directly antagonistic on the most vital points to the doctrine of the Confession, were never prosecuted, and if they had been prosecuted, would probably not have been convicted. For effective discipline there is needed not only a good standard, but a public sentiment in harmony with it throughout the Church. If this public sentiment fail, the most perfect standard and the most rigid formula will not secure the ends of discipline; if, on the other hand, public sentiment be sound and hearty, it will work very well even through the American formula, and will not have much difficulty in vindicating, in the way of discipline, the great system of doctrine which we prize in the Confession.

There are some things that cannot be secured by any artificial or mechanical securities which we may adopt. It is too often a device of human untrustfulness, both in individual and in church life, to try to secure by human means what can only come to us, day by day, by the gracious will and pleasure of our Divine Head. Men try to secure the means of living, and of living comfortably, beyond all accident or loss, till the prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread," sounds like a mere form. In Scotland, we tried for centuries to secure the spiritual liberties of the church through Revolution settlements, and other Acts and compacts, that seemed to leave no point unprotected; and we still try to secure orthodoxy through confessions, formulas, and subscriptions of a very stringent kind. Now, in all these cases, the attempt at security is entirely justifiable, if it be felt that what we do is only one part, and not the chief part of a compound process. There is something else beyond the industry and storing wisdom of the ant needed to secure our daily bread. There is something else, beyond Parliamentary securities, needed to perpetuate the liberties of the church. And there is something else, beyond subscription to formulas, needed to secure the orthodox teaching of the ministry. We must depend on the Divine Teacher of the Church to reproduce, from age to age, in the minds of the ministers, a living perception and conviction of the truth as it is in Jesus; and to gender throughout all her borders a jealous regard for that truth, not in the mere letter, but in the spirit; so that those who deviate from it shall not be permitted to spread error where they exercise their ministry. The opponents of creeds

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taunt us with trying, by means of old parchments, to secure what in reality can be secured only by the perpetual indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of our ministers, and His constant presence in the courts of our Church. To this our reply is, that we do not hold to creeds, or to anything of the kind, in such a sense as to exclude what is so infinitely more important and necessary. We feel that we need a standard of doctrine, because if any case were to arise demanding discipline, our time, without such a standard, would be wasted in settling the principles on which it was to be dealt with, and we should be liable to irregular and arbitrary action. But while we make this use of the standard, we feel that we must have a higher Teacher-even the Spirit of Truth-to inspire all, both with a personal attachment to the truth, and with zeal for its maintenance within our borders. And the feeling we have on the matter in hand is, that if the Spirit of Truth is in this way present in a church, a formula designed to provide what Dr Hodge argues that the American formula is designed to provide, will be a sufficient and secure enough basis for the exercise of discipline.

There is one great advantage of some such formula, to which we cannot close without adverting. It would be the means, we believe, of greatly increasing the world's faith in the honesty of subscribers. As matters are conducted at present, the world pooh-poohs the fact that the Confession of Faith is accepted by the great body of Presbyterian ministers. It does not give them credit for accepting it ex animo, in the sense and to the degree implied in their subscription. It maintains that they accept it with reservations, and that the reservations sometimes amount to renunciations. This impression, strong enough otherwise, is much increased when subscription is defended on the grounds which Principal Tulloch in his recent work ascribes to some of the Cambridge Platonists, and which was recently assumed by Mr Knight in the Contemporary. But it is an impression much to be regretted. We believe that in reality there is a remarkable concurrence of belief, throughout the Presbyterian world, in the pith and marrow, the soul and substance, of the Confession. But the formula being what it is, the fact of subscription is apt to be set down to custom or compulsion, and is not regarded as indicating the remarkable degree to which the body of its

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teaching is really held by the subscribers. The signatories do not get credit before the world for the amount of sincerity which they really have. It is not allowed that the symbol which they subscribe expresses their real faith to the extent to which it does so. Now, if there be one thing more than another needing to be made clear at the present day, it is that honesty of subscription is not only possible, but actual. It would not be easy to estimate the moral gain, if Presbyterian subscription were such that there could be no reasonable ground for questioning its bona fide character.

We are well aware that what we have written is liable to be deemed very unsatisfactory by those standing at both extremes on this question. To some, the amount of relaxation will seem too trifling to be worth contending for. To others, it will appear a dangerous precedent, a lifting of anchors and a changing of moorings, which would lead—no man can tell whither. To the former, we would say that the measure of relaxation for which we plead is large enough to satisfy reasonable demands, -demands consistent with the spirit and aims of the Reformed Church. We certainly are no advocates of a change which would permit a man to minister in the Presbyterian Church without holding or teaching anything definite regarding sin and its punishment, regarding grace and redemption, regarding justification and regeneration. Nothing repels us more than the bold attempt of some, after dipping natural religion in a solution of Christianity, to exhibit the plated article as the genuine revelation of God. The policy which would get rid of creeds to make room for Deism tipped with Christianity, is one which excites not only our aversion, but our contempt.

