"We look for no perfect one on earth; and had the master, who is taken from our head to-day, been more punctiliously accurate, he would have been less impulsive; and had he been less impulsive, he would not have stirred up the minds of the clergy; and had he not aroused men to Biblical studies, he would not have fulfilled his mission; for his mission was to be a pioneer, to break up hard soil, to do a rough work, to introduce other laborers into the vineyard which he had made ready. If, then, he lapsed, here and there, in sacred literature, who are the men among us that correct him? Chiefly, the men who are in some way indebted to him for the power to make the correction. Chiefly, the men who have received from him the impulses by which they have learned to criticise him. Chiefly, the men who would have remained on the dead level of an empirical philology, had they not been quickened to an upward progress by his early enthusiasm. If the eagle, in his flight toward the sun, be wounded by the archer, the arrow that is aimed at him is guided by a feather from the eagle's own broad wing."

These sentences are full of truth, and it is not easy to overestimate the value of Prof. Stuart's labors in this direction. He succeeded in awakening an interest in Biblical Criticism; first, in the minds of his own pupils, and then, indirectly, in those of a great multitude who never saw his face. This influence was all golden. Powerful and good, honorable to God, and necessary to the church, may it never cease to be felt! There is no danger of our giving undue attention to the sacred Scriptures. There is no prospect of our being able, for a long time to come, to appropriate all the facts which are accessible to the Biblical student, and are fitted to aid in unfolding more perfectly the meaning of God's Word.

Having never enjoyed the personal instructions of Prof. Stuart, the writer offers the following letter of Rev. Francis Wayland, D. D., as a vivid and beautiful delineation of the spirit and power manifested in his lecture-room, by the remarkable man who has gone to his reward:

"I entered the Seminary," says the President, "I think, in the year 1816, and remained there a year, being under Prof. Stuart's instructions during the whole time. I have never known any man who had so great a power of enkindling enthusiasm for study in a class. It mattered not what was the subject of investigation; the moment he touched upon it, it assumed an absorbing interest in the eyes of all of us. A Sheva or a Quámets, if it affected ever so slightly the meaning of a word in the oracles of God, became at once a matter of the greatest importance.

"I do not think that there was one of us, who would not have chosen to fast for a day, rather than to lose one of his lectures. There was also a tone of perfect candor and a sincere love of truth in all his teachings, which wrought most powerfully in developing the intellect of his pupils. He was rigid in his requirements. He expected us all to do our duty, and was sometimes severe if he observed the appearance of negligence; but I do not know that he ever administered a reproof, which did not carry with it the judgment of the class. Although so many years have elapsed, I at this

moment recall, with delightful interest, the hours passed in his lectureroom, as among the most pleasant and profitable portions of my life.

"He had a genuine liberality of sentiment. When I entered Andover, but few Baptists had ever been connected with the Seminary. From the commencement of our acquaintance, he treated me with a degree of confidence, and, I may almost say, affection, that won my whole heart. From that moment I have never ceased to love and honor him, to delight in his reputation, and to look upon him with almost filial reverence. Nor am I alone in these sentiments. I believe that among those who cherish his memory with the most enthusiastic regard, at least an equal proportion will be found in the ranks of those who belong to sects different from his own. With some of his later views I am unable to coincide; but this difference of opinion does not, in any manner, diminish the debt of gratitude which I shall always owe to the instructor of my youth, and the undeviating friend of my mature years.

"A monument should be erected to his memory by his pupils. I hope that the subject will receive immediate attention. The father of sacred literature in this country deserves this tribute at our hands."

To such a letter it would be arrogant for the writer to attempt adding a word. It reveals the secret, in a great measure, of Prof. Stuart's influence over his age. It makes us admire the wisdom of Divine Providence, in raising up just such a man; so simple and hearty in his faith, so frank and winning in his manners, so decided and energetic in his efforts, so liberal and evangelical in his feelings and opinions, so learned and eloquent, possessed of such versatile powers and indefatigable industry-in a word, so great and good a teacher, at a time when his influence was so desirable for the welfare of the church.

ART. VIII. BAPTISM FOR THE DEAD.

BY REV. S. W. WHITNEY,

Pastor of the Baptist Church, Westport, N. Y.

Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead; if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?-1 Cor. xv. 29.

ON reading this, one naturally asks, "What does the apostle mean by it ?" That he intends it as an argument in favor of the doctrine of the resurrection, is plain enough. But what is the meaning of the words rendered, "baptized for the dead?" Says Dr. Bloomfield, in his note on the passage, "If we were to judge of the difficulty of the passage from the variety of interpretations, we should say that this is the most obscure and least understood passage in the New Testament." Of the interpretations that have been given, some are destitute of philo

logical support; while others, if not wanting in this respect, involve very far-fetched and inadmissible allusions-savor too strongly of superstition-or are neither agreeable to the context nor pertinent to the apostle's argument. To us, all are more or less unsatisfactory.

The main thing, we conceive, necessary to a clear and correct understanding of these words, is, not philological learning and critical acumen in distinguishing nice shades of difference in meaning of the words of a dead language, so much as a knowledge of apostolic Christianity, and principles and practice, and looking at the passage in the light of that knowledge. Doing this, we shall find, as we think, but little, if any, difficulty in coming at the apostle's meaning.

