leaving every individual to act, in this respect, as he was persuaded in his own mind, and receive the sacrament at church, or at meeting, has at length by both parties been cor. dially acquiesced in, as warranted equally by principle and by prudence. Assuredly the church would have gained nothing by a different measure, for the dissidents would have been compelled to join the professed dissenters. Such is the nature of our present separation from the church, for dissent it is not, except in the minds of some individuals. Had the church been provided, generally, with an evangelical and a holy ministry, that separation would not have taken place, for the controversy between the church and the dissenters was little known, and still less regarded by the majority of the methodist societies at that time, and the case is not greatly altered to the present day. The clergy had lost their hold upon the people generally, through neglect; and that revival of the spirit of truth and holiness, which we are now so happy to witness among them, came too late to prevent the results I have just stated." pp. 153, 154. "The struggle of different views was temporary, the plan of pacification, as to the sacraments, and service in church hours, adopted by the conference, being generally and cordially acquiesced in. In forming this plan, distinguished as it is by great prudence and temper, the conference appears, in one or two points, to have erred. A part of the societies assumed from that time the form and substantive character of a regular religious society. Two things were therefore manifestly wanting, the first, a regular plan of catechis ing, which, as long as methodism was no more than an appendage to the national establishment, was presumed to be performed by the clergyman, as a preparation for confirmation. This has constantly been enjoined upon the heads of families; but it ought to have been connected with the publick discipline of that part of the body which, in fact, had separated. The second was an enlargement of the order of Sunday worship. That the Sunday forenoon, especially, should be marked by the most solemn and lengthened acts of divine service, equally accords with the practice of all regular churches, with the respect due to the day, and with every hallowed feeling of the mind, at that time most free from bodily weariness, and prepared by its vigour to enter most efficiently into the sacred services of the house of God. When the service, practised by the methodists on the Sunday morning before church time, and which, for that reason, was necessarily a very brief One, came to be the regular Sunday forenoon service of the body, it was greatly defective. This was the light in which Mr. Wesley viewed it. Some may say, our own service is publick worship. Yes, in a sense; but not such as supersedes the church service. We never designed it should. It presupposes publick prayer, like the sermons at the university. If it were designed to be instead of the church service, it would be essentially defective, for it seldom has the four grand parts of publick prayer, deprecation, petition, intercession, and thanksgiving.' The plan of pacification secured the reading of the scriptures, by making it a condition of opening any chapel in church time, that the lessons for the day should be read. It recommended, too, and that 'strongly,' in preference to the mere reading of the lessons, the use of the liturgy. But the fault lay, in not making the latter the sole and peremptory rule, a measure which then would have been gladly accepted, as a condition of opening the chapels, and by this time it would have become the established custom of the body. In many chapels our morning service is conducted in this manner, and in all our foreign stations. It has been more recently introduced into others at home; and the publick opinion among us, in favour of the use of the liturgy, is so much increasing, that the probability is, that, in a few years, it will become the general mode of our forenoon service in all the large chapels. That improvement is indeed greatly to be desired; for the liturgy secures the reading of a large portion of the scriptures; it secures also what Mr. Wesley has properly called the four grand parts of publick worship;' it makes the service of God's house appear more like our true business on the Lord's day; and beside the aid it affords to the most devout and spiritual, a great body of evangelical truth is, by constant use, laid up in the minds of children and ignorant people, who, when at length they begin to pray under a religious concern, are already furnished with suitable, sanctifying, solemn, and impressive petitions. Persons well acquainted with the liturgy are certainly in a state of important preparation for the labours of the preacher; and their piety often takes a richer and more sober character from that circumstance. A settled ministry may supply this kind of preparation by more of personal instruction, than a changing system like ours will allow; and to us, therefore, every