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kind his parish is—but whether it be an agricultural or manufacturing district, I much doubt whether any but a few females could be spared from their various occupations to attend an afternoon lecture.

On the whole, I would venture to recommend Clericus D. and all my beloved brethren in the ministry, to make a fair and persevering trial of evening lectures under such regulations and recommendations to their parishioners as may suit their respective districts.

The perusal of Clericus D.'s

paper led me to fear that some of my junior brethren in the ministry might be deterred by his statements from attempting a species of service so beneficial, so important, and I had almost said so necessary in these times. This must be my apology for trespassing so long on the attention of your readers. May God raise up in our Zion more "pastors according to his heart, who shall feed the people with knowledge and understanding.” Jer. iii. 15.

PASTOR W.

THE statements of Clericus D. are so inconsistent with my observation, information, and experience for half a century, that I should very much like to ask, what is the usual strain of his preaching?

1. Does he clearly proclaim an all-seeing God; a holy and spiritual law; a judgment to come; a certain and eternal punishment to the impenitent?

2. Does he proclaim pardon of sin by and through the blood of Jesus Christ alone? Does he point out the cross of Christ as the most striking display of God's hatred to sin, and tender pity, and compassion for the sinner? and does he invite, and intreat all without delay to come to Christ; to believe in Christ; to flee for refuge to Christ?

3. Does he inculcate the necessity of renewal by the Holy Ghost? the production of the fruits of the Spirit as the only certain evidence of living faith, and the consequent necessity of personal religion; family religion; relative religion?

4. Does he urge these points plainly, forcibly, scripturally, incessantly? Surely if he does, masters, and mistresses, and parents, will look after and instruct their servants and children; and the place where he preaches will be the last place in the parish to which the licentious would repair.

But if doubtful and speculative points occupy the time which these truths require. If Prophecy, Popery, Puseyism, or mere Morality are inculcated or incessantly controverted, then the results he describes are not much to be wondered at. I do not know a single eminently useful minister who has been led by experience to adopt the views of Clericus D. on Evening Lectures; and I cannot therefore but indulge painful apprehension, that all is not with him as it ought to be. Most glad shall I be to find myself wrong. Yet faithful are the wounds of a friend.

SENEX.

ON CONSISTENCY AT RELIGIOUS ANNIVERSARIES.

SIR,-As the time is now at hand, when the yearly meetings of so many religious and benevolent institutions are held, may I be allowed to advert to the evil which results from a want of consistency in many professed members of our church. The Christian principle of toleration, which forbids us to persecute another on account of his religious principles, has, in the present day degenerated into a specious liberality, which induces many to patronize institutions conducted by agents, who are to a very considerable extent, hostile to that establishment to which we belong. The apostle could rejoice that Christ was preached, even though it were through envy and strife, and after his example we should rejoice that the gospel is made known to perishing sinners by those who differ from us; nor would I blame those pious and well-meaning persons, who, when we had no Missionary Societies amongst us, or at least none in active operation, united with Baptists, Independents, or other denominations for the promotion of our common Christianity; but it does seem to me improper now that for many years we have had different Missionary and other Societies connected with our own church, and labouring with great success in propagating the gospel, that so many churchmen should contribute to other institutions, whose conductors, though speaking

smooth and oily words on their platforms, are indulging war in their hearts, and in the course of a very few hours declaring that our church destroys more souls than it saves, and therefore exclaiming, Down with it, down with it, even to the ground.

A late eminent minister observed, When I first began to attend to religion I was thrown a good deal among the Dissenters, and was much delighted with their spirit; they seemed one and all to say, Down with the walls— Down with the walls! and I reechoed their cry, but alas, I soon found the real meaning of the exclamation was, Down with the Church walls.'

Were not all our own Missionary Societies and Church Institution crippled in their operations for want of men and money, I would not write one word on the subject; but now as from every part of the world, the cry is, Give us more Missionaries, Schoolmasters, and Catechists; and the conductors of our Societies declare we cannot comply with the call without more money, I cannot but feel that instead of thronging to Dissenting Anniversaries and swelling their contributions, Churchmen should more statedly attend their own Institutions, and if possible double, treble, or quadruple their donations and subscriptions.

