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Accept, Brethren, my sincere wishes for your present and eternal happiness. R. C. MOORE..

The HOLY-DAYS of the CHURCH.

An Extract.

THE antiquity of the Christian

the most sincere and ardent attach- cess. The Rev. Mr. Hawley has ment to the Church. From the removed into the Diocess of Marytemper of the people, I draw the land. most pleasing conclusions; and my mind is perfectly convinced, that, were it possible to procure a greater number of faithful ministers, those ministers would be received with joy by the vacant parishes, and provision made for their support. Brethren, we have much to do; and while any thing remains to be done, I trust that no languor will be exhi-holy-days, and their strict observbited by either ministers or people, but that every nerve will be exerted to carry into effect the hallowed cause in which we have engaged. Brethren, it is the Church of God, and of our fathers! It is true she has been prostrate in the dust; but from her ruins she implores our united aid, and supplicates our assistance. The progress we have already made revives our hopes. The blessings we have already received, encourage us to look for greater mercies. Our exertions, I firmly believe, will be crowned with success; our Zion will raise her dejected head, be disrobed by an omnipotent arm of her weeds, and clothed in the attire of joy. Her harp will be taken from the willows, and the voice of joy and salvation fill her happy courts.

Brethren of the Clergy-We have sworn fidelity to her interest at the altar of the living God. Aided by you, I will proceed in the glorious work with all the ardour with which heaven in mercy shall inspire my mind. In your zeal I have a perfect confidence. Our number, it is true, is yet but small; but, with Jehovah on our side, we may be confident of success. Unborn generations will enjoy the benefit of our labours, and embalm our memory with the tear of gratitude and affection.

Since the last Convention, I have admitted to the order of Deacons, the Rev. Mr. Low, Mr. Steel, Mr. Allen, Mr. Ravenscroft, and Mr. Bryan; and to the order of the Priesthood, the Rev. Samuel Low, and John S. Ravenscroft. The Rev. Mr. Qrrill has settled in this Dio

ance in early times, are indisputable: it is also known, that superstitious celebrations, founded on doubtful legends, or lying pretensions to sanctity, so crowded the calendar of the Romish Church during the dark ages, that not a day was left free from the routine of rigorous abstinence, wearisome watchings, or the monotonous repetition of idolatrous litanies. Our reformers, aiming at moderation in every point, preserved a sufficient number of anniversary commemorations, to withdraw the mind occasionally from secular pursuits; but not so many, nor so loaded with services, as to render their observance burdensome, to inconvenience our secular concerns, or to allow indolence an excuse for neglecting the active duties of life, Our Church aims, by an annual recollection, at impressing on the minds of her members the leading articles of the Christian faith, the principal incidents in the Saviour's life, and the examples of the first promulgators of his religion, who preached a crucified Master, and were baptized with the same bloody baptism. The number of days which are devoted to the Christian mysteries, and the actions of our Redeemer, are thirteen; namely, his Incarnation, Nativity, Circumcision, Manifestation to the Gentiles, Presentation in the Temple, Temptation in the Wilderness, Crucifixion, Burial, Resurrection, Ascension, the Descent of the Holy Ghost, a day appropriated to a special acknowledgment of the eternal Trinity, and the season which directs our attention to our Lord's

second' Advent, when he shall return to judge the world. Four of these observances, being fixed on days appropriated to Sabbatical rest, give no interruption to worldly concerns. Nineteen holy-days include the eleven apostles chosen by Christ, and Matthias elected to supply the vacancy occasioned by the crime of Judas; Paul and Barnabas, the great instructors of the Gentile world; the two evangelists who were not of the sacred college, John, the predicted forerunner of Christ, and Stephen, the first martyr; a recollection of the infant sufferers whom Herod sacrificed at Bethlehem to his hope of destroying the Messiah; a day consecrated to meditation on the glorious hierarchy of Heaven; and, lastly, a general remembrance of all who have departed this life in the faith and fear of God.*

Imitation of distinguished excellence, encouragement in distress, warning from error, and support in temptation, are the benefits which these stated observances are designed to communicate; for they are improving and affectionate recollections, not idolatrous deifications of those fellow-servants who have preceded us in the road to immortality. The observance of particular days devoted to such uses cannot be deemed superstitious; and an advantage results from their returning in regular routine; for when no stated time is appointed, an inconsiderate person will pass over every day with procrastinating levity or total inattention: and who is there that reflects on the treachery of his own serious resolves, but may apply to himself the prophet's enunciation, and say, I am that inconsiderate man.

