out their souls unto death. But this, it must be acknowledged, was not precisely the view of redemption which presented itself to the meditations of Alexander Knox. The cross was not the central object of his divinity. In his theological panorama, if we may so express it, the cross seems to have held a somewhat remote and subordinate position. It appears, there, fast by the entrance into the kingdom of God, instead of being lifted up, on the heights of the acropolis. In other words, his chief reliance was, not so much on what Christ had, once for all, effected for the whole human race, as upon that which Christ stands pledged to accomplish within the heart of every true believer. By the grand propitiation-he conceived-the whole world was placed within the possibility of salvation. To him, therefore, the blood of the covenant, although it spoke of far better things than were ever uttered by the tongue of man, yet spoke only of redemption offered; while the work of the Spirit in the human soul, spoke not only of redemption offered, but of redemption realized. To express his sentiments, in the words of his editor," for the inestimable benefit of salvability, he was deeply thankful. For "the far mightier work by which he was personally transferred "into a state of salvation, he was impressed with still deeper "emotions of gratitude. But, believing that an uncorrupt life " was the preliminary, or concomitant, to the blessedness of dwelling in God's tabernacle, and, still more, of resting on his holy " hill,—and that every man who hath this hope in him, purifieth himself, even as he is pure,-believing this, he watched, with eager solicitude, the variations of his inward life, and trem"bled, not without some portion of a faithlessness, which he "condemned, so often as he felt any passing cloud interpose between the fruit of his maturing grace, and that fuller lustre which, at other times, beamed on him from the Sun of Righteousness."

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Now, in the estimate of any one who might intimately know the sensitive integrity and shrinking purity of the man, all this would amount to little more than the expression of an intense and sleepless anxiety to make his calling and election sure. the judgment of others, it might be thought to imply a want of that keen and clear-sighted faith which can look, through the darkest shadows of temptation, towards the countenance of Him who is invisible. By persons of this stamp, the self-distrust of Knox might be thought to dishonour the faithfulness of God. According to their conceptions, the cross of Christ is the emblem and the pledge both of pardon and of peace. It not only ministers an abundant entrance into the kingdom of grace, but it is moreover the constant and unfailing refuge of all who have been

admitted within the precincts; and who, being there, retain a deep habitual sense of their manifold and sore necessities. For A. Knox, however, the blood of sprinkling is supposed to have done little more, than to satisfy him, that the destroyer had once been averted from his dwelling: and to have given him no distinct assurance that a preservative and healing power was constantly present with him. For the evidences, and the indications, of this blessed security, he was perpetually searching the depths of his own heart, and scrutinizing the tenor of his own life: and, hence it probably is, that he has been thought by some to have encouraged a relapse into the covenant of works,-and to have done all that man can do to rob the Christian of his most precious hope, and to spread the darkness of a disastrous eclipse between this fallen world and the brightness of the Sun of Righteousness.

We cannot confidently presume to specify how close an approximation there may have been between the views of Mr. Knox, and the formidable maxims which, of late, have been propounded, in some quarters, touching the doctrine of repentance. We presume, however, that he would have scarcely been prepared to affirm that repentance for sins committed subsequently to baptism, is insufficient to reinstate the offender on the firm ground of God's covenanted mercies. Neither can we venture, within the compass of these pages, to assume the awful task of arbitrating between the opinions which are now in conflict throughout this region of our theology. It is more to our present purpose to observe, that they who are most deeply affected with a distrust of Mr. Knox's divinity, have shown themselves disposed to bring the question to a practical issue. In the spirit of the inductive philosophy, of which we now hear so much, they have been for comparing the theory with the phenomena; and their report is, that the theory and the phenomena are at variance with each other. What the theory is, we have endeavoured to show. What the phenomena are, the adversaries have been at some pains to tell us. Their reasoning, if we rightly understand it, is this, if the principles of Alexander Knox were in conformity with God's revealed truth, they must have yielded him the fruits of peace and comfort, in his life, and in his death. But, his principles yielded him neither consolation nor support. They were to him like the staff of a broken reed. The conclusion is obvious. His house must have been built upon the sand. He never can have touched the foundation of the everlasting Rock.

That Mr. Knox himself, towards the close of his life, was haunted by a painful consciousness of the imperfection of his own theory, has, of late, been currently, and very confidently, rumoured in what is called the religious world. The report appears to have gathered form and substance in the course of the

In the month of August, 1836, (we borrow the statement of the editor of these volumes), an article appeared in the Christian Observer, the object of which was to inform the public, on the authority of one of Mr. Knox's friends, that, previously to his death, an important change had taken place in his " views;"that he began to suspect that these "views" had not been "sufficiently evangelical;—and that, to this cause, he was disposed to trace the then existing depression of his mind." The friend of Mr. Knox, on whose authority this statement got into circulation, was Mr. Kelly. And it further appears, that the surmises of Mr. Kelly had their basis, chiefly, on the following circumstances, which occurred a short time previously to the death of Mr. Knox. "Before you go❞—said Mr. Knox to his friend, after an interesting conversation on spiritual matters-" before you go, you must offer up a prayer for me." The prayer was accordingly offered up; and it was conceived, as Mr. Kelly reports, in conformity with the principles-the evangelical principles-which sustained his (Mr. Kelly's) own mind. And, after the prayer was finished -we are told-Mr. Knox, once and again, cordially expressed his thanks. The inference is irresistible. The mind of Mr. Knox must evidently at that moment have been in perfect and entire harmony with what are called evangelical principles!

