The Wesleyan Methodists and the Established Church. By W. W. PocoCK. London: Elliot Stock. 1868. THE perusal of this pamphlet has afforded us high gratification. We are glad to see intelligent Wesleyans giving their attention to the leading political and ecclesiastical questions of the day, and we say this almost irrespective of the views they may advocate. Free and fair discussion will ultimately eliminate error and conserve the truth in relation to all these questions. Till recently the relation of the Wesleyan Methodists to the Established Church has been so peculiar as to lead to great misapprehension on the part of many of the clergy, and even dignitaries of the Establishment. Notwithstanding their practical separation from it, in heart they were supposed to be Church of England people, and would if opportunity offered gladly return to the fold from which they ought never to have been separated. Hence attempts have been made to ascertain on what terms overtures could be made for a re-union of the two bodies. The action of Churchmen has compelled the Wesleyans out of self-respect to speak out their real sentiments relative to the Established Church. This has been done in a semi-official way by the publication of Mr. Jackson's letter to the last Conference. That assembly, however, is properly somewhat chary in committing itself to any declaration of opinion on the subject, beyond an assertion of its own independent ecclesiastical existence and authority. It is no adjunct of the Establishment, nor receives its right to preach the Gospel and administer Christian ordinances from its bishops. Beyond this, it appears to us, the Wesleyan Conference ought not to go, as it is a self-constituted body, and without authority to speak representatively for the denomination; while if on its own account it were to give a formal deliverance on the union of Church and State its strictly spiritual and pastoral functions would be thereby weakened or injuriously interfered with. But as citizens the Wesleyans may do what is beyond their province as a church, and we respectfully affirm it as our opinion that the time has come when they ought to take part in the great conflict of the age. "Danger, broad, distinct, and threatening, is at the gates," and it is high time for us all to awake out of our sleep, and gird on our armour for the fight. Under this conviction Mr. Pocock has written his pamphlet, in which he discusses briefly the churchmanship of John Wesley, and then more at length the present relation of the Wesleyans to the Establishment. The whole is marked by intelligence, calmness of spirit, sound protestant feeling, right sentiment, and conclusive argument. It ought to be read not only by members of his own communion, but by all Methodists, and by Churchmen too. We append one extract, which our readers will peruse with pleasure. "Let the clergy be assured of this, that the Wesleyans, clerical and lay, look upon the Church with very different eyes to what the last generation did. They are disappointed at the failure of their hopes, and those of their founder; they are alarmed at the Romanizing practices of one section of the Church, the Latitudinarian doctrines of another, the apathy or neglect of those in authority to grapple with these; the lethargy and impotence of the courts to check them. They are chagrined to see those with whom they could nearly sympathize, and who seemed to be approaching them, all at once draw off and repudiate their alliance, many of them asserting claims subversive of all catholicity, and apparently ready to fraternize with any party, however extreme, under the banners of Episcopacy, rather than harmonize with Nonconformity, however tractable, evangelistic and orthodox. The older men are expressing their doubts of the propriety of the friendliness of the Connexion to the Church, whilst the younger men are asking if it will retain its patronage for thirty, or even for ten years. The balance trembles, or rather inclines, perhaps altogether preponderates, against the Church. At all events, it requires but little to render the whole body decidedly adverse. They can bear awhile longer with the vagaries of deans, archdeacons, and even bishops, of acknowledged Romish or Latitudinarian proclivities; they can submit to periodical invective, misrepresentation, obloquy, or other form of persecution. But they watch with jealous scrutiny the action or inactivity of the Protestant and Evangelistic clergy, and any persuasion that these were to any large extent, upon any plea whatever, favourable to, or not directly opposed to the system of "levelling up," willing to connive at the endowment of Popery, or in any other way to sacrifice the real interests of the spiritual Church, to prolong the status of the visible Church, would enroll the whole body, from Land's End to John o'Groats, as one man, in the ranks of those who seek to destroy the influence of the clergy, rather than allow it to be thus prostituted." Words of Comfort for Parents Bereaved of Little Children: Edited by WILLIAM LOGAN, with an introductory Historical Sketch by the Rev. W. ANDERSON, L.L.D. Fifth Edition Enlarged, 13th Thousand. London: James Nisbet & Co.,1868. Re-union of Christian Friends and their Infant Children in the Heavenly Kingdom: By W. ANDERSON, L.L.D. To which is prefixed a Pastoral Letter on the death of his young, and latterly only remaining Son. London Hamilton, Adams, & Co., 1868. : Flowers of Paradise. By the Rev. RICHARD RYMER. London: Hamilton, Adams, & Co., 1868. THE titles of these volumes indicate their character. To general readers, with a spark of right sentiment in their nature, they will be interesting; to bereaved parents they will have a special charm. "Words of Comfort for Parents Bereaved of Little Children," is an incomparable book. We can scarcely speak of it in terms sufficiently commendatory or appreciative. To those who have not seen it we may say, it is not a treatise, but a selection of pieces in prose and poetry, from almost all authors who have written on the death of children. The extracts number two hundred and fifty, or more, and must indicate nearly the whole range of our literature on the subject. Precious gems most of them are, truly "words of comfort" to be treasured in the memory and heart of those for whose comfort they have been collected. Nor they alone; in every family, whether bereaved of the little ones or not, this beautiful volume should have a place, for acquaintance with its contents cannot but quicken and intensify our love of living children, as well as soothe our grief for the departed. "Re-union of Christian Friends in Heaven," by Dr. Anderson, is a discourse we have read with great pleasure, and the preliminary letter on the death of his son, with