Sivut kuvina
PDF
ePub

hours' work. Each candidate in turn examined the first class of the children in the Bible and the Church Catechism, whilst the others were working at the written questions. If some plan of this kind were generally pursued, our schools would soon be provided with superior teachers. The middle orders of society have obtained much benefit from the proprietary schools, because their masters are obliged to submit previously to a due examination. The like good results would probably follow from electing national schoolmasters in the same manner. Misfortune would not then be considered a qualification for the teacher's office; nor would the man, who has failed in every thing else, be allowed, out of a mistaken charity, to earn his bread by dabbling with the intellect of youth. R. S. J.

CHURCH SOCIETIES.

SIR, I wish to draw your attention again to the important subject of Church Societies. I feel extremely anxious that the five-society plan should be introduced, without loss of time, into every parish. It is excellently calculated to meet our various national wants, and well suited to engage individual members of the Church to cooperate in supplying them. It would create a fresh bond of union between pastor and people, and tend very materially to the general invigoration of our parochial system, and the extensive development of its many and great blessings. The present deranged state of society is to be attributed to our defection from Church principles, and the consequent relaxation of Church discipline. To those principles and that discipline we must return, and the sooner we do so, on every account, most certainly the better; the better for ourselves as individuals, for the Church in general, and for the country at large. It is the only legitimate way of upholding the cause of truth at home, and of maintaining and propagating the truth abroad. The work in which the Church is engaged requires the contributions of each and all of her children; and by the plan recommended, each and all, according to their rank and circumstances, could contribute. It becomes us to follow the example of the Israelites in the wilderness: every one with his heart stirred up and his spirit made willing, should bring his offering unto the Lord, and perform his proper work for the service of the tabernacle. (See Exod. XXXV.) X.

ON REGENERATION.

SIR, One of your correspondents of late having attempted to shew that the controversy respecting Regeneration, is, in the main, one about mere words; the disputants all the time meaning much the same thing; it may be worth while to state, that I have met with a remarkable instance in confirmation of this being indeed the case. If you will turn to a note in Mr. Faber's SECOND Edition of his work on Justification, (note from p. 59 to 62,) you will see that a formal controversy he once held with Dr. Bethell, Bishop of Bangor, was a mere dispute about terms; that is, that when they differed respecting Regeneration, they each attached a very different meaning to the term: the oue, Dr. B., meaning thereby a federative change of relative condition;" the other, "a moral change of disposition."

[ocr errors]

It is impossible to deny that sometimes, especially in the case of adults, Regeneration, in the sense of a moral change, is not always simultaneous with Baptism; whereof we have a noted and unanswerable instance in the case of those persons mentioned in Acts x. 47, who, we are told, were to receive baptism on this very ground, viz. that they had pr viously received the first grace of the Holy Spirit. When these persons were baptized with water, "faith (no doubt) was confirmed, grace increased, by virtue of prayer unto God," as our Twenty-seventh Article speaks most truly; and Regeneration, in the sense of "a federative change of relative condition," actually conferred by the very act of baptism, as by an instrument. It is plain that our Church holds these doctrines; for it is clear, that if she did not admit that the grace of God, producing such good works as are the fruits of genuine faith, might precede the reception of baptism, she could never talk of faith being confirmed, and grace increased, by its reception; for if grace were always first implanted in the soul by baptism, it could never be said with any propriety of speech, to be INCREASED thereby. When a thing is imparted for the first time, it is never said to be increased.

MONTHLY REGISTER.

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING THE Standing Committee have recommended, respecting the Commentary on the Bible, that, with the approbation of the Abp. of Canterbury, and with the concurrence of the Rev. J. Lonsdale and the Rev. W. H. Hale, all further proceedings of the Society on this matter should cease, and that the editors should be allowed to publish their work as they shall think fit. This report is to be taken into consideration on the 5th of May.

The Bishop of London has resigned

DALETH.

CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE.
his office as an episcopal referee, and
the Bishop of Salisbury has been no-
minated in his room.

The Society have agreed to present an address to her Majesty, and a petition to both houses of parliament, on the subject of Church Extension.

An admirable report has been transmitted to us of the Salisbury District Committee, from which it appears that the Society is meeting with increased support. The sale of books has much exceeded that of any former year.

SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL.

EXTRACT from a Speech of the BISHOP of LONDON, at the Meeting held at the Mansion House, April 8 :

"What is the Church? There is hardly a mistake more injurious to the interests of Christian charity, one which has more effectually impeded the progress of the gospel, and prevented that gospel from having free course and being glorified, as it will be glorified where it has free course, than that erroneous notion which certainly has prevailed, I would almost say universally, but very generally, and I fear still too widely prevails,-that the Church is the Clergy. The Church!

