not able to distinguish unerringly between the inspired and the uninspired, yet, from a sort of religious instinct he attaches evidently a higher importance to the canonical Scriptures. Nor can we omit to notice that the Scripture is the only standard of faith and practice to which he appeals; never in a single instance does he build on tradition, or quote the decrees of councils, or rest a doctrine on any human authority whatever. On the contrary, the testimony which he bears is not his own, nor the Church's, but as he expressly says, it is that of God and the apostles and the prophets who have never lied.' Nothing in the religious opinions of Patrick strikes a modern reader with such a feeling of surprise as the significance which he attaches to voices and to visions, evidently regarding them as intended to convey supernatural intimations. In this way he is apprised in his captivity that at a certain port, two hundred miles away, there is a ship waiting to carry him from bondage; it is thus he sees Victoricius bringing a packet of letters, one of which has written at the top of it, The Voice of the Irish; and when he hesitates to accept a call addressed to him in a vision by those who lived at the wood of Fochlut, near the Western Sea, it is a voice that suggests the obligation under which he lay to Him who gave His life for him. In his estimation, it is none other than the Holy Ghost who thus speaks. He has no manner of doubt that these voices, which come to him in his sleep, are direct intimations of the Divine will, and that to disobey them is to resist God. These supernatural communications, it may be observed, are all at the commencement of his religious life, or when his mind is burdened and anxious about the great work on which he is about to enter; in the latter part of the Confession' there is no trace of them; while in the Letter' they entirely disappear. It is only in certain states of mind, at the beginning of a new life, or in the early stages of a career which excites and engages the deepest feelings of the heart, that thoughts and impressions rise up and stand out before the inner eye with all the vivid distinctness of reality. The experience which many had of the religious movement which pervaded some parts of Ireland and Scotland in 1859, will enable them thoroughly to understand how ready young Christians especially are to regard impressions of this nature as messages from the Almighty, and to sympathise, at least to some extent, with Patrick's state of mind. The safe principle is, that whatever God may have done in times anterior to the completion of the written revelation, He speaks to us only through His word, and that it is not only disparaging to the Scriptures, but the fruitful germ of fanaticism and error, to imagine that the Divine will is now communicated through visions or through voices even to the most favoured individuals. So at least it seems to us: to Patrick, however, the matter did not appear in this light. In counting these mental illusions as messages from God, it never occurred to him that he was showing any disrespect to the written word, or that he was guilty of any extravagance; and in attaching importance to voices and visions, he was doing no more than Tertullian, Cyprian, and others of the Church Fathers had done before him. In regard to Christian experience, our Irish Saint does not differ much from others of the children of God. He finds the Lord upon the Irish mountains, at a time when he was not seeking for Him. He is conscious that, owing to the Divine grace, he has often been restrained from sin, but the devil daily strives to draw him away, and the flesh is dragging him to death. He is not a perfect man, more than other believers; nevertheless he is aware of a pro; spiritual condition:- From the time I knew Him,' says 'rom my youth, the love and fear of God grew in me, the present time, through the favour of God, have I kept The most prominent feature of his personal religion is ide to God. The special mercy shown to himself, is t to which he returns again and again. He never ow God preserved him in the time of danger, and , life-work. For this he can never cease to magnify e; in whatever place he is, he presents his soul to in sacrifice as a living victim, and delights to work for His vy. Let any Christian, who walks the higher summits of the Christian life, say whether his experience at the present moment is, or ought to be, very different in this respect from that of Patrick. 379 BRIEF NOTICES OF BOOKS. Divine Wisdom Displayed; or, Entomology and Christianity. By J. P. BELLINGHAM. London: W. Lister. Books of this sort-designed to create and in some measure to satisfy a thirst for scientific knowledge among the masses of the people are becoming more and more numerous, and prove a healthy means, among the many other means now in operation, to elevate and refine the popular mind. The book before us contains a series of beautiful lessons respecting the insect world, not presented at second-hand as the result of reading, but drawn fresh from the arcana of nature as the fruit of inspection and experiment. What the author has seen with his own eyes, and handled with his own hands, and thought out with his own brain, he here declares to others. His writing is a distinctly articulated voice, not a vague echo; and the gusto, the abandon with which he expatiates over the themes of this volume imparts to his style a fire and animation quite infectious. It ought also to be said, that in teaching the lessons of science he does not forget his higher functions as a minister of the Gospel. Never in the entire course of our reading have we found the teachings of science so intimately associated with, and subordinated to, the doctrines and the life of evangelical religion. Altogether, the work reflects immense credit upon the talents, the industry, and the spirit of its author. Central Truths. By the Rev. CHARLES STANFORD. Third thousand. London: Hodder and Stoughton. ALTHOUGH twenty years have gone by since these discourses were first published, they have lost nothing of their primal sweetness, or adaptation to usefulness. The subjects of which they treat are properly and felicitously called "Central Truths,"-central both with respect to Divine revelation and to christian life. The main doctrines of Bible teaching, whence Christian life flows, and is nourished, together with the cardinal duties by the performance of which Christian life is manifested and authenticated, are comprehended and discussed within the scope of these discourses; and the treatment they receive, both in method and style, is eminently satisfactory. Without stiffness or straining the author's thinkings are marshalled with the utmost order and logical precision, and the speech with which they are clothed, while tinted with the sweet colourings of a refined imagination, is pellucid as crystal. Nor are these discourses lacking in what after all is the main, the most desirable element of pulpit address, spiritual power. There is a combination of deep earnestness and realizing faith in the whole tone and bearing of the volume which cannot fail to thrill the heart of the devout reader. The work is equally suitable for the closet, the family and the study. The Podobaptist's Guide on Mode, and Subject, and Baptismal Regeneration. By JOHN GUTHRIE, M.A. London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co. THIS is a delightful little volume, different in many respects from what its somewhat clumsy and crabbed name would lead us to expect, and furnishing much pleasanter reading than the general run of the class of books to which it belongs. Let not the reader apprehend, on glancing at the titlepage, that he is here invited to a dish of sour or stale polemics. Though the work is of a controversial nature, there is nothing of the harshness or bitterness of controversy in it. From first to last it overflows with pleasant humour, and sparkles with bright gleams of wit aud fancy. The style, moreover, is fresh, lucid, spontaneous, pliant,-adapting itself with the utmost readiness, propriety, and grace to every turn and phase of thought. These, however, are only secondary qualities. Primarily and specially we require a "guide" to be competent and trustworthy. It signifies little what he be in other respects if he know not the right from the wrong road; and it is small con.fort that he regale and cheer us with all sorts of pleasantries, if, meanwhile, he is conducting us to danger, difficulty, and sorrow. Now, in addition to the other good things we have said of the Podobaptist's Guide, we can, after a careful examination, vouch confidently for its competence and trustworthiness. The work bears unmistakable evidence of exten sive reading, patient research, profound thought, and honest intention. The whole of the disputed ground lying between the Baptists and Poedobaptists with respect to the subjects and mode of the baptismal ordinance is surveyed with the eye of a master; every passage of Scripture having direct or remote bearing on these questions is subjected to the test of a thorough-going criticism and exegesis; and it is shown by a vast preponderance of evidence drawn from Scripture, reason, and church usage, that in the position occupied by the Podobaptists with regard to the matters in dispute, they have truth and right on their side. We know not of any book we could so c onfidently recommend for circulation in those districts where our friends are apt to be troubled with the pragmatic assaults of Baptist zealots. Printed by F. H. HURD, Office of "The Primitive Methodist," 81, Fleet-street, London, E.C |