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a life of the soul which it had not before, and which is not only immortal, but identical with that life or state of being which the soul enjoys when free from the body, and translated to the presence of the Saviour; and differing from it only in circumstances. They call it "the resurrection life,”—a term which aptly enough expresses its meaning to those conversant with Scripture; but I am unwilling to adopt any of their phraseology, which certainly savours not a little of cant.'

We should advance far beyond our purpose and our limits, if we commented upon this and other conversations which we may have occasion to quote; but we see no reason to admit that the Plymouth Brethren—or "Darbyites," as they are called in Ireland, where they have made many converts-adhere more closely to Scripture in the two points alluded to by Mr. Leighton, than pious men in our own church, or other evangelical bodies. If they omit many important matters, and give too exclusive an attention to a few, they in effect distort Scripture; and and this, even though their partial views were correct so far as they go; which is more than we admit. But, as regards the object of the book before us, how happens it that all we learn of Mr. Leighton, "the approved," is what we read in the above extracts? Does the author mean that the turning point upon which the choice of a curate should rest, ought to be that in his "Christian teaching and Christian experience" he adopts something special in the peculiar views of the Plymouth Brethren in the two specified particulars? This is the inference which the chapter entitled "The Approved" leaves upon the mind. We do not doubt that various bodies of Christians may have brought out in strong relief some doctrine or precept too much neglected by others; as the Moravians, the doctrine of Christ Crucified; the Quakers, (though perverting it) that of the Holy Spirit's influence; the Re

formers and the Evangelical clergy, the doctrine of justification by faith; but truth is a whole, and we wander from it if we leave the broad high-way of Scripture for the bye-paths of the "Christian teaching and Christian experience" of some particular class of divines or instructors.

We have violated decorum in introducing the approved Curate before the approving Rector, whose character, opinions, and plans we shall now proceed to notice.

"When his guests were seated at table, Mr. Verner, the father of the

young lady to whom Mr. Leighton was by congratulating the Rector upon the affianced, commenced the conversation greatly improved state of the parish. It was seven years, he said, since his last visit to his friends at Alderbrook Hall; and at that time little or nothing was doing, at least by the Church ministers and people, for the spiritual interest of the neighbourhood; whereas, now, he observed signs of activity and usefulness,-visitors busy in their labours of and well attended, churches filled with love among the poor, schools established attentive and devout congregations, and the Lord's day in a great measure redeemed from open profanation.

"You had some opposition, I sup

pose?' said Mr. Verner.

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Oh, yes,' said Charles, (the Rector's son; a young Cantabrigian); the Lawsons and their set did all they could to resist this invasion of the poor man's it. But they were afraid to act openly liberties and pleasures, as they called against us; so they contented themselves with writing articles in the Ecclesbourne Times every week, ridiculing my father and his plans.'

"In which,' added Mr. Spencer, you would find the most approved High-church arguments for Sunday sports, combined with the lowest ribaldry

of ultra-radicalism.'

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fashioned church people, and to show them how we might unite for great objects on common ground with those who differ from us in some respects on religious matters. And I found that Mr. Hoskins, the Independent minister, who had been rather violent against the Establishment and Episcopacy, was much conciliated by my calling on him soon after I came, and then soliciting his aid in this affair. So that I ventured to propose another good work in which we might all unite-a Bible Association. This brought the ministers and leading members of various denominations frequently together in committees; and, I am happy to say, we are on excellent terms all round.'

"You forget the Baptists at the little chapel in Delveigh Lane,' said Charles. Their minister is not very friendly to you.'

"I can hardly say that,' replied the Rector, since he prays for my conversion every Sunday. But the secret of their indisposition to join us in anything is, I suspect, jealousy arising from the declining state of their 'cause,' as they call it. Nearly all who went over to them from the Independent chapel on Mr. Hoskins's election, now come to church. And there are frequent and fierce quarrels in the small congregation that still remains.'

66 6 Have you any other societies?'

asked Mr. Verner.

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As the evening was fine, and the travellers professed themselves to be unfatigued, it was agreed that they should accompany Mr. Spencer and his daughter to a lecture which was to be held in a village about two miles distant.

"So I perceive,' said Mr. Merton, as they rose to set out, you contrive to have a conventicle even here.'

"Yes,' said Charles, and I hope you will join with me in advising my father to discontinue it. He is teaching the people over there to become Dissenters.'

