apostles were not admitted. He alone, in company with James and Peter, was in attendance on our Lord at the resurrection of Jairus' daughter, at the transfiguration on the mount, and at Christ's agony in the garden of Gethsemane. Further, he was the only apostle who followed Jesus to the cross: he was the first of them at the sepulchre ; and he witnessed the several appearances of the risen Saviour. These circumstances, added to his intimate friendship with the mother of Jesus, would especially qualify him for giving faithful memoirs of the great Teacher's life.

His Gospel is thought to have been written after the three others. This evangelist is silent concerning a number of transactions noticed there, while he carefully mentions several incidents not recorded by his predecessors. Nor can we reasonably doubt of their narratives having been known to him; so that his relation of a few of the same things with them, though it is brief and summary, affords an indirect yet a strong proof that he fully credited their memoirs.

(3). § 26, p. 21.-This should be a main rule for the government of tribunals in estimating testimony. The subject of inquiry in the cases supposed is matter of fact, and not of abstract mathematical demonstration. Now the proof of matters of fact rests upon moral evidence alone, which includes [be it remembered] all the evidence that we do not obtain from our senses, from intuition and from demonstration. Whether the facts to be proved regard this life or the next, the nature of the evidence required is the same. The error of the sceptic consists in pretending or supposing that this is not identical, and therefore in his making demands which are perfectly unreasonable-as in his calling for demonstrative evidence in things which are not susceptible of any other than moral evidence alone, and of which the utmost to be said is, that there is no rational doubt of their truth.'

Do men ask, when may a proposition of fact be laid down as proved? Another rule of municipal Law will give the answer.

(4). § 27, 28, pp. 21, 22.-The proof takes place when the truth of the proposition is established by competent and satisfactory evidence. Competent evidence is what the nature of the thing to be proved demands. By satisfactory evidence we understand the amount of proof which ordinarily satisfies an unprejudiced mind, and leaves no equitable doubt. Now as the facts stated in Scripture history come not within the range of demonstration, but are cognizable by the senses, we affirm them to be proved when they are established by that sort and degree of evidence which in our daily affairs would satisfy the mind and conscience of a common man. A juror would violate his oath if he should refuse to acquit or condemn a person charged with an offence, where this measure of proof was furnished.

(5). Proceeding to inquire whether the facts recorded by the evangelists are so established, we shall meet with great assistance from a fifth rule of Law; a rule of constant use in trials by Jury, and arising out of the "charity" which "thinketh no evil” [§ 28-30, pp. 2225].

The application of this rule will expose the injustice with which the writers of the Gospels have been treated by unbelievers; an injustice silently acquiesced in even by Christians. Many unbelievers have required the Christian affirmatively and by positive evidence aliunde to

establish the credibility of his witnesses above all others, and before their testimony is entitled to be considered: they have further permitted the testimony of a single profane writer alone and uncorroborated to outweigh that of any single believer in the Gospel. This is not the practice in courts of equity, where the testimony of one witness is never allowed to outweigh the oath even of the defendant himself, interested as he is in the cause. On the contrary, if the plaintiff, after having required the oath of his adversary, cannot overthrow it by the oath of something more than one witness, however credible, it must stand in evidence against him. All, then, that we ask for the evangelists in this respect is what we observe and readily admit in the instance of profane historians, such as Josephus and Tacitus, Polybius and Livy. (6). Examine the evangelists, accordingly, by rule the sixth and last [§ 28-, pp. 22-].

Professor G. does so: he thus investigates their honesty, ability, the number and the consistency of their testimony, the conformity of that testimony with experience, and its coincidence with collateral and contemporaneous facts and circumstances.

In this detail we should gladly attend our author, or rather should cheerfully copy the whole of his reasoning under these several heads, were this within our limits, and did we not feel an earnest desire of our readers perusing the work itself. Indeed, a further reprint of the Examination-detached, however, from most of its present appendages -would be a considerable boon to the English public. Would that such an undertaking may engage a portion of the time and thoughts of a capable Editor!

Meanwhile, we cannot refrain from adding a few short extracts:

"The writers of the Gospels allude to the existing manners and customs, and to the circumstances of the times and their country, with the utmost minuteness of reference. And these references are never formally made, nor with preface and explanation, never multiplied and heaped on each other, nor brought together as though introduced by design; but they are scattered broad-cast and singly over every part of the story, and so connect themselves with every incident related, as to render the detection of falsehood inevitable." P. 42.

