able objects to have been strictly regular, and of more than ordinary amount. But this was the least valuable of his services to the cause of God and truth. His pen, and tongue, and heart, and soul, were consecrated to it. In every righteous enterprise, for every philanthropic end, he was ever the foremost and the firmest to stand for high principle and resist treacherous accommodation. Hence the respect in which he could not fail to be always held. Some might dislike, and others might disapprove of, his proceedings. Even his closest allies might at times be compelled to differ from him. But all men always knew where to find him. None could deny him the tribute of esteem."

We come now to the Sermons, with regard to which we are told that they are published exactly as the author left them-that he had them all arranged, numbered and titled, and ready for the press, so that though they are posthumous, they are not imperfect. No apology can therefore be made that they want the author's correcting and selecting hand. No apology is necessary to gain for them a favourable reception from all denominations of Christians, for they are as perfect specimens of sound, evangelical, eloquent pulpit preaching as it is possible to furnish. The subjects are all of the deepest importance-the views taken of them are clear and scriptural-the language employed is correct and natural, and the lessons deduced are strongly practical and effective. An additional interest prevades them to that which their sound and solid doctrine conveys-that contained in the general title Gospel Contrasts and Parallels. Thus we have, "The Two Paradises,” the one described in Genesis and the other in Revelation. These two

are compared and contrasted with great beauty and force, under the heads, the Rivers, the Trees, the Curse, the state of man in each. Then again, we have the "Two Adams, or Adam and Christ,”—“ Felix and the Jailor,"-" Peter and Judas"-"The two Jerusalems"-" Satan's prayer, and Christ's prayer"-" Death and Victory," &c., all of which are treated with the greatest fulness and earnestness, and in the most interesting manner. We shall take an example of the author's mode of discoursing, from the sermon entitled "The Glorious City." The text is Psalm 87, 3. "Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God." Taking the church as this city, he illustrates his subject by showing that there are glorious things spoken of it with respect, first, to its erection, plan, site, and date; secondly, its defences; thirdly, its stores and supplies in their excellence, abundance, and source; fourthly, its king, in his name, person and character; and lastly, its citizens :

names.

"There are glorious things respecting the King in himself considered. "1st, There is the King's name. His name shall be called Wonderful.' It is a wonderful name; it is wonderful for the many appellations of which it consists. Persons of rank, and especially those of royal state, often receive a sort of collective name-a name made up of a string of But never was name so manifold as is the name of Zion's King. He is Adam, Jacob, David, Israel; Jesus, Immanuel, Shiloh, Christ; the Second Man, the Mighty God; the Lamb, the Shepherd, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah; the Branch, the Plant of Renown, the Rose of Sharon; the Morning Star, the Sun of Righteousness, the Word of God, the Alpha and the Omega, the Amen. And these are not the whole. There are many titles and appellations behind. His name is also wonderful for its meaning and significance. The knowledge of it is a science that may exercise and

engross the highest intellects. It contains a world of wisdom into which angels desire to look. It is, as we have seen, a many-sided name; and every side of it presents the King under a new aspect. Each of these aspects is true; each of them is pregnant with some great and precious discovery concerning him; each of them has a doctrine and a lesson that are fitted to nourish and strengthen the love, or the trust, or the reverence, or the admiration, with which the King is regarded. His name is also. wonderful for its virtue and power. Great signs are wrought, great things are continually done, by means of it. Salvation and life are in it to his people; death and destruction are in it to his enemies. It is a name to conjure with. Satan cannot stand before it. Armed with this name, the servants of the King can exorcise the fiend, and cast him out of men's souls. It makes the strong man flee from his palace, where for long he had kept his goods in peace. It is a name that heals diseases, that opens the eyes of the blind, causes the lame man to leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb to sing. It breaks the gates of brass, it cuts the bars of iron, and sets the captives of sin and the devil at liberty. Yea, it is a name that forces death to relax its hold, and quickens the soul with a life that is eternal. It is a name that will lose none of its efficacy or lustre to the latest generations. No, it will never perish. When the memory of all other names has passed away, it will be fresh and new as it was at the first. It shall endure for ever, and be continued as long as the sun.

"2d, There is the King's person. A noble and majestic appearance corresponds well with royalty. Has the King much grace and dignity of person? If we are to believe the world, he has none at all. According to it, he is without form or comeliness, and there is no beauty in him that we should desire him.' But why should we believe the world? The world is blind. What regard is due, in a matter like this, to the testimony of the blind? There are better witnesses than the world. There are those who have seen the King-who have seen him with purified and enlightened eyes. There are those who do not keep aloof from him, or turn their backs on him, as it is the habit of the world ever to do, but who frequent his court, and have many opportunities of beholding him. We will listen to them. Their testimony is, that he is 'fairer than the sons of men,' and, in his personal appearance, 'chief among ten thousand.' 'His head is as the most fine gold; his locks are bushy, and black as a raven; his eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of water, washed with milk, and fitly set; his cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers; his lips like lilies, dropping sweetsmelling myrrh; his hands are as gold rings set with the beryl; his legs are as pillars of marble set upon sockets of fine gold; his countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars; and his voice as the sound of many waters.'

