that the total number of Dissenting Chapels, of every description, in the two Counties of Middlesex and Surrey, was, in that year, 358. In this number we include Roman Catholics and Quakers, as well as the Wesleyan Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists, &c.

Of this total number, 358,many, as is well known, are situated in the City of London, which is not in our present view. Many others are scattered over the country districts of Middlesex and Surrey, in which districts we find that 48 of the 118 Independent congregations are placed. In making, therefore, a deduction of 108 from the 358 Dissenting Chapels in these two counties, we are clearly within the mark. Two hundred and fifty, then, is the total remaining, as the provision made by the voluntary churches, for the destitute state of the suburban population.

And even this is obviously far above the real fact. For, beyond all question, a large proportion of these chapels are places of long standing, and which were never erected in consequence of the district being, fifty or a hundred years since, in want of places of worship; but merely because their founders preferred their own form of worship to that of the establishment. However, take the whole 250 chapels, and then, although a large majority of them are little more than small out-houses fitted up for preaching, allow them a congregation of 1000, on an average, in every case. And thus, having stretched our estimate in every imaginable way, our utmost possible calculation exhibits only accommodation for 250,000 persons; and this, every one must feel convinced, is greatly beyond the truth;-still leaving, in the suburbs of the metropolis alone, more than half a million of persons totally shut out from the ordinances of religion.

In fact, the real state of the case, as it presents itself to our minds,

is this;--that while the suburban districts of the metropolis have extended themselves into a population of 900,000 persons within the last century, leaving eight hundred thousand destitute of religious ordinances; the utmost that has really been done by the people themselves, or by the voluntary churches, to meet this deficiency, has not amounted to the erection of new places of worship capable of accommodating one hundred thousand. So much for the assumption, that if the state did not provide a religion for the people, the people would be sure to provide one for themselves.

In point of fact, so manifest, at last, did the evil become, and só clearly was the inefficiency of the voluntary system proved, that the state was at last compelled to interfere; and in the space of ten years, without sensibly increasing the burdens of the community, more was done in building new places of worship, under the New Church Commissioners, than had been previously effected, under the voluntary system, in half a century.

And yet this is the strongest point of the case of Mr. James and his friends. When they refer "triumphantly" to America, it is to the cities of America that they refer and when they boast of the trophies of dissent at home, it is in London, and Bristol, and Birmingham, that they find them. If even here, then, the facts refuse to support their argument, what can be expected from our last enquiry ?— which is,

III. What prospects would Independency, or the voluntary system, offer us, that should encourage us to relinquish or dismantle our present Church Establishment?

This inquiry, it is plain, principally directs our attention to the country districts of England. In our towns, we willingly admit, the guardians of the church have shewn remissness; and dissenters have

used their opportunity; and a greater equality consequently exists here, than would be found on a review of the whole empire.

But the great necessity for an Established Church, and the great utility of our present establishment, appears when we turn to those scattered villages in which, after all, three fourths of our population reside; and where, but for our Established Church, heathenism would reign. The state here helps those who cannot help themselves. It provides religious instruction for those who partly lack the will, and partly the power to provide it for each other. It gives the people the "opportunity to be Christians;" -that opportunity which the poor woman in Western America had not. Sweep away, then, the Establishment, and what will the voluntary churches do for our ten thousand agricultural parishes? These parishes contain, on an average, one or two gentlemen, eight or ten farmers, and a few scores of cottagers. In how many cases would these little communities be able to raise, by private subscription, their own chapel, and their minister's annual stipend? Would not the picture of Western Ainerica soon be realized

at home; would not our country soon become "as the valley of the shadow of death?" Might it not soon be said, of many of our counties, "Darkness reigns over them, with scarce a ray of light to break through the awful gloom?"