*To this list might be added, the appointment of partial services; for four days in Passion Week; two days follow. ing Easter-Sunday, to enlarge our medita tions on the glorious consequences that result from Christ's resurrection; and two more attached to Whitsunday, wherein we should exercise our devotional gratitude to God for the promulgation of the Gospel, and the perpetual influence of the Holy Spirite

DIED-At Charleston, (S. C.) on the evening of the 6th of August, 1817, the Right Reverend THEODORE DEHON, D. D. Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocess of South-Carolina,

aged 41. The Charleston City Gazette notices the demise of this accomplished divine and scholar, in language that will be sympathetically felt by all.

From the Charleston Gazette.

66 'Bring the rath primrose and the neglected violet, "And all the flowers that sad embroidery wears." "Our community is in tears; Our Churches are clad in mourning: woman's eye is wet, and man's cheek is pale. The Christian, the Divine, the Scholar, and the Philanthropist, has left our circle for Dark and intricate are the ways of Providence, puzzled with mazes, and perplexed with errors. The unhappy occur

ever.

rence, which has shrouded our countenances with grief, has deprived a numerous congregation of their father and their friend, the wretched of their supporter, the afflicted of their consoler, our community of one of its ornaments, the Gospel of a faithful and sedulous disciple, youth of its example, infancy of its protector, and conjugal love of its partner and helpmate.-All that was earthly of the Right Rev. Bishop DEHON, was yes. terday morning interred in the chancel of St. Michael's Church, beneath the altar

where he has so often administered the most sacred rites of the Church, where he has distributed the bread of life to hungry souls. May this bereavement be sanctified to a weeping community; and as his life was spent in the exercise of religion, piety, and benevolence, may his example

and his presence assist us in the performance of our devotional duties; and may he,

by his intercessions at the Throne of Grace, increase the number of those who shall be blessed."

On Tuesday, the 24th of June, the corner stone of the First Episcopal Church in Fayetteville, (N. C.) was laid with religious solemnities.

Printed and published by T. & J. Swords, No. 160 Pearl-street, New-York; where Subscriptions for this Work will be received at one dollar per annum, or 24 numbers.All Letters relative to this Journal musk come free of Postage.

No. 17.]

CHRISTIAN JOURNAL,

AND

LITERARY REGISTER.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1817.

Review of Sermons, by ARCHIBALD ALISON, L. L. B. &c. Vol. II. 8vo. (Abridged from the British Critic.J UPON the general merit of Mr. Alison, as a writer of sermons, we gave our opinion somewhat at length in an article upon his former volume; nor will our sentiments be materially changed by this his second publication. We perceive in it the same charms of imagination, the same elegance of expression. With a strong tendency towards a superfluity of ornament, Mr. Alison still wreathes his flowers with so classical a taste, that what would be a fault in others becomes a beauty in him. In illustration, his images are forcible and just; in exhortation, his language is always animated, sometimes even eloquent; in his addresses to the heart, there are occasionally to be found touches of genuine and unaffected pathos. We sincerely wish that here we could close our character of Mr. Alison's theology, and that our duty did not call upon us to undertake the painfui task of pointing out those deficiencies, which his very beauties render still more prominent. The severity of criticism is a just tax upon high repu tation if his rise in the estimation of the public is deserved, he has no reason to fear the event of the trial; if his merits have been overrated, it is fair that they should be reduced by this exhaustion to their proper level. The beauties of Mr. Alison are certainly prominent, his defects also, in our estimation at least, are equally conspicuous. In our examination of the sermons contained in the volume before us, it will be our endeavour to place both of them fairly before the public, that in any subsequent volume VOL, I.

[VOL. I.

which Mr. Alison may produce, the former may be unimpaired by neglect, the latter remedied by diligence.

The two first sermons in the vo lume, upon religious education, and as a general exhortation to train up our children in the way which they should go, may be considered as useful compositions. The three next are upon the Lord's Prayer. Upon the opening words of this divine and perfect form, we extract with pleasure, the following just and excellent com

ment.