Am I again asked what is the Church?
The ploughman at his daily toil; the
workman who plies the shuttle; the
artificer in his useful avocation; the
tradesman in his shop; the merchant
in his counting-house; the scholar in
his study; the lawyer in the courts of
justice; the senator in the hall of legis-
lation; the monarch on the throne;-
these, as well as the clergymen in the
walls of the material building which is
consecrated to the honour of God;
these constitute the Church.
Church, my lord, as defined by our
own Articles, is, the whole congrega-
tion of faithful men, in which the pure

The

word of God is preached, and the sacraments duly administered.' You, therefore, are the Church, as well as we who address you in this language of exhortation, and it is upon you that we make the call, while we admit it to be binding upon ourselves; and, therefore, it is because it is the Church's duty, that it is the duty of every member of the Church; for the Church is so constituted under its Divine Head, that not one of its members can suffer but the whole body feels; nay, the great Head himself feels in the remotest and meanest member of his body; not the meanest member of the body can make an exertion in faith and love, but the blessed effects of it are felt, to the benefit of the whole, which groweth by that which every joint supplieth, to the increase of itself in love.'

From the Speech of Archdeacon WILBERFORCE:" This it is which shortens our arm, that we are in religion a divided people. It is not that any one party which has any weight in this country dare stand up and say, we will not spread Christ's truth; it is that, when that point is conceded, no one knows in what way we can begin the work together. We allow the common duty, but we have no principle of practical cooperation. It is this religious division which prevents our multiplying Churches at home; it is this which prevents our becoming the very heart of Christendom; the sender forth of light throughout the earth a glory which God seems to have designed for England, when he made England what it is. This it is which withers her mighty arm, that we have too long forgotten that it was the Saviour's promise, By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, because ye have love one to another.' Never yet has God's work been done prosperously by divided hearts; never yet, except in the unity of the Spirit, has the bond of peace been spread

[ocr errors]

NATIONAL

Ar a meeting of this Society, at the Central School, Westminster, on April 1, present the Abps. of Canterbury and York; the Bps. of London, Winchester, Bangor, Chester, Hereford, Lich

throughout the earth. But then, my lord, if this be the case, what is the practical inference which we should draw from it? There is one body which we, at least, this day are satisfied is right, and that body is the Church. Let us act through that one body on this corrupting mass. Let the unity

of Christ's Church redress the divisions of a disunited people; then shall God's work be done by us, even to the ends of the earth, and it shall return in blessings upon our head. And this is the true claim of this Society, that, in a degree in which no other can be, it is the Church's organ for this work; that, from antiquity of origin, and practical identity of being, it is, as is no other, the right arm of the Church. It is the Church's missionary arm, then, which we call upon you to strengthen. It is for you to settle whether our colonies shall or shall not be outposts of the faith-daughter Churches of our own."

Upwards of 1000l. were contributed at the Mansion House, and about 500l. have since been sent into the office. It is in contemplation to form parochial or ward Sub-Committees to solicit support in the city. A general City Committee has already been set on foot; and an office taken at No. 8, Cornhill, where a Clerk is daily in attendance to give information, and receive Subscriptions.

William Leigh, Esq. has recently given the munificent donation of 2000%. for the purpose of building a Church and Parsonage-house in South Australia, and has appropriated 400 acres of land, as an endowment.

This is independent of two acres of land in the town of Adelaide, now producing 150l. a-year, which he has inade over to the Society.

The receipts during the first quarter of 1840, amounted to 88517. 4s. 5d.

The anniversary will be held in St. Paul's cathedral, on May 7, at 3 P.M. The sermon by the Bp. of Chichester. SOCIETY.

field, Lincoln, and Salisbury; the Revs. H. H. Norris, H. H. Milman, J. Jennings, J. Sinclair, T. D. Acland, esq. M.P., W. Davis, G. F. Mathison, Joshua Watson, and S. F. Wood, esqs.

After the ordinary business had been transacted, 47 grants towards building schools were made (since the 36 voted last month), and thanks were returned to the University of Oxford, for their liberal donation of 500l.

The Annual Meeting of the Society will take place at the Central School, Westminster, on May 27, at 12 o'clock, when the children attending the school will be examined, and the Report of

the Society's proceedings during the past year will be read.

The meeting of the Society of Secretaries, including the Office-bearers of Diocesan and District Boards, will take place on May 28, at 11 A. M.; the object being to advance the cause of educational improvement throughout the country, by friendly discussion and interchange of local information.

ADDITIONAL CURATES FUND SOCIETY.