Leaving, then, the 19th century, and going back 1800 years to the year of our Lord 56 or 57, the time when this epistle was written, leaving behind us the clouds that overhung the church during the middle ages, and whose skirts still hover over us and around us,-and going up to the apostles' times, with the word of God in our hands, let us ask, what was then the true idea of a Christian?

Says the Saviour, "Whosoever will come after me," i. e., be a Christian, "let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it." Mark viii. 34, 35. Again: "He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world, shall keep it unto life eternal." John xii. 25. That is to say, he that is anxious to secure and enjoy the comforts of this life, and makes this the object of his daily aims and efforts, will lose eternal life; whereas, he that gives up or risks the comforts of this life, and life itself, for Christ's sake, shall find, beyond the grave, a life that far more than compensates for what he abandons his hold upon here. A Christian, then, according to the Saviour's idea of a Christian, is one who has let go his hold upon this life, and laid hold on eternal life in the exercise of an unwavering faith in Christ crucified and risen. He is one who is dead to this world, though living for another.

This, too, was the apostle Paul's idea of a Christian. Hence he says to the Romans, xii. 1, "I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy," &c. Regard your bodies, as long as you live, as something sacrificed to God, laid on the altar of his will to be consumed, if such be his will, by the flames of worldly trials, sufferings, persecutions and losses encountered for his sake.

Look upon yourselves as sacrificed for this life, dead alike to its charms and its menaces, and unsolicitous respecting mere worldly objects and bodily comforts. In his farewell address to the elders of the church at Ephesus, he says, Acts xx. 23, 24, "The Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city that bonds and afflictions abide me; but none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy," &c. To the Philippians, iii. 7, 8, he says, "What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things...... being made conformable unto his death." The prospects of worldly prosperity, distinction, ease and comfort that were before me-I have abandoned them all for Christ. And to the Galatians, ii. 20, he says, "I am crucified. . . . . . and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God," &c. This life of hardship, trial, persecution, and deadness to worldly comfort, I live in consequence of the faith I have in the Son of God, as one who loved me and gave himself for me. Christian, he ever speaks of himself as crucified-done with the pleasures and pursuits of the world. His hold on this life he abandoned the moment he laid hold by faith on Christ, and identified himself with Him, a crucified Saviour. Bodily, the apostle did not die, till he breathed his last; but virtually and to all real intents and purposes, he died years before, when he gave up the world and launched his all, for time as well as eternity, in faith, upon the crucified Jesus. A Christian, according to his idea, is not one who is clinging to the world, fearing to lose the comforts of life for Christ's sake, but one who has already given up this life for his Saviour's sake, and is as ready, if such be His will, to rest from his mortal labors to-day as fifty years hence. And this idea we see standing out in bold relief in that noble exhortation of his to the Colossians, iii. 2, 3, "Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth; for ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God."

As a

This was a striking peculiarity of the early adherents of the crucified One; they themselves, were in a sense crucified and dead. They had given up this present life for Christ's sake, and by faith in him were living in expectation of another.

Now, this renunciation of the present life-this crucifixion to the world, is designed to be represented in the act of Christian baptism, as something done by every individual receiving the ordinance; his immersion in water expressing his giving

up of this life, and burial to all his former hopes, aims and unhallowed attachments; while his emerging again is designed to symbolize his rising to a new life, a life of love and faithfulness to God. The Christian, thus, in the very outset of his Christian life, in professing his adherence to Christ, professes to be like his Master, crucified, dead and buried to the worldone who has given up this life and laid hold on another.

Hence we find the apostle speaking of Christians as "buried with Christ by baptism," or "in baptism," Rom. vi. 4; Col. ii. 12; not with a view to teach the mode of baptism—this was all plain enough-but to remind those to whom he wrote of what was expressed at their baptism,-viz., their renunciation of the world, and giving up of this life for that which is in Christ, in token of their faith in whom they symbolically underwent, in their baptism, the burial and resurrection He passed through bodily. The apostle speaks also, Rom. vi. 4, of "a baptism for death." "Baptism into death" is the common reading; but the true rendering of is, here, is evidently "for," or "in token of;" just as in Mark i. 4, Acts ii. 38, and Rom. iii. 25, it is rendered "for the remission of sins." So here, a baptism for death. "Know ye not," says the apostle, "that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by a baptism for death"-a baptism expressive of our renunciation of sin and giving up of this life. As if he had said, Know ye not that so many of us as have professed faith and union to Christ have professed to be united to Christ crucified and dead? Therefore we are professedly buried with him, by our profession of union to Him, a crucified, dead, and buried Saviour.

Now, in exercising faith in Christ, the Christian does two things. (1.) He dies to sin; no longer delights in it; but abjures it as an abhorred thing. He is dead to it. (2.) He dies to his natural and inordinate attachment to the present life; he gives up his worldly hopes and comforts, ready for Christ's sake to endure all bodily sufferings and temporal calamities, virtually dying when he comes in faith to Christ, and looks to him for the life which he has to give,-according to 1 John v. 11, 12. He thus stands before the world as one dead in two senses: dead to sin and sinful pursuits and pleasures; and dead to attachments for this life and to fears of death-an existence here being no longer "dear unto himself," for, for him to die is gain, while to live is Christ. Both these facts were designed to be symbolized by Christian baptism-as indeed everything is, that is implied in faith in Christ. The former of these viz., death to sin-the apostle refers to in Rom. vì.,