"Well,' replied Mr. Spencer, your sister shall argue the case with you. Here she comes; and, to our disgrace, ready before us. Mary, my dear,' he continued, addressing his daughter, who had equipped herself for the walk, while

the gentlemen were finding their hats and sticks; your brother thinks the Delveigh people ought to do without a weekly lecture.'

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"Not I,' cried Charles, I only want them to come to the Wednesday evening service in the church.'

"You will get acquainted with Delveigh and the people there, I hope, as you are to stay at home this vacation,' said his sister, and then I am sure you will change your opinion.'

"Charles has been trying to become a high-churchman all the term,' said Mr. Merton, but his practice has, somehow, always contradicted his theory. And his sister seems to think that it will do so in this instance. But may I ask where and how the service is conducted ?'

666 The lecture is held in the Infant School Room which we built there last summer,' replied the Rector. We begin with a hymn, then an extemporaneous prayer, then the lecture, and a concluding prayer. The people are all field-labourers; the distance, and the lateness of the hour at which they leave off work, prevent them from coming to church on a week-day evening; so I established this lecture at the beginning of the winter, and have every reason to believe that it has been a blessing to the village, which, when we came, was in a state of heathenism.'

"Do you find that you can keep up a lecture of this kind through the summer?' asked Mr. Merton.

"No,' said the Rector, to-night's lecture will be almost the last. The villagers are out in the fields in summertime so late that they cannot attend. A good many of the Ecclesbourne people would go over on fine evenings, and form a congregation; but I do not wish to encourage that.'

"But your lecture at Culverton'"Ah! that lecture at Culverton !' interrupted Charles.

"Well; that lecture at Culverton ?' said his sister.

666

'Why, I mean to say,' continued the collegian, that the lecture there, in my humble opinion, ought to have been held in the church, and not in the school-room just a hundred yards off.'

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"But don't you remember, Charles,' replied the young lady, that it was held in the church two or three seasons; but the people would not go in their working dresses to the church, though they would to the school-room? And suppose that is a feeling which a highchurchman would approve. Besides, it was impossible to make a church warm and comfortable enough in winter evenings.'

1843.]

View of Public Affairs.

"All for expediency,' said Charles. "For edification rather,' replied his sister. 'But Papa has, I know, a stronger reason than either of them, which he can best explain to you.'

666

Pray let us hear it, sir,' said Mr. Merton.'

"I think,' said the Rector, that it is desirable for a minister of the Church of England to maintain a lecture of this description, as a kind of testimony against formalism-a witness that he does not deem forms essential to worship, or absolutely necessary. It will show that the same man may love exact order, and yet possess and enjoy liberty. And one can introduce into extemporaneous prayer petitions arising out of local circumstances, and passing events, to the great comfort and edification, very frequently, of our fellow shippers.'

But the Bishop

Charles.

166

wor

suggested

"Happily,' replied his father, my Bishop entirely sanctions such lectures And I when judiciously instituted. have no reason to believe that any of our Bishops (except, perhaps, one) would actually forbid them.'

"The Rector began an account of their visit to M. He related the information he had received from their friend Mr. Mildmay, described all they had witnessed at the social meeting, and gave a sketch of the two sermons, not without frequent interruption from Charles. who had contrived to remember many things to Mr. Scattermore's disadvantage, which his father had either forgotten, or did not deem it necessary to mention. At the conclusion of the narrative he exclaimed, There now! a perfect specimen of your Evangelicals!' "My dear Charles,' said Mrs. Spencer, you surely forget that your father,

666

637

and our friends here, are most decidedly
of the Evangelical party. Why not
rather take them as specimens ?'

"Because,' replied Charles, 'they
do not hold the sentiments of this person,
nor preach nor act at all after his
fashion, whereas most of those called
Evangelicals do.'

"Most is too strong a word,' said the Rector; but it must be confessed that too many do; and some even of the most eminent exhibit in their preaching, and their general public conduct, blemishes, similar to those on account of which you are so severe upon But I shall never Mr. Scattermore. shrink from avowing my conviction that, taking them as a whole, those who are called Evangelicals are really evangelical, and that they are the witnesses and defenders of the faith once delivered to the saints.' And I esteem it an honour to be accounted one of their number.'

"We should be glad,' said Mr. Merton, to hear from you what you consider the faults so prevalent among them, as to be, in any way, characteristic of the body.'

"There are not many such,' re'the errors, whether plied the Rector; of excess or defect, which have been observed in the preaching and writings of a few popular men among the Evangelicals, have been too commonly attributed to the whole.'