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3d, There is the King's character. Every quality of mind and heart that can adorn a crown is found in him. He is a wise Prince. The 'Counsellor' is one of his titles; 'The Wisdom of God' is another. He is worthy to bear them. Solomon was only a type of him. O the depth of his knowledge! The subtle serpent has tried against him the game of policy a thousand times, and has lost it in every instance. The best laid schemes of that veteran plotter have been always baffled, and made to recoil upon himself. And Ô the consummate statesmanship by which the city is signalised! Whether we look to the code of laws which the King has given it, or to the measures he has taken in each emergency of its affairs, or to the skill with which he makes everything work for its good, we find reason to say that he abounds towards the city in all wisdom and prudence. He is as just as he is wise. The fatherless and the widow need no powerful patron to introduce them to his notice, and persuade him to redress their

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wrongs. He judges the people with righteousness, and the poor of the city with judgment. His ear is open to the cry of all. He judges the poor of the people; he saves the children of the needy, and breaks in pieces the oppressor. He is also faithful and true. Kings are proverbial for not remembering their promises. But the proverb is belied in him. He never forgets. He never deceives. There may be some that escape the common reproach by seldom or never making promises. That is not his way. He does make promises-many promises-many golden promises to all the citizens. And he keeps them. He keeps them all. They are all of them yea and amen. His words are good; and his deeds are equal to his words. Hence his people are led to exclaim, The heavens shall praise thy wonders, O Lord; thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints. O Lord God of hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto thee? or to thy faithfulness round about thee?' He is, moreover, a merciful Prince. He does not forget his own promises; but there are certain things which he takes pleasure to forget. These are his people's sins. He blots them out of his book with his own hand. 'I, even 1,' he tells the city, 'I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions, and will not remember thy sins. He is ready to forgive. He goes unparalleled lengths in his clemency. We need not add that he is gracious to all. Go to the very humblest people of the city, and you will find that every one of them has got tokens of his royal regard. O he is the chief among ten thousand! There never was prince to be compared with him for wisdom, for justice, for truth, for mercy, and grace! He stands alone among kings, far transcending the best and most illustrious of them all! O King,' we are disposed to say, 'live for ever!' 'O King, live for ever!' Well may the city resound with the cry ;—‘O King, live for ever!' The wish will be gratified. The King shall live; length of days are given him for ever and ever. In some countries the king, by what is called a fiction of law, never dies. But it is a fiction. The kings of nations die all of them; their pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of their viols. Not so the King of the holy city. He shall prolong his days, and yet never grow old. He shall prolong his days, in defiance of death. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his throne shall endure as long as the sun."

We close the volume with our humble testimony that the Rev. Andrew Gray was one of the most enthusiastic and indefatigable of labourers in the great Vineyard, devoting himself entirely to the cause of truth, more immediately in connection with that branch of the church to which he belonged. He was acknowledged to be one of its most active and efficient members, but we shall take the liberty to say that his labours were not recognised by the leaders of his party, as they ought to have been. He is now gone, however, where envy and ambition will not stand between him and his reward.

REMARKS ON THE SCHOOLMASTERS' ACT OF 1861.* THE Parochial and Burgh Schoolmasters' Act of last year, like all other

* Remarks on the Parochial and Burgh Schoolmasters' Act, 1861, giving some Digest of the chief Provisions of the Statute. With an Appendix, containing the regulations respecting the examination of Schoolmasters-elect, issued by the University Examiners. By the Rev. J. S. Barty, D.D., Minister of Bendochy. Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh and London. ⚫ 1862.

Acts of Parliament, requires analysis and elucidation in order to be understood. Although the proverbial phrase of their admissability of a coach and six through them does not hold good in the present instance, yet there is an involution of reference, and a vagueness of statement in certain parts, which it requires a clear head and sound judgment to understand aright. Dr Barty has conferred a boon upon the Church, and the public in general, by publishing a minute and lucid exposition of this Act in the form of a shilling pamphlet, so that none may pretend ignorance on what has been the greatest invasion of the rights of the Church of Scotland since the days of the Reformation. The chief particulars which he has brought before the reader, in his admirable brochure, are the Tests, Government, and Maintenance, of the schoolmasters and their schools. The first two receive the principal attention, as little requires to be said on the head of Maintenance. What has been very greatly complained of in reading the Act, is the constant reference to former Acts, or "so much of them," or, "in so far as it does not interfere with," and such recurring phrases. Dr Barty states distinctly what these parts or clauses are to which this reference is made, and shows the alteration which has been effected, following them up with very sensible and pertinent remarks as he proceeds along. We shall best give an idea of his treatment of the subject by making one or two extracts:—

