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Vicarious Sacrifice of Christ.

(To the Editor of the Youths' Magazine.)

SIR, I have lately been much pleased with the replies you have so kindly furnished to the enquiries of your correspondents, and shall be glad to avail myself of the opportunity your little publication affords of proposing one or two questions, which have for some time been with me a subject of enquiry, and a satisfactory reply to which, will probably be edifying to others, as well as to myself.

1. How is it to be accounted for, that in the Lord's Prayer, (which all Christians acknowledge was given by the Lord Jesus Christ himself as a model for the prayers of Christians in all future ages of the church,) no expression occurs which can be supposed in any way to convey the idea that it was offered in the name, or for the sake of the Son, a mode of expression so generally adopted at the present day, when addressing the Father in prayer?

2. Is there any thing in the parable of the prodigal son, or any of the other numerous divine parables, uttered by our Saviour for the purpose of illustrating on a familiar, though striking manner, the holy doctrines he came to teach, from which the doctrine of the vicarious or substitutionary sacrifice of Himself may be gathered. Hoping you will not deem these enquiries unworthy of your notice, believe me,

Manchester.

Sir,

Yours, very respectfully,
A NEW ENQUIRER.

These enquiries appear to originate in two errors. The first respects the objects of our Saviour's mission; the second, the purport of the Lord's Prayer itself.

Christ came into the world to consummate the gospel plan of salvation, and not to expatiate upon it as if already completed. The time, therefore, had not arrived, when "the mode of expression, so generally adopted in the present day, of offering prayer in the name, or for the sake of the Son," was to commence. This is sufficiently evident from His own words"Hitherto ye have asked nothing in my name." At that day, (referring to the period of his departure to the Father,) ye shall ask in my name."-John xvi. 24-26. These remarks will also explain why there is so little recognition of the doctrine of a vicarious sacrifice in the parables generally; that, however of the Good Shepherd' certainly alludes to it.

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With regard to the Lord's Prayer, we are not aware that cll Christians acknowledge it to be a model for all ages of the church. Many commentators, and Dr. Guyse in particular, have shewn that it had a special and peculiar reference to the times and circumstances of its original delivery; and this opinion receives some sanction from the preamble-"Teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples." John, as divinely taught himself, would of course teach nothing but truth; but changing events, and the nearer glories of the gospel dispensation, rendered necessary a more seasonable and compendious style of prayer, which was accordingly supplied by our blessed Lord.

Another view of the Lord's Prayer is advocated by many. Our Saviour's object, according to Matthew, appears to have been to teach rather the spirit and manner of prayer than the precise words" After this manner, therefore, pray ye." The manner, the holy fervency and importunity, with all the indications of a spirit sympathizing with, and agonizing for, a ruined world; though sufficiently obvious to those who saw and heard, could not be transcribed by the evangelist; the language, therefore, is all that has come down to our own day.

Conflicting Texts.

(To the Editor of the Youths' Magazine.)

SIR,-Allow me to propose the following query through the medium of your excellent enquirer.

The apostle, it appears, in this manner speaks to the Philippians, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." Phil. ii. 12.

May I request you, or any of your correspondents, to reconcile this with the passage in Romans ix 16. "So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy." An answer to the above will much oblige,

Yours,

R. W.

Both of the quotations furnished by our correspondent are incomplete. In the first, the apostle writes-" Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure." The second is, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion; so then it is

not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that

sheweth mercy.”

These texts appear to us to speak precisely the same language, and their burden is neither more nor less than salvation by grace, through faith. The first sets forward God's willingness to work in us the second, while it asserts his undoubted sovereignty, describes him as One whose peculiar attribute is to “shew mercy." If He declare it to be His purpose to extend that mercy to whom he will, we need not search the Scriptures very far to find what that will is. He is willing to save to the uttermost all that come unto him by Christ.

THE OUTER WORLD.

Morality for the Dying.—The following extract from a letter, bearing the well known and influential signature, “C. T. Madras," lately issued in India, and re-published in this country, is addressed to the chaplains of the archdeaconry of Madras. Its import is so plain that comment must be unnecessary, whilst its manliness and evangelical simplicity must obtain for it a hearty response from the hearts of all our young readers.

"Whenever I have preached in an hospital, I have studiously avoided any allusion to the miserable errors of Romanism; but I have as studiously brought forward, plainly and prominently forward, the grand saving truths of the gospel. I have not told them that they cannot be saved by the intercession of the Virgin Mary, or of the saints; but I have always told them that it is impossible for sinners to be saved except by Christ, and this is the kind of preaching which, as it seems to me, is alone suited to the bed of sickness and death, be it in an hospital or a palace.