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AN UNWORTHY MEMBER OF THE ESTABLISHMENT.

TEARS OF PENITENCE.

rience of every poor mourner in Zion; sooner or later he is comforted. The tears of penitence are sweet and lovely tears: God puts them into his bottle, and treasures

OUR adorable Redeemer says, "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted." This is true, because it comes from the lips of Truth-this is true because it is realized in the happy expe- them up in his remembrance. The

tears of penitence flow from a heart melted by divine grace. Then is affectingly understood that passage in Zechariah, "They shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and mourn for him," &c. It is a view of the Saviour's cross which in a more especial manner gives birth to the tears of penitential sorrow. My sins nailed him to the tree; for me he suffered, and for me he died. These are overpowering considerations to the awakened and contrite soul. When viewed in connexion with the agonies of the cross, sin does indeed appear "exceeding sinful." But is there a time when the tears of penitence shall cease to flow! Yes, even in the wilderness of this world the light of consolation and of joy shall beam upon the path

way of the children of God to the heavenly Zion. There is one whose commission it is to "appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." It is indeed true this world is not the believer's rest; our Saviour assures his disciples to the end of time, "In the world ye shall have tribulation;" but the moment is fast approaching when every earthborn cloud of sin and sorrow shall have rolled away, and God, even the God of his redeemed people shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; a blessed and glorious consummation most devoutly to be wished.

C. L. S.

THE SYRO-PHOENICIAN WOMAN.

MARK VII. 25-30.

BEHOLD her at his feet! with clasped hands
And up-raised eye: her parted lips are moved
With words of earnest pleading; and her soul
Is agonized with all a mother's wo.

But He has turned away; nor word, nor look
Of pity or of comfort has vouchsafed.

E'en His disciples, wondering, have joined

Their prayers with her's; and yet He is unmoved
Nor merely silent. From his lips break forth

Harsh and unlooked for words."The children's bread,
Must not be given to dogs." O! who can tell
The bitter grief in that poor suppliant's heart?
She had come far to seek Him, for she felt

Her hope was all in Him. No less a power
Could wrest a child from the fell dæmon's rage.—
Yet once, with energy of deep despair,

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She humbly cries, "Truth, Lord, yet e'en the dogs
The children's crumbs partake! Behold the beam
Of Godlike pity glances from His eye!

Her faith has conquered; and from out the gloom
Of that dark night of wo, see dawn arise
The shining of the Sun of Righteousness,
Rising for her with healing in His wings!

F. E. B.

ESSAYS AND DIALOGUES ON POPERY.

No. XV.

ON THE ALLEGED NECESSITY OF AN INFALLIBLE CHURCH.

Ing. Welcome, my good friends; it is long since we met. I have revolved in my mind, almost unceasingly, the topics of our latter discussions. Let us now, before we re-open the snbject, briefly review the heads of the various conversations we have already held.

Prot. That may be done very succinctly. Our argument has hitherto turned almost exclusively on the Rule of Faith. I have endeavoured to maintain the Protestant doctrine; that Holy Scripture was the one, sole, and sufficient rule, furnished and provided by God himself. And our friend here has advanced the opposite view;-that the Catholic Church is the true depository and only authorized expositor of Christian doctrine ; dispensing from her ample stores, and with divine authority, both Holy Scripture and Catholic Tradition, as in her wisdom she sees fit. Such has been the question between us. I have endeavoured both to establish the Protestant principle, by showing the Scriptures to be incontrovertibly genuine, true, and divinely inspired; and also to overthrow the contrary doctrine, by exhibiting the unfounded character of the pretensions of the Romish church. With the latter view we have investigated the claims of the Church of Rome to her assumed title of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church; and also the pretensions of her bishops to be considered the successors and representatives of St. Peter. Both these assumptions, think, we wholly negatived. And I think I may now demand, on behalf of the Protestant churches, a decision in their favour, on this

MAY 1838.

