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 REVIEW OF A DISCOURSE 
 
 PREACHID BY THE REV, T, S, ELLERBY, IN IN CHURCH, TORONTO, OCT, 30, 1004 
 
 llKIXd A I.KTTKIi ADllllKSSKI) Til TIIA I' (iKNTI.KMAS 
 
 BY THE IlKV. W. F. CI^ARKE. 
 
 kl 
 
 
 Toronto. November 2, ISill. 
 
 TiiK Uev. T. p. Eu.kuhy,— • 
 
 Dkak Silt, — A iminful l)ii' iinporutivo si'iisl> of ilu'.y irni»i>U me 
 to iiddress yon, in reference to tlie discourse delivered by you 
 lust I^ord's Day morning, from Col li : 3, 4 : '• /'',/• j/tf (O'e ikntl, and 
 your life if hid with Christ in Ui'd. Wheii Christ who i.s our life 
 shall nppew: tlt^i sh'tll ye (tiso uppe'ir irllh him in glory." 
 
 Vour discourse, i.i iny view, einb >die I germs, more or less 
 developed, of the most pernicious error. .Sermons previously 
 preached by you. in my hearing, have been mirked by uiisatis- 
 fiictory iukI objectionable feAtiires, more especially from the 
 manner in which tliey toned down, explainel away, or coiii-eul- 
 ed from view, the vital truths of the giHpel. But the discourse 
 to which 1 now refer, was of a more alarining charaiHer. imvs- 
 mucli as it containoil principles and was based on theories, 
 whose tendency can only be to undermine the very foundations of 
 our faith. The text you chose is one of the m^st interesting and 
 pregnant passig. "n the New TestAinont. A faithful explication 
 ol It would necesbarlly bring out very prominently the fundamen- 
 tal truths of the gospel. Vet I am constralne.l to s.iy there was 
 not a single clear exhibition of the way of salvation in the entire 
 sermon. A Moralist, Broad Churchman, Rationalist, or Unitarian, 
 if not, even a sceptic, like M. Renan. might have eiiher preached or 
 licard it with perfect consistency. Tliese are grave allegations, and 
 1 now proceed to sustain them by proof. 
 
 Under your first head of discourse : " The aspects of the chris- 
 tian's death ;" you dwelt chiefly on its connexion with and simi- 
 larity to Christ's death. Vou tiuotod ard amplified upon the 
 passage, '• I am crucified with Christ." This you explaine<I to 
 mean that the christian carries about with him constantly the scene 
 of the cruciflxi<)n, and tries to have ii realizeil in regard to him- 
 gelf. It is. you stated, always before his mind's eye. teaching him 
 the evil of sin, reminding him that his pride and vain-glory are to be 
 crowned with thorns, his flesldy desires fed with vineg ir, ,S:c. In 
 this way, seeking to be like Christ in his death, the christian be- 
 comes dead to the world and ilead to sin. 1 do not profess to give 
 your exact words, but the above is the substance of them. To all 
 who are familiar with theological controversy, it will sufHce to say, 
 that you gave us a thorowjIJy L'liilnrian explanation of the ii^fluence 
 of Clirist's death. You ascribed to it dimply the power of example. 
 That was all. The picture you represented the christian aJ carrying 
 about with him everywhere, was a picture of a moiM sufferer — not 
 thai of an atoning Saviour. It showed the beliolder th(> evil of sin, 
 not as a display of God's righteousness in the upholding 4)f Ills holy 
 law, in putting Ills well-beloved Son to ;^rief, and making his soul a 
 sacrifice for sin ; but as an emblematic representation of the cru' 
 cifixion of sin in the christian. The power of Christ's death to 
 renew and transform the soul, to slay its enmity, and subdue it by 
 Divine love, were wholly left out of view by you. Not a hint was 
 
