mere family of God that one portion of his children was in disgrace. They knew too well the joys of his presence, and the terrors of his wrath, and therefore hailed with rapture this symptom of returning tenderness. And how shall we express our gratitude for such unmerited, such unexpected, such unexampled goodness? Peace may once more dwell on earth peace with our offended Creator, peace with all our brethren, peace from the cares and anxieties of life, peace in the hour of death, peace, yea confidence, in the day of judgment. Good will has been marvellously shewn to man while he was far from God; and therefore we feel assured it will never be withdrawn from those that value and improve it. This is the true light in which the Gospel-message should be viewed. God is just, and yet the justifier of them that believe in Jesus. Had he left us to our fate, O, who might abide the day of his coming, or who might stand when he appeareth? Had he forgotten his threats, and indolently flung mercy to us, we had lost our confidence in his promises, and our admiration of his holiness. Besides, the believer is not like a reckless and hardened criminal, who seeks only to escape the penalty of his guilt, careless that his impunity is derived from some quibble about the evidence, or some flaw in the indictment; careless that the law is cheated of its honour, and society robbed of its security. We long to be sanctified as well as pardoned; to be loved as well as glorified. The evil of sin, and the love of God, become daily more apparent, more purifying, more consolatory; yet we feel we had never known half the evil of sin, had not the Son of God come down from heaven to atone for it; nor half the love of the Father, had he not sacrificed that Son in order to deliver us from the curse. It is from this alone that we can estimate the value of the soul, the torments of hell, the delights of heaven, the mercies of the Almighty, and the responsibilities of man. May the consideration of these subjects, which the Church has brought this day prominently before us, quicken us from our spiritual insensibility, or stir us up to greater diligence in the work of our salvation. May we date from this day a new course of holiness, and purity, and benevolence; new faith in God, new hopes of heaven, new sentiments of charity to all mankind. I know not but that the song, which stole upon the shepherds' ear, may even now be ringing through all the vastnesses of creation. I know not but that even here, where two or three are gathered together in the Saviour's name, some portion of the angelic host may be hovering round us on their viewless wings, and shedding odour and whispering gratulation. And though their minstrelsies be not audible, as of old, to mortal sense, that we should be rapt into bliss, or entranced with wonder by their voice, yet may they draw from their golden harps those ecstatic tones which may mingle with our orisons, strengthen the volume, and sweeten the harshness of our praise. May we at least copy their recorded song of adoration, and so carry the music of it in our hearts through all the din and turmoil of the coming year, that at its close we may repeat the strain with better feelings, or else be summoned to take our part in the richer melodies of heaven. INVOCATION OF SAINTS.* As the result of an investigation of the Scriptures has proved that there is no manner of authority to justify image-worship, so, if we search throughout the numerous passages of the word of God, we shall not find a single verse or portion of the written word from which any inference can be drawn, that prayers to angels should be addressed, or the intercession of saints is required. We read of their employment, indeed, in heaven; but as to any communion with, or knowledge of us on earth, the Scriptures are silent; and it is quite impossible for us to advance any thing for certain on such a subject, so far removed from human apprehension and human judgment. But this we may say, without hazarding a hasty and dangerous speculation, that all their occupations are of a heavenly nature, and that all their thoughts are so absorbed by doing God's will, as to leave them not a moment's leisure ledge extended beyond the confines of the heavenly for earthly concernments, even supposing their knowmansions, or that they knew aught of what was transacted in a world with which death had dissolved their connexion and intercourse. From what we can collect of the heavenly world, we image it to ourselves as a region of consummate blessedness; but it may well admit of a question, whether such a representation would be just, whether the blessedness of angel spirits would be consummate and unalloyed, were they to have cognisance of all that is passing in this lower region. Delightful it is, in one sense, to entertain such an idea, that all communion between the saints and us has not been abrogated by death; and sweetly scothing as it is to the spirit bowed down to the earth by some family bereavement, and mourning for some dear and valued member of the domestic circle, to believe that the intercourse is still continued,-yet it is too much to conceive of them that they would know their duty so little, and wax in their attachment to their Redeemer so languid, as to interpose their prayers and services in that department which has been so exclusively consigned to him,-that of being the one only Mediator between God and man, whose mediation is our all in all, to which we can alone trust for having our prayers heard, our persons accepted, our services received, and our offences pardoned. They surely would not be so little sensible of what they themselves owed to the same mediation, as ofliciously to assume the office of mediator, and trench upon the department of the one Mediator, the man Christ Jesus. We conceive not so of these tried and blessed spirits; nor that, had they the knowledge of what is passing here, would they be so unwise as to press a suit which is in far better hands when advanced by Him who hath been retained from on high as our D.D. From "Increase of Popery." By the Rev. James Rudge, counsel to advocate our cause and propitiate our ser vices.