men.

extraordinary efforts, collected and put in the field in forty days a completely organized and equipped army of fifteen thousand It was his promptness and vigor that caused the result of the campaign to favor the English, although he was not actually in command until after the battles.

In the autumn of 1847, he resigned and left Scinde to save the life of his wife, and returned to England. He was not to stay there long, however. A great disaster befel the British

arms, and their entire power in the East was seriously threatened. So great was the danger that the Duke of Wellington sent for General Napier, and begged him to go out and take command. "Either you or I must go," were his words. Napier consented, and the Directors, though hostile to him, were forced to accept him.

He reached India after the battle of Goojerat had been fought, and the danger averted. He at once set to work to reform the army. The work was difficult, and he had to encounter the hostility of the Governor General and Council, who exerted all their energies to thwart him. Being his superiors in rank they succeeded in many instances: but, undaunted, he persevered, and in spite of the jealousy and hostility which surrounded him, succeeded in rendering the Indian army more efficient than it had ever been before.

In January, 1851, he left India for England again. His journey was an ovation. Crowds of natives whom he had conquered, and then ruled so wisely that they learned to love him, surrounded him with every mark of honor and affection. In Scinde he was presented with a sword, and his reception at Bombay was a triumph.

The remainder of his life was passed in tranquility. His last appearance in public was as one of the pall bearers at the funeral of the Duke of Wellington.

On the 29th of August, 1853, he expired peacefully. He lay on his old camp bedstead, surrounded by trophics of his Indian campaigns. At his feet was the chief Ameer's white marble chair of state, on which lay his service sword, which he had inherited from his father, and over his head flapped in the morning breeze the colors of the 22d Regiment that had led

the fight at Meeanee and Dubba. Amid these, and surrounded by his weeping family, the spirit of the great soldier went back to the God who gave it.

Here we must lay down our pen. Our task has been a pleasant one, but we feel that we have not done justice to the theme. We have endeavored to tell simply and briefly the story of one to whom, though great in his manhood and his prime, it was reserved to become in his old age, a period of life when most men are content to live upon the past, one of "those privileged beings who appear in history from time to time like luminous beacons, dissipating the darkness of their epoch, and throwing light into the future."

ARTICLE VI.

SHORT SERMONS.

"Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."—Isa. lv. 6, 7.

In almost every earthly pursuit there is a favorable time for accomplishing human purposes, a time adapted to success. And the larger part of man's achievement is to be accounted for by the aptness with which this favorable time is discerned, and the facility with which it is seized upon. "Strike while the iron is hot."

The same principle applies to things spiritual and eternal. All times are suitable for seeking the Lord; and yet there are times which are more especially so, times which hold out stronger encouragement, and afford greater facilities, times when it is peculiarly true that the Lord is near, and may be found.

The text is an exhortation to men to improve these seasons of God's especial nearness in their search for Him.

I. It is implied here that men must seek the Lord would they find Him; that they have lost Him, that they are without Him in the world. The word "seek" in the text, originally signifies to "tread a

place by frequent coming and going," as an individual in search of something lost.

II. It is implied that there is a time especially favorable for this work of seeking the Lord. There are seasons of revival when men feel inwardly constrained to flee from the wrath to come. Isaiah describes such a season: "For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upou thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring. And they shall spring up as among the grass-as willows by the water-courses. One shall say, I am the Lord's; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel." Here is a period in which the tide sets toward the church. God is near, in an especial sense. His word is as the fire and hammer.

III. The text describes the manner in which God is to be sought at such times. He has given us his own directions.

1. The first step is the abandonment of sinful practices. "Let the wicked forsake his way," his habits. His habits are opposed to God. If a man would think right, he must do right. A part of Christian character is abstinence from evil. "Cease to do evil." 2. The second step is the abandonment of the sinful purpose. "Let the unrighteous man forsake his thoughts," his plans, his purposes, his views.

3. He must return unto the Lord. Something positive is to be done. He must come just as he is, by repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

IV. What prospect has a man who is thus seeking the Lord?

1. God will have compassion on him. Mercy is what man wants, not justice.

2. God will" abundantly pardon him"; free him from the full penalty of the law; not wink at his transgression. God pardons abundantly, obliterates, annihilates transgression; washes it away;

blots it out.