In July, 1839, it was stated that this
Society was pledged for the ensuing
year to the payment of within 100%. of
its annual income, that income being
67001. and the grants 66007. With
two exceptions, all the grants are still
in force, and renewable, should the
cases deserve it, at Easter; and con-
sequently none of the income so ap-
propriated has again become at the
disposal of the Committee. Neverthe-
less, by means of an increase in their
annual subscriptions, and of the inte-
rest arising from their funded property,
the Society has lately been enabled to
make further annual grants to the
extent of 1000l. This sum, reserving
a portion to meet urgent applications,
To St. Botolph, Colchester
Ashby-de-la-Zouch.
Coates, Parish Whittlesey 500

£400 to meet
500

Compared with the extent of spiritual destitution which still remains unrelieved, the progress made is inconsiderable; and few can be more alive to the fact than the Committee, before whose notice the exigencies of populous districts have been brought in painful detail. But they have thought it wiser, only to make such grants as they have the present means of paying, and always to confine them to cases in which the certain and immediate employment of a curate is guaranteed. And so long as the provision for a large number of the ministers of the Church is allowed to remain dependent on private charity alone, the Committee will continue to dispense, on these principles, the fund entrusted to their charge; and they do not doubt that it will be gradually

[ocr errors]

which had been kept back from an idea that the Society's income was pre-engaged, the Committee have lost no time in appropriating.

The total number of parishes and districts aided by the Society amounts to 112, and their aggregate population to 1,956,000.

The Committee have also been enabled to take steps towards the encouragement of endowments. Several applications having been made for grants in aid of endowment, and feeling the importance of securing a provision of this permanent character, they have laid down fixed rules upon the subject, and have offered the following sums, viz. :—

£800 raised by the Parish.
1000

[ocr errors]

an Endowment of £60 per annum. augmented by the pious contributions of the members of the Church.

At a meeting of the Committee on March 3, 1840, the Bishop of London in the chair,

Resolved-1. That this Society are prepared to grant, by way of endowment, a sum not exceeding one-third of the amount raised for the same purpose by local contributions, provided that the sum granted by this Society shall in no case exceed 5001.

2. That this Society, before paying over any grant by way of endowment, require that the local contributions shall be actually raised or secured, and that the governors of the bounty of Queen Anne shall, in each case, be the trustees of the endowment fund.

CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

THE colonization of New Zealand is attracting particular notice at the

present moment. This Society first established a Mission there in 1809,

which has since been much extended, and was visited by the Bishop of Australia at the close of the last year; and that distinguished Prelate has expressed himself most favourably of the progress of the Mission and of the character of the Missionaries. The Bishop says:

"It is in my power, effectually to contradict the assertions of the adversary and the scoffer, who have sometimes gone the length of affirming, that the attempt to Christianize the people of this nation has been a failure: that nothing has been done."

Again his lordship proceeds :"At every station which I personally visited, the converts were so numerous, as to bear a very visible and considerable proportion to the entire population. In most of the native villages, called Pas, in which the Missionaries have a footing, there is a building, containing one room, superior in fabric and dimensions to the native residences, which appears to be set apart as their place for assembling for religious worship, or to read the Scriptures, or to receive the exhortations of the Missionaries. In these

buildings generally, but sometimes in the open air, the Christian classes were assembled before me.

The greyhaired man, and the aged woman, took their places, to read, and to undergo examination, among their descendants of the second and third generations. The chief and the slave stood side by side, with the same holy

volume in their hands, and exerted their endeavours each to surpass the other in returning proper answers to the questions put to them concerning what they had been reading."

With regard to the Missionaries and Catechists, the Bishop writes :—

"I must offer a very sincere and willing testimony to their maintaining a conversation such as becomes the Gospel of Christ, and the relation in which they stand to it, as the professed guides and instructors of those who are, by their agency, to be retrieved from the service of sin. They appear to be drawn together by a spirit of harmony, which is, I hope, the sineere effusion of their hearts, prompted by that spirit, of which love, gentleness, and goodness, are among the most delightful fruits. It is upon the continuance of this spirit among themselves that I raise my principal expectations of their continued success among the natives."

The Bishop adds:

"I am happy in thinking, that, by my late visit to the Mission, a foundation of regard and confidence has been laid between the members of it and myself, which, through the Divine blessing, may tend much to facilitate any future proceedings connected with its extension. Upon any subject, concerning which the Society may be anxious to consult me, I shall always be prepared to offer the most candid opinion, and to give the best advice in my power."

NEW ZEALAND CHURCH SOCIETY.

THIS Society was originally formed to aid the colonists in New Zealand, in building a Church and establishing an Infant School, in which the children of the colonists and natives might be educated together. It is now directing its attention to the support and endowment of a complete and efficient Church Establishment for New Zea

land, by obtaining the appointment of a Bishop or Bishops, and providing, in compliance with the practice of the primitive Church, that each Bishop be accompanied by three or more Clergymen, who shall reside together in one spot, which may form as it were the centre of religion and education for that part of the country.

PASTORAL AID SOCIETY.

Ar a meeting of the Committee holden o April 2, seven additional grants were voted. 188 clergymen and 32 lay assistants are now supported by the Society, at a charge of 16,5947. per

annum. Grants have been made to provide 91 clergymen and 6 lay assistants, in addition, at a cost of 8,1307. as soon as the appointments shall be completed by the incumbents.

« EdellinenJatka »