* observed, that oft-times on a sudden, he knows not how, most vigorous, powerful, affecting thoughts of eternity, and the great concerns of religion, have seized and possessed his soul; such affecting thoughts, as at other times, when he composes and sets himself to think of those matters, he cannot, without very great difficulty, if at all, command and retrieve. But, not to dwell on this delightful speculation, nothing can be proved from the ministry and employment of angelic beings with ourselves in serving God, that worship should be paid to these superior intelligences. And if not to them, assuredly not to others, who are called saints in the Roman calendar; and still less to the dead, who have been canonised as saints, to whom invocation should be made, and intercession offered. Dead! Yes, indeed, as death left, so judgment will find them; and if any canonisation will happily take place respecting them, that must be adjudicated only at the judgment-day; for the great Judge is not the Judge of the quick only, but of the dead; and if any of the dead now wear the crown, and have received the kingdom, methinks much of the duties of the Judge will be, and have been, abridged, and he will be the Judge of the living only, or of such as shall be found alive at his second coming to judge the whole world.... From the above reflections, then, and more particularly from the Scriptures, you will perceive that saint-worship has no authority by which it can be justified. But we need not dwell on such suppositions-the whole stream of Scripture flows contrary to such a doctrine as that of the invocation of the saints or angels. The doctrine of the Scriptures is this, and no other, that all prayer must be addressed to God, in the name and through the mediation of Jesus Christthat the interposition of none other but that of him is required-that the service of no angels, or saints, or of the blessed virgin, is requisite that no other advocate but Christ is necessary; that, in short, if any man sin-and this is the doctrine of cardinal importance and blessing to sinners-"if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins." And here the doctrine must rest on this pivot, and on this alone. Whatever men may advance, and Churches may ordain, the pious and judicious believer, who is instructed in things pertaining to the kingdom of God out of the Scriptures, will here repose on this rock his confidence and faith, nor suffer them to be shaken therefrom by any plausible theories, or unauthorised interpolations of God's blessed word. In apostolical language, then, I say to one and all of you, "Let no man beguile you of your reward, in a voluntary humility, or senseless prostration of the body to images and pictures, and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind; and not holding the head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God." t You will perceive from this passage, and the authority of St. Paul is not one to be lightly esteemed,-that the worshipping of angels even, who are a higher order of celestial beings, and ordained to minister in holier things, even to do service before the presence and to attend at the altar of the Lord Jehovah in heaven, is prohibited. Who the angels are, is a question to which no other answer can be given but such as is authorised by the written word; and the intimations respecting them are so slight, that it requires the reins of a sound and sober judg-perstitions, the thoughts and emotions to be experiment, when we expatiate upon their nature, and describe their offices. In all probability they were created at the time, and within the period, in which the Almighty was engaged in constructing this fabric, and in completing this world of ours; and at different periods since their creation, have they been employed as harbingers of peace, or as executioners of justice; and even at this moment their ministry is exercised, in a marvellous, but sufficiently intelligible manner, to give consolation and succour to the heirs of salvation, as they are wending their way among the vales and ascending the hills of this lower world, in which their guidance is so necessary to keep all of us from the briars and thistles which encumber our path, and their might is so indispensable to countervail the various mines which the malice of the devil and the hand of mischief have fabricated at every turn of our pathway heavenwards. And oh, who can doubt but that it is to the ministry of a holy angel that the traveller heavenwards owes much of his guardianship by night, and of his preservation by day; much of the good thoughts he entertains, the good resolutions he forms, and many of the known and the unknown dangers from which he has been rescued. There is no man exercised in the ways of religion but must have It was, perhaps, a good ordinance of one of the ancient Churches, seeing the purposes to which images and pictures in churches would