and full of consolation to the mourners. On this point I might greatly enlarge, but I feel that I have too long trespassed on your valuable time. I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

E. K.

CHURCHING AFTER ILLEGITIMATE CHILDREN.

SIR,-The subject treated of by your correspondents, "Rural Incumbent," and "G. P.," is, as the latter has truly observed, of great practical importance, and one on which it would seem desirable that clear and definite instructions should be issued by competent authority. But these gentlemen will not, I hope, quarrel with me, if I say that I do not see my way in the matter so clearly as they seem to do.

1. With regard to children begotten before marriage, but born after it, this is to be considered, that the woman has sought in marriage the divinely instituted remedy for the sin of which she had before been guilty, thus testifying her desire for reconciliation with God; that she has received at marriage the solemn benediction of the church; and no subsequent sin is imputed to her. How then can it be thought consistent that she who before was thought worthy of the church's benediction, should, no new sin intervening, be deemed unworthy to offer up thanksgiving for mercies subsequently received? If it be replied, the fault is in the admitting her to the matrimonial benediction, I answer, possibly it may be so; but until that discipline be altered, it seems to me that we shall be acting inconsistently in refusing to church those who have already received the benediction of the church.

2. With regard to children born, as well as begotten, out of wedlock, let it be considered, that there is no civil privilege or benefit dependent on or connected with the churching, but rather some civil detriment, in the offering, trifling as it is, which it is customary to make. Her desire, therefore, for the office must be imputed to a regard for spiritual things, a wish for reconciliation with God. Further, let it be considered, that, according to the custom of having the churching office during service time, the woman will have already joined in the public confession of sins, have already shared in the public absolution. Is it competent for us one moment to give absolution to all in church who are disposed to receive it, and in the next to recall it from some individual there present, we having no means of distinguishing between the sincerity of one or of another? If it be said, the fault is in the indiscriminate admission to confession and absolution, I answer, it may be so; but I think the observation I made before is applicable here again.

But it appears from the passages cited by "G.P." from Collier and from Strype, that the custom was for "the woman to do penance before she was churched," or to "make public acknowledgment of her sin in such form as the ordinary prescribed." But let it be observed, that both these pre-suppose ecclesiastical censure by the bishop or his official; and that again pre-supposes presentment by the minister or

churchwardens. When such presentment has been made, the incumbent will of course be warranted in following the directions of his superior; but surely it will admit of a question whether, without such communication, general or particular, with his diocesan, any individual presbyter is warranted in withholding the rites of the church from any of his people who desire them. At any rate, I presume, none will deny that such communication is the safest and most fitting ALPHA.

course.

BAPTISM OF ILLEGITIMATE PERSONS.

SIR,-In reply to "Arcitenens" on the subject of the baptism of illegitimate children, I would suggest that the entry to which he calls attention may refer to the baptism of an adult; and that the words "by warrant from the ordinary" may in that case relate to the appointment by the bishop of a fit person to examine the candidate, a mode of proceeding which, however positively enjoined by the rubric, is now, it is believed, seldom or ever attended to. I am, &c.

M.

AUTHORITY OF THE FATHERS.

SIR,-You will oblige me by inserting in your Magazine the following passages from Lactantius and Archbishop Whately :

"Quare oportet, in ea re maxime, in qua vitæ ratio versatur, sibi quemque confidere, suoque judicio, ac propriis sensibus niti ad investigandam, et perpendendam veritatem; quam credentem alienis erroribus, decipi, tanquam ipsum rationis expertem. Dedit omnibus Deus pro virili portione sapientiam; ut et inaudita investigare possent, et audita perpendere. Nec quia nos illi temporibus antecesserunt, sapientia quoque antecesserunt, quæ si omnibus æqualiter datur, occupari ab antecedentibus non potest. Illibabilis est tanquam lux, et claritas solis, quia ut sol oculorum, sic sapientia lumen est cordis humani. Quare cum sapere, id est, veritatem quærere, omnibus sit innatum, sapientiam sibi adimunt, qui sine ullo judicio, inventa majorum probant, et ab aliis pecudum more ducuntur. Sed hoc eos fallit, quod majorum nomine posito, non putant fieri posse, ut aut ipsi plus sapiant, quia minores vocantur; aut illi desipuerint, quia majores nominantur."-Lactantius De Origine Erroris.