Such is the Being, and this is the time and method of seeking Him. There is one consideration which we may well remember in conclusion. It is implied in the text that there are times when God may not be found. Favorable opportunities imply unfavorable ones. Ease implies difficulty. "The wind bloweth where it listeth.' There is a day of salvation. Improve it. There is an accepted time. Adopt it.

"And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee."-Acts xxiv. 25.

God's servants are often called to plead His cause before the great: Moses before Pharaoh, Nathan before David, Elijah before Ahab, the second Elijah before Herod, and the Apostle before the covetous and lustful Felix. All men need the same repentance and blood of cleansing, the same uplifted sacrifice.

Felix is the type of the impenitent man of every generation.

I. Felix had a curiosity to hear the truth. Probably, like many a modern hearer, he expected some elaborate and philosophical discussion of the new system of faith. Paul knew his duty better. He did not come to tickle itching ears; but to awaken the conscience.

II. Felix rejected the Gospel without intending it. He trembled in view of a meeting with his Judge. He might have done as did the jailor of Philippi. He concluded to defer the matter for the present.

So impenitent men now do mean to repent; but not now. They must be deliberate about it. When the Apostle preached, then was Felix' opportunity, his convenient season. Now is theirs.

In Felix' reply to the Apostle, three false and dangerous sentiments are implied.

1. That repentance is a favor to God, and not an obligation, a necessity resting upon His creatures.

2. That every man will have a convenient season for repentance. 3. That, then, he has only to call, and God will answer.

Like Felix, most men reject the Gospel without intending it. They never say, "Go thy way forever!" but only, "for this time!" They hear from curiosity, from habit, to resolve upon future repent

ance.

III. This conduct of Felix, and those of whom he is a type, appears in its true light, only when we consider that all the promises of salvation which God has made, have to do with the present time. "To-day." "Now." "Boast not thyself of to-morrow." Augustine prayed, "O Lord, make me chaste and continent, but not now."

How procrastination in believers confirms and co-operates with that of unbelievers. Dr. Chalmers spent the evening in conversation with a man who died during the night, and never mentioned the Saviour's love. "Be instant in season, out of season."

ARTICLE VII.

LITERARY NOTICES.

1.-The Divine Life and the New Birth. By the REV. JAMES CRAIK, D. D. 12mo. Boston: E. P. Dutton & Co. 1866.

PARTS of this volume have been before the public for several years in another form. Its author, the rector of an Episcopal church in Kentucky, and a highly esteemed minister in that denomination of Christians, writes with much strength and concentration of thought, with a thorough conscientiousness, and an excellent spirit. His topics embrace the vital doctrines of redemption and of the Christian life, the constitution and fundamental idea of the kingdom of God on earth, the worship and sacraments of the church, and other collateral subjects. All these are treated in an earnest, positive way, not controversially, but for instruction and edification. The work has been carefully thought out, and deserves to form a part of the permanent literature of the religious body whence it emanates. There is, also, much in it which will find appreciative readers among all devout Christians.

The design of the author can be stated in few words. He would build up a defence against modern rationalism, in his own church and out of it, by widening the narrowness of "the popular theology," from which he regards much of the present scepticism a reaction, and by commending to the public a moderate episcopacy, in distinction from one too high or too low. Theologically, he works at much the same task which occupied Whately in his Essays on St. Paul's epistles. What, in our judgment, that eminent logician did not accomplish, we do not here find effected. We deem it simply impossible to make an Arminian out of the apostle to the Gentiles. While Dr. Craik is luminous and scriptural upon the cardinal points of sin and redemption, he contends against a particular election to salvation as though that necessitated a limited atonement, and interfered with the universality of the provisions of grace in Christ. One would think it were time for intelligent writers on the side of an election to the privilege of being saved, but not to an actual salvation, to see that the Calvinistic or Pauline doctrine of election to life everlasting puts not a straw in the way of any soul's pardon and justification, while it does assure the fact which nothing else assures, that all the souls for which Christ died shall not persist in rejecting his purchased and offered grace.

It is a