from a monthly to a weekly publication. And the Gospel Messenger, published by Dr. Rudd, at Auburn, contains much useful matter, suited to the exigences of our church, and is eminently deserving of patronage. The fact, that numerous publications of this description, some of them hostile to our church, are issued in this diocese by other denominations, should stimulate churchmen to patronize the few that are devoted to those correct religious principles and institutions which their church sets forth.

Connected as this diocese is with other dioceses, as portions of the same apostolic church, we cannot be indifferent to their concerns. "If one member suffer, all the members should suffer with it." Our lively sympathy must therefore be ex tended to our sister diocese of Pennsylva. nia, where a powerful and organized party has gradually risen up in opposition to the principles and policy of its venerable diocesan, and a large number of his clergy and laity. Those principles and that policy, recommended as they are by the exalted character of that revered father, derive a sacred value from their intimate and essential connexion with the purity and prosperity of our church.

The tendency of the views and policy of the opposing party in that diocese is stated to be--to amalgamate Episcopalians with other denominations; thus lay. ing the foundation of lasting discord, or of putting to hazard some essential characteristic of our own church-the introducing into it doctrines or practices peculiar to some other denominations of Christians -the encouragement of men not ordained to lead the devotions, and to expound the Scriptures in what are called prayer meetings-to overthrow our unrivalled Litur gy, by the introduction of extemporaneous prayers into the public services of the

church-to establish and to cherish insubordination to episcopal authority. These are the principles and policy of the opposing party in Pennsylvania, as exhibited with impressive clearness and force, and yet with eminent Christian candour, in some recent publications in that diocese, under the appropriate signature of " Plain Truth." And I feel it my duty thus publicly to name them, because they ought not to be ranked among the fugitive and ephemeral publications of the day. They should be preserved, and often and seriously perused by every Episcopalian, as exhibiting the danger to which his church is exposed from principles and policy which in their consequences would change, and finally subvert her distinctive character. Believing, as I do, that our church, in that character, is the safeguard of pure and primitive Christianity, and placed, as I am, by God's Providence, in a responsible station in that church, would I not be

culpable, if I did not most solemnly and solicitously endeavour to guard that portion of it which is under my charge from this alarming and fatal contagion?

We ought not to shut our eyes against what is passing around us in the Christian world. We may there see the consequences of certain principles and practices in those extravagances which are sweeping respectable religious commu nions with the besom of misrule; which have invaded, with ruthless step, the social and domestic sanctuary; and which have degraded and disgraced the cause of rational, serious, and fervent piety. Brethren of the Clergy and Laity, as you love that cause, mildly, but firmly, zea. lously, and perseveringly, oppose those principles and practices which would thus disgrace and degrade it; and adhere strictly and tenaciously to the doctrines and institutions of our own church, with which this holy cause is identified. Experience here-experience, long experience in that country from which we are descended--lifts her warning voice against all plans, however plausible, for reviving religion in our own church, which are at variance with her institutions. These in. stitutions set forth and enforce those great doctrines which constitute the Gospel the power of God-the sinfulness and guilt of man-his transformation by the renovating influences of the Divine Spirit-his salvation only through the merits and grace of a Divine Mediator. Our church considers these merits and this grace as pledged and conveyed to the faithful in her authorized ministrations, and in her holy sacraments and ordinances. In her daily morning and evening prayer, she amply provides for all the occasions of public worship. In her Liturgy, she sup plies the most impressive and fervent language of devotion. It is not necessary to seek other public aids to piety than those which her institutions furnish; least of all, to have recourse to those which are alien from her character. Let her doctrines be received into our hearts, and regulate our lives-let her institutions be faithfully enforced and practised-and we shall then discharge the sacred duty of preserving, in her purity, that church which best exhibits genuine and primitive religion-and thus we shall, finally, attain the great end of our calling, the great business of the present state of probation

the salvation of our souls. God grant this for Christ's sake.

JOHN HENRY HOBART.
New-York, Oct. 17, 1827.