“OLD.—This word, in its strict and primary sense, denotes the length of time that any object has existed; and many are not aware that they are accustomed to use it in any other. It is, however, very frequently employed instead of ancient,' to denote distance of time. The same transition seems to have taken place in Latin. Horace says of Lucilius, who was one of the most ancient Roman authors, but who did not live to be old

"The present is a remarkable instance of the influence of an ambiguous word over the thoughts even of those who are not ignorant of the ambiguity, but are not carefully on the watch against its effects; the impressions and ideas associated by habit with the word, when used in one sense, being always apt to obtrude themselves unawares when it is employed in another sense, and thus to affect our reasonings ; e. g., 'old times,' the old world,' &c., are expressions in frequent use, and which,

oftener than not, produce imperceptibly the associated impression of the superior wisdom resulting from experience, which, as a general rule, we attribute to old men. Yet no one is really ignorant that the world is older now than ever it was.......There is always a tendency to appeal with the same kind of deference to the authority of 'old times,' as of aged men."-Archbishop Whately's Logic. Appendix.

I submit the above quotations, without note or comment, to the good sense of your readers. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, A PROTESTANT.*

ON SCHOOL AND COTTAGE LECTURES.

MR. EDITOR,-Will you allow me to make a few observations upon the letter of "IIpovaos," in your November number. Its subject is the questionableness of instructing adults in any place save one consecrated to divine worship. He conceives that such a practice leads persons to undervalue the sacred building, and creates ultimately an indifference to the sin of schism. Now to this proposition, as far as the mere tendency is concerned, I entirely assent; but then I deny his consequence, that therefore any teaching not under a consecrated roof must be inexpedient, and ought to be abolished. As well might we object to those inimitable compositions, the Oxford Tracts, because though strictly and essentially anti-papistical, they have given rise to a pamphlet entitled the "Revival of Popery." Differing, therefore, from your correspondent, I am anxious to state the result of seven years experience, derived from the practice of a system to which he is opposed; and, in doing so, I affirm that evening lectures to adults. have enabled me-never losing sight of His aid without which all our doings are nothing worth-to infuse among my flock a greater veneration for the temple made with hands; for an apostolically ordained ministry; for the sacrament of baptism, and the appointment of sponsors; and for the blessed eucharist. Indeed, the very reverse of an anti-church spirit has been gendered and fostered among my flock. The proofs are to be seen in an increasing morning congregation; in a desire to be present at the commencement of the service for confession and absolution sake; in a ready acquiescence to the very letter in the church's decision touching sponsors; in the number of communicants, averaging one hundred and twenty, out of a population of less than 800; in an eagerness to have children acquainted

The Editor willingly inserts this letter, because he imagines that his correspondent is one of many persons who entirely misunderstand, and therefore unintentionally misrepresent, the nature of the appeal which protestant writers make to the authority of the fathers. At least he does not remember to have seen any appeal to which these passages would be at all relevant. That appeal is (if he understands it) really and simply (though indirectly) an appeal to the mind of the great Head of the church, as delivered either by himself personally or by his inspired agents. The fathers are appealed to in matters of doctrine and practice, not because they were majores or minores, not because they were either old or ancient, but because happening to be ancient there is a probability of their having true knowledge of things which are still more ancient to us, but were comparatively modern to them. Things which would have been just what they are in fact, weight, and consequence, if the fathers had never written, and which are not at all viewed, even by those who appeal to the authority of the fathers, as the "inventa majorum" in "good old times."

with the nature of holy baptism, ere the sacred "fire" be quenched through ignorance and neglect.

All this, it will be said, is well enough; but how much better, nevertheless, would it be to have this teaching, to which you attribute such effect, in the church? To that question I will come presently. All I have been desirous of proving is, that the evil tendency of cottage and school lectures is but a tendency, and needs only to be borne in mind as such, in order to be successfully counteracted. Perhaps, then, I had better state here both what course I conceive it is which gives encouragement and fatal effect to the evil tendency, and what the contrary.