 given as to tht« relations of Christ's death to the law of God. ai- to 
 its vicarious character, or as to its atoning ineriL Not only the 
 text, but your ow;) divi.sion of it, demanded that you should speak 
 explicitly of tJiese things, and that you should describe the process 
 by which " the old man which is corrupt " is slain by Divine grace. 
 Yet you avoided all tiiese vital matters, said only a few feeble things 
 about the i'lfluence of tho crucifixion scene as an e.'-nmple, ami 
 contented yourself with pi^relj 'Jnilarian " aspects of the chris- 
 tian's death." No man ever yet died to sin in tho way you des- 
 cribed, and if that be all tho means of deliverance from the " body 
 of sin and death " which tho gospel proviiles, then we iuve no 
 salvation, our faith is vain, and we are yet in our sins. It is quite 
 evident that in wluit P,iiil says to the (.'olossians respecting the 
 christian's death, he refers to that gracious transition from a s'.ate 
 of condemnation to one of justiflcation and acceptance, on which 
 he dilates so fully in the 6th and 7th chapters of his Epistle to the 
 Romans. He there describes the believer as hariiig become dead 
 to tho law and to sin. •' by the body cf Christ." that is by the efficacy 
 of his atoning depth. Through faith he comes out of a 8tat<> of 
 nature into a state jf grace. He stands before God on a new foot- 
 ing. His guilt is pardoned and " the body of sin is destroyed, 
 that henceforth he should not serve sin." The christians at Colosse 
 are spoken of as having experienced all this, v Paul refers to the 
 ever-memorable epoch of their justification through Christ. He 
 speaks of it as a th ng already accompl<shed. Literally his lan- 
 guage is, '• for ye diet', and your life is hid with Christ in God." 
 Surely there is far more here than the mere pictorial effect of the 
 crucifixion-scene, or the influcuCc of Christ's dying example. 
 
 Under the second head of discourse, in speaking of " The mys- 
 tery of the christian's life," you enunciated another Unitarian 
 theory. You gave us no intelligible or scriptural account of the 
 beginnings of the new life. You did not honour the Holy Spirit's 
 agency as " the Lord and Giver of life " to dead souls, and you 
 left your hearers wholly in the dark as to there being such an 
 experit-nce as " the new birth unto righteousnes.i." No Divine quick- 
 ening from the death in trespasses and sins.— no verification of our 
 Lord's assurance, " the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of Man, 
 and they that hear shall live,"— nothing like a new creation or 
 resurrection, by God's gracious power, marked the dawn of spirit- 
 ual life, in your account of it. You insisted that " there is no such 
 thing as iinmediateness'' about spiritual life, and that it comes on 
 little by little, in a graddal way. Somehow tho life principle is 
 there, and only needs the use of means to nurse it into vigour. 
 You were eloquent about the christian's own performances, but 
 mute about Christ's work in and for him. '■ Every sigh heaved, 
 every tear dropped, every prayer ofTereil, every effort put forth 
 by the christian /«IpefI /u'm a little;'''' but there was no glimpse of 
 an Almighty, indwelling Saviour helping him at all. Moreover, 
 you described spiritual life as a hidden thing, and stated that our 
 most precious and deep experiences in religion are most secret. 
 
All tbruiigh their earthly life, chrUttans were represented na nece«- [ 
 sarlly iinacquninted with one another. Yon likened them to books, ; 
 of which wu see only the binding nnd lettering, without knowing i 
 anything of tlie contents. | 
 
