rife, and men were not polemically pressed to consistency of action, the cold and dry high churchman could maintain, because he was let alone, a separate standing, it cannot be so now. The Romanist now claims, as open allies, all that are united with him on a common basis; and, taking the vantage which their dislike of true Reformation principles gives, he will drive them into visible union.* It would be a painful contemplation to be admitted within the secrecy of such a man's feelings as he follows the artful windings of the Jesuit arguments-the sum and substance of Milner's end of controversy, newly garnished by Mr. Ward-and feels as he meets each blow, that he has no effectual means of warding off its force; but certainly he must feel this, and the nearing the side of a bold step for consistency, and of the probable sacrifice of substantial emolument for this object, must be harassing in no small degree.

It would be well indeed if many persons could perceive the danger of their position, before it is too late, before they feel, in a migration to Rome this sad conviction of an unProtestant tenure of Protestant emoluments and responsibilities. If

this should be the result of this bold attack on the high churchman's views, the result would be as blessed as it is unexpected.

In the meanwhile, how thankful they should be who have found their refuge in the impregnable fortress of God's revealed word; submitting to its paramount authority; strengthened by its supernal might; they may be calm while the tempest blusters round them; they may be safe even under the soft and seductive smile of Italian skies; and there is no other safety. The sixth article draws a definite line around us which the ene

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my cannot pass. Thy truth is my shield and buckler." May those who have grasped the principle rejoice evermore in its protection and invincible power. Yours, LATIMER.

* All such defences as Laud's answer to Fisher, can only betray their abettors unto discomfiture. They are not truly Protestant.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM DEVON.-The affliction of our Church is great at the present time; and unless God in his infinite mercy stays the hand of the oppressor, we may only reckon our sorrows begun. Could you see all the papers from Devon and Cornwall, you would scarcely be able to restrain feelings of indignation as well as grief. So plausible is our Bishop in his pastoral addresses, (though even in them betraying the secret purpose of his heart,) and so thoroughly acting in opposition to all these professions in most parts of his conduct; that one can have no confidence in his word, or any hope of the effect of appeals to his feelings as a Christian. Where the mischief will end, what compliances he will demand from his faithful clergy, we know not. It is evident that he is a strong Tractarian; that he desires to impose all the badges and restraints of that party, as far as he can, by every strain of authority; and that if in so doing he could force out all the evangelical ministers, and their congregations too, it would be only gaining his end more completely.

Already his order has caused strife and division in every parish in his diocese. Curates are opposing their vicars, and clergymen one another. Some are fully prepared to follow him

in every requirement, for he has filled every place he can with men of this party; and among those who call themselves evangelical, there are many who do not see their danger, and therefore weaken the hands of those who would make a firm and Christian resistance. Our vicar is one of the latter class; talented, energetic, and faithful to his trust; and so deeply is he afflicted, so feebly supported by some on whom he hoped he might rely, that he is at his wits' end. My heart aches for him, but it rejoiced to hear the manly firmness with which he said to me on Wednesday evening, I would submit to any thing, in which the honour of God was not compromised, but for that I will, with his assistance, fight to the last. What to do I know not. He alone can teach me, and He alone can strengthen me. Man's wisdom is nothing;

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and his own power is nothing: but keeping the honour of God simply and steadily in view, following the straightforward path of truth, and seeking God's grace in every step; we must fight firmly and perseveringly. Those who ought to support me have turned against me, and I am sorely tried; but I hope my congregation will not desert me, and I must not flinch." He expects a time of much suffering, and few or none have any idea that the Bishop will relax; because most see that his real desire is to get rid of all evangelical churchmen: and he is so good a general, that he has, in all probability, counted his supporters before he began the battle. Policy may take another turn, but all is gloom and conjecture. There is but one source of consolation the sure mercies and neverfailing promises of a covenant God, who is ordering all, and will restrain the wrath and power of men. What measure of suffering He himself thinks fit for us, we cannot of course see; but we can see and undoubtingly acknowledge His hand in all: and from the wondrous harmony of all His dealings with men, we may draw the richest consolation. Promises called forth under circumstances widely differing in point of fact, are yet as applicable to us now; and today, the language relating to the last great struggle, has been constantly running through my mind: "when these things begin to come to pass, lift up your heads in hope, for your redemption draweth nigh." And is not this in accordance with the ordinary course of God's dealings? Man's extremity is God's opportunity. So the Israelites found it; so David found it; and so every believer has found it, and will continue to find it. How different are their trials from those of the world! What shall we render to the Lord for all his benefits?

How peacefully can a child of God bow to the storm on which his Father rides! How joyfully accept the invitation to go to Him when heavy laden! And oh! if affliction draw the heart into more fervent prayer, and more intimate communion with its

God and Saviour, who would exchange it for prosperity? What can be compared to these foretastes of heaven? What can it take away that we would not willingly relinquish for joys that grow brighter and brighter as the world fades away? It is cheering to think of these things; yet I am as one smiling through tears, for my heart is heavy. I carry the burthen till sleep relieves me, and wake under a sense of it when morning returns. &c. &c.