For the Christian Journal. All Saints' Church, New-York. ON Wednesday, October 3d, 1827, the Right Rev. Bishop Hobart, attended

by a number of his clergy, and a large and respectable body of lay members of the church, laid the corner stone of the parish church of the parish of All Saints' church, in this city. The building is being erected at the corner of Henry and Scammel streets. This commencement of it was an event of great interest to the friends of the church, from the anxious desire, long entertained, of having a church in that section of the city, from the faithful and unwearied services of the rector of the parish, organized there in 1824, and from the solicitude occasioned by difficulties, now happily surmounted, which seemed, for a time, to threaten the peace, prosperity, and even existence, of the congregation.

In consequence of the falling of rain during the solemnities attendant on the laying of the corner stone, an address prepared for the occasion by the rector, the Rev. William A. Clark, was not delivered. At the unanimous request, however, of the bishop, and the clergy present, a copy of it has been handed us for insertion in the Journal:

ADDRESS.

We have here laid the foundation stone of an edifice to be devoted to the service of Almighty God-that God who is the Author and Builder of all things in nature, in providence, and in grace-that God from whom we derive our being; who is our Benefactor and our life on earth; who has given his Son for our redemption; and by whose Church, established in the world, we may obtain an everlasting life in heaven above. We lay the corner stone of a Church of Christ. The Catholic Church of Christ embraces all faithful people. But every congregation of professed Christians, where the ordinances of the Gospel are duly administered, the word of God truly dispensed, and obedience rendered to that word, are a part and branch of the Catholic Church. They are the Church of Christ. As the name is derived from the places where the first Christians assembled, buildings erected for the divine services of such congregations, are also, with the strictest propriety, called churches. We, therefore,

denominate the building to be raised upon the foundation now commenced, in conformity with the usage of Christians in every age since the days of the apostles, a church. And as the doctrines and duties to be inculcated and observed in this church should, and we trust will, be truly primitive and apostolical, be it our further task briefly to explain, to vindicate, and enforce them the principles and practice of the Protestant Episcopal Church.

Her model, at the reformation, was taken from the church of the first ages, whose doctrines, rites, and usages, were authorized and sanctioned by the disciples of our Lord himself. Evangelical in her origin, she is pre-eminently so in all her doctrines. Jesus Christ is the foundation and the chief corner stone. On him alone she teaches us to rely for salvation. With a pencil of adamant she impresses on our minds the necessity of such a Saviour, and our supreme wretchedness without him. This is the history of man, and the revelation of God. Man was created for virtue and for glory-in innocence, and in the highest favour and image of his Maker. He fell from this perfection and grace, became corrupt and depraved, and justly exposed to the Divine displeasure, and to eternal destruction. Still, a merciful Creator would not destroy him. A Saviour was therefore promised. To preserve, among successive generations, a knowledge and faith in this promise, many and various were the dispensations from heaven to earth. Revelations were given to the first fathers of mankind, and, through them, to their whole posterity, the different nations by whom this globe became peopled. But, for the more special preservation of this knowledge, one nation was chosen as the peculiar deposit. To the patriarch Abraham, and his descendants through Isaac and Jacob, more full and repeated manifestations were made. The tabernacle, with its rites and ordinances, was instituted as a perspective through which the future Redeemer might be clearly seen. By subsequent Divine appointment was the temple of Solomon built-the place to prefigure all that was to be hoped for-the magnifi

cent symbol of the glory of all that was promised. Here was the church as the representative of that which was to come; here was the Shecinah, the Divine Illumination, such as appears in Jesus Christ.

In the fulness of time the promised Saviour is ushered into the world. Angels and men celebrate the grandeur of his advent. What an august display of Almighty goodness-what an immense condescension of Almighty power! The eternal Son of the infinite God, the Only-begotten of the Father, came from heaven to this lower world to save us, worms and vile dust, from our sins, and from consequent destruction. He came to erect the temple of Divine goodness and grace on the earth, and in the hearts of the sons of men. It is a building whose foundations embrace a world, and whose spires ascend to the skies. To prepare the ground for the erection of this edifice, though prophets and priests had been sent, and all the institutions of the Jewish temple and church were to this end, John the Baptist, a special messenger, was commissioned. The preparation which he commenced, was the preaching of repentance. On the ground made ready by repentance is laid the foundation of Christianity. Jesus Christ required this preparation. He taught the existence of sin, and the corruption of nature: and by his sufferings and death he atoned for both. By his preaching, and by his appointments, he began the organization of his church; but he commissioned his apostles for the completion of the edifice. For this purpose he gave them the Holy Spirit, to continue to the end of the world, for the guidance and support of his church, and for the sanctification of each individual member. He instituted baptism as the way of introduction into this church; and he commanded the observance of his holy supper as the mean of continuance in its commuion. All this was sanctioned by the irresitible authority of miracles, and the acceptance among mankind enforced by the solemn assurance of a judgment to come a day appointed by God, in which the inhabitants of worlds shall be tried, and all that have ever lived

