have been able to inform themselves from the teachings of the more prominent leaders of the body, in the absence of any authoritative symbols, it is believed that among the doctrines current in this body are Sabellian views of the Trinity, denying the three persons in the Godhead, as commonly held by the Church of Christ in all ages; and specially a denial of the personality and office-work of the Holy Ghost, and consequently an obscuring of the great practical truths of experimental religion; an utter subversion of the doctrine of a visible Church as the spiritual kingdom of Christ upon earth; an utter perversion of the design and meaning of the ordinance of baptism, as simply a rite through which men receive the remission of sins; and a denial of the Gospel ministry, Christ's great ascension gift to the visible Church, as alone having authority from Christ to teach and administer ordinances.

It is manifest, therefore, that if tried by the test of the "signs of the Church," as commonly recognized among evangelical Christians since the Reformation-namely, the true preaching of the word and the sacraments lawfully administered-this body cannot be recognized as a true Church of Christ. Even on the supposition that the foregoing statement of the general views of the body may be too strong, especially in some individual cases, this could but little affect the argument, since such is the impression which their teaching makes upon any candid inquirer; and by reason of the refusal of the body as such to set forth authoritatively their doctrine and order, we are left to gather their creed only from the general impression which their public teaching makes upon us. It is believed, however, that this statement is just, as a description of the general average teaching of this body, making proper allowance for exceptions both ways-of some who come nearer to evangelical truth, but of more who diverge still more widely into error.

The argument seems conclusive, even to stop here. But aside from the foregoing reasoning, which contemplates chiefly the negative errors of this body of people, as compared with the evangelical Churches, in the judgment of your Committee, the argument is not less conclusive against the recognition of this body as a part of the true Church of Christ, if we proceed to consider simply that peculiar positive error of the body, by which it aims to be specially distinguished, viz.: the utter denial of all creeds, and the authority of the Church to have any creed, except in the vague sense in which they may be said to hold a creed who hold the Bible to be the word of God. For this dogma, that it is anti-christian for the Church visible to frame and to hold any authoritative symbol of faith and order, not only involves a denial of the existence historically of any true visible Church between the exit of the Apostles from the Church and the advent of these Reformers of the nineteenth century, but involves also an utter subversion of the chief end and the practical purpose of a visible Church on earth. The Church visible, in the common acceptation of the term, in the

nature of the case when contemplated as to its practical purpose in the scheme of redemption, has a threefold function: as a divinely organized educational institution for teaching the Gospel to the nations and calling and training Christ's people; as a distinct spiritual government on earth; as an instrument through which Christ calls and commissions his servants to preach the Gospel. In all three of these aspects a creed is essential to the Church.

1. The visible Church, as a great educational institution for teaching the truth of God to the world, must have creeds, both in the form of scientific statement of the doctrines of the Gospel, for the training of her teachers, and in more popular forms of statement for the proper instruction of the people at large. As any other institution for the education of men, the Church is bound to gather from the great field of revealed truth, just as men gather from the great field of nature, the truths which God hath scattered broadcast over the field, into systematic form, in order to the most effective inculcation of the whole system, and to enable learners to go forth and study intelligently and effectively the truth as it lies in the great field. As well do enthusiasts scoff at systems of natural science, of botany, of medicine, or of law, for the training of men to be teachers and practitioners in these departments severally, as scoff at systems of theology and creeds for the guidance of those who would teach theology. As well may men scoff at all popular systematic expositions of science for children at school, as at popular expositions of the truth unto salvation for the education of the Church's children.

2. The visible Church as a government on earth-the kingdom of Jesus Christ-a spiritual commonwealth-is obliged to have a constitution and creed. For, like every other free commonwealth, she must have the fundamental truths of society and government embodied in some form of constitution, by which to control and limit those who are intrusted with power over the people. Hence, in the Presbyterian Church, the creed and the constitution, so far from being a yoke upon the necks of the people, are not required to be formally avowed by the people as a condition of membership in the Church, but must be formally avowed by every officer intrusted with authority to teach, to rule, or to minister. This is really the grand protection of the people against the encroachments of power, either in teaching or ruling, which power is dangerous only when unrestrained by written creed and constitution, but left vague and undefined to the discretion of any and every popular and influential leader. Precisely as in the case of the citizens of our civil government, who are never called upon as private citizens to swear to the Constitution of the Federal Union or of the commonwealth; but once chosen to the humblest office, cannot be admitted to the exercise of its functions, except he first swear to govern according to the constitution. As well might a judge scoff at the idea of being hampered by a civil constitution,

and claim to administer his office according to his own untrammelled views of general and eternal justice, as for one who assumes offices in Christ's spiritual commonwealth to scoff at a creed and ecclesiastical constitution, and pronounce it anti-christian to hamper thus the officers of the Church. The European Jacobinism, which affects too high a freedom and republicanism to be restrained and hampered with a civil constitution like the American, is found at last submitting to the despotic dicta of a despot, fancying all freedom to consist in the freedom to elect a despot. So in ecclesiastical authority, whether in teaching or ruling, they who reject all creeds and constitutions as restraining their freedom, can quietly take the arbitrary dicta of some leader as worthy all the reverence which any creed can claim. Those who strain at even a gnat in the form of a creed, can yet swallow a camel with all the anomalous and unsightly humps. The very protests against all creeds and symbols, which form the peculiar distinction of the Reform or Campbellite body, is thus subversive of the very existence of the visible Church in a free spiritual commonwealth.

