We are enjoined to "honour all men;" to give to all, evil and good, whatever measure of respect is their due: to "love" with a special affection the Christian fraternity; those who, with us, are united to Christ the head, and with whom we are bound together in the same "hope of glory." We must "fear God" with supreme awe and obedience: and "honour the king" with that distinguishing respect which is due to him above other men. In the GOSPEL (John, xvi. 5-15) our Lord promises to send the Comforter to his disciples; and declares the nature and effects of his operations. He was now about to return to his Father: but "since the moment, when Jesus first told his disciples that he was about to leave the world, they had not asked him any thing further about the state and place to which he was going; and therefore, instead of rejoicing in his approaching exaltation, and hoping for important benefits from it, they were overwhelmed with sorrow at his words, as if they were about to suffer an irreparable loss. Our Lord therefore repeats his assurance, that his departure would turn to their advantage; for that unless he passed through his sufferings, and entered into his glory, the promised Comforter would not come unto them. When he should come, he would reprove or convince the world of sin, in rejecting and crucifying the Lord of glory; of righteousness, because the righteousness of Christ was fully proved, as he was returned to the Father, and appeared no more among them--thus shewing that he was accepted by and glorified with God the Father; of judgment, because Satan, the prince of this world, (by the power of the Holy Ghost attending the apostles' doctrine), would be shewn to be judged, condemned as a criminal, and expelled from his usurped dominion over mankind. Our Lord had many things further to communicate to his apostles, concerning the nature of his salvation, &c.; but their minds were not sufficiently freed from prejudices to receive such instructions, and to make a proper use of them. They were therefore unreservedly to depend on the teaching of the Holy Spirit, who would speak nothing of himself,' as if he proposed to himself any separate end or purpose; but would teach them exactly those things which the Divine wisdom had appointed to be revealed to the Church, as being one in nature, counsel, and operation, with the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit would also be in them a Spirit of prophecy, to make known to them future events to the end of time. He should in an especial manner glorify Christ, by shewing to the Church, how all the perfections and fulness of the Godhead, and all the dominion which attached to the Father as the Creator and Proprietor of the universe, belonged equally to the Son, as one with him."* The Cabinet. Yet LOVE TO GOD, as God is revealed in Christ Jesus, is a conclusive sign of the Saviour's presence in our hearts. This is the only kind of love which he allows. Do I seem to draw an over-nice distinction? our happiness through all eternity depends upon it. You love God, not as he is revealed in the Bible-for with the Bible you profess no great acquaintance; but you love God as all nature, all creation proclaims his being and his goodness. You are yourself full of life and health; you see the earth teeming with its riches to you, at present, existence is but another name for joy and gladness. And when you look upwards, and think of God, your heart overflows with gratitude; and this you call the religion of nature. is so-it is the religion of a heathen, who has no other light than that which nature supplies him with. But in your hands Science has lent her aid to exalt the Rev. T. Scott's Commentary. It character and the tone of natural religion. In every herb, in every stone, to say nothing of man, the master-piece of his creation, you see the traces of a Deity, and the proofs that he is good. Is this to be condemned? I reply, by no means. Does religion frown upon the advance of science, as if under the mask of friendship she feared an enemy or a rival? I answer, no such suspicions become the Gospel. Then, why are we dissatisfied with such views of God? I reply, because they do not recognise a Saviour; they do not exalt Christ; they do not further that which is the grand aim of revelation-to proclaim salvation through the cross of Christ.-Rev. J. B. Marsden on the Comings of Christ. THE PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH. It is the health of the soul, which is the one great end of all the ordinances of our most holy faith; and, keeping this always in view, we may venture to affirm, that valuable as preaching is as a part of our Church service, it is yet of much less value than the prayers, the right exercise of which, like the pulse in the natural body, plainly indicates the life that exists within. But if prayer be indeed the pulse of the spiritual life; if it be in truth the breath of God in man returning to its original source,-how is it that so many professed Christians should appear to despise the privilege of prayer, and to regard the sermon as all in all? This is evidently the fault of itching ears and unsteady hearts; and it would be well, if all who profess and call themselves Christians, would consider within themselves how certain it is that a preaching Church, i. e. a Church which exalts the ordinance of preaching