from its sacred recesses lessons of truth and holiness for their flocks, deserves to be encouraged; but in order to interpet the prophetic symbols and the words of divine utterance recorded by the entranced seer, qualifications are needed of a high and rare order, and to such, a great proportion of those who have assumed the office of interpreter can lay no claim. The office of preacher is totally distinct from that of an interpreter of prophecy; and what qualifies for the one may be no qualification for the other; and hence it is that some ministers who preach the word with fidelity and wisdom stumble into strange errors when they attempt to interpret prophecy. A judgment severe and well balanced, a scholarship solid, extensive, and profound, an imagination correct and well disciplined, a charity genial, kindly, and expansive, a faculty of elaborate and pains-taking research, and a mind fitted for patient philosophical analysis, are some of the qualifications which the expositor of the Revelations must needs possess. And when, therefore, we cast a glance at multitudes who have pressed forward as Apocalyptic interpreters, and examine their qualifications for the grave task they have taken in hand, we cannot help wishing that, when they turned in the direction of the Apocalypse, some cherubim with a flaming sword had scared them away from its sacred precincts. Take we up for example "The Two Witnesses, Traced in History," a little book from the pen of the Rev. Alexander Beith of Stirling, and we shall see in it a proof of the infinite rashness with which some men venture to handle the sacred oracles of God. This redoubtable visionary seems positively to have sat down to his desk with no better qualifications for the task in hand than a ferocious antipathy to the Established Church, and a Gaelic "distich" of four lines which he had ferretted from its hiding-place among the far cloudy uplands of Caledonia. We may be pardoned for expressing a grave doubt whether any Gaelic "distich," though equipped with seven instead of four lines, will ever succeed to cast much light upon the Book of Revelation; and with every disposition to think reverently of Colum of the Cells and every other Highland seer, still we do think that the Rev. Alexander Beith did wrong to place their elegant vaticinations alongside the sacred oracles. And yet were he to purge away in a second edition his exquisite "distich," he would positively purge away all the scholarship of the book; and this opinion we deliberately express at the moment that we have before our mind's eye the words tα and Ovμata av so frequently printed within parentheses, and designed doubtless to lead to a very different conclusion. He runs tilt against our Universities "for lavishing academical honours on most unseemly objects and withholding them from the politically slain;" (p. 141) and this much we take the liberty to say, that were our venerable professors to take his open and palpable hint, and bestow their "academical honours" upon the Rev. Alexander Beith, they would well merit even a bloodier thrust than that which he has so valourously aimed at them. Yet, although his whole scholarship can be trussed into a "distich" with four lines, he boldly enters the field, and with a fiery and terrible mien, runs amuck against Elliot and all other expositors who will not interpret the prophetic symbols to the glo

rification of the Free Church. We would be deeply grieved, however, were we unjustly depreciating an opponent. Our idea of the requisite qualification for interpreting prophecy may be erroneous; and we frankly confess that had we considered a sour and savage bigotry, and the acrid humours of a distempered organisation, good qualifications for the task, we would have introduced the author of the " Two Witnesses traced in History" as eminently qualified to perform it well; but if these are not the proper qualifications, then is the Rev. Alex. Beith not qualified.

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We have alluded to the author of the " Two Witnesses Traced in History," certainly from no wish to slay the slain, but because he may regarded as the type of a numerous class who resort to the Apocalypse with strong sectarian leanings, and are thereby morally disqualified to be safe guides; and farther, because he is a memorable example of a man writing a book of upwards of 200 pages upon a subject which he does not understand, and is consequently a fit example to be held up to warn others off. In glancing over the book now before us, entitled, "Popular Readings in the Revelations, by a Minister of the Church of Scotland," the first feature that strikes us is the charitable and enlarged spirit in which it is written, and which contrasts strikingly with the spirit that characterises the productions of Mr. Beith, and the other expositors of the Free Church. The author, whoever he is, is clearly as warmly attached to his church, as they are to their's; yet he never permits his judgment to be so warped by this attachment as to reach, through the imagery of the Revelation, a wound to his fellow Christians. Many interpreters have marked the pliancy of the prophetic symbols to this use, and have wanted magnanimity to forego the gratification; but the author of "Popular Readings," although no one more readily than he could see that, when Free Church expositors employed the imagery of the Apocalypse to strike at and wound the Church, they were playing with two-edged tools, has forborne to resent the wrong. With more comprehensive, as well as more charitable judgment, he interprets the one set of symbols of the Protestant churches generally, and the other of the acknowledged enemies of the Church of Christ, both in the East and West.