"There are other internal marks of truth in the narratives of the evangelists. Among these may be mentioned, the absence of all parade by the writers about their own integrity, of all anxiety to be believed, or to impress others with a good opinion of themselves or their cause, of all marks of wonder or of desire to excite astonishment at the greatness of the events they record, and of all appearance of design to exalt their Master."-Pp. 45, 46.

At the conclusion of his treatise, Dr. Greenleaf says,

"The writer's business is that of a lawyer, examining the testimony of witnesses by the rules of his own profession, in order to ascertain whether, if they had thus testified on oath, in a court of justice, they would be entitled to credit, and whether their narratives, as we now have them, would be received as ancient documents, coming from the proper custody. If so, then it is believed that every honest and impartial man will act consistently with that result, by receiving their testimony in all the extent of its import."-P. 46.

His execution of his work entirely harmonizes with its design, and reflects great honour on his talents as well as on his intelligence and assiduity. In his own profession he is eminently learned. His learn

ing, however, in this department of study rises far above a knowledge of mere technicalities, and recommends itself by his comprehension of thought and reading. It is not simply with cases and Law reports that he has gained a familiar acquaintance: he is equally conversant with the best text-books on the law of Evidence-such as those, among others, of Starkie and Wills; and he has evinced good sense and good feeling in availing himself of the fruits of the research of these authors, and of their discriminating minds. Nor is he by any means a stranger to approved and standard publications in the walk of Theology. We are especially gratified that he quotes largely, yet appropriately, from a volume of works of the late Dr. Chalmers, who, if he had not been so celebrated as a Divine, would most probably have risen to very high distinction at the Bar.

Our grateful acknowledgments are respectfully tendered to Professor Greenleaf for these his labours. We the more value them, because they regard matters of fact, which they treat of naturally and appositely, just as such topics ought to be handled. Let not the evidence of intuition be any longer substituted for that of testimony; nor let us continue to lose sight of the example of the first of all philosophers, who, in his searches after Truth, attributed nothing to himself beyond "industry and patient thought."

N.

THE GENIUS AND INFLUENCE OF LOCKE.

IN every period remarkable for a critical change in human affairs, some one mind may usually be singled out that, in a more peculiar manner, expresses its spirit and embodies its results. If we take Cromwell and Milton as representing, one the civil, and the other the spiritual, element of the Commonwealth, we may consider Locke as the intellectual symbol of the period of the Revolution. He does not indeed represent the Revolution itself, since it was not brought about by his influence, and his chief works, including his political tracts, appeared subsequent to it, and, as a fact, the Revolution fell very far below his principles, but his mind, in its various forms of religious and philosophical manifestation, supplies the spiritual links which connect the great movements of the seventeenth with the tranquil progress of the eighteenth century. His cautious, thoughtful, practical understanding, drew a deep moral from the exciting drama of which he had witnessed the closing scenes, and gave it to the world in short, unpretending treatises, filled with wisdom, popular and attractive at once from their marvellous clearness and simplicity, and from their ready applicability to the most important of human concerns; and it is perhaps the chief praise of the Revolution that it furnished an immediate and assured, though limited, stage for calling out and exhibiting, in progressive expansion, the fruitful principles condensed in the writings of Locke. He was the genius that watched over and guarded the critical period of transitionthe solemn "breathing moment on the bridge of Time." His education, the materials from which he reasoned, and the influences which directed his inquiries, all belong to the age that was then passing away; but his results, his conclusions, and the powerful sway he was destined to exercise over the human mind, connect him with a new age of very different character, of which he was permitted to behold only the commencement.-Rev. J. J. Tayler's Religious Life in England, pp. 342, 343.

EXTRACTS FROM MY JOURNAL.-SWITZERLAND.

No. XIII.-SUNDAYS AT GENEVA.