DEAR BROTHER,-The state of the English Church becomes ever more alarming to Christians on the Continent. The evil appears to us to have reached the highest degree, and we do not see that the Church does anything to remedy it. We ask if the episcopal system is then inefficacious to govern the Church? The Church of Scotland has repressed the reveries of Irving, and, nevertheless, those reveries were less dangerous than those of Pusey, Newman, and Maitland. We love the Church of England, on account of the Word of God on which it rests; of its articles, the faith of which is so pure; of all the works, and of all the men of God that it has given birth to. But one of your colleagues, a zealous Episcopalian, who boasted to us recently of the excellencies of this system, can tell you that we have been unanimous in opposing to him the actual state of your Church. If nothing is done against the Popery of Oxford, the cause of Episcopacy is lost upon the Continent; it is lost in the Church of God. If the bishops continue to sleep, remember that the Church is the judge of controversies, and that the Church, according to your articles, is the assembly of faithful men. Let

faithful men then rise and speak. Dear brother, I pray for your Church, that He who is with us continually, even to the end of the world, may himself fight against the servants of human traditions, and that the victory may abide with the word and the blood of the Lamb.

Your devoted friend,
MERLEE D'AUBIGNE, D. D.

APPEAL ON BEHALF OF THE JEWS"

TEMPORAL RELIEF FUND.

WHEN the Gospel was preached amongst the Jews by our Lord and his apostles, it either found men poor, or it made them so. "To the poor the Gospel was preached," and by them it was received. The rich, the mighty, and the noble were the exceptions. Those who possessed a little, by being cut off from their connections and friends, were deprived of the usual means of gaining a subsistence, and were speedily reduced to poverty. Those few who were rich, voluntarily made themselves poor to supply the necessities of their brethren. The estates and possessions that were sold and distributed as every man had need, appear to have been speedily swallowed up by the mass of the poor of which the Church at Jerusalem was probably composed; for when the Divine commission of St. Paul was acknowledged, there were still poor to be remembered: and the Acts and Epistles (Gal. ii. 10) speak plainly of the collection made for the poor saints. The experience of those who preach the Gospel now, is not different from that of our Lord and his apostles. The Gospel has not changed, either in character or effects. Its Divine origin is still proved by its being the Gospel of the poor. It pleases God still to choose the poor in this world, rich in faith: and those whose worldly circumstances somewhat better, are speedily reduced to utter destitution. The remarkable feature of the present preaching of the Gospel is, that it is blessed especially to schoolmasters, students of the Talmud, candidates of the Rabbinic office, or to persons engaged in petty trade, all of whom are, therefore, dependent altogether upon Judaism or the Jews for their support, and whose means of livelihood are cut off suddenly and totally, as soon as an inclination to Christianity is perceptible to their brethren. If traders, their credit is gone, and they can trade no more; if learned in the Talmud, their learning is utterly useless amongst the Gentiles. They who a

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few hours before were in possession of respectability and the certain means of obtaining bread for themselves and families, suddenly find themselves mendicants, doomed by an imperative necessity to subsist on a precarious and often an ungracious charity, or together with their families to perish from absolute and hopeless want. Such is the present result of the success which God has vouchsafed to the preaching of the Gospel. Hundreds in various parts of Europe have been brought to believe in and confess Jesus of Nazareth, the Saviour of the world, and are now in a state of pitiable destitution. Now, then, the question arises, what is the duty of the Christian Church? Shall it leave those young converts to die of want, if they have strength enough to do so, or to turn back to Judaism, in order to obtain from followers of the Oral Law that pity which is denied them by those who abhor tradition? Or, shall she open her bowels of compassion, and preserve her perishing children from starvation? Some few voices cry out against the latter mode of illustrating Christianity. They say, that to administer temporal relief makes hypocrites; that therefore it is much better to allow a few hundred true and faithful converts and their families to starve, than to make false professors, or to bestow the gold and silver of the Christian Church upon unworthy objects. These voices, however, are so few, and their objection so transparently false, and so entirely opposed to the better feelings of even depraved human nature, that it requires no formal refutation. To mention it is to brand it with the ignominy which it deserves.

The great body of Christian people ask, How did our Saviour Jesus Christ and his disciples act under similar circumstances? and say, Let us tread in their steps. To them the reply is easy and the duty plain. Wherever Christ and his disciples found want, they relieved it. New Testament method of missionary exertion is to preach the Gospel, and to relieve the poor and needy. Wher