"It is not, my brethren, for light rea sons that we are thus instructed to pray. There is a carelessness which habit is apt to produce even in the best of us, when we there are few who can make a sudden address our supplications to Heaven; and transition from the affairs of the world to that solemn and exalted tone of mind which prayer so justly demands. It is on this account, probably, that the opening of this prayer is made so solemn and majestic; and to remind us whom we are addressing, that all the mightiest evidences of his providence are brought forward to our imagination. It is to remind us, that, when we kneel before God, we are engaged in the highest and holiest service of our sires and emotions should cease; and that that in his presence all lower dethe only sentiments which then become us, are veneration for his unbounded greatness, and thankfulness that he permits the children of the dust to draw near unto him.

nature;

"2. If such are the feelings which be come us when we address our prayers unto God, let me entreat you to observe, in the second place, what is the light in which he deigns to invite us to approach him-Is it as the Sovereign of nature, by whom we are summoned to pay our ho mage before his throne? Is it even as the Master of his people, whom he calls, likę the Jews of old, to listen to the commandments he enjoined while the mountain with their faces on the ground. No, my burned with fire, and all the people fell brethren! it is as the Father of existence.

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that he here invites his children to come unto him. It is as the great Parent of being, that he calls the souls which he has made, to come and unveil their hopes and their fears before him, and to put their trust under the shadow of his wings.'

"It is impossible not to see for what end this beautiful opening of our daily prayer is intended. The distance between man and his Creator is so immense, and there is something so awful in approaching voluntarily into his presence, that nothing but the most exalted views, or the most sinless purity, can seem to embolden natural man, to hold regular communion with Him that inhabiteth eternity.' Opinions of this fearful kind, however, would have a tendency to destroy or to corrupt all the principles of religion in the human mind. They would tend either to excuse us, in our own opinion, from the service of God, and thus gradually lead us to live altogether without him in the world; or they would dispose us to ap proach him with the indistinct terror of slaves, to mingle the gloom of superstition with our religious service, and to worship him, not in spirit and in truth,' but with the dark and ceremonial rites of a constrained homage.

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"The model which is here given us of Christian prayer is very different. It banishes at once from our imaginations, all the fears so natural to mortality. It is our Father to whom it teaches us to speakit is that name, so dear and venerable, which it brings forward with all its associations to our minds-the name which all men have known, and in which all have been taught to trust-and which cannot be pronounced without awakening in every heart the feelings of confidence, and hope, and love. It is the Father, and not the Lord of Nature, who is here revealed to our view-that Father, who careth for us, who knoweth whereof we are made,'

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and who remembereth that we are but

dust'-that Father who seeth in secret;' to whom all hearts are open, and all desires known; and before whom all distinctions are vain, but that of doing justly, and loving mercy, and walking humbly with him." I pause not at present on the many reflections which this subject is fitted to excite. I entreat you only to consider within yourselves, how magnificent is the privilege which this word, Father, has conferred upon our fallen nature; what exaltation of thought and spirit it is fitted to raise, and what immeasurable happiness it has given in every age of the Gospel, to those who were weary and heavy laden,' with the doubts, the sorrows, or the miseries of the world. "3. While it is thus that " a new and living way' is opened to every individual of mankind to approach the throne of the ying God, in which they may pour forth

their tears and supplications before him, let me, in the third place, remind you of the form in which these supplications are to be addressed. While we are emboldened to approach him as a father;' let it be remembered that it is as our Father; -not as the father only of the individual petitioner, but as the Father of the race of man;-not as the father of any particular sect or communion in religion, but as the great Parent of Life and happiness throughout the universe.

"It is the first law of our faith, that we should love the Lord our God, with all our heart, and all our soul. It is the second, that we should love our neighbours as ourselves. Let me entreat you to observe, my brethren, how beautifully both these precepts are illustrated in the form of the words we are considering, and how powerfully they blend in the same moment, benevolence to man, with devotion towards God. Even in the act of secret and solitary prayer, they remind us of our relation to each other. While we are presenting our private supplications, it is yet to the common Father of mankind they are presented; and while our hearts are full of our own interests, the very words we use, recall to us the interests of our brethren. They remind us, that the eyes of all wait upon him;" --that it is he,' and he alone, who openeth his hand, and filleth all things living with plenteousness.' They remind us, that wherever creation extends, there his Providence is exerted; and while we thus see, as it were, the whole animated universe prostrated with us before his throne, we learn to look upon the race of men around us, as children of the same family with ourselves, and to mingle a prayer also for their happiness and salvation."