Upon a review of the whole question, then, we are forced to these conclusions :

1. That the result of the experiment now carrying on in America, so far as that result can be already ascertained, is in no respect in favour of the practical efficiency of the "voluntary system." 2. That the efforts made by the voluntary churches, in our own country, to supply the means of religious instruction, where the establishment had allowed a deficiency to exist, have fallen lamentably short of the necessities of the case, and have made it the obvious duty of the legislature to provide for the exist→ ing want. And, 3. that the inference evidently flowing from those two facts, points directly against the proposed demolition of our present national establishment inasmuch as no prospect is offered of the replacing its services, especially in our country districts, under the voluntary system.

side.

God's market.

SIR,-Having observed that all the editions of the Book of Common Prayer, which have of late years been printed at the Oxford press, differ in some places from those printed at Cambridge, I send you an account of such differences as I have noticed; and request their insertion in the Christian Guardian; with the hope, that their appearance in a publication so extensively circulated, may be the means of producing a more exact agreement in future editions of our excellent Liturgy.

The first difference which I have observed, is in the doxology of the Lord's Prayer; the word and being omitted after the word kingdom in the Oxford Prayer Books. This omission seems to have been noticed by other persons; I having heard it remarked, upon a stranger appearing in the pulpit at a visitation, that the preacher must be an Oxford man, because he leaves out the word and in the doxology of the Lord's Prayer. This doxology being taken from the Prayer as it stands in the sixth chapter of the Gospel according to St. Matthew, in the original of which, the word ka is not wanting in any of the Greek manuscripts, I do not see what authority there can be for omitting the conjunction. The second difference is in the general Thanksgiving, the word may being omitted, in the Oxford Prayer Books, in the sentence, "and that we may shew forth thy praise; which, as it appears to me, ought not to be omitted; because the sentence, "give us that due sense of all thy mercies, that we shew forth thy praise," is hardly sense. The third difference, is in the 81st

APRIL, 1832.

"

Psalm, which, in the Oxford editions of the Book of Common Prayer, begins with the words, "Sing we merrily," instead of Sing ye, as in the Cambridge editions: the latter of which appears to me to be the true reading, and not the obsolete expression, "Sing we," from the words of the Latin Prayer Book, exultate Deo, placed at the head of the Psalm. The last difference is in the 12th verse of the 90th Psalm, which in the Oxford Prayer Books begins with the words, "O teach us: but in the Cambridge Prayer Books, it is "So teach us," as in the Bible translation. In the folio edition, printed at the Cambridge press in the year 1814, it is "So teach us," in the 90th Psalm, in its place among the other Psalms; but in the same Psalm in the burial service it is "O teach us." An inconsistency which I cannot account for, except on the supposition, that the compositor has taken a Cambridge edition for his copy, in the other parts of the liturgy, and an Oxford one in the burial service. I should have supposed all the above to be errors of the press, if they had not appeared in every one of the late editions of the Oxford prayer books, which I have had an opportunity of examining, even in Bishop Mant's, which is supposed to be correct; in which edition I observe, at the 12th verse of the 90th psalm, these words in the margin, So teach us-Bible translation.' From which it appears that the Bishop considers O teach us to be the true reading in the prayer book translation of the psalms. Some persons may perhaps think these differences too trifling to deserve publishing; but

as fault has been found, in another religious monthly publication, with some clergymen for making alterations in reading the liturgy, even in what would by many be considered matters of indifference, and it is certainly desirable that there should be a perfect uniformity in the reading of it, which cannot take place so long as there is any difference in the printing of the church prayer books, an endeavour to get those differences removed, cannot be thought unnecessary, by any sincere friend to the public service of our church; and if the above observations should be the means of its being brought about, the sole end which I have in view, in sending them to the editor of the Christian Guardian, will be answered.

N. T.

The probability is, that these slight variations are really to be regarded as mere errors of the press, which, being introduced into the earlier editons, have inadvertently been perpetuated. It is, doubtless, desirable that, from time to time, reference should be made by our university printers, to the standard and authenticated copies both of the Holy Scriptures and the Liturgy, in order that such casual mistakes should be corrected; and in fact, we know that such reference is at the present moment making in one, if not both, of our universities. We believe the word may in the General Thanksgiving was omitted by authority at the last revision; its omission affects the sound, but not the sense.