be abused: "Placuit in ecclesiis esse non debere, ne, quod colitur aut adoratur, in parietibus depingatur." It is the judicious remark of Dr. Clark, that the earthly relations, and even the mother of our Lord herself, were constantly treated by him after such a manner as to repel the idea that they were capable of doing, or suffering, or interceding any way meritoriously for us; as if it were on purpose to guard against those gross superstitions which our Lord foresaw would prevail in the latter ages of the Church. To the worship and reverence with which the memories of departed saints were regarded, are owing many of the corruptions that grew up in the Church, and a "train of error and fraud ensued, which ended in the grossest creature-worship." Yet, in its origin, this was natural and salutary. He whose heart is not excited upon a spot which a martyr has sanctified by his sufferings, or at the grave of one who has largely benefited mankind, must be more inferior to the multitude in the moral, than he can possibly be raised above them in his intellectual nature. Could the Holy Land be swept clean of its mummeries and su enced there would be worth a pilgrimage. But it is the condition of humanity, that the best things are those which should most easily be abused. The prayer which was preferred with increased fervency at a martyr's grave, was at length addressed to the martyr himself; virtue was imputed to the remains of his body, the rags of his apparel, even to the instruments of his suffering; relics were required as an essential part of the church-furniture; it was decreed that no church should be erected unless some treasures of this kind were deposited within the altar, and so secured there, that they could not be taken out without destroying it; it was made a part of the service to pray through the merits of the saint whose relics were there deposited; and the priest, when he came to this passage, was enjoined to kiss the altar.* The Cabinet. THE HOUSE OF PRAYER.-How great is the mercy of God in providing these houses of prayer, where two or three may meet together in his name, and find their gracious Lord in the midst of them, saluting them, as in the days of his flesh, with his accustomed benediction, "Peace be unto you!" What a relief is it to come into these hallowed walls, out of the strife and turmoil of the world, and commit our cause, and our hopes, and our fears, to the care of Ged! What a comfort to leave behind us for a brief interval all the conflicting interests and the entangled devices of this perishable life, and to raise our thoughts to that hap Sce Southey's admirable work, "The Book of the Church." pier time, when brother shall no longer strive with brother; when men shall be all of one mind in one house; when none shall hunger or thirst, neither shall the heat nor sun smite them by day, nor the cold by night! What a miserable scene of incessant struggle and worldliness would this land be without its Sabbath and its house of prayer! Abused as are these blessings by so many, despised and trodden under foot, and desecrated, as are too often the holy things of this house and of the Lord's own day, they yet shed a light and a religious cheerfulness over this world's scene, even in our imperfect observance of their duties, which those who value Christian privileges prize as their bread of life, and the best sustenance of the soul. They are the salt of our land; they keep alive the fire of religious feeling in the altar of the heart; they give a respite from earthly cares, and open a glimpse of heaven to our sight; they speak, as it were, a perpetual protest against infidelity and vice; they set up a standard for the Gospel; they oppose a temporary check to the foes of the soul; they remind man that there is no peace or spiritual prosperity, but through reconciliation with God, and in communion with him. -Bishop Sumner. HERESY AND SCHISM.-They which are saved must be sanctified in truth; they which are of the truth must be consummate and made perfect in one. They are no better than soul-murderers, be they never so painful in their teaching, that teach such doctrines as do either poison the Church with heresy, or dismember and rend it asunder with schism. Of heretics, St. Paul, forewarning the Church of Ephesus, saith, "I know that after my departure there will be ravening wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock." Of schismatics he writeth in most earnest manner, as well to the Church of Corinth as of Rome. To the one, "I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all say one thing, and that there be no schisms among you." To the other, “Mark them diligently who cause divisions." These serve not the Saviour; they serve the destroyer of the world.Archbishop Sandys. In every EXISTENCE OF EVIL.