to the neglect or the disparagement of the ordinance of prayer, cannot stand." It assuredly becomes us to be thankful for the plenteous provision of preaching, which we now enjoy; but, at the same time, we must take good heed, lest, as in the times before the great rebellion, it should be exalted and abused to the hinderance or the injury of the other ordinances of the Church. If the body of professed Christians would shew that they are desirous of becoming "wise unto salvation," they must learn to set their highest value on the most important part of divine service. They must remember the sanctuary of the Lord is spoken of in Scripture not as a house of preaching, but a house of prayer. They must learn, therefore, to love the prayers; and they may rest assured, that they will then find all the edification from the sermon to be, as it were, so much gain to them, over and above. - Rev. R. Anderson's Sermons on the Com munion. THE ANCIENT FATHERS.-These doctors, we have great cause to thank God for them; but yet I would not have them always to be allowed. They have handled many points of our faith very godly; and we may have a great stay in them in many things; we might not well lack them: but yet I would not have men to be sworn to them, and so addict as to take hand over head whatsoever they say: it were a great inconvenience so to do.-Bishop Latimer's Sermons. WEALTH. As the gift of God, wealth is to be enjoyed gratefully, dispensed liberally, and appropriated wisely. It is one of the means of usefulness derived from the bounty of heaven; and the fragments of the rich man's abundance must be carefully preserved for the poor and needy. The conscientious appropriation of wealth is a Christian duty-an evidence that we are acting under the conviction that we are stewards of the gifts of God, and, as such, required to be faithful.-Mary Jane M'Kenzie. DILIGENCE. Let every man that hath a calling be diligent in the pursuance of its employment; yet ever remembering so to work in his calling as not to neglect the work of his higher calling, but to begin and end the day with God.-Bp. Jeremy Taylor. Poetry. RESIGNATION. LONG have I view'd, long have I thought, Nature shrank in, and all my courage died. Since, Lord, 'tis mingled and reach'd out by thee. Since 'tis thy sentence I should part With the most precious treasure of my heart, My little all I give to thee Thou gav'st a greater gift, thy Son, to me. He left true bliss and joys above, More good than he from me can ever take; He took, and did at last even that resign. Take all, great God, I will not grieve, Nor beg thy angel to sheathe up his sword. JOHN NORRIS: 1711. THE CHRISTIAN ENCOURAGED. God hears thy sighs, and counts thy tears; Through waves, through clouds and storms, Wait thou his time; so shall the night He every where hath way, When He makes bare his arm, When He his people's cause defends, Miscellaneous. MORAVIAN. GRATITUDE TO GOD FOR HIS WORKS.-It has been well remarked, that " amongst the many acts of gratitude we owe to God, it may be accounted one, to study and contemplate the perfections and beauties of his works of creation; and that every new discovery must necessarily raise in us a fresh sense of the greatness, wisdom, and power of God." Few things appear to me more curious than the fact, that the seeds of various plants and flowers, which have lain in the ground for ages, have, either by being exposed to the air, been enabled to vegetate, or have been brought into action by the application of some manure agreeable to their nature. This was shewn in trenching for a plantation a part of Bushy Park, which had probably been undisturbed by the spade or plough since, perhaps, long before the reign of Charles I. The ground was turned up in the winter, and in the following summer it was covered with tree mignionette, pansies, and the wild raspberry, plants which are no where to be found in a wild state in the neighbourhood. In Richmond Park a great quantity of the fox-glove came up after some deep trenching. A field also, which had previously little or no Dutch clover upon it, was covered with it, after it had been much trampled upon, and fed down by horses; and, it is supposed, that if a pine-forest in America were to be cut down, and the ground cultivated, and afterwards allowed to return to a state of nature, it would produce plants quite different from those by which it had been previously occupied. If earth is brought to the surface from the lowest depths at which it is found, some vegetable matter will spring from it. I have always considered this as one of the many surprising instances of the power and bounty of Almighty God, who has thus literally filled the earth with his goodness, by storing up a deposit of useful seeds in its depths, where they must have lain through a succession of ages, ready to be brought into action. Some earth was brought up from a depth of 360 feet, in boring for water, and was covered with a hand-glass to prevent the possibility of any other seeds being deposited upon it, yet in a short time plants vegetated from it.-Jesse's Gleanings. SWEDISH CHURCH.