praying that the mere relation of facts may be made instrumental to the reception and understanding of the scriptural doctrine of the Holy Spirit, both in his power and in his love (for the Spirit is one), without which the manifestations, which we witnessed, of his gifts, will be but as an idle tale.

We spent three weeks, (some of us upwards of a month), arriving in the latter end of August, in Port Glasgow and the neighbourhood, and attended regularly, while there, at the prayer meetings, which meetings were held every evening, and, occasionally, (those only attending who were not engaged in business), in the morning. The history of one of those meetings is the history of all: I may probably as well relate what took place at the first which we attended. The mode of proceeding is, for each person who takes a part, first to read a psalm in metre, which is sung by the meeting: then a chapter from the Bible: and he then prays. On this occasion, after two other gentlemen, J. Mc'D., read and prayed. His prayer was most remarkable. The sympathizing with the mind of our Saviour: interceding for a world which tramples on the blood and rejects his mercy, and for the church which grieves the Holy Ghost: the humiliation for sin, and the aspirations after holiness, were totally different from any thing I had ever before heard. He then, in the course of his prayer, and while engaged in intercession for others, began speaking in an unknown tongue : and, after speaking for some time, he sung, or rather chaunted, in the same tongue. He then rose, and we all rose with him and with a very loud voice, and with great solemnity, he addressed us in the same tongue (that is to say, the unknown tongue) for a considerable time: he then, with the same loudness of voice and manner, addressed us in English, calling on us to prepare for trial, for we had great trials to go through for the testimony of Jesus: to crucify the flesh: to lay aside every weight: to put far from us our fleshly wisdom, power, and strength, and to stay us in our God!'

There is not the least clue given as to the meaning of the unknown language, which brother Mac addressed to his audience-and one is astonished that the precious ideas which he must have put forth in the new tongue, were not afterwards translated for the benefit of the audience. After having said and sung sufficiently to put his hearers into a very amiable state of toleration, the linguist now sat down to make way for a fresh candidate. This was one of Macdonald's own servants, who being of the female sex, we take it for granted, that her polyglot pretensions were very readily assented to by the company. We must let Mr. Cardale describe the apparition.

‘After he (Mc'D.) had concluded, a short pause ensued, when suddenly the servant woman of the Mc'D.'s arose, and spoke (for a space of probably ten minutes) in an unknown tongue, and then in English; the latter was entirely from Scripture, consisting of passages from different parts, and connected together in a most remarkable manner. The meeting concluded with a psalm, a chapter, and prayer, from another gentleman.'

So much for Macdonald's servant woman, and the other 'gentleman.' The effect of their exhortations, both in the known and unknown tongues, was particularly striking.

Immediately on conclusion, Mrs. one of the ladies who had received the Spirit, but had not received the gift of tongues, (she received the gift while we were in the country,) arose, went out of the room, and began speaking in a loud voice of the coming judgments. After she had spoken about five minutes, Mr. Macdonald commenced also speaking, and Mrs. instantly ceased speaking.'

A marvellous proper woman did Mrs.

display herself to be, and a bright example of docility has she set to all her sex, in the cheerful readiness with which she yielded the parole to the first claimant. We continue our quotation.

'It is impossible to describe the solemnity and grandeur, both of words and manner, in which she gave testimony to the judgments coming on the earth; but also directed the church to the coming of the Lord, as her hope of deliverance. When she had concluded, we left the house.'

Mr. Cardale follows up these details with some observations of a general nature, mingled with occasional additions to the foregoing statement of facts.

The prayer meetings,' he goes on to say, are strictly private meetings, and for prayer. The rules they lay down for themselves do not allow of exposition, but simply the perusal of the Scriptures.

During our stay, four individuals received the gift of tongues; of these, two, Mrs. and Mr. Mc'D. had repeatedly spoken in the Spirit, previously to their receiving the gift of tongues.

