tion on the part of the Church. The Promises have long lain dormant through our unbelief; yet they are sufficiently ample to warrant our expectation of the moral subjugation of the world, -the diffusion of the light of Christianity as wide as the light of day, the removal of the veil that is spread over the face of all nations. The secret of success consists in expecting great things. Those who expect little, receive little: those who expect much, must receive much, if they expect in faith, for their prayers will be in proportion to their expectations. In the worst times of spiritual coldness and decay, men obtain what they pray for; for we must recollect, that the meaning of men's prayers is interpreted by their views. If they ask for an enlargement, or a Revival in the Church, they must interpret their own words; and in general, according to their sentiments of what they conceive to be the fitting progress of Messiah's kingdom, will be the answer to their petitions. Some persons wish that kingdom to be advanced without observation, with silent and almost imperceptible accession of new members from time to time, without noise or opposition; and they have in general what they desire. We have heard of others who have fixed their wishes at fifteen or twenty converts a year; and it has been done unto them, apparently, according to their wish. The American ministers, in many instances, pray for Revivals, understanding by that term, periodical awakenings to religion; and their petitions are answered beyond their expectation. There are a few whose minds are beginning to aspire after still higher blessings; who would seek, by prayer without ceasing, for one long, uninterrupted, and never-ending Revival; and they, when many become like-minded with them, will doubtless obtain their request, if they faint not, but continue instant in prayer.

With respect to Revivals, then, we consider prayer as the great means to be used. Prayer of itself, where the means are prepared, would perform all that is wanting. Prayer will open the mouths of ministers, and the ears and hearts of congregations. Still, with respect to instrumental means, something may be effected by novelty. Not so much through the more vivid impression produced upon the mind of the hearer, as that, by its unexpectedness, it forces those who have long sat careless and sermon-proof, to make anew their choice between death and life, and to make that choice under more favourable circumstances, when many prayers are abroad, and the Spirit of God is moving upon the hearts of men. And for the same reason that the appeal to the conscience, to be effective, must be unusual, it must also be prolonged, that the doubtful preference may be fixed into an unalterable choice. As to what has been termed the machinery of Revivals, we set small value upon it; and in this we appear to have the authority of the most judicious of the American divines upon our side. The Scriptures themselves contain all the measures

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which are desirable for their own publication. There are, in effect, but two measures necessary for the conversion of the world; the universal publication of the word, and prayer, without ceasing, that the word should be accompanied with the Spirit.

It would not be easy to ascertain to what extent the necessity of a Revival among ourselves is recognized and felt. We have found that the taught, in many instances, are more sensible of existing deficiencies than the teachers. Too many good men seem sufficiently resigned to the unproductiveness of their own exertions. Others are discontented with themselves and their situation: they have an uneasy conviction that all is not right, but never pursue their inquiries to any assured and final conclusion. A few have done their utmost to revive the work of the Lord in the midst of our land. We may refer for an instance to the successful labours of Mr. James, of Birmingham, the writer of one of these introductory essays, and who, in the present volume, is ably supported by his friend, Mr. Redford. May He who " has the residue of the spirit," raise up many such faithful heralds to proclaim the glad tidings of the redemption of the church, and of the restoration of Zion !

We have spoken of America as needing extraordinary measures of religious instruction, so as to overtake the wants of an ever-advancing population. Britain, if religion is not to decline among us, will soon, on her part, require a new infusion of spiritual life. A rapid change is taking place in the mind of the country. Other objects and pursuits are pressing with a tenfold force upon the thoughts of men. If religious truths are not presented with a new vigour and interest, they are likely to engage but a diminished share of the attention which they have even hitherto experienced from the indifferent. From the changes in politics and the diffusion of science, the interests of this life are assuming higher attractions, and exerting a deeper sway over the imagination and the heart. With respect to multitudes, religion is thus silently retiring to the back ground. The faint impression which it has ever made, becomes still fainter; and its voice, imperfectly heard before, is altogether drowned amid the bustle and agitation of life. Unless the Spirit from on high be poured out upon us, unless more vigorous means are used, and far more vehement supplications offered up, the Church of Christ, divided as it already is into factions, and earnest about things which profit not, will soon become stationary, and then rapidly decline.