moistened eye. Many a parent, tasting his sorrows, will thank him for the word in season his beautiful little book supplies to them. "Flowers of Paradise." This work, as the author states, is partly a treatise, and partly a biography; showing that little children who die in their infancy, and young converts who die in the Lord, are with Christ in Paradise. Four times the writer has been bereaved of children; two being taken in their infancy, one in her fourteenth year, and an accomplished and amiable daughter, aged eighteen. From a heart filled with sympathy by these visitations, he writes to sorrowing parents and surviving children, seeking to imbue the minds of both with a sense of the vanity of the world, and the value of religion. His counsels and admonitions are given with great tenderness, as well as fidelity; and are well calculated to attain the end for which they were written. All these volumes are printed and got up in a style of excellence which fits them to be placed on every drawing-room table; and more suitable gift-books, to parents sorrowing for the loss of children, could not be found. The Great Lovefeast in Heaven: By a METHODIST MINISTER. 6th Thousand. London: F. Pitman. IF Lovefeasts are to be celebrated in Heaven, it is only fitting that a Methodist Minister" should conduct them; but why should he withhold his name? He makes the patriarch from the land of Uz say, with curt and unmistakeable frankness, "I am Job;" why does not our author, with equal ingenousness, take us into his confidence and tell us his name? He need not be ashamed of his performance, for though it is not a great literary venture, yet it certainly does equal credit to his head and his heart. It is a book to do one's soul good. It is recreative religiously. The idea of the work is original and altogether unique. In allegorical guise, he describes a Lovefeast in Heaven; in which he introduces some of the most distinguished saints of ancient and modern times, who have “ overcome through the blood of the Lamb." He sees the antediluvian patriarchs, "the goodly fellowship of Prophets, the glorious company of the Apostles, the noble army of martyrs," and the heroic Reformers, in glory everlasting, and with them he beholds the Pilgrim Fathers, the Scotch Covenanters, and Bunyan, Wesley, Watts, Whitfield, Kilham, Bourne, and Clowes, and also a few "sisters," such as "Mrs. Dodsworth, and Mrs. Wilkinson, of blessed memory." Coke, Clarke, Watson, Benson, Bramwell, Billy Dawson, Sammy Hick, Astbury, Carey, Morrison, Rowland Hill, and, mirabile dictu, Prince Albert, are all recognized as safely landed in the heavenly Canaan. Then he calls upon a number of these rather incongruous worthies to relate their varied experiences, not even excusing the late Prince Consort from this public duty, and though we cannot tell on what principle our author has made his selection of speakers, yet we notice one singular feature in this Celestial Lovefeast is, that they "rise and tell the wonders of Immanuel," according to seniority of residence. Moreover they all speak in true Methodistic fashion, though it may fairly be presumed that Methodist usages and phraseology were not familiarly understood in Patriarchal and Pre-Wesleyan times. For instance, ADAM himself, the father of us all, begins thus, "It is with unspeakable joy I rise to relate the peculiar dealings of the Lord with me, &c. ;" and, late on, LUTHER rose, and after bowing gracefully (?) to the assembly, said," Beloved brethren, it is with unspeakable joy that I rise to bear my testimony to the power of divine grace, &c.," and, turning to WICKLIFFE, he said, "Come, brother, let me shake thy hand." Whatever these brethren were on earth, it is clear enough that they are Methodists in Heaven. And it is equally clear, from the 77th page of this beautiful little volume, that our author is a Primitive Methodist, for, by spiritual affinity, he discovers quite a galaxy of Primitive Methodists in the Celestial Firmament. Well, be it so ! "It is the hope, the blissful hope, Which Jesus' grace hath given, If we have judged rightly, we may congratulate the Rev. W. Harris on the ability with which he has wrought out his theme. His descriptive powers are of a high order. Practice and culture will enable him to achieve wonders, and to take not only a high stand among his brethren, but a very respectable position amongst English authors. This Lovefeast is very cleverly described. Elijah is made to tell the longest experience. We are rather surprised that he should have been permitted to take up so much of the valuable time. In a well conducted Lovefeast no one is permitted to trespass on the time of the rest. This, however, may have been the first Lovefeast ever held in Heaven, and so we may account for the "prophet of fire" being privileged, out of the fulness of his great heart, to occupy the time of the meeting so long. On subsequent occasions it will be necessary for him to exercise a little more discretion. Adam describes the intensity of his grief when he became conscious that, through his disobedience, he had subjected all his posterity to death. Abel tells of the surprise occasioned in heaven by his arrival, "a stranger from a strange world." "When I arrived," he said, "I found no companion, none who had wept, none who had suffered, none who had died." A "sweet but lonely song" was his. Enoch relates the story of his translation thus: "One day as I was alone, meditating upon the glories of my celestial home, a chariot and horses of fire came sweeping through the heavens as on the wings of a whirlwind, and I was caught up into the flaming vehicle by an invisible hand, and away went chariot and steeds, like an ascending glory, up the hills of eternity, and we never stopped for a moment all the way from earth up to the gates of the New Jerusalem." Noah tells of the flool; Abraham of Mount Moriah; Moses of his marvellous rescue in infancy, his more marvellous life at the Egyptian court and subsequently in the wilderness of Sinai, and his still more marvellous death and burial; Stephen tells us of his martyrdom; Paul, "a person of rather diminutive stature, but wearing on his head a crown of more than ordinary brightness, and having a majestic voice," 1elates his conversion; Luther describes the Diet of Worms; Bunyan tells us of Bedford jail and the "Pilgrim's Progress;" Wesley narrates the rise and progress of Methodism; Hugh Bourne recites his thrilling story; and after him, last but not least, rises Prince Albert, and wakens up afresh the Hallelujahs of heaven by declaring that though his death plunged a nation into grief, yet it was to him inestimable gain. Moreover, he assured the listening angels and the crowned princes of the redeemed, that one thought was ever present to his |