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great fundamental point. But I want to know whether our friend opposite has any further argument to allege, before a verdict is taken on this first great question.

Rom. I, too, have been giving the matter much consideration, and before you take this fatal step,-for such I must call it,-I would entreat you to consider for a moment a view of the question which I will now endeavour to bring before you.

I would beg you seriously to ask yourselves, whether you can conceive it possible for the Lord Jesus, when he left for a time this earth, upon which he was shortly to number thousands of faithful followers, to have determined to leave all those followers destitute of guidance, subject to no authority, included within no pale, but all wandering about in their isolated and individual characters, free to choose or to form a church for themselves, or to continue in a state of independence of all churches? Can you believe, for an instant, that he did not, most deliberately, fully, and of set purpose, constitute and appoint a CHURCH, in which and by which his gospel was to be preserved and preached; and within whose pale all his true disciples were bound to place themselves? Surely you cannot doubt this. But if you admit the fact, then I beg to ask, where can that Church, so founded and constituted, be found, except in that body to which I have the privilege to belong?

Inq. You mean the Roman Catholic church?

Rom. Certainly I do. In her you find a clear and unquestionable succession, from the very days of

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the apostles. You find her also, ever admitted to stand as the alone centre of unity and fountain of authority; while all other while all other churches, or rather pseudo-churches, are nothing else than so many irregular off-shoots, or runaway children, who claim to share in, or to vie with her authority, although they lose every vestige of right to assume such a position, the moment they rebel against her unquestionable rule. I ask, again,where, admiting as you must, that Christ founded a visible churchwhere can that church be discerned, except in the communion of which the successors of St. Peter are the bead?

Search and look; for the inquiry is a momentous one. A Church of Christ, established by himself there surely must be; and where except here, can it be found?

Prot. I know that this is a favourite position with your advocates in the present day, and I am glad you have now produced it. We will not evade or shrink from its force; but will carefully and deliberately weigh its value.

I remark, then, first, that as we have an inspired record of the words and actions of the Lord Jesus, we have no occasion to imagine for ourselves what it was

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likely" that he would do, or leave undone. His commands, as they are recorded by his apostles and evangelists, we are to observe; his institutions we are to reverence; but the greatest regard and reverence we can possibly shew to his memory and his injunctions, will be exhibited by a careful guarding of those injunctions from all admixture and alloy; and a determination to allow no "commandments of men" to be placed on a level with his own provisions, or to rank with the institutions established by himself.

Instead, therefore, of arguing that he must have established a visible church; and that that church must be the church of

Rome; it will be far wiser and better to go at once to the record, and to ascertain beyond the possibility of mistake, what kind or description of body it was that he actually did constitute, and by what course of reasoning it is that Rome assumes to occupy this place.

Now such a reference as this will satisfy us at once, that not a single word did Christ ever utter, touching the Roman See; or the supremacy of St. Peter; or even hinting at the supremacy of any one church or any portion of the church, whether a larger or a smaller section. His latest injunctions and delegation of authority were given at Jerusalem, where unquestionably the first Christian church was founded. As for the church and see of Rome, we have the best ground for asserting that neither the one nor the other had any existence for at least thirty years after. If, consequently, it was intended by Christ that his authority should devolve, on his departure, on the see of Rome, it was most wonderful that he should have left Rome without any church or any bishop for more than a quarter of a century. One thing, however, is clear, that if, at any time during the first thirty years after the Saviour's death, any one had asked, Where the church established by Christ was to be met with ?-it would have been instantly replied, At Jerusalem, where the college of apostles generally meet, and from whence all decrees touching the government of the church do issue. (Act xvi. 4.)

Ing. Whence then, did it arise, that the church of Rome assumed to herself this rank and character?

Prot. Unquestionably the basis of the power and authority of Rome must be sought for, not in divine, but in human decrees. Not a syllable is found in Holy Writ, having even the least tendency that way. Nor had the Roman bishop, while the days of persecution last

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