Our hope is, that there are still many watchmen on the walls of our Zion, who are not silent either by night or by day. They know from what quarter help must come. Their cry is like that of the prophet, "Awake! Awake! O arm of the Lord;" for they know that, in the first instance, it is in vain to awaken the

slumbering inhabitants of Jerusalem. But when the arm of the Lord has "put on strength," then their second watch-cry shall resound over the city of the Lord: "Awake! awake! stand up, O Jerusalem;" knowing that an Almighty arm is about to "raise her from the dust." And the third and final appeal is for Jerusalem to take the throne that has been prepared for her, even the throne of the world. "Awake! awake! put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the Holy City!"

Art. III. 1. Harmonia Evangelica. Edidit Edvardus Greswell, A.M., &c. 8vo. Oxon.

2. Dissertations upon the Principles and Arrangement of a Harmony of the Gospels. By the Rev. Edw. Greswell, M.A., &c. 3 vols. 8vo. Oxford.

3. A Harmony of the Four Gospels, in the English authorized Version, arranged according to Greswell's "Harmonia Evangelica" in Greek; with References to his Dissertations on the Same. By Permission of the Author. Intended principally as an Accompaniment to a Pictorial and Geographical Chart (by R. Mimpriss) of the History of the Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ. 8vo. pp. 352. London, 1833.

(Continued from page 22.)

WE proceed, in the present article, to exhibit some specimens of the application of the principles laid down by Mr. Greswell, to the Harmony itself; and in so doing, we shall avail ourselves of the English Harmony which, with his permission, has been constructed upon the model of his arrangement of the Greek

text.

Mr. Greswell divides the harmonized evangelical narrative into five parts, as follows:

Part I. Matt. i. ii; Luke i-iii. 38. Comprehending the space of 31 years; viz. from A.U.C. 748, answering to B.c. 6, to A.U.C. 779, or A.D. 26.

Part II. Matt. iii. viii. 4; 14-17. ix. 2-9. Mark i.-ii. 22. Luke iii. 1-23; iv. v. John i. iv. Comprehending one year and six months; viz., from the commencement of the preaching of John the Baptist, A.D. 26 medio, to the end of the first year of the ministry of Jesus Christ, A.D. 28 ineuntem.

Part III. Matt. viii. 5-13; 18—34. ix. 1.; 10-38. x. xiv. Mark ii. 23-28. iii. vi. Luke vi. ix. 17. John v. vi. Comprehending the space of twelve months, from the end of the first year of the ministry of Jesus Christ, A.D. 28, ineunte, to the end of the second year of the same, A.D. 29, ineuntem.

Part IV. Matt. xv.xxvii. Mark vii. xv. Luke ix. 18-xxiii. John vii.-xix. Comprehending the space of twelve months, from the end of the second year of Our Lord's ministry, to the end of the third year, A.D. 30, ineuntem.

Part V. Matt. xxviii. Mark xvi. Luke xxiv. John xx. xxi. Comprehending the forty days from the morning of Our Lord's Resurrection, April 7, to the day of his Ascension, May 16, A.D.

30.

This division, our readers will perceive, is purely chronological, and not founded upon any natural divisions of the subject matter of the Gospels. Part I., which comprehends 31 years, occupies only 13 pages of the Harmony, consisting of the first two chapters of Matthew, and the first three chapters of Luke. Within the compass of this brief introductory portion, however, there occur one or two points of considerable difficulty, as regards the exact arrangement and chronology. Mr. Greswell commences his Harmony with the exordium of Luke's Gospel, as Calvin has done; and, with that commentator, he proceeds regularly as far as ver. 55 of the first chapter; but he then introduces, as parallel to ver. 56, Matt. i. 18-25. He then resumes Luke's narrative to ver. 21 of chap. ii., where he inserts the double genealogy given by the two evangelists; and then continues Luke ii. to ver. 38. The visit of the Magi and the events dependent upon it, Matt. ii. 1-23, are next given; and the part concludes with Luke ii. 40-52. Calvin pursues Luke's narrative to the end of his first chapter, where he introduces the genealogies. He then continues Matthew's Gospel to the end of chap. i.; follows this with Luke ii. 1-21; then gives the visit of the Magi, Matt. ii. 1-12; but interposes Luke ii. 22-39 between that verse and vss. 13-23; and lastly, gives Luke ii. 40-52.

