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HOW TO PLAGIARIZE.

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Channing's is John viii. 31, 32, 36-"Then said Jesus to those Jews who believed on Him, If ye continue in My word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. If the Son, therefore, shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed."

The weakest point, and the one which in all probability suggested the plagiarism, is the occasion on which the sermon was preached, though the difference between American and English institutions is in itself a shield. Bellew's subject is "The Accession. Preached Sunday, June 20th, 1858. The Anniversary of the Queen's Accession." Channing's subject is "Spiritual Freedom. Preached at the Annual Election, May 26th, 1830."

4. The plagiarism is not found in the introduction, or in the conclusion, but pieces of Channing are inserted in the sermon of Bellew after the fashion of Mosaic work. After an exordium of three pages, we meet at intervals with the following parallels. In the intervals are whole pages of what is not Channing, while, on the other hand, whole paragraphs and pages from Channing are introduced.

BELLEW.

"What is the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free? It is as true as it is usual to reply that it is freedom from sin. It does not, however, always follow that a stereotyped phrase conveys a distinct conviction; and it may happen, and I believe does happen, that these words are frequently too vaguely apprehended to impress a deep sense of the grandeur of the blessing. Freedom from sin is not a mere negative state, that is to say, the simple absence of sin; for the absence of active sin may be attributed to a child before it becomes a moral agent. Spiritual liberty, the real freedom of the spirit, is the attribute of a mind in which conscience has had effectual exercise; which is free through an active and effectual energy within it which combines the power to resist temptation, and the power to exercise what it believes to be truth."

"An all-wise Disposer of events, acting upon the wisdom of a mysterious Providence which it is beyond our power to comprehend, has seen fit to encompass us by difficulties and allurements: placing us in a world where actual wrong is often earthly gain, and duty is rough and perilous; where the body constantly is an enemy to the soul, and by its perpetual agency upon the senses becomes a barrier between us and the spiritual world. We are surrounded by influences which menace the mind and the soul. Freedom is to be free from these, to be superior to them, to wrestle with them, and to be more than conquerors over them."

CHANNING.

"I may be asked what I mean by Inward, Spiritual Freedom. The common and true answer is, that it is freedom from sin. I apprehend, however, that to many these words are too vague to convey a full and deep sense of the greatness of the blessing. Let me, then, offer a brief explanation; and the most important remark in illustrating this freedom is, that it is not a negative state, not the mere absence of sin; for such a freedom may be ascribed to inferior animals, or to children before becoming moral agents. Spiritual freedom is the attribute of a mind in which reason and conscience have begun to act, and which is free through its own energy, through fidelity to the truth, through resistance of temptation."

"It has pleased the All-wise Disposer to encompass us from our birth by difficulty and allurement, to place us in a world where wrong-doing is often gainful, and duty rough and perilous, where many vices oppose the dictates of the inward monitor, where the body presses as a weight on the mind, and matter, by its perpetual agency on the senses, becomes a barrier between us and the spiritual world. We are in the midst of influences which menace the intellect and heart and to be free is to withstand and conquer these."

"The liberty of Christ makes the mind jealous for its own freedom, and rescues it from being merged in or subjected to others, while it guards its empire over itself as nobler than the empire of the world."

"The liberty of Christ confers that freedom which makes the upright heart (-) feel its relation and affinity to God: and, confiding in His promises, proclaimed by Christ, devotes itself faithfully to the unfolding of all its powers; which feels secured of its freedom to pass the bounds of time and of death; which hopes to advance for ever, and which finds inexhaustible power, both for action and for suffering, in the prospect of immortality. Such is the liberty in which they can stand fast whom Christ has made free. It consists in spiritual force, in selfcontrol, in the enlargement of every affection, in the unrestrained action of every noble power."

"I call that mind free, which is jealous of its own freedom, which guards itself from being merged in others, which guards its empire over itself as nobler than the empire of the world."

"I call that mind free, which, conscious of its affinity with God, and confiding in His promises by Jesus Christ, devotes itself faithfully to the unfolding of all its powers, which passes the bounds of time and death, which hopes to advance for ever, and which finds inexhaustible power, both for action and suffering, in the prospect of immortality. Such is the spiritual freedom which Christ came to give. It consists in moral force, in selfcontrol,in the enlargement of thought and affection, and in the unrestrained action of our best powers.

There is much more of a similar kind, which by reason of its length we are not free to quote in these pages, although the great elocutionist has taken such a liberty in his pages.