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ever Christ went, he practised the one as well as the other. He did not say to the hungry, and the sick, and the maimed, and the blind, and the lame, "My business is only to attend to your spiritual ailments-to save your souls, but by no means to heal your bodily infirmities; I preach the Gospel, therefore depart in peace; be ye warmed and clothed; my work is not to give the things needful for the body." Such was not the language or the conduct of Him “who for our sakes became poor." No: he went about this world" doing good," as well as speaking" as never man spake." He fed the hungry, and healed the sick, and opened the eyes of the blind, and relieved every species of temporal distress which he found, and gave a similar commission to his disciples. "And as ye go, preach, saying The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils; freely ye have received, freely give." The apostles and first Christians trod in the steps of their Master. In the early Jewish Church, it could be said, what could never since be affirmed with truth of any other Church under heaven, "Neither was there any among them that lacked;" and the reason stands as unique in the history of Christianity as the fact. "As many as were possessors of houses and lands sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostle's feet, and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need." The great apostle of the Gentiles preached the same doctrine, not only teaching the general duty of doing good to them that are of the household of faith, but the special duty of caring for the poor converts of the house of Israel: asserting, that if, "the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things." But it it is needless to attempt any further proof. To enlarge on this subject, would be to libel Christianity, or to insinuate that the members of the pure Reformed Church of England understand less of its genius and nature, than the Macedonians and Achaians, who had just emerged from

idolatry. It is sufficient to affirm, on the authority of all the missionaries of the London Society, in every part of the world, confirmed by the missionaries of every Church and nation labouring amongst the Jews, that the increased and increasing number of converts, daily increases the destitution of those who confess Christ, and the difficulties of those who preach him. The London Society must either renounce the glorious privilege of proclaiming the unsearchable riches of Christ, or it must make suitable provision for ministering to the wants of the poor saints. The Committee are themselves deeply impressed with the solemn duty of making a vigourous effort in this matter, and are urged on besides by the best friends of the Jews in every part of the country. They have, therefore, proposed the alteration of the Fourth Rule of the Society, and have opened a special fund for this purpose. They are determined themselves to set a good example in this work of love, and earnestly implore all the friends of Israel through the country to contribute liberally, that some well organized and adequate plan of relief may be acted upon. The contributions hitherto have only been sufficient to administer a little and insufficient help to the most destitute cases. The fund is therefore exhausted, and no permanent relief afforded. It has been altogether impossible to attempt the opening of an asylum, or almshouses, or any great industrial plan of providing a maintenance. Committee now hope the members of the Society will shew them their thankfulness for the blessing attending their missionary efforts, by a more than ordinary liberality, and that they will exhibit to the Jewish nation that great substitute which Christ has given us for miraculous powers the more magnificent miracle of streams of love and charity and beneficence, flowing forth from the stony heart of selfish mortals, and thus prove the Divine energy of the Gospel; and to cause their light so to "shine before men," that even the opposers of the Gospel may see their good works, and be constrained to glorify their Father which is in heaven."

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The

AGAIN that powerful machine, the workings of which have been connected for good or evil with some of the best and worst parts of our history, is beginning its periodical revolutions. Parliament has been opened and the Queen's speech delivered. Such a time is eminently calculated to awaken, in the devout mind, a consciousness of the superintendence of Providence, directing, overruling, and controlling the deliberations of fallible men, for the furtherance of religion, and the advancement of Christ's kingdom; and now especially when the sky is overcast, and clouds no bigger than a man's hand, at first, are growing broader, and longer, and blacker each day, such a doctrine should be not only felt, but practically acknowledged; and many knees should be bent, and

many hands raised, and many prayers uttered, that things may all "work together for good to them that love God." The financial prosperity of the country in its manufacturing department, its trade and commerce, is undoubted, and the government should reap their due meed of praise, non exigua neque ab invitis expressa.-The Agricultural interest is still depressed.One contemplated measure, however, which is shortly to be proposed, we cannot but regard with alarm and apprehension. "It is our intention," the official organ of the government states, "to propose a liberal increase of the vote for the College of Maynooth." Now, though we deprecate anticipating, by conjecture, propositions which are still in embryo, and still more so, a factious and unchristian opposition to measures emanating from men whose tenor of principle we would hope is sound; we cannot forbear stating our calm conviction, that such a proposal is contrary to the principle of our Protestant religion. It is far different from the

question of admitting Romanists to equal political privileges with the rest of her Majesty's subjects. This is a proposal to educate men in a system, from the errors of which we once thought it our duty to separate. If it were a matter of principle to separate from that system, because it was erroneous, and in many of its ulterior consequences, ruinous to the soul, it must be contrary to principle to educate men therein while it continues the same. And again, toleration of error, and liberty of conscience to those who differ, is a principle of the British constitution; but the positive support and encouragement of error, is very far from being so: and in proportion as the error is more dangerous, and its consequences more injurious, such a support is a greater departure from the principle. With

these few remarks we leave the subject for the present, until more light is thrown upon it by discussion. We would, however, advise our readers to let their opposition be calm and dignified, and such as becomes Christian men. Let principles be weighed, and facts be weighed, and words be weighed; and with truth on our side, we may hope that we shall be more than conquerors. The Charitable Bequests bill we do not think it likely will be withdrawn or essentially repealed. The Roman Catholic Archbishop, M‘Hale, has addressed a very furious and declamatory epistle_against it to Sir Robert Peel.-Her Majesty has lately visited Stowe and Strathfieldsaye, and has been lately staying at Brighton.—Mr. Pritchard has been officially appointed to the Navigator's Island.

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.-The new church, built under the auspices of the Queen Dowager, at Malta, has been lately opened for Divine service. Much good seems to be doing there