GENEVA, which is at all times distinguished by its mixed character, is never more so than on the Sunday. There is in it then an exhibition of French license intermingled with Swiss severity which is very striking. Calvin struts about with a laced hat, if the thing is imaginable, and Farrel and all the rest of the stern fraternity look in upon archery-grounds resounding with mirth, or mingle in the crowd of Sunday idlers who throng the banks of the Lake. Deriving my knowledge of Geneva chiefly from books-one of which, entitled the Geneva Catechism, from its name alone, I remember, had to my imagination spread a very sober religious hue over the city, and bearing in mind the conspicuous part it had played in the religious controversies which once agitated Europe-I fully expected to have found a character stamped on the place and people corresponding to my foregone conclusions. The interval between the present and the far distant past I had in some inexplicable manner left entirely out of consideration, partly, perhaps, from that superior importance which natural taste or habitual study had given to events which curtailed Papal Rome of much of her power and wealth. When, then, I rose on the first Sunday morning in Geneva, and listened to the church bells booming, or tinkling, or dying away faintly upon the ear, as size or distance might determine, and, on looking out of the window, saw numbers of decently-dressed females, each with her Bible wrapped round with a clean white pocket handkerchief, and themselves as neat and unruffled as if they had been just turned out of a bandbox,-I verily thought I had awakened in the city of the great Reformer and of my "Geneva Catechism" impressions; but a second glance rather confounded me-there was a steamer smoking and puffing away most asthmatically: it might be a floating chapel. A bell was ringing, too, most vehemently; but, alas! it was not to summon riotous mariners to prayers, for crowds of ungodly folks were rushing and jostling along, intent on breaking the sabbath by escaping from the haunts of men to look on the works of God. A strange contrast was thus presented to me in a couple of glances, and a strange confusion, I confess, it produced in my ideas and sentiments. Geneva, it was clear, was no longer the Geneva of my historic reminiscences; and as for my sentiments, I found myself oscillating between two lines of conduct for the day. Tinkle, tinkle, went one bell; boom! boom! went another-which shall I follow? Shall I run to the steamer or to the church? Shall I walk soberly to the upper town, and, seated in the venerable cathedral, abandon myself to the quiet, aye, and always delicious, reflections which flow in upon me in the house of God, or else run on board, and speed over the placid bosom of Lake Leman? In short, these different phases of Geneva had disappointed and disturbed me. So, undecided what to do, I took up my hat and strolled out to my café; not, indeed, to idle away an hour, but to get my breakfast. Breakfast at a café! And why not? It is the universal custom on the Continent, and a very good custom it is too. It is much more economical—a condition of not a little importance to many. It gives one an opportunity of meeting friends, of

getting some insight into the habits of the country, and of reading the journals, which, if any where, are sure to be found in the great centre of gossip. Before, however, I could get to my café, from several side streets opening on the quay was heard the sound of many voices chanting in very tolerable harmony, and presently appeared parties of men and women with a reaping-hook swathed in straw, and hanging over the shoulders of each. Whence do they come? I asked; and not receiving any answer, away I went to explore what hidden depths had sent them forth. After traversing two or three streets, I found myself in a square thronged with peasants, accoutred as were the others whom I had met. Here and there, moving about from one group to another, scrutinizing and questioning, were evidently substantial farmers, who, as they hired their labourers, sent them off the ground marching in almost military order-tramp-tramp-tramp-to the sound of their own merry, manly voices. These poor Savoyards, for such they were, had just come up, as is their yearly wont, to gather in the Genevese harvest. Leaving home in parties, under the direction of one whom they regard as the captain of their band, year after year they visit this city, and after gathering in the fruits of their labour, they return to their families with such little gains as they may have gleaned in these distant fields. How it is that Genevese agriculture is thus made to depend on foreign hands, does not immediately appear; but as the Savoyards work for much less than the natives of the canton, we probably may regard the fact as a proof of the prosperity of the working classes of Geneva. Indeed, good workmen in the watch-trade, a master-man informed me, could earn their twenty francs a day, and some twenty years ago, even fifty francs a day; the average, however, now was from three to four francs a day. Where, then, the watch-trade holds out such returns, it is not surprising that Geneva depends on foreign hands for cultivation. Calculations, however, such as these did not pass through my head as I listened to the voices of the reapers; for, truth to tell, out of what would appear to many a common enough circumstance, my imagination had contrived to weave a little bit of religious poetry. It was a bright summer Sunday morning, and the natural influences of the day, and that gratitude and devotion which spring from pleasurable feeling, elevated my mind to the Great Lord of the Harvest. These rude Savoyards became a kind of connecting link between me and the Deity; and their sober, regular harmony, resembling much the German, seemed like a hymn of thanksgiving unto Him whose rain had swollen the ear, and whose sun had made the fields even now white unto harvest. Of how much beneficence were they to be made the humble instruments! They were going out to prepare the bread of life for thousands; and as their heavy regular tramp resounded through the streets, I could not help thinking how much more dignity surrounds these humble peasants, than those who, attired in the livery of kings, go forth in marshalled array to exterminate their fellow-men. Thus musing, I watched party after party emerge from the narrow streets, and their voices had long died away in the distance before I awoke from my reverie. Another scene then caught my attention, and away went my thoughts in a different current. The steamer bell was sounding its last summons, and people of every rank and age and sex were hurrying along, and jumbling one against another