Now all this is very adroit and very skilful, and it appears more so when the sermons are side by side, and you can note how deftly Channing's thoughts are woven into Bellew's warp, giving the whole fabric the appearance of union damask, in which the warp which shows the figure, is cotton, and the weft which forms the coloured ground is worsted. But what trouble it must have cost. Labour of this kind is almost as bad as trying to extract gold from violet roots, or silver from sea water. Le jeu n' en vaut pas la chandelle, or in plain English, "the game is not worth the candle."

Remembering, too, that when done at its best, this kind of thing is apt to be discovered; perhaps the best advice one could give is, to prepare a sermon as much as possible after this fashion, and then burn it, or in other words, to carry out with reference to this matter Dr. Glynn's famous advice how to dress a cucumber; which was, "Peel the cucumber with great care; cut it into very thin slices; pepper and salt it well-and then throw it away." J. FLETCHER.

PARTICULARISM IN THEOLOGY.

FOLLOWING Jewish particularism, which was national, bitter and bigoted, there speedily appeared signs in the church of a Christian particularism. Therefore John warned his "children" against it, and reminded them that Christ came as the Saviour and Redeemer of the WHOLE WORLD, and directed their attention to God's universal grace by asserting that Christ, who is our Advocate with the Father, is the propitiation for our sins, and not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the WHOLE WORLD. The definite and energetic feeling of nationality which dominated in the Jewish mind, and led them to particularism and restricted salvation, was effectually counterworked in the first ages of Christianity by the threefold revelation of the universality of the Saviour's work and mission made in the writings of John, in the vision to Peter, and in the world-wide man-embracing work of the Apostle Paul.

JOHN CLIFFORD.

The Basis of Communion in Churches

and in Denominations.

ACCORDING to promise, we return to this "present-day" subject, the interest in which is shown by the fact that we have received communications enough to fill a number of this Magazine. Most writers agree with the views expressed in the December article, as to the tendencies amongst Baptists and Independents on the subject of Baptism, and confirm our witness; some reach the same goal by a different route; two or three have misunderstood the purpose of the article; and one, writing for Strict Baptists, has held us aloft as flagrantly heedless of the word and will of God.

It may be wise to repeat that the question was not what is the teaching of Scripture about baptism, but what are the tendencies of opinion concerning it in these two opposed denominational camps, and what probability do the camps show of becoming one in organic life and evangelical activity. The answer was, that there are significant changes in progress, a strong and decided drift of opinion amongst Baptists towards a recognition of Dr. Carson's view, that baptism belongs to the personal life of the believer, and not to his church relations-amongst Independents a glaring tendency to ignore baptism altogether; but that other forces, traditional and social, operate more strongly than differences of opinion about baptism to prevent union: in short, it is to be feared, and this is to us the saddest phase of the whole subject, we are not yet sufficiently Christian for union.

But first of all let us hear

MR. H. WEBSTER EARP ON DENOMINATIONALISM.

"We sadly need a definition of this ungainly word. In the article by the Editor of this Magazine in the December number, the term is apparently used as synonymous with connexionalism A denomination is defined, inferentially, as an association of believers for preaching, and teaching, and work. I venture to suggest that this definition is inadequate. A congregational or federal union of Christians is not necessarily denominational. In its origin the Wesleyan body, for instance, was evangelistic and catholic; so also in the case of the early General Baptists. These bodies became denominational at the point where their founders, in the one case with rigidity, in the other more broadly, imposed their own individuality on the terms of communion. Congregations hold their denominational position not necessarily in virtue of co-operation in denominational work, but by the maintenance of a denominational creed.

"The separation of believers into distinct and disconnected bodies on the ground of difference of opinion is, I think, a fair and sufficient definition of denominationalism. The term 'believers' I use emphatically in the scriptural sense, as comprising all who are 'in Christ."

"Denominationalism, as thus defined, I have long held to be essentially opposed to the mind of Christ, to the teaching of the apostles, to

the practice of the primitive church, and to the progress of the gospel. The thrice-repeated prayer of our Saviour that they may be one,' surely, at the least, teaches that it is His will that such real and abiding fellowship should be maintained by all His faithful disciples, as is qualified only by conditions of space and time, or by the free play of those intellectual or spiritual affinities which in the days of the Son of Man gave to the Saviour Himself a 'beloved disciple." In all the teachings of Jesus there is no limit to the application of the privileges and responsibilities of brotherly intercourse other than that of membership in His body. To belong to Christ-to be His disciple-to be one of the least of His brethren-is to have a claim to love and service, to render which is to render service to Him, and to deny which is to deny it to Him.