 All this is completely ut variance with the Word of God. " It '' 
 is tho Spirit that .'iiiTckeneth : the flesh prulitetli nothing : the words ' 
 that 1 speak unto you. they are spirit and they arc life.'' Look at | 
 your assertion that " there Is no such thing as immediateness about < 
 soul-life," side by side witli Scripture I'acti. When 3,000 were con- 
 verted on the day of Pentecost, was there •• no iminudlateness " 
 about what they experienced ? When Paul was smitten to the i 
 «artli, was there •• no ImmediattMiess " about that life whoso bfrth- 
 cry rung out in the enq.iiry. •• Lord what wilt Thou have mo to 
 do'.'" When the I'hilippiau jailor sprang in and came trembling, 
 ami u.sked, '• What nnist I do to bo saved V was there '• no such 
 thing as immediateness " about that soul-life which flaslied in upon 
 him from God .' The truth is that spiritual life in its origin is 
 always innncdlate, instantaneous. There must bo a moment when 
 the great transition is experienced, and tho soul "passes from death 
 unto life." As to the workings of Divine grace in tho heart of a 
 christian being a profound secret, hidden from all about him, it Is 
 contradicted by David's exclamation, " Come and hear all ye that, 
 fear God, and I will dkolakk what lie hath done for my soul :"' by 
 John's declaration '• that which wo have seen and heard aid our 
 hands have liandlcd of the Word of Life deci,\re luito you, iknt ye 
 also may h-ive fellowship leith hs .-"—and by the testimony of myriads 
 of christians, ail of whom have felt that their deepest experiences 
 crave sympatliy, and that in all that stirs tho soul most profoundly, 
 it is not good for us to bo alone. Tho fact is that your text uo- 
 scrlbed the christian's life as being hidden not in tho secret 
 recesses of his own soul, but in tho deep clefts of the Rock of Ages. 
 It is hidden not in the sense that no one but GoJ can be cognizant 
 of Its existence and workings, but in the sense that no enemy can 
 get at it to harm or destroy it. It is hidden not as you told us, 
 in the inaccessible and unseen depths of the christian's own being, 
 ^' like a pearl in the sea, like treasures In the grave, or like a 
 diamond in the dark," b"t it is hidden like a store of gold in some 
 secure place, out of reach of the robber who would filch it away. 
 The believer lives because Christ his unseen .Saviour lives. His "lifo 
 is hid with Christ In God,''— that wondrous Being who is the '• King 
 Invisible, whom no man hath seen, neither can see." The Christian 
 possesses a lifo whose secret springs are hidden and Divine. Its 
 breath was breathed into him, and its pulsations are sustained by that 
 Infinite Spirit whose operations are at once viewless and mighty 
 as the wind, which ■• bloweth where it lisU-th, and thou hearest the 
 sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it 
 goeth : So is evert o.ne that la born of the Spmrr." What a low 
 unworthy view is the one presented In your sermon, when con- 
 trasted with that which the Apostle holds up before us ! 
 
 I a.«k myself how can it be that a minister if your education and 
 standing should proach in such a style ? It is impossible to admit 
 tho charitable aupposltlon that it Is through oversight. That 
 amounts to a charge of ignorance, of which I cannot think you 
 guilty. You surely know whence these theories come, and whither 
 they tend. Your theological training and reading must have In- 
 formed you on these points. Besides, witk the full knowledge that 
 some of your people full your preaching defective In clear gospel 
 statement, and even suspected you of sympathetic leanings toward 
 Unitarianism, ono would think you would guard with jealous care 
 any avenues through which such feelings and suspicions might 
 gain anything to feed upon. 
 
 Unfortunately for a charitable judgment upon your sermon, there 
 ia conclusive evidence of another kind forbidding all idea of inad- 
 vertonco. The discourse was not your own. " Alas ! master, for it 
 
 was borrowed," very much of it at least, fruui a work by the Uur. 
 W. G. Barrett, a source from which on other occasions you havo 
 helped yourself C3nsiderably. I do not refer to this to condemn 
 your availing yourself of such help. I care little for originality us 
 compared with orthodoxy. But in yonr use of thu work in ques- 
 tion, you have shown a stmlled ucoldanct of cerluin themes, which 
 speaks volumes. On a prior occasion, when you preached what I 
 felt to be a mast unsatisfactory sermon on thu text, " Come unto 
 Me all ye that labour nnd are heavy lalon, and I will gi>-e you 
 rest ;'' a siniilar instance occurred. It was not so marked as In tlie 
 present cise, but you tlien took freely from Mr. Barrett, except when, 
 htfpoke out in plain terms of m tn's (lultt uwl Christ's ntoninj sacri- 
 fice and power to sice. In tliu s^'niun I am now reviewing, you 
 seem to havo avoldod, witli a tort of In^thu'tivo nver.ilon, clear, 
 gospel 8tatemtfnt^ couc^niin;.? thj li 'Ipleis guilt of tho sinner, and 
 tho atoning sacriflce of our L)rd Je'ius Christ. The discourse from 
 which you borrows 1 lirgfly last .S.ibb.ith, contains miwt unam- 
 biguous statoniaats of gupd truth. You took what pi "cedes and 
 what follows those statement.'*, and cast the statements themselve.i 
 away. Now, why was this? Hut one reply can be given to this 
 question, viz., th-tl y)i lU no', relish suck truths. 
 