Now-without the slightest desire or intention to make this an opportunity of sitting in judgment on the controversy between evangelical principles, and any other principles-we must frankly confess that it has never been our chance to meet with a logical process much more unsatisfactory than the above! A Christian man, on the supposed approach of his last hour, requests a friend to pray for him, in his presence and hearing. The prayer, we are to presume, is conceived in a spirit of fervent piety; and uttered in a tone of profound sympathy with the necessities of the sufferer. It comprises many topics of comfort and edification, which are as the balm from Gilead to the soul of the dying man. And who would ever dream that the dying man could be, in the very crisis of his expected change, so possessed with the passion for theological analysis, as to exclaim,-" Your prepara"tion, on the whole, is salutary and comfortable; but, still, I "cannot but detect in it certain ingredients by which my palate "is grievously offended. There is too much in it of a certain "savour which may be agreeable to senses exercised in the dis"cernment of good and evil by the discipline of a particular "school. My religious tastes have been differently formed. And "therefore, though your friendly and charitable intentions are eu"titled to my best acknowledgments, I must beg of you to dis"miss all hope of success in the attempt to number me among your proselytes." Oh! how little do they, who reason after

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the fashion of Mr. Kelly,-how little do they know of the eagerness with which the fainting heart seizes on the grand and simple verities of the Christian faith, when the hour of death is at hand, and the day of judgment immediately in prospect! How little do they know of the distaste with which the spiritual palate then recoils from the acrid savours of dissension and debate! How little do they know of the predominance which the spirit of love begins to exercise over every faculty of the chastened soul, in that solemn season when flesh and heart are failing, and when Faith is about to be lost in sight, and Hope in fruition. The inference drawn by this worthy and exemplary man, from the cordial acknowledgments of his dying friend, is, that "he had found his theories, however ingenious, fail him in the hour of need." Our inference, on the contrary, is, that the expiring Christian seized on every word from the lips of his brother in Christ, which might chance to be in harmony with his own views and feelings,—that he could not suffer his thoughts, or his emotions, or his failing strength, to run to waste in fruitless discussion on points of difference between them, and that he poured out his heart in thankfulness for the kindly ministrations of a righteous and a faithful friend. Why, we can even imagine that it would be no ordinary blessing to hear, by our dying bed, the orisons of a Pascal, or a Fenelon, or of any one resembling them,-albeit they might be tainted, more or less, by error or by superstition. The time would be much too short, and much too awful, for disputation. The error and the superstition, therefore, we should quietly and secretly reject. The fervent prayer of faith, and the blessed aspirations of love, we should receive into our hearts with comfort and with gratitude.

Let it be again remembered, the question at this moment before us, is not whether the opinions of Mr. Kelly or of Mr. Knox were sound or unsound. The sole question is, whether Mr. Knox was ever driven to a persuasion of the dangers and the treacheries of his own scheme of belief, and whether he was ever impelled to take refuge in the sanctuary of that system, which, nearly all his life long, he had been declaring to be in itself erroneous, narrow and insecure. Towards the settlement of this question, the scene above described-in our judgment at least-does absolutely nothing! But, it seems, there is other evidence behind. It has been discovered that Mr. Knox was subject to a distressing fluctuation of spirits; that his dejection of mind was, at times, almost insupportable; and that this heaviness of heart became more severe as the period of his dissolution drew nigh. And from these premises, the evangelical inquisitors have leaped to the conclusion that his doctrinal opinions must have been sapless, innutritious, and even positively unwhole

some. The children of the chosen generation, it is contended, are never lean from day to day, in the midst of the plenty of their father's house. There is no pining or languishment with them that feed upon the true and living bread. If the soul thrives not, when provided with these measureless bounties, it cannot be but that it must have contracted a morbid liking for the poor meals of the outcast prodigal, and have been content to starve upon husk and refuse! And, truly, if the theology of the patient were as meagre and unsatisfactory as the logic and the philosophy of his judges, little would have been the wonder, had he, indeed, gradually sunk into a state of mental and spiritual atrophy. A sort of mesenteric decline must, we should apprehend, have been the inevitable consequence. Heaven mend the reasoning faculties of these worthy men! Their inductive apparatus seems to be deplorably in need of completion, or repair. Their argument is this, a thoughtful and religious man is afflicted with fits of depression; therefore, his religious principles must have been insufficient for his support. Now, it so happens, that this same thoughtful and religious man was, also, notoriously blessed with many a long interval of serenity and joy; and, sometimes, experienced what may, with little exaggeration, be called "prelibations and antepasts of heaven." What, then, is to hinder his friends from contending, quite as confidently, that he must have been in possession of the secret of that peace which passeth understanding. It is true, that the presumption, in either case, might chance to be fallacious. But we are quite unable to discern-(if any such induction is to be resorted to)-why the former of these inferences is at all more entitled than the latter, to be received as legitimate and philosophical.

Our own persuasion, however, is, that the occasional depression had, in this case, scarcely more connexion with the religious principles than the sufferings of a gouty or dyspeptic man are connected with his political principles, or with his literary tastes and habits. No person can have looked into the biography and correspondence of Alexander Knox, without perceiving that a sensitively nervous constitution, was his melancholy inheritance. He brought it with him into the world. From his youth up, he suffered its terrors, with a troubled and distracted mind. The malady, doubtless, helped to drive him from the world, and to disqualify him for doing business in the great waters of public life. It made him a solitary thinker, whose chief occupation it was to commune with his own heart within his chamber, and to be still. That his temperament, therefore, would occasionally, tinge his religion with its own dull and turbid suffusions, we can easily enough believe to be true. But, that his religion produced, or