to mar God's truth, proclaiming through sermons that were dogmatic, positive, and distinct, the old doctrines of the Westminster Divines-the total corruption of human nature, Christ's death on the cross the only satisfaction for sin, justification by faith, the necessity of heart-conversion, and the connection between true faith and personal holiness. . . . He was the means of keeping Finvoy free from heresies during his ministry. Arianism never touched its borders. As a friend tells me, He kept his people free from heresy more by denouncing error and praying it down than by reasoning it down; his usual prayer was to be delivered from the soul-destroying errors-Arianism, Arminianism, and Socinianism.'

A very good portrait of the venerable patriarch of Finvoy was published in an early number of M'Comb's Almanac. The Rev. Marshal Moore of Faughanvale was married to his daughter; and Marshal Moore, jun., who for a short time was minister at Glendermot, and died when he had only entered on what promised to be a bright and useful pastorate, was his grandson.

MINISTRY OF HAMILTON OF AGHADOWEY.

Although he met with great opposition in preaching the glorious doctrines of the Gospel, yet he never did shrink, but maintained his fidelity to the end, and obtained the promise-" Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." The portrait of his character must stand unfinished, did I not assume the liberty of mentioning some of the doctrines which he preached. The Divinity of our Lord was the foundation on which he erected the stately edifice. Our apostasy in the first Adam, our recovery by the glorious second Adam, the doctrine of electing and redeeming love, justification by faith, salvation by grace, and the absolute necessity of evangelical holiness, were the darling themes which adorned his public_ministrations. These doctrines, and others connected with them, he preached in his life, gloried in upon a sickbed, and upon this foundation he

* Sketch in Evangelical Witness for 1870, p. 62.

is exalted to the regions of glory. Oh, how steadfastly did he "contend for the faith once delivered to the saints!" Oh, with what Christian fortitude did he maintain the cause of his Redeemer amidst all opposition from every quarter! and if he had been called upon, he would have laid down his life upon a scaffold for the cause of the Gospel.-The Blessedness, pp. 21, 22.

TENDENCY OF ARIANISM.

Arianism has a chilling tendency upon religion, both in principle and practice; wherever it lays its hand, religion dies. Our Lord says, Matt. vii. 26, "By their fruits ye shall know them;" and John x. 20, "My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.' The destructive effects of Arianism are clearly evident if we take a view of the Synod of Munster in the south of this kingdom. Within a century ago, that Church was composed of fifty flourishing Presbyterian congregations, and now they are reduced to eight, and these do not contain at present as many persons as are in this assembly. And what was the cause of the extinction of these once flourishing congregations? Arianism crept in gradually among the ministers, visitation Presbyteries ceased, there was no restraint upon corruption, and thus these once flourishing congregations died by the deadly poison of

Arianism.

Stand fast, then, my friends, with one spirit, with one mind, striving for the faith of the Gospel. Buy the truth and sell it not. Follow no man any farther than he follows Christ Jesus the Lord. Teach your families the truths of the Gospel by conscientiously reading the Word of God in your houses, by catechising your families every Lord's evening out of the Westminster Catechism, Larger and Shorter, and making them well acquainted with the Westminster Confession of Faith; and this will be a happy means of preserving your posterity from the soul-destroying poison of Arianism, Socinianism, and Arminianism.-Sermon at Drumachose, p. 29.

CHAPTER XCI.

JOHN LEWSON (1738-1802),

MINISTER OF CAIRNCASTLE.

The Gospel a Plain and Sufficient Rule. A Sermon preached at the Ordination of the Rev. Robert Acheson, in Glenarm. [John viii. 12.] pp. 26. Belfast, 1793.

C. P. L.

MR. JOHN LEWSON was a native of Dunmurry, where he was born in 1716. He was educated at the University of Glasgow, and on the 20th December, 1738, was ordained as successor to the Rev. William Taylor, the third in succession among the pastors of Cairncastle. With Mr. Lewson the congregation returned from the Presbytery of Antrim to the Synod of Ulster.