 Every attentive hearor of your sermin last Lord's Day morning 
 will recollect tlie following p.isi.ige, whioh you opiel almost vor- 
 batlra from Barrett :— 
 
 " We have frequently remarked this striking peculiarity in the 
 , New Tf.-itameiit, that Christ and the christian life are invariably 
 n»sociated with eacli otlier. Kverywhere throughout the New 
 Testament, ia the sayings of (. lu-ist himself, and In the writings of 
 the apostles, our life -the InuL'r, divine life— is suspended on our 
 union with Christ ; so much so. that In passages so numerous that 
 it would be wearisome to quote them, it is again and again said, 
 that where Christ is there is life, and where Christ is not there hi 
 ; not life. ' 1 nm tlie life,' said Jesus of Nazareth ; ' Christ is our 
 lile," said Paul the converted Jew. 
 
 " This language is used only in reference to Christ. No other, 
 : of all the inspired ruligiouii teachers of thu Bible is ever onoo eo 
 spoken ot. Christ alone has this pre-eminence. A great gulf, and 
 impassable, is lived between Christ and all other christian teachers, 
 prophet-s, and others, simply by the terms which are Rtiidiously 
 applied to /liiii,— jealously refused to them. We are Indebted to 
 Paul, and John, and Peter for iileas; for thoughts ; for suggestions; 
 for many long and el.iborate argiawnti ; for many ejcposifions of 
 christian truth and worship ; but it is never said that Paul is our 
 life ; that if wt; keep the sayings of John we shall never see death ; 
 that when Peier, who is our life, shall appear, we also shall appear 
 , with him ; or that our life is hid with Luke in God. So far as 
 ': phraseology Is concerned, this is a marked peculiarity of the New 
 : Testament, and, to a thoughtful mind would seem to indicate a 
 mighty ditlerence between Christ and all other christian teachers. 
 , But this peculiarity is more ."triking still, when we remember that 
 , Christ died a violent death at the early ago of thlsty-three, after 
 only three years of public ministry ; so that, looked at from a 
 purely human point of view, Paul, and John, and Peter, lived 
 longer, laboured more, and suffered more in body than Christ 
 himself; added to which Clji'Ist's teachings were limited to one 
 small localitv, Judea ; not touching Syria ; not penetrating to Asia 
 Minor ; much less going over to Greeco, and thence on to Italy ; 
 80 that, as a matter of fact, the success of Christianity, regarded 
 only as a scheme of doctrine, depended vastly more on his succes- 
 sors thau on himself; and yet he li everywhere represented as the 
 central idea, and central personage, of christian truth." — Barrett's 
 Sketches, vol. 1, pp. 382, 383. 
 
 After tho above extract, Mr. B.irrott glvoi a faithful, Hvld por- 
 traiture of our rnineil, lielpless, inip^'rillel stato as sinners, which 
 apparently had no charm^ for you. There is als) an exhibition of 
 Christ as the procuring caust? of soul-life, which you in like manner 
 passed over. A mind hungering and thirsting for the go.spel, would 
 have seized with eager avidity tho very statements which you seem 
 to havo rejected. They are tlieso :— 
 
 ' First, as sinnsii.'that is as those who havo broken tho law of 
 God, and are therefore under condemnation of death, we can only 
 bedelivereil hy Chri.it; and, therefore, In that sense, Christ Is our 
 life. 
 
 f 
 
 
•• [Till' proinl coiwcloiwnw* of hiivltijf n bodv botU'r luiJ nuhlcr 
 tlinn tliu builiu.-t uf tho buiutA, .ind ii !40ul tliiit hIiiiII IIvu wlicn thu 
 KOuU of llui bciMt4 shall hnvv pcrUhed, U cni.slictl by tbe biiinlll- 
 atlng conxcloiuniit.i that I can hIm. m tUi'y uititiiot. und ivjvct. whnn 
 thuy cunnut, thu llfo eternal. 
 
