "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for

ary.

God, for the living God, when shall I come and appear before God?" No less sincere and ardent was the attachment of the Jews when captives in Babylon. They sighed not for the milk and honey with which their land flowed down, but for the courts of Zion. Listen to their plaintive strains. "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea we wept when we remembered Zion." It is a pleasing indication of the progress of religion, when the means of grace are prized by a people, and when they manifest this by early and regular attendance at the house of God. Spiritual declension and backsliding never begin in the sanctuary. Before your friends miss you there, the decrease of spirituality has been observed by your own family, while angels, and God, who sees in secret, have missed you in the closet. If you know any who neglect the public worship of the sanctuary take the alarm; they have gone far in the downward road; total neglect of of the means of grace will be about the last act of their backsliding course, at least until they quite throw off the restraints of religion.

Attendance on meetings for prayer is especially an indication of the spiritual state of a Church. For really spiritually-minded members to stay away from such meetings, would be like shutting up a fire in their bones till they could restrain no longer. Complain not the meetings are cold and uninteresting, but come yourselves, full of heavenly zeal and ardour, and thus enkindle the energies and inflame the love of your brethren and sisters. A spirit of union and affection amongst the members of a Church is an indication of a prosperous state. "Where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy." The great antagonist of piety has ever been the heart rather than the head. Social confusion and unhappiness result from the irregular and disordered passions of mankind. Hence love is the grand characteristic of christians. This rectifies social disorders, and causes peace and joy to re-visit our fallen abodes. "Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity." The early christians seem particularly to have excelled in this. Often in the epistles the subject is referred to. The apostles commended them for it; while they earnestly prayed that it might abound yet more and more. Where this love exists amongst the members of a Church, it will show itself in almost innumerable ways. By great tenderness and forbearance towards each other; by avoiding whispering, tale-bearing, and whatever might tend to provoke, divide, or disturb the brethren; by affectionate remembrance of each other at the throne of grace; by faithfully rebuking inconsistency and sin where we behold them; and by patiently and kindly receiving reproof when administered to ourselves. "Thou shalt not by any means allow sin in thy brother, but when you see it go to him, go not to the pastor or deacons, but go first to the individual himself; if he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother."

In close connexion with christian affection, unity of design, and readiness to co-operate with each other, is an indication of prosperity. Christians should be agreed in what they desire as to the advancement of religion; also, as to the time when they desire such advancement to take place. Ask any member of our Churches, "When do you desire real religion to revive amongst you?" He would unhesitatingly answer, "Now! I should delight to see it at once." But would it appear that his heart was truly set upon it, that he was agreed with any christian friend, or with the members