and length and depth and height of the love of Christ, it shall in truth be given to be "filled with all the fulness of God." This, lastly, shall be indeed "a well of water springing up into everlasting life." That which is begun in time shall flow on in eternity. Coming from heaven, it shall again point thitherward, and, like water, at length rise to the height from whence it has flowed. There shall be nourishment in these heavenly streams, which shall not tend, like bodily food, to a growing corruption, but shall prepare the very body for a return from its native dust, and the soul for its everlasting life. Here was offered to the poor woman of Samaria a more than answer to her unmeaning request: "Give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw." For it was a rest now offered to her from every labour, and a security against every want. It savoured of that promise: "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat." O what an exemption is here from every care! what a breaking away even the barriers of the tomb, as no stay or hindrance to the believer's hope, or interruption to his final joy! The difference only is this, that now he sees through a glass darkly, but then face to face: now he is supplied through earthly channels, through services and sacraments, and various but imperfect means, from the celestial fount; but there "the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, shall feed them, and lead them by the living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.' III. One remark I begin by offering, in conclusion of this interesting incident. Amidst all defects of character, and even the manifest proofs of this poor woman of Samaria's guilt, one circumstance in her favour is clear, and that as a warning to those who would presume on her invitation: she was an inquirer, and even an anxious inquirer, after the true worship of God. She listened, she submitted to reproof, she used the opportunity of the divine interview for other purposes than merely to say, "Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not ;" and, having found some light respecting the true worship of God, she even acts the part of Philip to Nathanael. She hastens to impart her discovery to friends. She all but says, "We have found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write." She goes to her countrymen, and brings them out to "see a man that told her all things that ever she did," and puts the very question to them: "Is not this the Christ?" To invite others, then, brethren, is one proof of our own awakening; and a spirit of inquiry at least is a hopeful spirit. Suffer not impressions to die out of your mind; nor allow the kindling flame of faith, hope, and love to be quenched again in the cold atmosphere of this world's ind fference. Serious things demand serious consideration. "If thou hadst known, even thou, in this thy day," said Jesus to his rebellious countrymen, "the things that belong unto thy peace." They heard; but they regarded not. To this woman Jesus said: "If thou knewest the gift of God.... thou wouldest have asked of him; and he would have given thee living water.' We may hope that in another sense than once she repeated her reply: "Give me this water, that Ì may thirst no more.' Learn, my brethren, again, to estimate things at their true value; and, when "a price is put into your hands to get wisdom," show not, like the fool in the book of Proverbs, that you "have no heart to it." Rather feel the price thereof to be above rubies; and, in comparison with it, think scorn rather of the boast of honour, the luxury of wealth, the cup of pleasure; all that stirs the pride, or ministers to the appetite of mere human nature. Neither, indeed, think that other opportunities of instruction, other advantages for getting improvement were better than your own. The witnesses of the first advent of our blessed Lord had but imperfect views of the Messiah's kingdom. To us a completed dispensation is now offered; and a crucified, risen, and ascended Saviour now invites you to follow him. A formed church, faithful services, long-enduring pledges and sacraments of grace, announce the full scope of the present era in the counsels of God. "God and sinners reconciled" has been long the embassy of God's chosen ministers and stewards of his mysteries. The throne of grace is ever open to earnest and importunate prayer. We "ask of thee, Lord, give unto us living water." Thou art also the bread of life; "Lord, evermore give us this bread." Examples, numerous as the lessons they enforce, meet you in every page of Christian history. Great is the cloud of witnesses encompassing us, from righteous Abel to the blood of the martyred Stephen, who said: "I see heaven opened, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God." There, amidst the hosts of the redeemed, who stand around the throne of God and of the Lamb, dear brethren, may the lot of many a one amongst us be found on that true jubilee day, when from all creation shall burst the song of praise and thanksgiving, and, echoed from a thousand times ten thousand voices, shall say, "Now is come salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ:" "Glory and honour and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb, for ever and ever." MISSIONS AT HOME. "Our God is love; and all his saints His image bear below: The heart with love to God inspired, With love to man will glow." POPULAR EDUCATION.