"But who,' inquired Charles, 'are the Fathers you spoke of?'

"Men worthy to be called so,' replied the Rector; men whom I myself venerate as such; men who were in their day "the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof." I mean Romaine, Venn, Cecil, Scott, Simeon, and others." (To be continued.)

VIEW OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS.

THERE not being many pressing topics of public intelligence, we will glance back at some of those adverted to in the Queen's Speech in proroguing Parlia

ment.

Her Majesty might well speak of the session as having been "protracted:" for it appears that the House "sat," from February 2 to August 17, on 119 days, making 986 hours, of which 105 were after midnight, the average time of sitting being eight hours and seventeen minutes.

When to this immense amount of debate, are added the demands made on the members by committees, personal interviews, petitions, and tons

of printed papers, it is impossible that any member should be able to apply his mind to each of the questions on which he is called to legislate; more especially the officers of the Crown, and gentlemen whose time is much occupied by their private vocations. Hence the debates are chiefly confined to party questions; and much is wanting to ensure a welldigested system of general legislation.

But have the results of the late session been adequate to the expenditure of time and toil? The Whigs complain that her Majesty's Ministers have made no reforms; the Radicals, that they have reformed backwards; and the old Tory

school, now allied to the new school of "Young England," that they have not taken measures to extend what we enjoy. The Peel school of Conservatives argues that they have assumed the safest policy by opposing changes and making none; letting threatening events "blow by," and leaving alike Irish and Welsh agitation to die away. We are far from satisfied that in this the Peel Cabinet has always chosen the wisest course; but be it remembered, on the other side, that sound Conservatism tends rather to quietness, than to a perpetual bustle of legislation; that the session has not been fruitless, for Ministers have carried through the Church-endowment bill, the Episcopal Functions bill, the Libel bill, the Canada Wheat bill, the Scotch Church bill, the Irish Arms bill, and several other public measures; that it was not their fault that the Factory Education clauses were not enacted; and that they were impeded in their plans by the protracted debates on the Irish Arms

bill and the Corn Laws; not to mention various incidental discussions and party strifes.

66

Her Majesty expresses her cordial approbation of the Act for making a portion of the Church revenues available for the endowment of additional ministers. The measure is excellent, so far as it goes; and we confidently trust," with her Majesty, that it will largely call forth the " zeal and liberality of her subjects to provide for public worship and pastoral superintendence;" but it only enables the Church to borrow from itself, and does not discharge the debt which a Christian legislature owes to God and the nation, to provide adequately for the religious instruction of the people.

Her Majesty "earnestly hopes" that the Act for removing doubts respecting the jurisdiction of the Church of Scotland in the admission of ministers, will tend to restore religious peace, and "to avert the dangers which have threatened a sacred institution of the utmost importance to the happiness and welfare of Scotland." We unhappily see no indication of this at present. The late Act is described by the seceders as a mockery, and making bad worse; the Established Church is designated by the opprobrious term "Egypt;" and the people are warned, as they value their salvation, to come out from her, and be separate. Much irritation has occurred from some proprietors of land having refused sites for secession churches; but seeing the spirit in which many of the seceders consider it their duty to act, we cannot be surprised that persons well affected to the established communion, and anxious for the peace and spiritual

welfare of their parishes, are not very willing to be parties in setting up a dissenting church, as a focus of permanent agitation and alienation; and thus preventing a return to union when the present heats have passed away. The seceding church cannot now shew any broad important principles upon which it separates from the Establishment, unless it adopts, as its more violent members are beginning to do, the whole system of what is called "voluntaryism,” against which Dr. Chalmers and others have zealously and ably contended. Voluntaryism does not confine spiritual suffrage, as the moderate Vetoists or non-intrusionists did, [to "the heads of families being communicants;" it demands a vote in the election of pastors and all other church concerns for every communicant, rich or poor, male or female; and consistent seceders are already pressing this extension of the spiritual franchise. The present leaders in the movement have raised a spirit which they cannot quell; and when they lose their influence, their companions or successors will go to the full extent of religious democracy, which will become in effect the real badge of distinction between them and the Established Church; the Non-intrusion question having lost its point by the legis lative acknowledgment of the right of the presbytery to weigh objections, and adequately to try and test presentees. Our hope and belief, therefore, is, that after a while, at least in the next generation, those who refuse to go the whole length of religious democracy will return to the bosom of the established communion.