3. The Church visible is obliged to have a creed, as the agency through which Christ sends forth ministers to teach the nations and to rule in his Church. The teachers who preach and administer ordinances in Christ's name, are not only appointed through the Church visible to their office, but are received by those to whom they go chiefly because of the confidence of men in the Church of Christ, who sends them, and not on their own private account. The Church becomes, as it were, their indorser, and the source of confidence in them as true teachers and not ravenous wolves. Unless there be some creed by which the nature and character of their teaching and administration of sacraments shall be limited and defined, the indorsement of the Church becomes a vague indorsement in blank, leaving the party in whose favour it is given to fill up without limit. Now, among men engaged in commercial affairs, he who is known thus to habitually indorse in bank, soon comes to be esteemed of no value as an indorser for any; and common sense cannot fail to see that the analogy is perfect between this commercial and the ecclesiastical indorsement. Who can tell what the teachers of the Reform or Campbellite Church may teach or with what view they administer the sacraments-nay, or whether in any given case, the administrator had any authority to minister in Christ's name?

In every aspect of this case, therefore, your committee feel constrained to give it as their judgment, that baptism in the Reform or Campbellite Church, is not baptism in the sense of our standards; that this Session have committed a grave error in recognizing this baptism as sufficient, and in receiving the person without baptism to the full communion of the Church. And your Committee recommend that this exception be entered upon the records of that Session as fully sustained by Presbytery.

On motion, this report was unanimously adopted, and ordered to be printed as a part of the Minutes of Presbytery.

Bousehold Choughts.

PICTURE OF EVE.

(From Dr. Halsey's New Work.)*

NEXT to the virgin mother of our Saviour-and, in some respects, even before her the most notable and gifted woman of the Bible was Eve, daughter of God, wife of Adam, mother of mankind, and queen of the new-created world. Talk we of high nobility, and royal blood, and illustrious descent? Here is one from whom all the royal lines of earth have sprung-a woman crowned with glory by the birthright of an earlier origin, and invested with sovereignty by the imposition of a mightier hand than any other could ever boast. Talk we of wisdom, and knowledge, and genius? Here is one whose clear intellect, undimmed by folly, unsullied by a sin, and unindebted to the toils of pupilage, was the direct workmanship of Him who poured intelligence into the mind of angel and archangel, cherubim and seraphim. Talk we of happiness and virtue? Here is one, who, alone of women, tasted that blessedness which springs from a state of absolute perfection; whose soul, created in the image of the righteous and holy God, was the seat of every human perfection, and whose person was the centre of attraction to everything that dwelt in Eden. Talk we of beauty? Here is one, with the smile of heaven in her eye, the dew of youth on her cheek, and the sunlight of immortality on her brow; whose intellectual and moral beauty of the soul, fit companion for such a dwelling-place, shone forth in every gesture and movement of that fearfully and wonderfully-made body, which was the last and highest material production of creative power.

The artists of every generation, vying with each other to make the canvas speak or marble breathe, and in their deepest meditations, calling up every image of beauty from the traditions of antiquity, the studies of the great masters, the walks of nature, and the realms of imagination, when they would give the world their beau ideal of perfection in one finished model, have essayed their utmost skill, and reached the chef-d'œuvre of the pencil and the

*The Literary Attractions of the Bible, &c., by Le Roy J. Halsey, D.D. Charles Scribner. New York.

chisel, as they have reproduced Eve in Paradise. The human mind can go no farther in its conception of the beautiful, than when it pictures to itself the character and person of Eve on the morning of her creation. Blest with the companionship of Adam and the favour of God, enjoying the willing homage of all animated nature, and sovereignty over all the creatures of God, possessing a heart in harmony with all the works of God, and with God himself, she was beautiful herself, and she saw beauty in everything around her. She tasted the cup of perfect, unalloyed felicity, and she diffused joy through all that Paradise over which both God and man had delighted to crown her queen.

The spirit of poesy, too, in its sublimest song, has vied with painting and sculpture in bodying forth its highest conception of the beautiful; and, in the Eve of Milton, we have one of the noblest contributions that human genius ever laid upon the altar of the Bible. As a commentary on the marriage relation, instituted in Eden when God pronounced the "twain one flesh," as a picture of perfect conjugal affection and domestic bliss, as the utterance of a heart alive to nature and in deepest sympathy with all that was beautiful in the universe, what can exceed these words of Eve's address to Adam?

"Sweet is the breath of morn, her rising sweet
With charm of earliest birds; pleasant the sun,
When first on this delightful land he spreads
His orient beams on herb, tree, fruit, and flower,
Glistening with dew; fragrant the fertile earth,
After soft showers, and sweet the coming on
Of grateful evening mild; then silent night,
With this, her solemn bird, and this fair moon,
And these, the gems of heaven, her starry train;
But neither breath of morn, when she ascends,
With charm of earliest birds, nor rising sun
On this delightful land, nor herb, fruit, flower,
Glistening with dew, nor fragrance after showers,
Nor grateful evening mild, nor silent night,
With this, her solemn bird, nor walk by moon,
Nor glittering starlight, without thee is sweet."

But alas! how soon was this scene of joy and beauty changed to woe and death, and Eden lost in the waste wilderness! How suddenly did this sun of glory go down while it was yet day! How was the gold become dim, and the most fine gold changed, and the crown fallen from the head! Through the temptation of the Prince of Darkness this bright and happy one, who had been created a only little lower than the angels, sinned against God and brought death into the world with all our woe. She, the first woman, wife and mother of our race, who, while sinless, had stood as a model of immaculate perfection and glory, now stands as the most memorable example on the scroll of time to teach her daughters that it is an evil and bitter thing to sin against God.