-On the principal fountain, opposite to one of the first churches at Göttenburgh, is the following, in gilded letters : Nar dig lecamlig forst De ena har du har, Which may be thus translated : "When your bodily thirst drives you to seek for earthly water, let, at the same time, your soul drink of that happiness which the spring of life gives. The first you have here, and, after you have partaken of it, seek the temple which you see before you, and there you may learn how to obtain the second." Rae Wilson's Travels in Norway, Sweden, &c. CHRISTIAN EQUANIMITY.-As oft as I hear the robin-redbreast chant it as cheerfully in September, the beginning of winter, as in March, the approach of the summer, why should not we (think 1) give as cheerful entertainment to the hoary frosty hairs of our age's winter as to the primroses of our youth's spring? Why not to the declining sun in adversity, as (like Persians) to the rising sun of prosperity? I am sent to the ant to learn industry; to the dove to learn innocency; to the serpent to learn wisdom; and why not to this bird to learn equanimity and patience, and to keep the same tenour of my mind's quietness, as well at the approach of calamity's winter as of the spring of happiness? And, since the Roman's constancy is so commended, who changed not his countenance with his changed fortunes, why should not I, with a Christian resolution, hold a steady course in all weathers, and though I be forced with cross-winds, and my sails catch at side-winds, yet skilfully to steer, and keep on my course, till I arrive at the haven of eternal happiness.-Warwick's Spare Minutes. LONDON-Published by JAMES BURNS, 17 Portman Street, Portman Square; W. EDWARDS, 12 Ave-Maria Lane, St. Paul's; and to be procured, by order, of all Booksellers in Town and Country. PRINTED BY ROBSON, LEVEY, AND FRANKLYN, 46 ST. MARTIN'S LANE. THE GOSPEL TO BE PREACHED TO THE IRISH IN THEIR OWN LANGUAGE. ON the day when the Holy Ghost descended on the assembled apostles at Jerusalem to fit them for their arduous charge, as entrusted by their divine Master, of preaching the Gospel to every creature, a knowledge of different languages was miraculously communicated to them. And the strangers of every nation whom they then addressed, Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, to their utter amazement, heard, each man in his own tongue, those unlearned Galileans speak of the wonderful works of God. That day was a pattern and a pledge to the Church of her future course. She was to go forth through the world, bearing in her hands the word of life. It was to be proclaimed with the utmost plainness of speech. It was to be held up on high, like a candle which no man, when he has lighted, puts under a bushel, but rather on a candlestick, that those around may be benefited by the light. Any neglect on this point would be a grievous sin. It would be the sin of those Jews, who took away the key of knowledge; who entered not in themselves, and hindered those that were entering. It would be the worst form of that unfaithful servant's fault, who hid his Lord's money in a napkin in the earth. Yet, in process of time, this sin was committed. The sacred Scriptures were very generally locked up in an unknown language; and the prayers of the Church, and the sacraments, were ministered" in a tongue not understanded of the people." The consequence was, that ignorance prevailed instead VOL. II. NO. XLVIII. PRICE 1d. of truth, and superstition supplied the place of devotion. Professed instructors took little pains in teaching, when their disciples had little facilities in learning; and therefore, when the blind were leaders of the blind, is it any marvel that both fell into the ditch? Of this systematic cloking of the Gospel the Romish Church is more or less guilty, even to the present day. At the Reformation, it was one of the main principles of the excellent men whom God then raised up, that the candle of the Lord must be uncovered. Accordingly the Bible was, both in this country, and on the continent, translated into the vernacular languages; the Latin service was abolished; and the truth was preached plainly and freely to the people. Wherever the influence of the Reformation reached, it was again the fact, that men heard in their own tongue the wonderful works of God. This principle was strenuously acted on by the Church of England. It is embodied in her articles, it is maintained at length in her homilies. It is therefore in strictest accordance with the authorised opinions of our Church, that I call the attention of the readers of this Magazine to a subject which has been heretofore dwelt on in its pages. Many of those who peruse these lines will perceive that I allude to the case of our poor Irish brethren, among whom there are as yet but few ministers qualified to address them in their native language. I shall state in this paper a few facts to shew the necessity of some steps being taken to supply the want of Irishspeaking preachers; and I shall then urge on those, to whom God has given the means, the duty of exertion in this cause. R The proportion of inhabitants in the sister that such an ordinary man was able to do island who speak the Irish language is very more good than if he had had Latin without large. "I feel quite confident," says Dr. any Irish at all; nor was he deceived in his Mason, who was examined on the subject expectations." "William Bedell, bishop of by the Commissioners of Education Inquiry, Kilmore and Ardagh... lamented much that "that I very greatly underrate the number his clergy were English, which have not the of persons in Ireland