means of embodying truth in the minds of those who attend our ministry, is more than ordinarily necessary. It is rather singular, and it shows the inconsistencies into which the human mind often falls, that in places where the use of the liturgy in our chapels has been opposed, the opposition has chiefly arisen from persons most friendly to the establishment. This has not indeed been uniformly the case, for in other places the objectors have been so sagacious as to discover, that the forms of devotion, in which methodism was nursed, are innovations; and they are become spiritual in so high a degree above the founder of methodism himself, that what he, through life, continually observed and enforced, appears to them but a barren formality." Note, pp. 155-157. It is admitted, then, that in the present state of the church of England, an irregularity, like that of Mr. Wesley, would be improper, and a strong desire is expressed for the prosperity and perpetuity of their venerated mother. The appointment of lay preachers is excused only on the plea of necessity; a plea which would hardly be resorted to, if there were not a consciousness of being wrong. The only reason assigned for a departure from Mr. Wesley's original plan of remaining in communion with the church, is, that the clergy were not evangelical and holy; a reason, therefore, which, according to the previous admission, does not exist at present. The principle of dissent has never been assumed as a badge of the society, nor are its members ever required to separate. It is admitted, too, that the conference have erred in not requiring the use of the liturgy, and not establishing a system of parochial instruction; the very important conces. sion is made, that the want of the liturgy renders publick worship defective and less profitable; and the no less important fact is stated, of an increasing esteem for the liturgy among the society at large. If all these admissions are sincere, and we have no disposition to doubt their sincerity, we ask why they will not lead to the practical result of a return to the bosom of that "mother of them all" whom they so much vene rate. The increased piety and zeal of their venerable parent shows, that she was not so radically corrupt, that her children were justified in deserting her. The mere circumstance of lay preaching, though an irregularity, need not have separated them. It was indeed an act which tended to schism, and as such ought never to have been introduced. But the overt act of schism was the assumption of the right to administer the sacraments; and this no plea of neces sity can excuse. The idea of necessity led Uzzah to stretch forth his hand to preserve the ark of God from falling; yet he was stricken dead. "The best intention," says the pious bishop Hall, "cannot excuse, much less warrant us, in unlawful actions. Where we do aught in faith, it pleaseth our good God to wink at and pity our weaknesses; but if we dare to present God with the well-meant services of our own making, we run into the indignation of God." The plea that the clergy of the church were unholy in life, and unsound in doctrine, is not suffi cient. The ark of God ought to have been carried on the shoulders of the Levites, but their negligence did not excuse the presumption of Uzzab. If the plea were true, the efficacy of the sacraments does not depend upon the holiness of the administrator, but on the holiness of the recipient. The principle of dissent neve having been assumed, there is no obstacle to the return of the methodists, which does not arise from motives which they would be as unwilling to acknowledge, as we should be to impute to them. The conviction that they have erred, in laying aside the use of the liturgy, should hasten their return; and though Mr. Watson thinks, that the time in which such a recognition of methodism, as that which Mr. Southey advocates, a recognition which would make it auxiliary to the church, has long since passed away, and that now it is neither possible nor desirable; we must be permitted to express a very different opinion. Whatever may be the obstacles in England, on the part of the establishment, they cannot exist here. The methodists have only to adopt our liturgy, to receive confirmation from Eloa, trembling, ceas'd, and look'd above And heard from out his mouth the dark command For Urim destin'd and the train that guard me, Alas! I see thee bless'd 'mong spirits, e'en like thee That from Messias' bosom e'er arose, May the first sinner dare to look upon thee, With eyes that tears of joy are spangling o'er Twas on thy fostering breast I life receiv'd, O land of God's creation! How would'st thou, Thy valleys blasted by the curse pronounc'd Midst storms and thunders, brighter seem to *It may be here objected, that Adam should make so sudden a transition from grief to joy. But it must be recollected, that, as he had been mourning for mankind, the presence of the angel inspired him with new hopes, and invested him with all his original charms. To the Editor