-Could we view this globe as it came from the hands of the Creator, when every thing which he made was very good, we should have every where around us, not only the evidence, but also the effects of his unbounded beneficence. But the earth on which man is placed is no longer as it was framed; it has been cursed for our sin. portion of our physical and mental creation, in the soil upon which we tread, the body in which we live, the thoughts and actions of the soul, we are pierced by the thorns and thistles, and taste the sorrows of the death which, by our rebellion, we have incurred. No human reasoning can account for the presence of evil; no human argument can reconcile the existence of evil to a system of beneficence. Nothing whatever but the unqualified acceptance of the whole word of God, the whole scheme of redemption, as declared in and by that word, can give us any comfort or confidence in God's mercy, or account for such an inscrutable mystery. Sir Francis Palgrave. Poetry. CHRISTMAS. BY THE RIGHT REV. AUBREY G. SPENCER, D.D. Lord Bishop of Newfoundland, (For the Church of England Magazine.) MUSIC is in the midnight air, Strange sounds delight the holy hill, And seraph-melodies declare Sweet "peace on earth, to man good will," Hush'd is the strain; the shepherds' ears The Magian kings their ranks unfold, Their gorgeous bondmen bearing high The myrrh and frankincense and gold. Whom seek ye, with this proud display Of perfumed ore and glittering gem? "Led by yon planet's mystic ray, We seek the Babe of Bethlehem. "Low laid in Judah's lowliest town, The Conqueror of sin and death." Well may ye bow the turban'd head, Well with your richest gifts prepare ; All glorious is that humble shed, For Israel's hope is cradled there. Veil'd in the cloud of human birth Deep mystery, which angels scan!The incarnate God descends to earth, Creation's Lord obscur'd in man. Reader, rejoice with fear and love, And nobler offerings hither bring; A life whose thoughts are fix'd above, A death whence faith hath torn the sting. Thus rescued from a state forlorn, By mercy saved, by grace forgiven, Be thou amongst those bless'd re-born, Whose names the Spirit writes in heaven. NATIONAL BALLADS.-No. IX. THE BIBLE THE POLE-STAR OF THE REFORMATION. BY MISS M. A. STODART. (For the Church of England Magazine.) A STERN, proud king, with searching eye, A kingdom's weal, a kingdom's woe, Seem'd on that moment hung, And popish priests were also nigh, They liked not that their sovereign's eye Yet all, unwittingly, they paid Their tribute to its worth; "Then, in God's name," King Henry said, Through England send it forth." And in God's name that holy book Was sent throughout the land; For eagerly those men of prayer Caught up their king's command: On village-desk, with binding chain, King Henry's deed was mark'd on earth, For truth an earnest cry; And gallantly and steadily Went forth our noble sires- We hear the tale! I glance around, It is no time for empty sighs, Children of martyr'd men! They bid us prize the blessed book Miscellaneous. CHURCHES OR GAOLS?-The following observation, taken from Mr. Collins's statistics of church-accommodation in Glasgow, is scarcely of less interest to the political economist than to the zealous Churchman. "This is an age of economy; and if the state can secure the peace and order of society more cheaply by extending the means of religious instruction to the people, than by extending the police and other criminal establishments of our country, would it not be a wise economy in the state to adopt the one in preference to the other? The truth is, the people will cost us, whether we will or not. If we do not build them churches, we must build them gaols and bridewells." Have any accurate calculations been yet made to shew that the amount of crime differs in towns or parishes of equal population, according to the greater or less amount of church-accommodation provided for the inhabitants? Within thirty years, from 1800 to 1831, about four millions were spent upon gaols and lunatic asylums. Again, in the last ten years we are told that the sums collected as poor-rates fall little short of fifty or sixty millions sterling. Who shall say how far this expenditure would have been diminished by an outlay of one-twentieth part of these sums in support of the Church of England parochial system, by multiplying schools, churches, and clergy? -Staffordshire Gazette. THE JEWS.-The early history of the Hebrew nation is one unbroken series of Divine interpositions. Their whole career is conducted in defiance of obstacles insurmountable to human apprehension or by human means. Their rescue from the power of Egypt; their protracted existence in the barren wilderness; their conquest of the more warlike and powerful possessors of their promised land; their primary consent, and permanent submission, to the unprecedented burdens of their law; and their eventual preservation from heathenism, notwithstanding their own backsliding reluctance, and the contagion of seductive example,— unquestionably demanded that miraculous aid, which we know to have been administered. Exclude the agency of Heaven, and their whole story is obscure, and inconsistent, and incredible-cause and effect have no intelligible relation or proportion to each other;— admit it, and consistency is at once restored. If the Israelites yield to disobedience or idolatry, the meanest of their neighbours, Moabites, Midianites, Amalekites, even the subject and tributary Canaanites, can rise in arms to their discomfiture and degradation. Let them serve the Lord faithfully, and "one" of them may "chase a thousand," and "the daughter of Zion may shake her head" at the countless hosts of "the great king, the king of Assyria."-Professor Godfrey Faussett. COBBETT'S TESTIMONY TO THE CHURCH.