upon this earth be rewarded or punished according to the deeds done in the body. It was after the resurrection, which was an infallible pledge of the resurrection of all men, that the commission to establish the Christian church throughout the world was given to the first apostles. The commission, and the promise annexed to it, was to them and their successors"Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature, baptizing them : teach them to observe whatsoever I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."

We are hence assured of the continuance of Christ with his church as long as the world endures-its durability is for ever established. By our own knowledge we find the confirmation of the promise, and the verification of the prediction. The dominion of Christ is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom that which shall not pass away. In spite of the sweeping tide of corruption which, by its inundations, has demolished all other fabrics, and carried away even their fragments in its overflow; in spite of the mighty revolutions which have overturned every other system-which have shocked the earth to its centre-which have deformed and dyed the face of nature with blood, and veiled the sun in sackcloth-the Christian church still exists, the religion of Jesus still shines in its glory, the temple which he erected stands fast and immoveable, and his altars are still thronged with votaries. The regular organization of a church, and the institution of ordinances, are a means of the perpetuity of the Christian religion; they are also in themselves an evidence to all generations of their divine original. The organization of a church includes of necessity, and as a component part, the institution of a ministry. This institution was, in a measure, similar to that which had prefigured it. The Jewish church was a shadow of the Christian-of course the Jewish priesthood was designed as a shadow of the Christian. And as there were three orders of the ministry in the church of Israel, so we find that there were three orders instituted by Christ

and his apostles. These were Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons; and though the two first orders were sometimes designated by the same name, yet their respective powers were distinctly marked. Thus we find that James was the first bishop of the church at Jerusalem, presiding over its elders and deacons. Timothy was appointed by St. Paul to preside over the churches of Ephesus, and Titus over those of Crete. To each of them were powers communicated superior to that given to other ministers; and to their authority both ministers and people were required to yield unqualified obedience.

From the whole history of the church in the first ages, we learn that such was its organization; that in every place where the Gospel had been planted, remaining in apostolic form, three distinct orders, and no more, were supported, until the bishop of Rome assumed an authority over all other bishops, commencing that reign of antichrist which had been predicted by an apostle.

At the reformation, the church of England, and many of the other Protestant churches, while rejecting all those unscriptural doctrines and practices with which ignorance and folly had deformed and obscured the purity of the Gospel, retained the three orders of the ministry, with the paramount authority of the first; and from thence are we denominated Episcopalian. It is the model of the primitive and apostolic church.

The principles and doctrines as now explained are-Repentance, faith, obedience; Jesus Christ the only way of salvation; his blood an atonement for the sins of the whole world; the sin and depravity of man such as must render him for ever, miserable without this atonement-and his moral faculties so impaired, his nature so corrupt and infirm, as to be unable to enter the kingdom of heaven without the regeneration and renovation of the Holy Spirit; observance of the ordinances of Christ, the mediums of grace, a peremptory requisition; respect, and obedience to the Church of Christ, an essential means of being prepared for the kingdom of glory above; and lastly, the certainty VOL. XI.

of a resurrection and final judgmentthe powerful and resistless persuasion to mankind to become obedient to the Gospel, to enter into the society of the faithful, the church, and to observe its divine ordinances. These are the doctrines taught by Christ and his apostles; and to aid in their continuance in the world, this edifice is to be erected. We unite with the Catholic Church of Christ in the promotion of a religion which is as stable as the heavens, and which freely offers the salvation of God to every human creature.