 " All around 1 hco sin, and HJniior.i itiiining : all around I h('i> num 
 trying tu got over llio mighlv diOlculty xln Iuih occasioned ;] and 1 
 though thoy try tu t>xeu.>te it by falling back on phyaical and men- 1 
 tal iieculiaritii-H ; t'Dnscience says it won't do ; and hence wo have ' 
 tortures, and otTeringM, and peiiuiuK^, and Hiicritlccs, and biiniilia- ! 
 tlons, as tliii conlesHion of sin ami its exceeding sinfulne.ss ; and so '■ 
 ' all have sinned and come sliort of thu glory of (Jod,' wiili this ' 
 consciou.-iH'HS, ' 1 die daily.' I loolv uii, there is the jiidgnient-sent, I 
 with its everliisting righteousness ; I looli nroaml. and all my com- 
 panions are in the same con(h>nuiution, ■ none uf tliem can by any I 
 means redeem his biulher, urgive to God a ransom for him ;' I look i 
 icithin, and the ease is hopeless. • It I wash myself la snow-water, ! 
 and .n.ike my.self never sj clean, yet wilt Ihou plunge me into the ' 
 ditth, and my own eluthes shall abhor nw ; I look bclt'ml, and there i 
 are dark clouds gathering, and I .shall soon be overtaken with the 
 tempest ; I look /aric ml, and thero is death and the grave ; and 
 after death tlie jiidgmeii' what does that mean.' -Onr (Jod is a 
 consuming (Ire.' 
 
 " In the midst ol all this guilt and misery Clu'ist comes ; comes as a 
 man that he may save nuwi ; - -our misery has reached his loving heart, 
 and because that misery came from our guiltiness, he has come to 
 take that guilt away. He knows that wo are dead— dead in tres- 
 passes and sins— and iu- comes tliat we might liuve life, and have it 
 more abundantly. And having by his prcacliing puhUnhed life, by 
 Ills own sacrifice on tlio cross he procui-al it ; ho became u ctirso 
 for u.t ; ' he who knew no sin, became sin for us, that we might bo 
 made the righteousness of God in him.' But, having died onco for 
 all, he rose again; resumed his human nature; entered into tho 
 holiest ot all ; and there appears in the presence of God for us. 
 •Delivered for our olfencea, h<' r,as raised for our justiflcation ;' 
 ond now, because he lives, we sliall live also ; wo have found 
 through Christ tlu! path of life ; we vise from despair, and say, ' I 
 thank God there is deliverance th'.ough Christ Jesus our Lord ;' — 
 the lost life is tound ; fi.und never to be lost again ; it is hid with 
 Christ in God."— /^., pp. 38o, 3^4. 
 
 , As nearly as my muntoiy serves me, you g*ve us, in a somewhat 
 garblud form, part or all )( that small portion of the above quota- 
 tion which I liave bracketed ; but you said nothing, either in Mr. 
 Barrett's words or your own, concerning the sinner's hopeless 
 condition out ol Christ, or tho Saviour having, " by his own sacri- 
 fice on the cross, proenr&l life for us." You carefully removed tho 
 marrow and gave \is the empty bone ;— you took off and threw 
 away the cream, and pro.-enled us with tho skimmed milk. 
 