-Get upon a hill, if you can find one, in Suffolk or Norfolk ; and you may find plenty in Hampshire, and Wiltshire, and Devonshire; look at the steeples, one in every four square miles, at the most, on an average. Imagine a man of some learning, at the least, to be living in a commodious house, by the side of one of these steeples; almost always with a wife and family; always with servants, natives of the parish, gardener, groom, and all other servants. A huge farm-yard; barns, stables, thrashers, a carter or two, more or less glebe, and of farming. Imagine this gentleman having an interest in the productiveness of every field in his parish, being probably the largest corn-seller in the parish, and the largest rate-payer; more deeply interested than any other man can possibly be, in the happiness, morals, industry, and sobriety of the people of his parish. Imagine his innumerable occasions of doing acts of kindness, his immense power in preventing the strong from oppressing the weak; his salutary influence coming between the hard farmer, if there be one in his parish, and the feeble or simple-minded labourer. Imagine all this to exist, close alongside of every one of those steeples, and you will at once say to yourself, "Hurricanes or earthquakes must destroy this island, before that Church can be overset." And when you add to all this, that this gentleman, besides the example of good manners, of mildness, and of justice, that his life and conversation are constantly keeping before the eyes of his parishioners,-when you add to all this, that one day in every week, he has them assembled together to sit in silence, to receive his advice, his admonitions, his interpretations of the will of God, as applicable to their conduct and their affairs, and that too, in an edifice rendered sacred in their eyes, from their knowing that their fore-fathers assembled there, in ages long passed, and from its being surrounded by the graves of their kindred; when this is added; and when it is also recollected, that the children pass through his hands at their baptism; that it is he who celebrates the marriages, and perforins the last sad service over the graves of the dead;--when you think of all this, it is too much to believe it possible that such a Church can fall. SILENCE.-Most men speak when they do not know how to be silent. Seldom do you see any one silent when to speak is of no profit. He is wise who knows when to hold his peace. Must he then be dumb? No; for there is a time to speak, and a time to be silent; and if we must give an account for every idle word, take care lest you have to answer also for idle silence. Tie your tongue, lest it be wanton and luxuriant; keep it within the banks: a rapidly flowing river soon collects mud.-St. Ambrose. THE VALUE OF PRESENT MERCIES. AMONG many prevailing maxims, there is not one, perhaps, more truly founded on experience, than that "we know not the value of any thing while we have it in possession." No, we cannot appreciate the worth of present enjoyment: this is, alas, the case with all our blessings; and the consequences are, that not duly estimating our comforts and privileges, we cannot feel that gratitude and love to the Author of them, which their right consideration should inspire and maintain in our minds, or bring forth that fruit in our lives which the advantages and "means of grace" so amply provided, are intended and expected to produce. Surrounded by the necessaries of life, we can little understand the horrors of privation. We may fancy, from contemplating the effects of water, and by seeing the absolute necessity of it for the existence of creation, and by feeling, perhaps, some sentiments of gratitude for the abundant supply of this element with which we are blest, that we know its intrinsic value; but how poor, how immeasurably short do our feelings and knowledge come, when compared with theirs who have traversed the burning desert, where every blade of verdure is scorched, and every spring exhausted; whose tongues, from thirst and heat, have hung black and swollen from their mouths; and who, consequently, know from experience the true value even of one drop of water! The many advantages and circumstances which contribute to our social as well as to our personal happiness, are too often disre VOL. VII. NO. CC. PRICE 1d. garded; and it is not until some one of them has been removed, that we are led to discover its true worth and importance. If this be found a truth in reference to our temporal affairs, it will also be equally applicable to our spiritual concerns. Sunday after Sunday, for instance, arrives, and each brings with it renewed opportunities of furthering, in a more especial manner, the welfare of our immortal souls, and of using those appointed means which are able to make us wise unto salvation. Now it may be that we receive these repeated blessings with a spirit of thankfulness and joy; but should we be visited by any of those casualties under which thousands suffer, and thus be deprived of regularly attending these means of grace; or should the hand of disease incapacitate us for the uninterrupted discharge of our duties, or render us totally unable to enjoy the privileges of "the courts of the Lord's house;" we should find that these precious blessings were not, while we possessed them, properly estimated: the deprivation of them has taught us their true value, so that we now consider the position of the very sparrow an enviable one, who had "found a house, and the swallow a nest, where she may lay her young, even thy altars, O Lord of Hosts, my King and my God." And we are now able to enter into the beauty of those expressions of the Psalmist, when he says that he has a desire, a longing, and a thirst, to come to appear before the presence of God (Ps. xlii. 1, 2; lxxxiv. 2, 3). We may reasonably suppose that the true value of mercies and privileges is known to the soul that is lost: surely, the anguish of this state must be augmented by [London: Robson, Levey, and Franklyn, 46 St. Martin's Lane.] GG |