of the Gospel Advocate. FIVE stanzas of the following beautiful hymn for Epiphany were originally published in the Christian Observer: the fifth, sixth, and seventh, were afterwards added by a young lady of this country. HYMN FOR EPIPHANY. Brightest and best of the sons of the morning, Dawn on our darkness, and lend us thine aid, Star of the east, the horizon adorning, Guide where our infant Redeemer is laid. Cold on his cradle the dew drops are shining, Low lies his head with the beasts of the stall. Say, shall we yield him, in costly devotion, ocean, Myrrh from the forest, or gold from the mine? Seraphs, in glory and beauty refulgent, RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE. The annual meeting of the Massachusetts Episcopal Missionary Society was held at the vestry room of St. Paul's church in Boston, on Easter Tuesday, and, by adjournment, the following day. The following officers were elected. Right Reverend Bishop Griswold, exofficio, President. Vice Presidents. Rev. Asa Eaton, Rev. S. F. Jarvis, D. D. Stephen Codman, Esq. John T. Winthrop, Esq. Secretary. E. Hale, Jun. M. D. Corresponding Sec'ry. Benjamin Howard, Treasurer. Trustees-the above mentioned officers, and John Sowdon, J.C. Warren, M. D. Francis Wilby, J. C. Merrill, Esq. In 15 do. 83 marriages. 164 burials. In 15 do. 1577 communicants. In 3 do. 251 Sunday scholars. The three churches in the city of Charleston appear to be eminently flourishing. These alone have 1193 communicants, of which number St. Michael's, of which the bishop is rector, has 473; and St. Philip's, under the rectorship of the reverend Dr. Gadsden, 530. We rejoice to see, that, of the latter, 190, and of the former, 120, are coloured persons. It is refreshing to the philanthropick mind to know that the unhappy, exiled race of Africa have their condition meliorated by the participation of Christian privileges. During the greater part of the last year the bishop has been greatly afflicted with bodily indisposition. At no time, however, was he entirely disabled from discharging such acts of his Episcopal functions as he was called on to perform. In consequence of the infirmity with which it pleased God to visit him, he was obliged to be absent part of the summer from his diocese. He was enabled, however, during this journey, to visit several congregations in the northwestern extremity of the state, which have been newly formed by the means of the society for the advance ment of Christianity in South Carolina. In the districts of Pendleton and Greenville, the bishop found the society's missionary, the reverend Mr. Dickinson, faithfully performing the laborious duties of his station. At Pendleton measures have been taken towards the erection of a church, and a Sunday school has been instituted. The happy influence of this society, in strengthening the things which remain and are ready to die, is strikingly exemplified in St. Mark's parish, Clarendon. Under the faithful and useful ministry of the reverend J. W. Chanler, who has been partly supported as a missionary, that parish, within the last year and a half, has become reinstat ed in the enjoyment of divine worship. The parish church was destroyed during the revolutionary war; and it was not till the last summer, that a new church, built near its site by the liberality of a few individuals, was consecrated to the service of the Almighty. On this occasion Mr. Chanler was promoted to the order of priests. By his exertions a new congregation has been formed in the village of Manchester, about fourteen miles from the church last named; wardens and vestrymen have been elected; and Mr. Chanler has been regularly invited to hold service among them as their minister. Further instances are recorded, by the bishop, of the same nature. "Under a resolution," says he, "of the board of trustees of the society for the advancement of Christianity in South Carolina, placing sundry sums at my discretionary disposal for missionary purposes, the reverend Mr. Mitchell, a deacon of this diocese, was appointed by me, in the spring of the last year, to officiate, for a few weeks, in the vacant churches of St. James's parish, Santee. This has resulted in Mr. Mitchell's being invited by the vestry of that parish, to become its minister. Under the same provision of the trustees of the same excellent society, the reverend Mr. Vanpelt, of Pennsylvania, was, in November last, appointed to a very short mission in St. Luke's parish, and the places adjacent. This mission has given place to an appointment of Mr. Vanpelt, by the vestry of St. Luke's, to officiate there until the summer. is desirable that some more permanent engagement should be entered into, between himself and the members of our church, in that part of the diocese." So sensible, indeed, were the convention of the great blessing of this society to the church, that the following resolution was unanimously passed: "On motion of the reverend Mr. Tschudy, Resolved, unanimously, as the sense of this convention, that we highly approve of the It |