The Rev. Classon Porter, in his interesting sketch of Lewson, observes :

"He was spared to see the trying times of 1798, but being then 92 (82?) years of age, he did not, of course, take any active part in the proceedings of that eventful period. On the eve of the insurrection, the old man preached to his people, and amongst other observations, made one simple remark, which is still remembered by the very few survivors of his congregation who heard it, to the effect that in the coming struggle 'he had not much to lose.' In these words the pastor, I think, referred not to the scantiness of his worldly means, but to the few years which, under any circumstances, he could expect to live. . . . By his influence with the landed proprietors of the district, he procured in a great

many cases for the occupying tenants of Cairncastle leases in perpetuity of the lands which they occupied, at a rent, in nearly every instance, of a very few shillings per acre. I have been told that but for Mr. Lewson there would have been very few leases of that kind in Cairncastle. And, strange to say, the difficulty which he had in effecting these arrangements was not to get the landlords to give, but to induce the tenants to accept, these leases in perpetuity; some of the tenants actually refusing to bind themselves to pay 2s. 6d. an acre for ever for land which is now set at 50s. or £3 an acre without a lease at all. I am sorry to add that even those who at this time did take out leases in perpetuity on these highly favourable terms did not thereby secure for their descendants 'fixity of tenure;' for in the present day the cases are very few indeed in which the lands thus leased are now in the possession or occupation of the lineal descendants of the original lessees."

The only published work of Mr. Lewson is his sermon at the ordination in Glenarm on the 19th July, 1792. His text is Christ, "the light of the world." He shows, in the first place, the Gospel as giving clear directions for the knowledge of God; it represents the principles of natural religion as the foundation of virtue; it sets moral and religious truth in an intelligible light; it reveals clearly the terms of Divine acceptance; it holds forth the Divine example and the promise of the Spirit's help to free men from works of darkness; and it makes a clear discovery of a future world. He then proceeds to illustrate some general principles founded on the Gospel as the light of the world; it is intended for the weak no less than the learned; it is sufficient to guide them in the way to salvation, if they sincerely improve their capacities; and, being a perfect light, nothing can be a necessary part of it which is superior to man's capacity, and therefore unintelligible to him. Lastly, he improves the subject, as the occasion suggests, by pointing out the duty of teachers to improve in useful knowledge, and to make the light of the Gospel the rule of their doctrine and life, and by inculcating on the

people to search the Scriptures and not the creeds or systems of men.

It is certainly a remarkable sermon for a man so far advanced in years. It brings out some of the main features of the New Light divinity, such as the antipathy to creeds, and the notion that mystery of any kind is inconsistent with the very nature of revelation. The stress also which is laid upon sincerity and the duties of moral obligation, as if they stood to the creature in place of the atonement of the Saviour, indicates clearly the school of thought to which the preacher belongs. If we could overlook the grand defect that it omits to state plainly the only method by which a sinner can obtain reconciliation to God, we could not deny it the praise of saying that it is in other respects an excellent discourse, characterised by much that is plain, sensible, and good.

Mr. Lewson died on the 15th of September, 1802, and was interred in the family burying-ground of the Shaws of Ballygally, with which old and respectable Presbyterian family he was connected by friendship and by domestic ties. His second wife was Margaret Nevin, daughter of Rev. Thomas Nevin of Downpatrick, by whom he left one daughter-Margaret Nevin Lewson. Miss Lewson married Mr. Shaw of Ballygally, by whom she had one son and four daughters, three of whom were alive in 1865. After her husband's death, she was again married to the Rev. Thomas Alexander, her father's successor. One of her sons by this marriage, Rev. Henry Alexander, was for some time minister of the Remonstrant congregation of Newry.*

THE EXAMPLE OF MINISTERS.

The last thing to be recommended to teachers is a wise and virtuous example. "They are lights to the world." It should be their study "to let their light so shine before men that they may see their good works, and glorify their Father who is in heaven."

*Minutes of Synod of Ulster: Christian Unitarian, vol. iv. pp. 260-267 and 294-300.