The placing of the genealogies is a point of small moment; but their respective position in the two Gospels is deserving of notice. It would have been unnatural and inappropriate for Luke to commence his history with the genealogy of Christ, the circumstances of whose birth are not adverted to before ver. 26. No good opportunity occurs for introducing it, till, on mentioning the age of Our Lord on entering upon his public ministry, this Evangelist appositely connects with that circumstance, his descent by blood from the royal house of David; tracing his genealogy still upward to Adam, as if to represent him as the promised seed of the Woman, in whom all nations of the earth were alike interested. St. Matthew, on the contrary, could not but affix his transcript of Our Lord's legal genealogy as the heir of David, through the line of Solomon, and the descendant of Abraham, at the very beginning of his Gospel, as one indispensable proof of that which it was his main object to establish, the Messiahship of Jesus; and he connects it immediately with the miraculous circumstances of his birth. It stands there in its appropriate and only suitable place, in a work written with a specific reference to that object, as a legal document attesting the validity of Our Lord's pretensions as the predicted Son of David, one of the prophetic marks by which he was to be recognized, and a sine quá non, therefore, in the estimation of the Jewish people. In each Gospel, then, the genealogy occupies its proper place; and the transposition required in a harmony, is the first instance of that disadvantageous sacrifice of the natural arrangement to the artificial, which meets us at almost every step. The legal genealogy might, it is true, have been connected by St. Luke, with his account of the reasons which led to Joseph's repairing to Bethlehem, or with the circumcision of Our Lord; instead of which, the fact, that Joseph was of the lineage of David, as proved by St. Matthew, is merely mentioned Luke ii. 4. But the descent of Our Lord from Adam, as given by St. Luke, would have been irrelevant in that connexion, as well as an interruption of the narrative, and is therefore reserved for the place in which it occurs in the text of that Evangelist.

A dissertation is devoted to the apparent discrepancy between the two genealogies, and to some minor critical difficulties, which the reader will consult with advantage. As it was not the custom of the Jews to exhibit the genealogy of females as such, the genealogy of Christ, Mr. Greswell remarks, would not be formally exhibited as his genealogy through Mary, but through her husband, who stood in the same relation to the father of Mary, as Mary herself.

'As the natural genealogy of Joseph, distinct from Mary's, was exhibited by St. Matthew as the legal genealogy of Jesus, so, the natural genealogy of Jesus, distinct from Joseph's, is exhibited by St. Luke as the legal genealogy of Joseph. The language of this Evangelist is as much adapted to the support of this conclusion, as the language of St. Matthew to the support of the former. For, first, the words ὧν ὡς ἐνομίζετο, premised to the account, by setting forth Our Lord as the reputed, and not as the actual son of Joseph, do clearly imply that the genealogy which follows, apparently through Joseph, could not be the natural genealogy of both; and, if it was real in respect to either, it could be only imputed in respect to the other. Secondly, his mode of expressing the relation between the successive links, seems purposely chosen to describe an acquired, as well as a natural relation; for it is such as to apply to both. We have but to suppose that Mary was the daughter of Eli, and we assign a reason why the descent of Our Lord, though in reality through Mary, might yet be set forth as apparently through Joseph.... It is certain that, as both descended from David, Joseph and Mary were of kin; and, as both standing at analogous points in the lines of this descent, it is probable that they were the next of kin. If the Jewish records did not recognize Mary, though the daughter of Eli, except as the wife of Joseph, her son, who would appear to be his son, must be described accordingly'. Vol. II. pp. 103, 106.