Judging of the 00s of "Пpóvaos," from his letter, I may assume that he is alive to, and abjures, that miserable feature in dissenting, and the so-called evangelical, teaching-excitement. If the feelings are constantly to be appealed to, and affecting pictures of the more awful parts of gospel history are to be sketched out, and set before the minds of the flock, in these cottage readings, then the evil consequences are inevitable, and no one would more earnestly deprecate them than myself. But if simply a portion of the Bible be regularly and continuously read, the hard and uncommon words explained, and the drift of entire passages shewn, it will be next to impossible to dwell exclusively (the crying error of schismatics) upon any favourite doctrine, so to say; but history and parable, doctrine and practice, will come in for their proper share of attention. I began in this way with the gospel of St. Matthew, and am now drawing towards the close of the Acts of the Apostles. When I first commenced, the very novelty of the undertaking attracted all sorts of hearers, and gave rise to all sorts of remarks. In short, there was excitement afloat. The dissenters came with eager itching ears, but were soon disappointed, and retired naso aduneo, when they found no high-seasoned dishes set before them. The washing away of sins in baptism; sponsors; deference to the church; the duty of kneeling; forms of prayers; all, as they severally came to be insisted on, set us (except in a few happy instances of conviction) irreconcileably apart. But this excitement, with the novelty, died away, and I was left with a little company of humble teachable minds. Again be it observed, that extempore prayer must especially be avoided, as leading to another kind of dangerous excitement, and one glaringly opposed to the sober spirit of our branch of the church catholic. A third kind of excitement must also be narrowly watched, and made the subject of private prayer. I mean, excitement in oneself. Seeing numbers around us, and hearing ourselves talked of as having opened the door of much usefulness, we are apt to be anxious that these numbers should not be diminished, and to be dispirited if they should; and hence we are led on to make subjects interesting, as it is called, and to frame feverish addresses to the feelings. Or if, again, we see dissenters present, there is danger, in our desire to win and to retain them, of compromising church principles, and thereby of injuring instead of edifying the weak and ignorant members of the flock for whose sake chiefly we are lecturing. Let these cautions be jealously attended to, and the VOL. XV. April,—1839.

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evils contemplated by "Ilpóvaos" will unquestionably, in the long run, be avoided.

I will proceed now to my reasons for preferring school and cottage lectures before congregating in the church for a similar object, premising only that the expense of warming the sacred edifice makes no part of my objection to assembling there, neither the more expensive one of lighting it. My reasons are of a widely different character.

That to do any extensive and essential good to the male part of a rural population is a matter of painful difficulty will be allowed by all whose experience entitles them to form an opinion. Every minister with a cure of souls in the country must feel how hard it is to become acquainted personally, and for the purposes of spiritual instruction, with the daily labourer. Except in the event of sickness, it is scarcely possible to exchange a word with him; and alas! what, when one does, do we find but the most lamentable ignorance of the very elements of Christianity! and we are compelled to confess generally, "ex uno disce omnes." In order, then, to becoming acquainted with this class of persons, evening teaching seems absolutely necessary; but as a general and habitual practice, an evening service is attended with serious objections. The only one which I shall now specify is, that the church is made a place of assignations of a certain character. In the school-room, or a cottage, this evil is at once obviated by the controlling power which the pastor can exercise of repelling whom he will; e.g., I never allow any single persons to attend my lectures unless accompanied by a parent, or some other sufficiently responsible guardian. Here, then, is one objection to the use of the church-the want of control. Another objection arises out of the character of the teaching itself, which is extempore and familiar. Extempore, because I profess myself utterly unequal to the regular preparation of more than the two sermons demanded by every returning sabbath; because, also, I have found no lectures, however admirably written, exactly suited to my purpose. They serve as models, and furnish hints, but cannot be exclusively employed. They are defective, as Aristotle says law is defective, from its being general. But my lectures being extempore, are unfitted to be delivered in church. In the next place, they are homely and familiar. Now these epithets, in the sense in which I employ them, imply a kind of composition and address below the dignity and solemnity of preaching. It is, I am aware, the opinion of some, whose opinions are entitled to the greatest respect, that sermons addressed to a country congregation can scarcely be too colloquial; and hence the almost unqualified commendation bestowed upon Mr. Hare's sermons, by an amiable and able writer in the "Quarterly Review." But whilst I am quite sensible of the merits of those discourses, I should be sorry to see them universally imitated, except for the purpose of cottage reading; and, for one, I should shrink from employing much of his imagery and illustration in the pulpit. There are, indeed, in every parish, a number of sayings which are handed down from father to son, and assume, by long use, the axiomatic character of proverbs, but by which many an ignorant person is