least of the character which assailed it a few years since, when some of its friends, and many of its enemies, predicted its speedy downfall, -its duty is to cultivate the arts of peace; to go forth in the strength of the Lord to its holy labours; and to become, by his blessing, more than ever a praise in the earth.

And in some hopeful measure it is so doing. Its schools, its new churches, its multiplied ministrations in public and in private, and its consequent demand for an enlarged number of pastors, and the higher attainments and religious qualifications required, and to a considerable extent found, among those who are called to the sacred office within its pale; further, its extensive distribution of Bibles, Prayer-books, and Tracts; its missions to the British colonies and to the heathen; and that peculiarly interesting and important feature of its labours, the endowment of numerous bishoprics in foreign lands; -all these bespeak increased vitality and energy, and we may scripturally hope will, in answer to fervent prayer, bring down the Divine grace and benediction upon it.

Let us then rejoice; but we must rejoice with shame and with trembling; -with shame that our efforts are still so inadequate to the ability which God has bestowed upon us as a Church and nation, and with the demands justly made upon us :-with trembling, lest any worm at the bud, or any root of bitterness springing up, corrupt and destroy what appears so hopeful. And are there no such dangers? Is all this zeal for the Church and Church extension free from exception? While we hail whatever is valuable, we need beware, lest beneath a fair surface there should be hollowness or corruption-a void, or a canker. Zeal in itself is not any guarantee, either for sound doctrine or holiness of life. True the Church of Christ is, and ought to be, missionary and aggressive in its spirit; it desires and labours that all men should come to the knowledge of the truth; and the Romanist used to urge against the Anglican branch of it, that it lacked this characteristic mark of authenticity. But error, falsehood, and heresy, may be accompanied by zealotry; and the Church of Rome itself has always been incursive and proselyting; and at this very time it possesses ample missionary machinery. Its Society for the Propagation of the Faith in the two Worlds," -to select but one illustration-though but of about twenty years' standing, and having, not Spain or Italy, but infidel France, for its focus, -is an engine of enormous power. It boasts of the countenance of half a hundred Archbishops and Bishops, from Central Asia to America, but especially across Europe from Smyrna to Dublin; of seven hundred thousand persons, from princes to peasants, "uniting perseveringly their sacrifices and prayers to augment its funds and extend its labours; of a hundred thousand of its periodical "Annals," printed in seven languages, to circulate

through this vast family," binding them all together "with some

thing like that unity of heart and soul which reigned in the Upper Chamber at Jerusalem." If then Romanism be, as the Word of God teaches, and our Church believes, an " apostacy," not a structure built upon the foundation of Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner Stone, we have proof in such facts as. the above, that visibility, zeal, widely-extended combination, and strenuous claims to apostolicity of succession, are not vouchers for sound faith or uncorrupt practice.

And how stands the case with the Church of England? During the eighteenth century she was listless, worldly, and barely orthodox -we mean as embodied in action; though, blessed be God, her Scriptural formularies remained, notwithstanding that many wished to tamper with them, as witness the Feathers' Tavern proceedings; and these preserved her vitality, and when a revival was graciously bestowed, they gave tone and colour to it; so that the Anglicanism of the Reformation, in subordination to the only infallible standardinspired writ-became its watch-word. This is not denied, nay is contended for, by some of those who are attempting to superinduce upon this evangelical revival, what they call true Catholicity. They own that our Church was in a state of mournful apathy; they do not wonder that the recurrence to the principles of the Reformation, combined with great zeal and much of practical godliness, produced powerful effects; but they allege that the excitement was deleterious; that the Reformation itself went too far, and that those who thus fell back upon it went still farther; and that the remedy for this alleged evil, is for the Church to awake from its slumbers, and to outdo these "persons of a certain class," in devotedness, self-denial, activity, but to set up another standard of truth; to oppose the Scriptural and consoling doctrine of justification by faith, by resolving it into sacramental justification; and to make apostolical succession, ecclesiastical visibility, and what is vaguely called "Catholic union," the basis of the new revival. Hence some portion-we pretend not to say how much of the zeal and exertion which make up the aggregate of Church extension, has been warped by a sectional spirit, in order to stifle true Anglicanism, and to build upon its ruins a system unknown to it, but which professes to be founded upon Catholic tradition.

What then is the result of these considerations? Simply, that while we rejoice in the zeal and activity which now characterise our Church, we should take heed that it be not wasted upon improper or secondary objects; that it be not perverted to evil; that it be not made a snare of Satan to promote a form of godliness, in order to deny the power; and that we do not mistake the trumpet's clanging loudly, for its giving a certain and a scriptural sound. Rites, ceremonies, and national establishments; nay, we may add, sacraments, and the Christian ministry itself, in its threefold appointment of bishops, priests, and deacons, are but means to an end. That end is

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the glory of God, the consummation of the Redeemer's kingdom, and the salvation of the souls of men; and this must, by God's grace, be promoted through the setting forth, and vital reception, of scriptural truth. It is because we believe that the machinery of a visible Church is a Divinely appointed link in the chain of instrumentality by which these results are to be effected, that we rejoice that our communion is so extensively lengthening her cords and strengthening her stakes; believing also, that God will bless his own ordinances, and that in the end his truth shall prevail. But this hinders notyea, it imperatively demands that scriptural doctrine, not man's traditions, should be the basis of Church extension; and that the more earnest we are, the more should we look to ourselves with godly jealousy that we are sound in the faith; that we understand, receive, and make known, the only way in which a sinner can obtain pardon of sin, peace of conscience, growth in grace, and an inheritance among the saints in light. "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God."

We submit these remarks in place of a more formal Preface, as they exhibit in substance our views with regard to our own duties in the conduct of our publication. Bishop Wilson of Calcutta, remarked, in the Introduction to his edition of Mr. Wilberforce's "Practical View of Christianity," when speaking of that revival of scriptural doctrine and holy zeal in the Church of England, which gladden these our highly favoured days, that "The valuable labours of the Christian Observer have much contributed to this result." We might adduce numerous similar testimonies in proof that it has pleased God to bless our labours, unworthy as they are of that honour. In this we rejoice, and will rejoice; but, practically, our discouragements have been, and are, very great; and this, notwithstanding numerous correspondents are pleased to say that our present volume has been well-stored with useful and valuable matter, and has particularly commended itself to them in the article of ecclesiastical discussion, and in the defence of Scriptural and Anglican doctrine, against the specious errors of the Tractarians, and this in regard to its insidious tendencies, as well as in its fuller developments. We feel grateful for such kind opinions; and we are determined, by God's help, that the principles which have from the first been upheld in our pages, shall continue to be vindicated in them. This is our part; the issue we must leave in other hands.

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