who can speak the tongue of the people, nor can perform divine Irish language, in stating it to be two millions offices, nor converse with them, and that I must add . . . that I have, in giving they were barbarians to them. He even rethis testimony, studiously avoided exaggera- fused a living to a near relation of. . . one of tion; and think that I might consistently the lords deputy.... chiefly because upon with the truth claim . . . . three millions examining him he found him unable to read of individuals; and assert, that more than the Irish. He had the common prayers read five hundred thousand can speak no other in the Irish every Sunday in his cathedral, but the Irish tongue. Of the remaining at which he always was present: he, notwithtwo millions and a half, there are two classes; standing much opposition, obliged every mithe first, of those who understand the En-nister to perform services in a tongue unglish, although very imperfectly; the second derstood by the people." comprises a large number of persons, to whom the English is familiar, but whose prejudices shut them up from receiving spiritual instruction in the former." Surely the spiritual wants of so large a body of our fellow-subjects ought not to be disregarded. And if, as it is probable, a majority of these are Roman Catholics, the necessity is so much the more pressing, that Protestant clergymen should have every facility of bringing to their understanding the knowledge of the truth. For the monstrous position, which now unhappily finds such favour in the world, can never be too strongly repudiated, that the Protestant minister is to care only for the Protestants within his cure. He is to consider himself charged especially with the oversight and instruction, if in any way practicable, of his Romanist parishioners; just as a faithful shepherd will be especially solicitous to recover the sheep who have wandered from the fold. If a Protestant may leave unconcernedly any souls to the teaching of the Romish Church, then our martyred fathers, who shed their blood in breaking off the papal yoke, were weak enthusiasts; and we are bound, by every principle of Christian unity, to reconcile ourselves with Rome. The fact, then, I would urgently maintain, that so many of our Irish brethren are Romanists, is an additional argument, not to be evaded, for the necessity of an Irish-speaking Protestant ministry. Of the testimonies of eminent men who strongly held this opinion, Dr. Mason has produced, in the pamphlet before referred to, an abundant selection. I can find room here for only two short extracts. "James Usher, primate of Ireland. . . ordained a person who was unacquainted with the Latin, but versed in the native language; being satisfied... * See Reasons and Authorities for using the Irish Language, by H. J. Monck Mason, LL.D. 1830. But certain objections, it appears, are started, which it may be well briefly to notice. It is said that we shall promote the continuance of a barbarous language, and hence, that we should rather labour to communicate instruction in English, Now, even though a barbarous language were to be some time longer preserved, yet we must remember that the souls of men are at stake; they may perish, while you are striving to abolish the Irish tongue, for lack of knowledge. But it seems demonstrable by fact, that instruction communicated in Irish tends to generate a desire for learning English. I shall mention, by and by, a proof of this. And it is to be remembered that, independently of the natural fondness of the Irish for their own language, multitudes of those who understand and speak English well enough for the ordinary purposes of social life, would be little able to comprehend an English sermon. In support of the views brought forward in this paper, I shall quote two or three illustrative facts from the "Quarterly Extract," No. 53, of the Irish Society, published 1836. "In the dark and bigoted villages of light is rapidly beaming; and numbers now reading the Scriptures in Irish, who would not have looked into one in any other language. Several applications have also been made for translations,' as they term them, meaning the English Testament." "I found the demand for the Scriptures to be as extensive as ever even several Bibles and Testaments in the English authorised translation have been bought... with much eagerness, and many applicants remain unsupplied." "Present was a master between the age of sixty and seventy, whose parents were lapsed Protestants, and therefore more hostile to Protestantism and the Scriptures. Nothing could once exceed the hatred of this man to the English Bible; but the Irish Testament found a way to his heart. A second time he became in his old age a child; and he sat down and learned the alphabet, and graduated through our several classes. As scriptural light found entrance into his mind, a growing desire accompanied it of diffusing it among others. At first he discontinued his attendance upon the chapel, to search the Scriptures. He then employed the Sabbath sitting beside the highway, reading the sacred page to those who would otherwise have profaned the day in riot or pleasure, at the public-house, or the pattern. He afterwards became openly and avowedly a teacher; and now, relinquishing altogether the errors in which he had been educated, and to which he had. clung for more