-It should be well understood and remembered that there can be no permanent amelioration of the people's domestic or social condition until their moral constitution is so far renovated as to allow their mental energies to be brought into a state of healthy and well-directed action. The work of their reformation must begin with individuals; and in every case it must begin at the heart, or there can be no permanent good effected. All that may be done in the way of either political reform or social improvement will be of no real utility unless the public mind be previously well instructed in the principles of genuine truth and goodness. The work of communicating, or rather of disseminating these principles, where the soil has hitherto remained unbroken, will assuredly prove both laborious and difficult. The accumulated ignorance of many centuries is not to be removed in a day, nor by any but the most strenuous and persevering efforts. To such as are duly qualified for this work, I need say nothing as to the ineffectiveness of all human efforts, unless they be directed and aided by him who is at once" wonderful in counsel and excellent in working." But I forbear to enlarge; observing, however, that my remarks have been confined to that large class of persons which, although thoroughly ignorant and fearfully depraved, nevertheless forms the foundation upon which rests the whole social edifice. How perilous must be the condition of that edifice while its basis is thus unsound, and moreover pregnant with combustible matter, I will not attempt to show; I will, however, venture to recommend the subject to the most serious consideration of the Christian philanthropist, whatever may be its rank in society. Instances of the ignorance and viciousness which abound in the class to which I refer the myriads of a London populationhave often come under my notice. In some cases I have endeavoured to ascertain something of the individual's intellectual and moral state; and the result has been such as to convince me that we have amongst us a multitude of human beings, whose chief claim to be regarded as human seems to consist in their outward form, so completely are the understanding blinded and the will corrupted. The difficulty of dealing with this formidable evil is much increased by the fact that they are not confined to the lowest class of the people they prevail to no trifling extent among the classes that occupy a superior rank. Thus, among mechanics and other handicraftsmen, vast numbers are almost totally ignorant upon the su premely important subjects of morals and religion. It is not going beyond the truth to affirm that by far the greater number of these people never enter the places where they might obtain instruction upon these and other branches of necessary and truly desirable knowledge. It is lamentable to see how they waste their time of leisure, espe cially their Sundays; which, to a working man, are in so many respects of incalculable value. At tired in their dirty and often ragged garments, they loiter about the public ways, or congregate, when arrives the much-longed-for hour of opening them, in the houses where strong drink' may be obtained. Here they spend no inconsiderable amount of their earnings in gratifying their sensual and morally debasing appetites, to the utter neglect of all the best interests of both themselves and their families. If the subject of religion be made the topic of conversation, as it often happens in tippling companies, it is in general only that it may be laughed at, or treated with the most bitter and hearty contempt. Hap pily there are many exceptions to this too general rule, and these exceptions are increasing; bat even here there is much cause for regret, because, although the minds of many are being instructed in useful sciences, the noblest and the most valua ble of all sciences, that of religion, is either totally neglected, or despised and discarded. Yet it were not difficult to shew that, whatever branch of knowledge is either hostile to this pre-eminent science, or in no way sanctioned by it, is, to the full extent of this hostility or want of sanction, defective in the power of compassing the only proper end of all true knowledge, that of training the human mind for genuine usefulness in this life, and, indirectly at least, for the felicitous avo cations of that which is to come" (Memoirs of a working Man-second part). CATECHISMS.-It was to take away every pretence that the early reformers of our church had no definite religious principles, and for the still more important purpose of supplying all classes with a plain comment of true doctrine, with a copious reference to holy scripture for the proof of every proposition, that dean Nowel was engaged to compose his catechism. It was presented to convocation in the year 1562, and "unani mously approved and allowed" by the lower house; and the intention appears to have been to give to this book, and to bishop Jewel's "Apology," an authority similar to that of the thirty-nine articles of religion, by uniting them in one volume, which should be set forth as containing the true doctrine of the church of England. This inten tion was not carried out; but the synod of 1603 has given to the catechism all the authority with which that body could invest them; for there is no doubt they are referred to in the 79th canon, which directs" that all schoolmasters shall teach in English and Latin, as the children are able to hear, the larger or shorter catechism hereto fore by public authority set forth." The value of Nowel's labours may be estimated, not only from the preceding mention