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withstanding the many gross and flagrant violations of its sanctity.

The anniversary of the Society for the Conversion of the Jews, always interesting from the scriptural associations and glowing promises connected with the race of Israel, was peculiarly so this year, from the remarkable events which have transpired in Syria, and the efforts in progress to make Jerusalem again "a praise in the earth."

We rejoice to witness the rapid exteusion of that most seasonable and useful institution, the Pastoral Aid Society; and that the party-spirited opposition to its constitution and proceedings has not weakened the efforts of its friends.

Sir Herbert Jenner has decided, in an elaborate judgment, that the Church of England acknowledges the validity of baptism by water in the name of the Holy Trinity, though the administra. tor is not an episcopally ordained clergyman. We never entertained the slightest doubt upon the subject; and have often expressed our deep regret that the peace of the Church should be disturbed, and its safety endangered, by the ill-judged proceedings of individuals, conscientious indeed, but gifted with more zeal than spiritual wisdom or ecclesiastical knowledge. Sir J. Nichol's decision has now been confirmed; but there is to be an appeal, the issue of which will, we are firmly convinced, be to the same effect.

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

S. W.; J. B. M.; Vicarius; Pheenix; Phulax; and A. M. C., are under consideration.

Three correspondents have favoured us with some observations upon Pastor's remarks in our last Number, relative to the tract entitled "The Sinner's Friend;" of which more than half a million copies have been circulated in numerous languages. The first blames us for having weakened the effect of Pastor's caveat by our appended note, the tract he considers being of a very dangerous tendency. The other two take an opposite view. The matter stands thus. Pastor, in addressing us upon a subject which has been much discussed in our pages-the sinfulness of administering the Lord's Supper to criminals who give no hopeful signs of penitence-said that Fowles and Mister, who were lately executed for murder, both received that holy sacrament, though they died with a lie in their mouths ;" and that "both of them appear to have been supplied" with what he characterises as "a most incautious and mischievous book, called the Sinner's Friend;" and he went on to mention a case in his own parish, of a woman who "was greatly addicted to the vice of lying;" who "seldom spoke a word of truth;" who "refused to listen to any representations of her guilt and danger, and the necessity of repentance and faith;" but while persisting in a deliberate falsehood, said she was "safe;" that her salvation was "a finished work;" so that Pastor "could not make her sensible of her guilt;" but "at last she angrily produced this identical Sinner's Friend' which she said had been given her by a clergyman (of antinomian views, and a seceder from the Church) with a strict charge to let nobody persuade her that her salvation was not a finished work." She died the same evening.

In our note we stated that we inserted Pastor's letter, because it referred to a question which requires to be seriously considered, especially as it relates to the still popular popish notion of the Lord's Supper being an ex opere operato viaticum for heaven-namely, its customary administration to criminals before execution; but we deemed it uncharitable to suppose, that the chaplains, in the case of Fowles and Mister, had not acted conscientiously, though, in the absence of circumstantial information, we could not say whether wisely. With regard to the tract alluded to, we could not gainsay Pastor's matter of fact averments; but without undertaking to affirm that some of the statements in the tract might not be, as our correspondent said, "incautious," or liable to be perverted to mischievous effects, we were confident, from our recollections of it, that "it was never meant to leave the impression that a woman could go to heaven with a lie in her right hand, or be partaker of Christ's finished righteousness'

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without repentance and faith, and also renewal and sanctification of heart and and life;" and before our sheet went to press we procured and reperused it; but we saw no cause to alter our statement. We could not contradict the fact affirmed by Pastor; nay, our conviction was that it is liable to perversion; but we adhered to our defence of its right and holy intention; for its invitations to come to Christ and partake of his salvation, are accompanied by warnings upon repentance, conversion, and amendment of life. We see not then in what we are blameable in the matter.

We are glad, however, to have an opportunity of recurring to the subject; for when we hear, as is now common, of men of the most abandoned and hardened lives, who have had perhaps but a few days' sickness on their death-bed, or of murderers on the scaffold, expressing themselves in their last moments, not in the language of deep repentance and remorse for their sins, though casting themselves solely upon the atonement of the Redeemer, but in accents of confidence, assurance, and rapture; in strains higher than those of the most eminent saints and martyrs; and when we know that they have been wrought up to this state of excitement with very little of serious probing of conscience, and with scarcely any evidence that they are truly regenerated in the spirit of their minds, we cannot but offer a solemn warning against the manner in which persons thus circumstanced are often addressed both orally and by the press. Even the scriptural and blessed doctrine of justification by faith only, which, rightly received, is as redolent of holiness as of joy and peace, was perverted, as we learn from the writings of St. Paul and St. James, by men of wicked minds to licentiousness; but shall we suppress or garble this glorious truth on that account? God forbid. But then we are to take good heed that we do not lead the way to this awful perversion by an unscriptural manner of urging the doctrine. When the jailor, trembling and about to commit suicide, asked St. Paul what he must do to be saved, the Apostle promptly replied, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." And such ought to be the language of the minister of Christ to every penitent who proposes the same question. But if, without duly urging "repentance for sin," we address careless, ignorant, hardened sinners with the promises of God made to the believer, we may deceive them into a false security :-not because what we said was untrue, but because we did not exhibit the whole truth, and in its scriptural proportions. The little tract in our hands we fear is liable thus to be perverted, and Pastor instanced a case in which it was thus perverted; and this notwithstanding it does in many parts distinctly and strongly assert that "no one has any right or authority from the Holy Scriptures to think himself justified unless he is also sanctified by a renewed walk and conversation." But repentance is not placed, where Scripture places it, conspicuously in the fore front. The writer does not indeed overlook it; but he does not make it duly prominent; he begins with "hope and comfort, joy and peace," whereas these are not the usual beginnings of a work of divine grace upon the heart, but alarm, godly sorrow, and repentance; and the tract being thus constructed, an ignorant, self-confident, unrenewed reader, wishing the wound in his conscience to be healed slightly, and to obtain comfort in his dying moments without scripturally investigating the real state of his heart before God, and reading moreover detached sections, without weighing the occasional words of caution, is in danger of grievous self-deception. The tract opens as follows:

"SINNER! THIS LITTLE BOOK IS FOR YOU! TO GIVE YOU HOPE AND COMFORT, JOY AND PEACE.-Only believe in the willingness of God to forgive every PE NITENT sinner, and pray earnestly to Him for mercy, and rest assured that he will pardon you, (yes, even you,) for the sake of his beloved son. REMEMBER

-The LORD waiteth to be gracious' unto you, therefore put away the temptations of Satan, who would have you distrust the mercies of GoD, and persuade you to believe that your sins are too great to be pardoned. This is impossible, and the reason is, because the blood of CHRIST cleanseth us from ALL sin.

Let not conscience make you linger,

Nor of fitness madly dream;
The only fitness HE requireth

Is to feel your need of ĤIм.

"Secret earnest Prayer is the approved and never failing method of obtaining relief and comfort in seasons of the deepest distress. A tender, broken, contrite heart; a humble consciousness of having merited condemnation ;-an

earnest application for mercy; these are things which accompany salvation, and will always be received by our gracious GOD."

There is much blessed truth in this address; to which is added a recommendation "to lend, or send this book to persons who are quite ignorant of the way of salvation:" for instance, a dying profligate or convicted murderer: but when it is said, "Only believe in the willingness of God, to forgive every penitent sinner;" there is an omission of part of what ought to have been ɛet forth, "Am I a penitent sinner?" Pastor's confident parishioner, while "loving and making a lie," took the first half the sentence, and omitted the other. If the Scripture says, Only believe; it equally says, "Examine yourselves," and "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling." We will copy another section (the whole is in the same style) which embodies much important Gospel truth; but expressed in such a manner, and with such an absence of Scriptural discrimination and warning, that we should be afraid lest in speaking thus to "persons who are quite ignorant of the way of salvation," we should deceive them to their hurt.

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64 PEACE TO A GUILTY CONSCIENCE.

"Thy faith hath saved thee; go in PEACE,-(Luke vii. 50.)

"This poor woman had performed no previous good works to recommend her to the Lord,- but she came to him the moment she was convinced of sin ;believed in his power to pardon,-and was instantly forgiven,-although her sins were many.

"Now, my fellow sinner,-here is every possible encouragement for you to do the same, in order that you may obtain the same blessing,—the same mercy,— the same forgiveness. Christ is as willing now as he was eighteen hundred years ago, to welcome and pardon every self-condemned sinner who comes to him for shelter and relief; and it is no obstacle that your sins have been of the deepest dye, or have been continued many years; the power, and love, and mercy of Christ, far exceeds the sins of the whole world.

"The poor woman, who came to the Lord, had probably been a most notorious sinner, of the lowest kind, for many years, yet she was not reviled nor taunted on this account; her sins were not even mentioned to her,—( Ezekiel xxxiii. 16,) and instead of being driven away in her wickedness, she found nothing but love and mercy, to pardon her guilt and bid her go in peace.

"This portion may possibly fall into the hands of some poor-woman equally polluted, equally debased by a wicked course of life, but there is no reason for despair;-CHRIST is still the same;-full of mercy, full of truth;—and 'he saves them to the uttermost that come to God by him.'

"Every poor sinner who seeks forgiveness of sin with a hearty desire to forsake it, will be pardoned, in a moment. The Lord is always willing to forgive. See the case of the poor Leper, (Mark i. 41, 42.)"