than sixty years, he has taken upon him the scriptural profession of Protestantism, and has become a steady and attached member of our excellent Establishment." I envy not the man who can read these extracts with unmoved feelings. The conclusion, then, to which we must come is, that something ought to be done to remedy the want of Irish-speaking clergymen. They are now so few, and the facilities of learning that language so small, that when the archbishop of Tuam had intimated, a few years ago, his intention of requiring the knowledge of it in the clergy of his diocese, he was compelled, by the absolute impossibility of finding men, to relax his rule. The only method by which a proper supply of duly qualified individuals can be secured, is by the promotion of Irish learning in the Irish university. A professorship of Irish must be established there, and young men must be encouraged by premiums and scholarships, as in other branches of study, to apply themselves to this. This plan is now about to be pursued. Already a subscription has been opened, and a few munificent bishops and noblemen have brought their gifts to it. I ask, therefore, with all the urgency the wants of Ireland demand, will the public not be ready to support them? will not those to whom God has given wealth consecrate some of it for such an object? It is impossible that the university of Dublin can itself endow a professorship-its funds have been of late exhausted by other pressing calls; but the university itself invites the aid of those who wish well to Ireland; and should this invitation be disregarded, should this justice to Ireland be refused or delayed, I should indeed believe it one of the worst auguries of our eventful days. Hitherto, I regret to say, but few persons have responded to the call: I would fain hope, that it is because few have been made acquainted with the real necessities of the But it is right to state the fact, that though 5000l. would be required to carry case. out fully the intentions of the trustees, still they are resolved to appoint a professor and commence the work as soon as 15007. should be received. They hoped that this might be effected by last October - it is not effected yet! The university is ready, the trustees are ready to appoint-it is understood that they have already a competent person in view-hundreds of thousands of Irishmen are ready, eager, to listen to instruction in their own language- a word in it is sure to reach their hearts;-shall the necessary funds not be ready? O ye sons and daughters of Britain, who could easily, from the crumbs that fall from your tables, supply this need, I entreat you, into whose hands this paper may fall, hands this paper may fall, I entreat you, for the love of souls, for the glory of God, be not slack to perform for your brethren this work and labour of love. C. ADDRESS ON THE REGISTRATION ACT.* MUCH-RESPECTED PARISHIONERS,-Your religious interests are a matter of deep concern to us. Placed over you by God, as your spiritual instructors, it is our duty, at all times, to call your attention to points connected with your well-being in the scriptural sense of that term and as it is impossible for us to reach the ear of every individual in this large and populous parish from the pulpit where we stand, on the Sabbath, declaring unto you the whole counsel of God," we avail ourselves of an address like the present, to bring before you what appears to us conducive to your good. 66 The subject which we have thought it well to select on the present occasion, though not of so edifying a character as some others upon which we might have addressed you, is, nevertheless, an important one, as it bears not only upon individual interests, but those of society at large; and we therefore hope you will give it your attentive consideration. You are aware that an act has passed the legislature, and is to come into operation in July next, providing for the registration of births, marriages, and burials. By this act it is required that the names of all infants shall be duly entered in a book kept by the registrar for that purpose, within forty-two days from their birth; and as to marriages, although they may still be solemnised as heretofore, a sanction is given to their being contracted before a civil officer without any religious performance. Upon these two points (the law relating to burials requiring no comment) we wish, out of an anxiety for the Christian consistency of those committed to our charge, to offer a few observations. As to the first, the registration of the names of all children born in the parish, in the manner prescribed by the new act, is unobjectionable; it, however, involves a ground of apprehension. The indifference of many parents to the rite of baptism, except so far as it may conduce to the interests of their offspring in a worldly point of view, is an evil which the ministers of religion have long had to deplore. They have come to the hallowed font with that apparent unconcern which has shewn that they regarded that sacrament of the Church as little else than a mere formal ceremony, which may or may not be observed, without much affecting the spiritual interests of their children; and in instances not a few, so thoroughly unimportant • This address was drawn up by the ministers of St. Saviour's, Southwark, for circulation among the parishioners. |