The duties and practice of the Christian church may be delineated in few words. Moral duties and moral virtues are well understood. These are most strenuously enforced by the precepts of the Christian religion. And they em brace also the devotion of piety, prayer, and praise, to the Author of our being. As every thing with him is order, and as he requires our reasonable service, so in our worship of him he requires or der, and not irregularity and confusion. Agreeably to this principle, a form was given to Aaron and his sons, with which to bless the congregation of Israel-God required his people, when they approached into his presence," to take words" with them, and not to "come before him unprepared;" agreeably to this principle, John the Baptist taught his disciples how to pray; agreeably to this principle, our blessed Lord gave to his disciples a form of prayer; agreeably to this principle, the apostles prayed by a precomposed form," lifting up their voices with one accord;" and, agreeably to this principle, there has always been, in the Christian church, a set form of prayer and praise. We continue the same, and hope, in the building here to be erected, to be taught to pray with the spirit, and with the understanding also-to pray in the words the Saviour has directed us to use, "to lift our voices with one accord," and to praise God in those inspired effusions which were given for the worship of the church to the end of the world.

Gratifying to every Christian, to every friend to the best interests of man, must be the prospect now before us; gratifying, indeed, to every Episcopa

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lian of this city, that another church is about to be added to the now highly respectable number which perpetuate the order and the faith once delivered to the saints;" and supremely gratifying to the members of this congregation, and to all those who have so long seen, lamented, and endeavoured to relieve, the destitution of this part of the city, that now at last the so much wished for object is likely to be realized; that the banner of the church is here to be permanently spread, under whose shadow the dispersed members of our communion may be concentrated, and enjoy that peace and consolation in her pure worship and ordinances which they have so long sighed for in vain. God grant that here wanderers may be gathered into the fold of Christ that here souls may be washed in the sanctifying fountain of the Redeemer's blood-that here saints may be fitted for a better and a heavenly state. In our joy at the prospect of an earthly sanctuary, we forget not that its whole design is to prepare us for the celestial one at God's right hand. Oh! let us forget not, that here below, we are preparing for an eternal existence, either of happiness or misery. Soon with us shall every earthly fabric be dissolved-soon shall all our foundations decay, and our terrestrial house tumble into dust. But in Jesus Christ, by faith in him, and repentance towards God; by obedience to the requisitions of the Gospel; by a life of virtue and of piety-may we have "a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."-The Father of all mercy and grace grant this to be the portion of each of us, through Jesus Christ his Son, our Lord and Saviour. Amen.

After the stone was laid, a leaden box was deposited therein, by the senior warden, the rector pronouncing as follows:

The vestry of All Saints' church, New-York, by their warden, deposit within this stone, a Bible, in token that this church is built on the truth revealed by God-also, the Book of Common Prayer, as a testimony that this church is built on a pure faith and a

spiritual worship-also, Pastoral Letters of the House of Bishops, and Charges of the Bishop of this Diocese, in acknowledgment of the apostolic ministry on which this church is built

they deposit also, a Brief History of the Rise and Advancement of this Church, in humble gratitude to the Providence which has thus far blessed and supported us.

The following is a copy of the history of the church deposited in the

stone:

The first effort for organizing a Protestant Episcopal Church in the neighbourhood of that part of the city of New-York, which is known as Corlaer's Hook, was in the summer of 1820. For several years previously to this, the rectors of St. Stephen's church had officiated, from time to time, in houses of their parishioners in that vicinity.

In July, 1820, the Rev. Benjamin P. Aydelott, M. D. then a deacon of this diocese, commenced, with the approbation of the bishop, the regular celebration of divine service in a school room in Goerck, near Grand-street, which had been offered for the purpose by its tenant, Mr. John Dick. The congregation thus formed, was duly organized, according to law, as "Calvary Church, New-York," August 31, 1820; and the Rev. Dr. Aydelott, chosen rector by the vestry then elected. The place of worship was, in a few months, changed to the residence of the rector, at the corner of Henry and Clinton streets. The undertaking, however, did not prosper; and in a short time, the rector resigned his office, and removed to the diocese of Maryland; and the parish became extinct. This friends of the church; who did not, event was a sore disappointment to the however, on that account, relinquish either the hope or the belief that a parish might be formed in that section of the city. Nothing farther, however, was done with a view to this very desirable object, until the spring of 1824. The Rev. William A. Clark, rector of Christ church, Ballston Spa, Saratoga county, New-York, at the request of a number of worthy and zealous Epis