The sixth Sermon is upon the example of our Saviour's piety, and may be considered, as far as it goes, an useful discourse. We'now come to four sermons upon the evidences. The first is upon the evidence resulting from the nature and character of the Gospel, as the only religion among mankind "adequate to all the instinc tive desires and expectations of the human mind.". Some points are not stated amiss; but when we consider the total omission of every consideration of that pardon and peace for which our frail and guilty nature in every age has panted, even from the time of its fall, we cannot but very pronounce this a very defective statement of the evidence resulting from the peculiar applicability of the Gos

pel to the wants, infirmities, and expectations of the human mind. The Sermon on the evidence arising from the progress of the Gospel, is not less objectionable.

Mr. Alison has indeed, in the former part of this Sermon, once mentioned the miraculous assistance by which the Gospel was propagated in the age of the Apostles; but on the subject of the grace of God, in the ordinary influences of the Spirit, he is wholly silent. If to him alone his audience look for instruction, they will be like the converts of old, not having so much as heard "whether there be any Holy Ghost." In this whole Sermon, upon the Progress of the Gospel, we do not find one single expression indicative even of the existence of the Holy Spirit. Respecting the "humble opinion," which Mr. Alison appears to recommend, we shall say no more, than briefly to remind him of the last declaration of the Saviour of mankind, which speaks to him, and to every other minister of the Gospel, in terms very different from those in which he himself speaks, "Behold, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world."

In his Sermon upon the Evidence arising from the Jewish Revelation, we confess our astonishment at his total silence respecting the typical and prefigurative nature of the sacrifices under the Mosaic law. We cannot account for the omission of this powerful and incontrovertible evidence. The conclusion, however, of this discourse is good.

"1. The history of revelation is agreeable to all we know and feel of the character of the Almighty. When you look to religions of mortal origin, you see in them all the weakness and all the passions of men,-heroes deified,-divinities actuated by human vices and national prejudices, and the God of universal nature compressed into the partial god of a nation or of a tribe. When you look to the records of Scripture, on the contrary, when you look even to the earliest dawn of human existence, you see One God, firmly and uninterruptedly recognized;you see one design begun in the hour when man was created, one plan of wisdom and of beneficence pursued, amid all the vices and corruptions of a fallen

world; you see this plan, embracing in its final object the whole of moral nature, advancing gradually to its perfection, through all the darkness and clouds which seem to oppose it; and promised then only to close, when it has brought all the wandering varieties of the human race,

into one fold, and under one Shepherd." If the God of Nature will indeed deign to reveal his will to mankind, can we oonceive any system more analogous to all that we conceive of infinite wisdom, or all that we can hope of infinite goodness?

"2. The manner in which the Almighty has thus revealed himself, corresponds to all we know or experience of human nature. If there be any feature beyond others by which the nature of man is cha racterized, it is, "That he is a progressive being-a being susceptible both of intellectual and moral improvement, as his race advances in time. How beautiful, in this view, is the accommodation of revelation to this character of man! and how aptly does it correspond to the actual progress of human nature! Beginning at first

with those faint illuminations which suit an infant world; established then in a

system which, by its dark and ceremonious grandeur, was adapted to the minds of a rude and unenlightened people, it expands gradually into the high and lofty enthusiinto the mild and spiritual majesty of the asm of prophecy, and breaks forth at last Gospel of our Lord. How striking is here the analogy to the conduct of a father,

who accommodates his instructions to the

age, and to the acquisitions of his chil of that eternal Father, under the shadow dren; and how sublime the consideration of whose wings' the human race has been fostered in all their progress from infancy to maturity; whose parental eye was ne ver known to slumber or to sleep; and within whose 'everlasting arms,' the last generations of men will be folded like the infant generations of his own peculiar people.

"In the last place, the sketch which I have presented to you of the progress of Revelation, exhibits to us, in the loftiest manner, the majesty of that final Revelation in which we dwell, and its coincidence with all that is originally good or great in our nature. When we look at the records of history, and see religions arising and falling among mankind, we are apt to suppose, that our own has no earlier or more permanent origin; to date it only from the hour when our Saviour was born; and to imagine that it has no higher claims to belief than its own plain and intrinsic truth.

"In the remembrance of the mighty revelations that preceded it, a more majestic argument occurs to us. Instead of being a separate and anomalous fact in the history of nature, we see that it is only the

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