'What shall I say then, or how shall I express my deep grief, my horror, at the following request prefered to Government by one sent out to watch over those who profess to watch for souls as they that must give account!' The Right Rev. Dr. Fennelly has solicited, that our chaplains be authoritatively limited in the public ministrations in our hospital, 'to the preaching of what is more suited to hospital patients, a good moral discourse!' A good moral discourse to the sick, and it may well be, the dying-to those, the larger portion of whom their own follies and vices, have most probably brought to that place, from whence some may very shortly be carried out to their graves! Instead of teaching those poor sinners to wash their bed,

and to water their couch with tears; or, instead of comforting them with the blessed assurance, on our Master's authority, that God, who has rebuked them in his indignation, and chastened them in his displeasure, will hear the voice of their weeping, and receive their prayer, if offered in the name and for the sake of the sinner's only Saviour, they are to be mocked with a good moral discourse, as most appropriate to an hospital.

"We presume not to judge others--to their own Master they stand or fall-but assuredly we shall be anathema, dear brethren, cursed of God, and of many perished souls, if we preach any thing anywhere, and more especially at a death bed, but Jesus Christ and Him crucified, the Way, the Truth, the Resurrection, and the Life!"

Tractarianism.-We rejoice to find, that the British Magazine, until very recently an influential organ of the Tractarian party, has become the vigorous assailant of its errors-a circumstance the more desirable from the fact, that it is so well able to combat these heresies with the very weapons most likely to prevail in such a case.

The Helston Case.-Party writing, in the usual acceptation of the words, we have always done our utmost to avoid. But when one of these parties is God, and the other man, the case is entirely different. We make these remarks, with reference to some painful proceedings which have lately taken place respecting the Curate of Helston, in Cornwall. This clergyman, on offering himself for the curacy, declared, that "he could not conscientiously accept any charge in which he was not at full liberty to follow out all the directions of the Rubric;" and obtained, without any hesitation, an assurance from the Bishop, that he should have such liberty. The question naturally arises in the minds of a christian--what is "the Rubric?" Does it form part of the "living oracles;" is it inspired; who wrote or compiled it; or, in one word, does it emanate from God or man?

The enquiry can, as we think, admit of but one answer--the Rubric is the work of man. If we could prove it to have been written by Peter or Paul, and yet find no direct authority in the Bible for receiving it as divine, we should at once denounce it as of no authority in the government of Christ's Church. But it cannot claim even this distinction; and unless the Great Head over all things to the good of that church, is to be dethroned, and poor feeble, fallible, ignorant man is to usurp his place, it has no right whatever to interpose its dicta in the management of a purely spiritual kingdom.

This question, therefore, which may by some be regarded as a party one, is neither more nor less than a struggle for supremacy on man's part against God; admitting, what we intend to prove, that it has not

reference to those things only which are left undecided in the word of truth; but to questions fully revealed, and fundamentally established by inspiration.

By a rigid adherence to rubrical direction, the curate in question soon caused so fearful a schism in his parish, that the bishop was appealed to; and his judgment on some of the more serious charges forms the subject of our subsequent remarks.

Leaving untouched such matters of mere expediency as the use of a surplice, instead of a gown; offering a prayer more or less during the service; preaching extempore, from notes, or from a perfect MS. and the like, let us look for a few moments at the more important points of this remarkable case.

The general tenor of the Rubric, it is allowed, is to magnify the importance of the rites, ceremonies, sacraments and offices of the Church, at the expence of that important instrumentality, which the Tractarians seem determined still to regard as "the foolishness of preaching." Instead of a full, free, searching exhibition of the truth as it is in Jesus; instead of a proper exaltation of the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world; instead of a hearty and conscientious conformity to the divine injunction, "Preach the gospel;”— a discourse,—a sort of lecture "interesting probably to the church antiquarian, but very unsatisfactory to a man anxious to learn his duty to God and man," is to be smuggled into the service without any prayer, either to introduce or follow it! And all this without one word of censure, or even of advice, from the bishop. So spake not Paul-" Necessity is laid upon me, yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!"

Determined not to be drawn into any mere controversy between man and man, we pass over those facts in this important enquiry which affect the non admission of members to, or their subsequent expulsion from, the communion of the Church of England. A mortal may, perhaps, fairly hold the keys of any merely human institution; but when he undertakes to wield the thunders of Omnipotence, and shut the dying sinner out of heaven, it is high time for every christian to speak out for Him who only has the key of David, who openeth and no man shutteth; who shutteth and no man openeth. Yet this is the oracular decision in the Helston case. "Neither the office for the visitation of the sick, nor that for the burial of the dead, ought to be used over an adult who having been baptised in schism, and having lived a schismatic has never been admitted into the Church. Can the Church consistently say, that they are departed hence in the Lord," who were not members of His body? Can she number them among the faithful? or, speak of

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