A FAITHFUL REPROVER misapplies his reprehension. He says that it was unfair in us to represent the Oxford Tract No. 90 as expressing more than Mr. Newman's own private opinions; and he affirms that the expositions contained in it are not necessary to reconcile the doctrines in the Tracts with the 39 Articles. Has he seen a pamphlet published (that is, morally and legally, though not sold) by Mr. Keble, and which the advocates of the Oxford Tracts are assiduously circulating in order to refute gainsayers? in which the Professor of Poetry at Oxford states that he perused No. 90 before it was published; that he highly approved of it; that the proof sheets were examined by him; that he strongly advised its publication; that some such exposition was necessary in order to meet the arguments of those who affirm that the doctrines of the Tracts and the Articles are dissonant, and also the honest scruples of those who, wishing to adhere to Catholic doctrine, and yet not to renounce the Church of England, find themselves embarrassed by the Anglican Articles, which it is allowed do prima facie oppose the Oxford Tracts, and do not carry out Catholic doctrine in its primitive fulness; and that (so far from the sentiments expressed being only Mr. Newman's private opinions) No. 90 embodies only what has been again and again urged in former Tracts; so that if the censure of the Heads of Houses upon No. 90 was deserved, it ought to have been equally directed long ago against its predecessors. What says our Faithful Reprover in reply to this?

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THE OBLIGATIONS TO HOLINESS WHICH RESULT FROM POLITICAL PRIVILEGES.

For the Christian Observer.

TH HE thirteenth chapter of St. Luke's gospel presents a most interesting development of our Lord's mind; and adds another to the many examples of that inimitable address, by which He gently, yet without compromise, extricated himself from the snares in which his enemies would have entangled him; and drew, from the very weapons with which they assailed him, materials for their embarrassment, conviction, or reproof.

The chapter commences with this recital: "There were present, at that season, some that told him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices." The Jewish historian tells us that the Galileans here spoken of were a sect, or rather party, who denied any sovereign but Jehovah; and, in consequence of this opinion, refused to pay tribute to Cæsar.

This was the grand question with which the Scribes and Pharisees sought to ensnare our blessed Lord and the probable motive of the narrators was to draw from Him an opinion which must necessarily have implicated him, either with the people, or with the Roman governor. This He evades: openly retorts upon his adversaries their covert attack: and adds to this instance of Galileans, selected by the hand of human vengeance, an instance of Jews, selected by the hand of Divine vengeance: namely, "those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them:" and in His question and warning, "Think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay: but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish," he attacks a false principle, prevalent in the undisciplined mind, and which estimates actions, not by their intrinsic nature and moral tendency, but by their success: a principle which sees sin stripped of all its baseness when clad in the purple robes of affluence, and sanctioned by prosperity and power;-but when adversity has stamped its seal of reprobation upon an act, or when retributive justice, human or Divine, has singled out a victim, brands the selected subject with all the odium of the crime, real or imputed; makes him, as it were, the scape-goat of a world at enmity with God and seems either wholly to forget, or to fancy that it has atoned for, its own CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 43.

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sins, by the relentless and unpitying condemnation of the same crimes when detected and punished in another.

Strange indeed and perverted must that principle be, which can permit a man to recognize the hand of retributive justice in any judgment, Divine or human, without at the same time compelling him to review his own conduct, and to look at home in sober self-reflection and deep searching of the heart! Selfish and hard hearted must that feeling be, which can permit him, when Providence has marked a victim for the arrow of adversity or the finger of scorn, to persecute him whom God hath smitten, and vex them whom God hath wounded, without once asking of conscience, What do I more than others? Is it my righteousness, or the uprightness of my heart, which has shielded and preserved me? Unjust as well as uncharitable must that principle and that feeling be, which can permit him to acquiesce with complacency in those human judgments which affix the stigma of reprobation on the detected offender, without feeling a single awakening personal conviction, so long at least as prosperity gives its delusive sanction to the same, or even more heinous offences, in his own practice.

But strange and infatuated as it may seem, yet every day practically illustrates the operation of this false and awfully delusive principle.

When public attention has been attracted by circumstances to some eminent criminal-to some convicted murderer, or robber, or forger-the public mind sits in strict and impartial judgment upon the evidence of the case. Public opinion pronounces, with unfaltering voice, its unhesitating decision as to the justice and necessity of his condemnation. And yet, of this public, thus signing as it were the death warrant of a fellow sinner, how many are there guilty of sins of precisely the same class and character: some perhaps with lesser, but many, it may be safely asserted, with higher degrees of heinousness, and more aggravating circumstances: who differ nothing, in the immutable reality of things, from the criminal over whom they have erected themselves judges, and whom they unsparingly condemn : and who in the eyes of man would differ nothing from him, had not God, who moves in a mysterious way, selected one to be the victim of his vengeance, the other to be the agent and executioner.

How many are there, for instance, who, in the right forward movements of public-spiritedness, cast away every impediment of merciful allowance for extenuating circumstances, or compassionate feeling for affecting circumstance, that they may arrive at the conclusion which, in the present state of the law,-and perhaps indeed of society,-lies but too fairly before them as to the justice and expediency of punishing by death the detected perpetrator of a fraud upon the public credit of the nation? And yet how many are there of those who thus sanction and approve the act of their own constituted executive, and thus in heart and spirit join with him in signing the death warrant of the criminal, who are themselves, and under the same penalties too, knowingly defrauding the revenue of the nation, or amassing wealth by the practice of petty frauds upon the public, through the medium of their daily transactions of business? And can the eclat of a public detection, or can the value and worldly importance of the fraud, constitute a difference between those two criminals, in the truth of things? Can it constitute a difference between them in the eyes of

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