The tongues spoken by all the several persons, in number nine, who had received the gift, are perfectly distinct in themselves, and from each other. J. Mc'D. speaks two tongues, both easily discernible from each other; I easily perceived when he was speaking in the one, and when in the other tongue. J. Mc'D. exercises his gift more frequently than any of the others, and I have heard him speak for twenty minutes together, with all the energy of voice and action of an orator addressing an audience. The language which he then, and indeed generally uttered, is very full and harmonious, containing many Greek and Latin radicals, and with inflections, also, much resembling those of the Greek language. I also frequently noticed that he employed the same radical with different inflections; but I do not remember to have noticed his employing two words together, both of which, as to root and inflection, I could pronounce to belong to any language, with which I am acquainted. G. Mc'D.'s tongue is harsher in its syllables, but more grand in general expression. The only time I ever had a serious doubt whether the unknown sounds, which I heard on these occasions, were parts of a language, was when Mc'D.'s servant spoke during the first evening. When she spoke on subsequent occasions, it was invariaby in one tongue, which was not only perfectly distinct from the sounds she uttered at the first meeting, but was satisfactorily established, to my conviction, to be a language.'

Mr. Cardale is a learned Theban, no doubt. We should like to have a catalogue of the tongues which he understands. Could he likewise state the grounds of his conviction as to the certainty of the servant delivering herself in a real language, he would add to the obligations we are under to him, and would further the cause of truth.

I conceive,' he goes on, that though a real language may possibly, to one unacquainted with it, sound like a jargon, yet a mere jargon unless put together with skill, in other words, unless actually formed into a language, will sound like a jargon and nothing else, to any person who is at all acquainted with the formation of languages; or, indeed, will consider that all the sounds of any given language are in the same key; and that a language is either inflected, or when uninflected, its roots must, in order to fulfil the purpose of a language, be combined with each other in an infinite variety. Now, the voices which we heard (except upon the occasion last alluded to) were, in connection with each other, euphonous; many of them evidently inflected; and they conveyed the impression of being well formed and cadenced languages.'

As we have given up the Apocalypse long ago in despair, we are certainly in no disposition to try and make out the meaning of the foregoing passage. Mr. Cardale is a little more practical in the following paragraphs:

'One of the persons thus gifted, we employed as our servant while at Port Glasgow. She is a remarkably quiet, steady, phlegmatic person, entirely devoid of forwardness or enthusiasm, and with very little to say for herself in the ordinary way. The language which she spoke was as distinct as the others; and in her case, as in the others, (with the exceptions I have before mentioned) it was quite evident to a hearer, that the language spoken at one time was identical with that spoken at another time.

The chaunting or singing, was also very remarkable. J. Mc'D.'s ordinary voice is by no means good, and, in singing particularly, is harsh and unpleasing; but when thus singing in the Spirit, the tones and the voice are perfectly harmonious. On the morning after the day on which Mrs.

(the lady to whom I have before referred) received the gift of tongues, I heard her sing stanzas with the alternate lines rhyming. The time was at first slow, but she became more and more rapid in her utterance, until at last syllable followed syllable as rapidly as was possible, and yet each syllable distinctly enunciated. The rapidity of utterance was such that a person would require considerable time to commit to memory stanzas in English so as to repeat or sing them with equal rapidity..

These persons, while uttering the unknown sounds, as also while speaking in the Spirit in their own language, have every appearance of being under supernatural direction. The manner and voice are (speaking generally) different from what they are at other times, and on ordinary occasions. This difference does not consist merely in the peculiar solemnity and fervour of manner (which they possess), but their whole deportment gives an impression, not to be conveyed in words, that their organs are made use of by supernatural power. In addition to the outward appearances, their own declarations as the declarations of honest, pious, and sober individuals, may with propriety be taken in evidence. They declare, that their organs of speech are made use of by the Spirit of God; and that they utter that which is given to them, and not the expressions of their own conceptions or their own intention. But I had numerous opportunities of observing a variety of facts confirmatory of this. Whatever might have been the apparent exertion employed, I repeatedly

observed that it had no exhausting effect upon them: that neither loudness of voice, nor vehemence of action discomposed or exhausted them. And we had a remarkable instance of this in Mrs. Mc'D., who one morning, in consequence of having a severe cold, so entirely lost the use of her voice, as to be unable to speak out of a whisper, yet on a sudden commenced, and from 10a.m. to 2 p.m. continued speaking in a loud voice-sometimes in intercessory prayer in the Spirit, sometimes in denouncing the coming judgments, and occasionally speaking in an unknown tongue-and at the end of that time she relapsed exactly into her former state, neither better nor worse than she had been in the morning, but without the slightest exhaustion from her long continued efforts.'

Mr. Cardale concludes, by stating, that the result of his inquiries into the moral character, &c. of these prophets, is consistent with those expectations, which a true believer in their sanctity would entertain.