ED.

You particularly enquire Whether it is possible for a person to be indeed a believer, while at the same time he has no assurance that such is the case?' It appears to me that this very often occurs, that many really believe in Christ, seek for mercy through Christ, and are actually interested in the blessings of the gospel of Christ; who still from various causes are in great doubt and uncertainty as to their own state and character. Indeed as far as my experience enables me to speak, I conceive there are very few who arrive at any thing like a settled and abiding conviction of their own personal

I am convinced

that many really believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, are consequently delivered from allcondemnation through him, and finally attain unto everlasting life, who yet walk many days in deep alarm, apprehension, and anxiety. Far be it from me to encourage any to rest in this state; on the contrary, I would call upon all to press forward in the diligent use of the appointed means of grace, until they attain to the full assurance of faith; an attainment indispensable to their abiding peace and consolation, and which will well repay their largest sacrifices, their utmost exertions.

You say indeed, my dear Madam, Supposing you told me something concerning yourself, which none but yourself could know, or promised me that which I know you had it in your power to give; and I were certain nothing would ever

tempt you to deceive me; I should fully and unhesitatingly believe you, and I should feel conscious that I did believe you, and if it were a promise of some great future good, the gift of your bounty, it would greatly influence my affection towards you, would be very much in my thoughts, &c. Now there are some of my fellow mortals, whose veracity I can most fully trust. If then I believe the testimony of God concerning his Son, a God of immutable truth and omnipotent power, it seems to me I must be conscious of it, or in other words, must know that I was a believer. Without some such consciousness, how can I lay hold of the promises, which are all yea and Amen in Christ Jesus, for if we are not in him by faith, however weak and wavering that faith may be, they do not belong to us!'

These observations appear at first exceedingly plausible, but they are not so strictly applicable as you seem to imagine. There is indeed great danger of mistaking illustration for argument; and there are often slight variations in circumstances, which render arguments from analogy altogether fallacious. This I conceive is here very much the

case.

You are told by Almighty God in his holy word much concerning your own character, state, and circumstances which none but he can know; and you are compelled in cansequence to believe the truth of his declarations, and the inspiration of the sacred volume; but there is a subtle tempter ever nigh at hand to deceive, who suggests from time to time such queries to us, as to our first parents when he enquired," Yea, hath God said ?" and in consequence of a treacherous memory, a deceitful heart, and a wily, active, ever present tempter, our clearest impressions, and fullest convictions with respect to divine statements, are apt to fade from our minds with far more rapidity, and to a much greater extent than those

communications which are made to us by the voice of our fellow

men.

If I promised to give you that which you knew I had in my power to give, and you were certain that nothing would tempt me to deceive you, you would at once believe my promise and be conscious of such belief; but here again is an important distinction. I come to you and say to you positively and absolutely, This benefit shall be yours.' It is therefore a direct communication from one individual to another: it is a specific, a particular, unlimited, unconditional promise. Now God's promises are general to large classes of persons, they are limited to certain characters, they are to be apprehended, embraced, laid hold of in a particular way; they are really conditional, though this term has been so misunderstood and abused, that the introduction of it is exceedingly apt to bewilder and perplex inquirers. But perhaps I may explain more clearly my view of the subject, by observing that God's promises are not conditional as to merit, or as to price, but they are conditional as to means. The promises of pardon, acceptance, everlasting life, are offered not to those who are in themselves righteous, but to those confessedly guilty; not to those who have any merit of their own, but to those most conscious of demerit; not to those who can do any thing to deserve such inestimable gifts, but to those, who feeling that they are lost, guilty, miserable, unworthy sinners, seek and expect the communication of such inestimable blessings for the sake and through the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, such being the case; when the awakened sinner hears the proclamation of pardoning mercy through the Redeemer's atoning blood, and discovers that this proclamation is at once exactly adapted to his case, and