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"However, into denominationalism the Christian community has drifted, and with what result? I reply, a notorious and wide-spread alienation of feeling among Christian people. For example, neighbours of different communions, each of whom, if appealed to, would admit that the other was in Christ,' are yet found mutually allowing their days to pass without the recognition, in any single act, of a spiritual relationship, and this probably without any felt sense of incongruity. In the churches, party propagandism largely takes the place of evangelistic effort, and from this flow jealousies and mutual recriminations, cowardly reticent it may be of expression, but fearfully rife. Doubtless alienation and even jealousy may prevail between members of the same church, or between churches of the same creed; but these are admittedly fruits of evil, whose roots are in corrupt humanity. But what shall be said for church systems that tend to the same result?

"If the conservation and propagation of a special truth be urged as a plea for a denominational as opposed to a catholic church organisation, I venture to say, on the other hand, that the essentially self-asserting controversial spirit and combative attitude of denominationalism is an immense hindrance to the spread of truth.

"Freedom of investigation is checked, and faithfulness to conviction is imperilled, by a system which makes a man's church standing conditional on his allegiance to the non-essentials of a man-made creed. And as to work, I think it would not be difficult to show that connexional societies, whether missionary or otherwise, are effective for good just in proportion as the broad, Christian, evangelistic spirit in them displaces and supersedes the spirit of the sect. Expediency as well as principle, it seems to me, shuts us up to the conclusion that 'Christian churches are to make essential to membership only what Christ Himself has made essential' (Dr. Angus); and of course the same principle will apply to the regulation of federal as to that of personal union.

"What, then, to a Baptist will be the practical result of the acceptance of these views? It will not lead him to sever himself from those connexional agencies which, in a Christian spirit, are seeking to do Christ's work, but will rather induce him to throw himself into them with some of the 'white heat' which purifies them. He will at the same time work for such a recognition of catholic principles as will unite the Christian world, not in one huge ecclesiastical organisation, but in an

IN CHURCHES AND IN DENOMINATIONS.

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aggregate of societies, knowing no law but the law of Christ, owing no allegiance save to Him, and bearing no distinct designation but that of place—societies which, with a wise elasticity, will retain within themselves every variety of Christian thought and worship and service. The union of Baptists and Independents is rapidly becoming, in country districts especially, a pressing question."

INDIVIDUAL AND ASSOCIATED CHURCHES.

One thing amongst others will be apparent from the above contribution, viz., that it is of the first importance to make a distinction between the conditions of fellowship in individual churches, and in churches forming an Association or Union. It is not necessary they should be the same, and as a matter of fact they are not so. Fifty churches may agree to co-operate on principles and for purposes that would not and could not be adopted for the fellowship of each individual church. E.g., we wish to send men out to Rome and Orissa; and to train others for the ministry in our English churches. As individual churches, we cannot do either work effectively, if at all, and therefore co-operation in these works does not appear in our terms of church fellowship, but it is prominent in our "laws and constitution" as an Association.

Again, I have held for years-agreeing in this with Mr. Earp and a growing crowd-that the basis of church fellowship is conscious communion with the Lord Jesus; personal trust in and love for the Saviour, such as a child of eight or a man of eighty may experience and express; and that we have no right to impose any other condition whatever as necessary to fellowship. The door-step of the church should be so low that the feeblest lamb of the flock of Christ may not be kept out in the cold. This, too, is the practise of the church in which I have the privilege to serve as pastor. Such terms, however, are not only not adopted in all our churches, but are counted wrong in some of them; and yet we heartily and enthusiastically work together in our corporate Association. Because practically we admit that the basis of a single Christian church and the basis of a federation of churches need not and ought not to be the same. In my judgment, no believer in Christ as Saviour and Lord should be barred out of the former; but the union of the latter must always be determined according to theological sympathies and the practical objects contemplated by the union. Were this distinction remembered, the question of fellowship would be greatly simplified, and the course of action for Christian men in relation to federations of churches would be made clear.

CREED AND NO CREED.

As to churches confederating together irrespective of theological beliefs, it is as foolish as it is unscientific to expect it. All Associations have an implicit or explicit basis of faith, be they commercial or scientific, æsthetic or religious. Even Unitarianism, that boasts so loudly its serene possession of the cold and icy realms of creedlessness, has had some sharp fighting about creeds lately; and one at least of the most redoubtable champions of our day on behalf of faith against unbelief has come from its ranks. The difficulty with the Congregationalists is that they have two creeds violently opposed to one another; and the

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