Such is the history of the notable Port Glasgow "miracles”—and though one may laugh, in ridicule or in scorn, at the mixture of fraud and folly of which this affair is, according to all human probability, composed, yet the serious Christian will detect in it much that deserves his most anxious solicitude. A journeyman tailor tired of the sedentary occupation to which he is condemned, rises from his inglorious seat, affects a difficulty of breathing—and sometimes goes into convulsions; the crowd, forthwith recognizing, as they are instigated to believe, the presence of a divine power, salutes the ex-tailor as their appointed minister. The philosophy of this is plain. The consumption of costume is stagnant-the journeyman is dissatisfied with his labour and his reward-and he betakes him to a way of life where he shall have much less of the one, and a great deal more of the other. Inspiration is a more profitable and reputable trade than that of the needle. So far all is very natural, and, in this country, such an occurrence ought not to be condemned by any person. But then, when the emancipated operative affects to be a Thaumaturgus-when he pretends to a jurisdiction over the respiratory system, and offers to raise the dead to life-when he promises, under supernatural encouragement, to mend broken bones, and exorcise the viscera of the colic and other abdominal fiends-it is high time to take up the blasphemer, and try if he have the power of working himself out of a Bridewell or the stocks. For ought any government, or well wisher of his country, to be indifferent to the effect which such vulgar impostors as Macdonald, and his accessories, must make on the minds of the lower orders? One such fellow as this, is able to roll back a spring tide of knowledge, which any system of diffusion may send forth to the people. We have nothing like this in ancient history-extravagant as antiquity was in its notions of religion. The world, at that time, had an awe of the Divinity-they feared him, and trembled at his name. But we have learned, in this enlightened age, to throw off such wholesome apprehensions. A vile delver of the earth will presume to wield

the Almighty thunders. Who can believe that the divine oracles were ever destined to be interpreted in the worst of English, amid the cruellest violations of grammar and syntax? Ignorance is the most terrible of all criminals; it unteaches even instinct. To this dreadful cause, are to be attributed the impressions of the divine policy, of which we are now lamenting the existence. It is not as the Supreme Ruler of heaven and earth, superintending the countless creatures of innumerable worlds, that some of us, in this paltry spot of the universe, are desired to consider the Deity. On the contrary, we are taught to regard him as a being endowed with our wretched passions and propensities. We strive to degrade him into a partizan of our silly interests and designs. Is it not impiety of the grossest kind, to suppose that the Almighty can invent no more unequivocal and striking method of manifesting his great purposes, than that of respiting an old lady in Fernicary from an asthma-and prompting brother Macdonald to the utterance of a quantity of jabber, which no human being can understand? Is omnipotence driven indeed to such straits? If the Almighty intended to distinguish prophet Irving by some extraordinary mark of favour, why did he not with a breath, bury in the earth every edifice of false worship that stands in the neighbourhood of the orthodox Scotch temple? Why did he not declare, by signs and tokens not to be misunderstood, that Irving and his disciples were the chosen few, on whom alone he looked well pleased?

We have not thought the cases here spoken of worthy the dignity of critical examination, but lest there should be a human being to whom they can present a single difficulty, before he comes to a proper understanding of their nature, we shall take the liberty of offering a few words for the consideration of such a person. Let it be granted, that the Almighty chose to perform a miracle by the instrumentality of James Macdonald. Let it be that James was suddenly and obviously to exhibit a facility in divers tongues, the knowledge of which it was well ascertained could come upon him in a supernatural manner only. Supposing, we say, that it was the intention of the Almighty to work a miracle of this sort, nothing seems more easy than to render the manifestation of it universally intelligible, and as universally undeniable. If, for instance, Macdonald, a poor uneducated body, all his life a workman, were to pour forth a first-rate sermon in choice Italian-or, if he were to approach the prose of Demosthenes-nay, we will go so far as to say, if James the labourer (notwithstanding his early proficiency at a National school) were to give us a homily in immaculate English, then we should say that he vindicated his claim to be considered as the chosen instrument of a miraculous operation. But when the simple man can go no farther than an abstract gibberish, which no mortal ears have ever experienced before, then we may be allowed to exercise a practical judgment on his pretensions. The Deity,' say Cardale and Co., has given to Macdonald the gift of tongues,