 Coming again to what was apparently more palatable to you, 
 you availed yo\irself of a paragraph on Christ's example, which, as 
 associated with Chri-t's sacrilice. is good New Testament teaching, 
 but dissociated from ihat sacrifice,— nay, made to supersede it— is 
 "another gospel which is not atwther ," for it is no gospel at all. 
 Vainly do we preach imitation of Christ's example, unless we base 
 it upon trust in his atoning sacrifice. Your hearers will recognize 
 the extract I now refer to. It reads as follows :— 
 
 " Religion is tho influence of Christ on the soul. It is a life ; an 
 inner principle that controls and commands all external manifesta- 
 tions. The man may be, and is, very imperfect and faulty ; he 
 knows it well, and Siid at heart ho often is thereupon; still, that 
 which is most real and most self-manifest to him is, that Christ lives 
 in hira. lie may not be able to tell you all about the philosophy 
 ot the thing,.but he knows the fact and it is thv> joy of his joys, the 
 llfo of his life, the central spring whose living waters do ever 
 refresh his heart of hearts. Christ livelh in me : Christ's obedience 
 Hveth in me, and I am striving to be joyfully obedient for Christ's 
 sake ; Clirist's submission to liis Father s will liveth in nu', and I 
 am striving, witli many prayers, to siy, ' Father thy will bo done ;' 
 Christ's love liveth in nh\ and, constraiiicd by lis iiuickeiiing 
 impu'ses, I have overthrown the old monopoly of evil passions to 
 which I onci! rendered obedience, und liave entered a kingdom 
 where all is • peace, and rigliteousne.js, and joy in tlie Holy Ghost.' '" 
 —Jb., p. 385. 
 
 These quotations reveal a principle of selection only to be ex- 
 plained by the law of alBnities. Like attracts like. Deliberately, 
 
 it would seem, you relused, even when using the sermon of aiiDllier, 
 to discourse on either of, what one hasquainlly styled. *' the three It's, 
 Kuin, Uegeneration, Redemption.'' 
 
 In the passages appropriated by yuu fi'om .Mr. Barrett, thero 
 occur here and there unguarded and objectional.lu forms of ex- 
 pression, such as the following, in regard to Christ : " No otiier of 
 all thu inspired religions teachers of thu Bible ;'' - Christ and all 
 other Cliristian teachei-s ;"' "Tlie success of Christianity, regarded 
 only as a scheme of doctrine, depended vastly more on his sncce.v 
 sors tlian on himself;" •' Religion is tlio influence of Christ on the 
 soul." The most serious and alarming errors lurk in tlu>se quota- 
 tions, taken by tliemselves. To bring Ciirist down to the level of "the 
 inspirt'd religions teadiers of the Bible." or the still lower level of 
 •' Christian teachers" generally, is in efl'ect to ignore his divinity and 
 do him innnite dishonour. To speak of Christianity as in any sense 
 '• vastly more'-' dependent •■ on his successors than on himself,'' la 
 a very grave misrepresentation. Christ has iiosufressois. In every 
 age his declaration holds good : " I am Ihf tnith." lie sent forth 
 his apostles with the assurance, '• Lo I am with yo\i alway, evtm 
 unto the end of the world." All the success Christianity has had, 
 or ever will have, is to be accounted for on the principle of Clirist's 
 presence and power. Njr is it correct to say tlint " Religion is tho 
 influence of Christ on the soul," in the sense in which 'hat language 
 must be taken in the isolated paragrapli it commences ; for only 
 Christ's example is spoken of in that paragrajih, and religion is far 
 more than that. These unguarded and iinscripturul statements aru 
 deprived, to a great extent, of tlieir miscliicvous tendency in Mr. 
 Barrett's discourse, because they arc neutralized by jiassnges de- 
 clarative of Christ's deity and atonement. But as used by you, in 
 a separate, isolated form, there was nothing to counterbalance 
 them, or counteract their baleful influence. You gave us the bane 
 without the antidote. You took a rather unwholesome article of 
 food, and by withdrawing the only nik^ritious clement iu it, con- 
 verted it into poison. Whatever may bo Mr. Barrett's doctrinal 
 professions, (and I do not know what they are,) he is a most unsafe, 
 incautious writer. He lias evidently an Ill-balanced mind, and an 
 unsound judgment, though he is not without warm, Christian im- 
 pulses. But to take him for a guide is anything but safe. 
 