"These, then, are the leading enemies that, during the last eighteen hundred years, have come into collision with the Church of Christ. How natural, then, to interpret the symbols in regard to these events; and how absurd, therefore, to restrain them to one particular sect or party. Some bigotted churchman have found nothing in the Revelations but Establishment symbols, the bigotted voluntary, nothing but anti-State Church symbols-the bigotted Free-Churchman, nothing but the Headship symbols; and that they only are the true witnesses for Christ, clad in sackcloth, and to be yet trodden under foot for three and a-half years. All such jaundiced views are too limited, &c."-p. 91.

We take upon us to affirm that the spirit in which these remarks are conceived, is more amiable and more worthy of respect than the sour bigotry which characterizes not only the famous diatribe of Beith, but the less objectionable disquisitions of Drs. Keith and Candlish; and we do still farther venture to affirm, with all due deference to the

Dunoon dreamer, that this wide-armed charity is characteristic of the Church of our fathers, notwithstanding the provocation offered to her by the taunts and false accusations of her enemies. When false and calumnious charges are tacked to her name, she may well be pardoned for indignantly spurning them away, at the risk of administering a rougher buffet to the assailant than the finical martinets of Christian discipline may approve: but the disposition of the Church is thoroughly charitable, and even at the moment when most scorned and wronged by her children, she opened her arms for Christian fellowship, not only with them, but with the whole Protestant sisterhood. The act passed a few years ago in reference to the admission of ministers of other denominations to her pulpits, cannot be viewed as an uncharitable separation from the communion of Christendom; it served the purposes of certain Free Church rhetoricians so to represent it: but if viewed aright, it will be seen to be but the embodiment of a faithful concern to protect the purity of her doctrine. It had no reference to Christian communion whatever, but simply to the guardianship of her people, against the risk of hearing doctrine at variance with her standards, which she must hold herself ever bound to defend; and it was surely quite in accordance with the genius of Presbytery to require of her ministers, before admitting others to her pulpits, whom the Church had not recognized, to obtain the consent of the first court above. If the delay, caused by the application to the Presbytery of the bounds, should, in some cases, defeat the end in view, still it can only be regarded as an error on the safe side. But, while thus faithfully guarding the truth committed to her trust, the Church leaves to her children the utmost liberty of thought and action in holding communion with those belong. ing to any other branch of the Church universal. They may join the Evangelical Alliance; they may entertain any of whatever name, and kneel with them at a throne of grace: they may co-operate with them in all Christian effort: the Church permits them to go to any length in following out their ideas of Christian communion, save and except to imperil the purity of her testimony. Indeed it is confessed by unbiased parties, that the Church is pre-eminently better prepared for Christian union, by the spirit she cherishes, than any other church in Scotland; she can better afford to be charitable, and can more safely, than any other, act out her own special mission without the jealous dread of a rival; for the disaffection of those who have separated, is fed by misrepresentation and false charges, the power of which, Christian intercourse would gradually weaken and destroy. Hence, the Church has ever been more ready to advance than any other church to respond, and if, in some cases, the dissenting ministers have met the parish clergyman in a generous and brotherly temper, the instinct of selfpreservation has compelled them sooner or later to draw off. Disaffection always operates to the disadvantage of an Established Church, but it is the life of dissenting communities, and to humour it successfully is the way to fill their pews, and swell their seat-rents. To live upon kind and brotherly terms with the minister of the parish for any length of time, would be to starve disaffection to death; and dissenting ministers, except a few, who, by intellectual and moral elevation, can com

mand their position and dictate their own terms, find themselves compelled, however desirous to act otherwise, to bow to the necessities of their position. It was foolish, and could scarcely be sincere, on the part of the Free orators, to twit a church that can lose nothing, and gain much by charity, with having cast off communion with Christendom; and it was a singular absurdity for those to organize an Evangelical Alliance, to whose prosperity, exclusiveness and finesse are so essential. We may well commiserate the position of a church which charity can damage; and, on the other hand, we may well glory in the position of a church whose pulpits can be given up to the publication of God's truth alone, and not party violence, and all whose members can afford to think well, and speak kindly of all other denomina

tions.