Those who object to all reasonable concession, on the ground that they cannot tell what might come to be demanded next, just follow that blind course of obstruction which has usually ended in precipitating the evils they desired to avert. As a distinguished living divine has said, "When people speak of nailing their colours to the mast, it would often be more correct to say that they nail their ship to the quay." There would be some cause for their apprehensions if the relaxation were made in the interest of persons evidently falling away from the Calvinistic theology, towards that baptised Deism which may yet try to dispute the claims of the doctrines of grace. But there is no reason for such a surmise. When we survey the Presby

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terian Churches, we remark on the whole-for the exceptions are not very numerous-a widespread attachment to evangelical truth, and a strong conviction that their power of usefulness depends, under God's blessing, on their holding it fast. This fact ought surely to awaken in us devout thankfulness to God. We have written this paper, honestly and earnestly, in the interest of evangelical truth. We have tried to be both frank and temperate, feeling that the question is both difficult and delicate, and that much consideration and much discussion from opposite points of view are needed for a settlement of it. It is a contribution to a subject which will require many contributions before it is ripe for adjustment.

W. G. BLAIKIE.

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ART. IV. The Materialistic Philosophy.

THERE is an idea widely prevalent that speculations of a metaphysical and ethical kind are of no practical utility. They may, it is allowed, afford scope for the mental exercitation and enjoyment of a few, but can in no way be interesting to, or influential among, the many. Hence there is, in many quarters, a prejudice against all manner of philosophical inquiry. It is believed to originate in mere fantasy, and to lead to no satisfactory conclusion. This, however, is a complete mistake, and curiously enough, is a mistake which can be defended only by a kind of felo de se. Man must philosophise, even to shew the absurdity or inutility of philosophy. All questions of highest moment necessarily demand more than a merely superficial consideration. They have their deep and dark foundations, and it is only minds of the humblest kind that are not necessitated, at one time or another, to inquire into these foundations. That a thing is, may be quite satisfactory to multitudes in their ordinary moods, but why it is, must be occasionally asked, even by them; while it is the question which imperatively forces itself on those who cannot but pierce beneath the surface, and who must have reason, not tradition, for their guide. Moreover, metaphysical and ethical inquiries are always interesting, both as indicating the kind of thought by which an age is distinguished, and as exerting a

most potent influence on it. They may be looked upon as at once cause and effect. It is readily conceded that the poetry of an age both expresses and powerfully influences its character. The saying of Fletcher of Saltoun, "Let who will make the laws of a country, but let me write its songs," is frequently quoted and generally approved. But though it is not equally obvious, it is equally true, that the thinker, no less than the poet, is to a large extent, both made by, and is the maker of, the age in which he lives. Minds are moulded, and conduct shaped, by the speculations of the solitary sage who inquires into those deeper principles which lie at the root of all action, and by which men are irresistibly, though often unconsciously, governed.

If there is any truth and force in these reflections, we cannot regard with satisfaction the prevalence of the materialistic philosophy, and the favour with which it is received by not a few who are interested in such matters. Its tendency undoubtedly is towards what is superficial in thought and mischievous in morals, and it deserves therefore to be clearly exposed and faithfully rebuked. It finds no more popular expounder and advocate than Professor Bain of Aberdeen; and as a consideration of his elaborate works will necessarily include the main positions of the most advanced materialists, we propose to subject them to a careful, but we trust also candid, consideration.

Personal identity is in this connection confessedly a subject of first importance; it may be well, therefore, at the outset, to hear what Mr Bain says concerning it :

"The proper meaning of self," he tells us, can be nothing more than my corporeal existence, coupled with my sensations, thoughts, emotions, and volitions, supposing the classification exhausted, and the sum of these in the past, present, and future. The action of the lungs, the movements of the heart, are self-determined; and when I go to the fire to get warm, lie down under fatigue, ascend a height for the sake of a prospect, the actions are as much self-determined as it is possible for actions to be. I am not able to concede the existence of an inscrutable entity, in the depth of one's being, to which the name 'I' is to be distinctively applied, and not consisting of any bodily organisations, or any one mental phenomenon that can be specified. We might as well talk of a mineral as different from the sum of all its assignable properties."

It is said a straw will shew in which direction the stream flows, and the comparison here used indicates the habitual and apparently irresistible tendency of Mr Bain's mind. He com