 Before I conclude, I cannot forbear alluding to another serious, 
 though less momentous, error in your discourse. You told us that 
 the good die early: that earth attracts tho earthly, and heaven 
 attracts the heavenly : that those whose •• hearts are dry as dust 
 stay in this world a long time," and then strangely mingling figures 
 in a passage unmistakably your own, you added, '• the flame burning 
 in the socket a groat while." Now, I really thought all intelligent 
 christians had thrown away that idea long since. It is a grievous 
 libel on the government of God, and a great discouragement to 
 youthful piety. Have you never heard of the little boy who told 
 his mother he did not want to bo good, and when asked why not, 
 replied because good little boys die ana go to heaven, and I want 
 to stay with you ? Y'ou stated that there is a law which operates iu 
 tills way. and that it explains the reason why so many of the 
 human race die in infancy. Do you seriously believe that llio 
 infanta who die are any more heavenly in their nature than tho 
 infants who live? Besides, what a slur upon the grace ol God, and 
 what an injuiy to tho ifeelings of aged saints this idea involves. 
 There sat before you while you preached thus, hoary-headed 
 Christians, and you in otfect told them that they wore lingering on 
 earth because their hearts were " dry as dust," and tliat if thoy had 
 only been suffloiently heavenly, thoy would have died long ago. 
 Moreovc", what a contradiction of tho Word of God, in which 
 Jehovah promises tho righteous man — " with long llfo will I satisfy 
 him ;" declares concerning heavenly wisdom, that " length of days 
 is in her right hand ;" — teaches us that " tho hoary head is a crown 
 
I^^H. ^ "!•'' 's'/ 
 
 t ^'<i- 
 
 ol glory." not ii l)i»I({o of Klmiiic. •• It it bu rotiml in tlie wiiy of 
 rlglitt'oiiwni'HH ;"— iiiul nsMUVt'H iw lliiit •• goillincHH U piolltablo unto 
 nil tlilngB. having promUo of tlio lllf Hint now il, nnil of that wliloli 
 iH to eonit'." 
 
 I wiiU' thii.i in no unkind spirit. Tlie Sciirclier o( honits knoweth 
 Hint 1 fliorish l.iwurtl yon no Ifciing^t except Ihoso of u brotlior. 
 But Miy soul Is ^rli'vi'd, aiul my spirit stirred within me by tliew 
 things. I remiMulicr tlie solemn cliarge to Timothy, '• Take heed to 
 thyself and to the iiinrni.sK." Truth only can s.ive men. To 
 withhold the gnspel is to keep the broad of life from Htarving, dying 
 so\ils. To prea'h the views I liave been criticising, is to give a 
 ston(^ wlien the children ask for bread. Fidelity to my nnd your 
 Jfuslev forbids me to be silent when this is done. 
 
 I foresee, too, tlint the question as to the chnrncter and tendency 
 of your preaching must force itself ujion the nttontion of the Church 
 of wliioli you are pastor. Nay. already it is doing so. Ft is much 
 UiHcnssed in private now. .Many feel it to be unsatisfactory who ilo 
 
 not rightly know what nils it, ••The hungry sheep look up nml 
 are not fed." In defauti of pasturage in their own Ih'lds. they 
 wander hither and thitlier in search of something to eat, nnd are 
 glad to get the gospel at the hands even of strangers and forelgu<n's. 
 •'For Zion's sake nnd for Jerusalem's sake I will not hold my 
 pence," I cannot keep silence with the convictions yoiu' preaching 
 hiw forced upon me, Karnest contentlou nnd jjrotest become solemn 
 duty when •' the faith ouce delivered to tin- sainlK " is eltiier openly 
 assaulted or endangered by n sapping nnd mining process, I 
 therefore i)ubtii ly nail up these criticisuis, ns [jUllier did his tlieaon 
 in delence of the duclriue of juslificntion by faith and salvation by 
 grace. It is tlie doctrine of a standing or falling minister, even u.* 
 it is •■ the doctrine of a standing or falling Church." 
 I am, Dear Sir. 
 
 With much sadness of heart, 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 \y. V. cL.\RKi':. • 
 
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