We are, therefore, glad to find that the author of the "Popular Readings" is faithful to the spirit of his Church, and never in his most fervent appeals deals out a side blow at a rival community. The temptation to do so was offered, but he nobly resisted it, satisfied that, amid all denominational varieties, there is in all the churches of the Reformation where the spirit of Protestantism at all exists, that which commands respect, and which a Christian spirit should never permit itself to set at nought.

The object which he has proposed to himself is modest enough, and if he has not accomplished it entirely to our satisfaction, he has, at least, given the promise of future success. Deeply impressed with the belief that the prophecy is nearing its fulfilment, and that it would be of general utility to the Christian public at such a time to have the views of the best commentators in a compressed and accessible form, he has endeavoured to supply the desideratum. The bulky volumes through which he has patiently waded, are beyond the reach of the Christian people in more ways than one; and, if the light cast on the prophetic roll by the researches of the more gifted interpreters can be so condensed that the whole Christian people may share it, a point of no mean importance is gained. Even when the basis of the interpretation cannot be examined, or its evidences and illustrations traced out, it must still be interesting to every intelligent Christian, to know what views the more learned and judicious divines have adopted upon points so interesting; and a minister may, therefore, be most profitably employed in condensing into easy" Popular Readings," the results of his own more extensive and elaborate studies. In stating his object, the author says in his preface :

"There is nothing original, or that pretends to learning, in the following sketches. Their object, apart from controversies and learned disquisitions, is to give in as condensed and cheap a form as possible, the leading ideas of the chief commentators of this divine book, particularly of Elliot, whose work is the most erudite and convincing in any language. Their views are so important in connexion with the present times, that it seems proper the Christian reading public should have them brought within their reach, which is not the case at present, from the high price of these works."

In prosecuting his purpose, he exercises his own judgment to select

and put forward such views as he conceives faithfully illustrate the prophecy; and, in doing so, he displays much pains-taking research. The ambling palfrey of Dr. Candlish, can carry him over the field at a dainty canter; the quadruped of Mr. Beith, whether called distich or donkey, can stick his stubborn soles on the area, and snore out in untaught notes his own proper grievances; but he who would succeed as a judicious expounder of prophecy must be careful to avoid the perfunctory facility of the one, as well as the sectarian and illiterate furor of the other. The Popular Readings show proof of extensive research, of ardent zeal, and of a charitable spirit; and, in our opinion, are fitted to awaken the most serious reflections in these momentous times.

We are fully persuaded, however, from certain marks of immaturity, both in thought and style, that he is not only a very young author, but a very young man. His style does not show the freedom of a practised writer, or the consistence of expression and character, of a mind habituated to give written conveyance to its thoughts, or the uniform clearness which long exercise makes easy; but, on the contrary, varies in a few pages from considerable melody and cadence, to curt and confused sentences. The thought, too, is of the same diversified cast, being in one place brought out with appropriate force and clearness, and in another ill-conceived, and consequently, not well-expressed. These defects we venture to draw the author's attention to, that in his future efforts he may take pains to avoid them; and with more experience and elaborate care, he may acquire an influential place in the Church of God.

While in a fault-finding vein, we would draw attention to a point of much graver moment than the above, as it refers not to the mere mode of expressing opinion, but to the opinion itself, not to the outward form, but the inward spirit. As a text upon which to found our strictures, we quote the following paragraph from page 133;

"Robert Hall said, when the first French Revolution threatened the overthrow of society at large, that the masses are the foundation of the social pyramid; and if so, it is our duty in these days, when Socialism and ignorance have massacred their thousands in France; and when, in consequence, a reign of terror now exists, more dire than that of Robespierre, to see, while kings, and generals, and thrones are falling, that the masses be educated, that our prisons be not filled with irresponsible persons, who know not the laws of God, much less those of man; that the foundation of the social pyramid be secure; for, unless the masses be enlightened with the knowledge of the truth, Church and State, as in other places, like the pyramid without a foundation may be speedily overthrown."

We have no fault to find with the counsel actually offered, but on the contrary, deem it to be highly judicious and well-advised. To educate the masses, provided the education be of the right sort, is the true way to grapple with the evils that are now flooding in upon society; and we make bold to affirm, that there is no higher or more honourable field of exertion for patriots and philanthropists to cultivate than this. Lord Ashley, we conceive, has never laid the axe to the root, but simply contented himself with pruning off some of the more decayed branches. Of what real benefit can it be to our operatives to limit their hours of labour, if ade