"Erastianism does not excite in us such terror as it does in many. In our view, there are worse things than Erastianism-such, for instance, as Sacerdotalism; but the Erastianism of this section (13th of this Statute) is somewhat too strong for our taste. Let it be observed, that whether the solemn declaration has been contravened by the Schoolmaster—that is, whether his religious instruction of the young has been inconsistent with the Holy Scriptures, and with the doctrines contained in the Shorter Catechism-is to be ultimately determined by the Secretary of State. Grave questions in theology and ecclesiastical polity, vitally affecting the character of the Parish Schools of Scotland, are to be conclusively disposed of by a Secretary of State, of whose competency to decide such questions the people of Scotland may know nothing, and may reasonably enough entertain some doubts. He may not be a Scotchman; he may have little or no knowledge of the character and working of our parish schools; he may not only have no sympathy with the summary of Christian doctrine and morality, contained in the Westminster Catechism, but he may despise it as a gloomy compend of Calvinistic bigotry; he may consider that all children are born 'good,' and that it is highly foolish to spoil their pristine innocence with any knowledge about original sin, or the necessity of an atonement and spiritual regeneration;-to such a judge, as supreme arbiter, may be committed the conservation of the scriptural and Christian education to be given in the parish schools of Scotland. The Secretary of State is finally to decide whether the schoolmaster, in the discharge of his functions, has done anything to the prejudice or subversion of the Established Church, or doctrines and privileges thereof. The Church, again, may reasonably doubt the competency of the judge, and may scruple to commit her doctrines and privileges to such guardianship, or care to compear in their defence before such a tribunal. It is surely one of the most surprising things of the present times, that any portion of the Free Church could have approved of, or petitioned for, a measure embodying such a provision as that contained in

the 13th section of this statute. One thing only would be more surprising, -namely, that any conscientious Free Churchman could be found to undertake the office of a parochial schoolmaster, seeing that his religious teaching and opinions are thereby to be judged before an ordeal so intensely Erastian. Section 13th of the Parochial and Burgh Schoolmasters' Act,' in the 'purer times' of the Free Church, would have insured the speedy excommunication of its framers from the pale of that church. If it was intended by that Act to open the parish schools to members of the Free Church, a shabbier door of entrance could not have been presented to them."

There is too much reason to believe that the Parish Schoolmasters to a large extent thought themselves in bondage in being subjected to superintendence of the Presbytery, and some expressed themselves as being entitled to independence as much as the Clergy, and consequently were anxious for the new regime. But they surely did not know what it was to be. Instead of being under one judicatory, they are now under five, as the proverb goes, "out of the frying-pan into the fire." Perhaps they wish to be back again. With regard to the power of the Presbytery to examine these schools still, we are told :—

"We understand that there is prevalent among our Presbyters an idea that their powers of superintendence and examination of our Parish Schools are diminished or destroyed by the new Statute. This is a palpable mistake. The general powers of superintendence vested in these by the Act 1803 (see its 19th section), are not only not repealed, but their powers of visitation and examination are really in gremio re-enacted by the new Statute. How can a Presbytery complain or prosecute, or concur with others in complaining against and prosecuting a Schoolmaster, without the unchallengeable right to enquire and examine into the manner in which he discharges his functions? By imposing such duties on a Presbytery, the Statute presupposes the existence of such a right. Indeed, the provisions of the Statute cannot be carried out unless Presbyteries possess this power. Presbyteries, however, may reply, that whereas they have no right to initiate a complaint, saving in the solitary case of the Declaration being contravened, and that whereas their opinions of the School and Schoolmaster, however carefully formed, can be of no avail, it will be time enough to enquire and examine when their intervention and concurrence are asked by the parties entitled to do 80. The response is natural-not applying to the religious instruction given in the School, with regard to which Presbyteries can prosecute when they see cause, and over which, it is to be feared, a more anxious and watchful superintendence is more than ever necessary. No doubt it seems a strange_omission in the Act, that Presbyteries, especially now that they are no longer judges, who of all parties named in the Act seem most competent to form an independent and impartial opinion of the School and Schoolmaster, should be denied the power of representing to the proper tribunal the cruel or improper treatment of the scholars, or the utter inefficiency and negligence of the Teacher. It was surely most unwise to reject this advantage of Presbyterial superintendence, and gained without any cost to the nation. Presbyteries may construe the omission as a personal slight (and it looks somewhat like. that); but if, in consequence, they relinquish their wonted duty of superintending and examining our Parish Schools, they will injure their own position, and not be treating fairly the provisions of the new Statute. No doubt the Heritors and six heads of families are entitled to call on them to inquire and to investigate. This is a statutory duty imposed on them, and if any