The unsettled state of affairs, among the Presbyterians would present a favourable opening for a candid examination of the claims of the Episcopal Church; were it not that the Laudean spirit of the old Scottish Episcopalians still remains; and that modern Tractarianism, which is still more popish, is rife in that church, and is encouraged by some things in the Scottish Prayerbook; especially in the Communion office. Anglican clergymen officiating in Scotland have hitherto been allowed to use their own Prayer-book; but this permission is likely to be abolished should the dominant Tractarian party consider it prudent to take that step.

Her Majesty next mentions that she has received assurances of the friendly dispositions of all foreign powers, and of their earnest desire for a maintenance of peace. We have great reason to be thankful to God that the sword of war is now almost every where sheathed; and we trust that Great Britain will not speedily be involved in new contests. Intestine

struggles, in various parts of Europe, seem at this moment more likely to cause the effusion of blood, than international hostilities. Spain is in a state of anarchy, being divided between the overthrown moderate and constitutional party, the popish and despotic party, and the violent democratic party. In Italy there have been some tumults, and the whole country appears ripe for a general outbreak of the Carbonari confederates against the galling yoke of Austria. In Greece, a revolution, hitherto bloodless, has been achieved; King Otho, whose bad conduct has long irritated all parties, having been forced to agree to the establishment of a new constitutional government.

Looking at these things in other lands, it is not without anxiety that we revolve the remaining topics in Her Majesty's Speech, namely, the "disturbances" in Wales, and the agitation for Repeal in Ireland. The Welsh riots, Her Majesty is made to state, are "unconnected with political causes;" but so were the riots in the manufacturing districts of England last year, at least in the first instance; but the Chartists availed themselves of them, as political disturbers are doing of those in Wales; and if large bodies of persons in various parts of the country should be prepared and organized to rise in rebellion, it practically matters little whether their alleged respective grievances be political or not; for there are not wanting demagogues to mould them into a confederacy to their purpose. Turnpike gates or factory wages may be the first incentives; but then came poor-laws, corn-laws, tithes, rents, and taxes; and in the end nothing will avail but a revolution. Partial disturbances, year after year, may be suppressed, but this is only living perpetually on the crater of a volcano; and it becomes our statesmen to consider whether there are not some seriously evil principles or practices embedded in our social system which require amendment. It is clear that the various orders of society do not amicably cohere; they are antagonists rather than allies; the landlord and tenant, the capitalist and his operatives, masters and servants, the rich and the poor, in short the extremes of all classes, evince jealousy and mistrust of each other, instead of rallying round one common centre of duty and mutual interest Ought this so to be? and can nothing be done to prevent it? Among moral remedies, would not the extension of religious education, religious ordinances, and

pastoral labour, produce beneficial effects? Among legislative remedies, might not much be done to remove grievances, and to blend the various orders of life into closer union? And still more, would not the general extension of right principles effect much? The usual answer to such questions is, that political economy forbids interference with the affairs of private life; that a legislature ought not to enact that a tradesman shall not employ women to make shirts at ninepence a dozen; or a manufacturer exact twelve or fourteen hours' labour daily from a little child; or a milliner work her white slaves by night as well as day; and that a farmer shall not starve a labourer's family on five shillings a week. We admit the difficulty and mischief of over-minute legislation; but when a pressing case is made out something should be done. The chimney-sweeping bill, and the prohibition of female labour in coal-mines, were wise and humane measures; and Sir R. Peel has declared his opinion that the system upon which land is rented in Ireland requires legislative revision. The legislature therefore is not exempted from responsibility; it might, for instance, have safely adopted Lord Ashley's humane and enlightened suggestions; but, we repeat, it is to the general extension of right principles that we must chiefly look for the improvement of our social system. The Bible, we shall never cease to maintain, is the wisest code of political economy that ever was, or will be, devised. "He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good and what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?"

Turning to Ireland, her Majesty has not asked, she says, for additional powers for the counteraction of the agitation for the repeal of the Union, because she trusts to "the efficacy of the ordinary law and the good sense and patriotism of the people." She is, however, determined to uphold the Union, and she urges all her loyal subjects to refrain from political agitation; in consequence of which assurance and recommendation the Protestants of Ireland have dutifully and wisely refrained from those public demonstrations which they were preparing to make of their strength and unanimity. But we confess we do not feel well-assured that this quiescent policy was wise, and that Mr. O'Connell should have been permitted to organise millions of men to aid him in carrying into effect his treasonable projects, with

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