of them, but from a statute made at Oxford, in 1578, which contains the fol lowing expressions: "For the extirpation of heresy, of whatever kind, and for the instruction of youth in true piety, we appoint and assign the reading of these books, viz., the catechism of to be influenced by the power of the gospel on their hearts, and desirous, in God's hands, of being the instruments of bringing souls to the knowledge of Christ. Indeed, to seek out and train such men for the service of a church which is the great bulwark of protestantism-men who shall live the gospel," as well as " preach the gospel," are the objects for which the society exists. I observe, in its last report, that the benefactions and subscriptions from the 30th June, 1850, to 30th June, 1851, amounted to £1,003, of which £503 had been expended on the education of students: a balance of £521 remained in hand, the greater part of which is pledged for educational expenses, shortly to be paid. -- Alexander Nowel", &c., &c. Archbishop Parker, too, in conjunction with the bishops of his province, enjoined upon all schoolmasters the exclusive use of Nowel's catechism, both in Latin and English. Archbishop Grindal, the founder of the school at St. Bees', in 1583, also directed that no other catechisms than those of Nowel should be used there. Archbishop Whitgift testifies of this catechism: "I know no man so well learned, but it may become him to read and learn that necessary book ;" and as late as the year 1687, dean Aldrich writes: "When the sense of the church of England was the question, one would have expected to hear what the church catechism says, what the homilies, what Nowel's catechism-books allowed and published by the IRELAND. The islands of Inniskea, on the church's authority, and authentic witnesses of her north-west coast of the county of Mayo, are thus judgment." Truth being the same in all ages, spoken of, in a communication from a gentleman and the principles of the church of England being in the neighbourhood to the earl of Roden: "They the same, blessed be God, as in the days of Grin- form the northern point of entrance to Blacksod dal, Parker, and Whitgift, and ignorance of the Bay, are inhabited by a population of 380 hutruth of God and the principles of their church man beings, who support themselves chiefly by being both a reproach and a snare to the young fishing and the produce of their potato plots: as well as the adult, I cannot but earnestly com- the most infirm and indigent deriving their prinmend to the heads of families and seminaries, no cipal subsistence from shell-fish and sea-weed. less than to all inquiring Christians and churchmen They all speak the Irish language, and among in our land and its colonies, the cheap reprints of them is a trace of that government by chiefs, these catechisms which have lately been published which in former times existed in Ireland. The by the Prayer Book and Homily Society. "They present chief, or king of Inniskea, is an intelwill be found an invaluable aid towards a know-ligent peasant, named 'Cain.' His authority is ledge of divine truth, and the formation of sincere and enlightened members of our apostolical church. I may add that the last portion of the catechism in the book of common prayer, viz., that on the sacraments, has evidently been taken from Nowel's catechisms. Such a work as this is peculiarly suited to an age like ears, when Romanism and infidelity, with their pioneers are bestirring themselves with so wicked an activity to seduce both young and old from the faith once delivered to the saints'; a faith at once the glory of our beloved country, and the corner-stone of its piety and great Bess." CLERICAL EDUCATION AID FUND.-The obeet of this fund, which was instituted in 1845, is to increase the efficiency of the established church, by adding to the number of its ordained nisters, in the education of young men, destitate of adequate pecuniary means, whose decided piety, natural talents, desire of being employed in the ministry, and attachment to the principles of the church, afford grounds of hope that they will prove, under God's blessing and the fostering hand of Christian patronage, able ministers of the New Testament. The total number of young men whom the committee have undertaken to educate since the commencement of the institution is 31; of whom 20 have received ordination, and 2 are ready for ordination. From 2 only have the committee found it necessary to withdraw their aid. In those who have been ordained and are dow labouring in different spheres, the committee eve not been disappointed; and they thank God or the privilege afforded the institution of being strumental in qualifying twenty of that band a small one in every age, whose hearts the Lord has touched-whom he has constrained to give themselves to the work of the ministry; young men of sound evangelical principles, who appear universally acknowledged, and the settlement of all disputes is referred to his decision. But his people are indeed a wild race; skilled only in the semi-barbarous customs of their forefathers. Occasionally they have been visited by wandering schoolmasters; but so short and casual have such visits been, that there are not ten individuals who ever knew the letters of any language. To this dark spot the light of the gospel has never been permanently extended, and, save during the few and necessarily short visits of the clergymen of the parish, seldom have they heard of eternal life as the free gift of God through Jesus Christ; and even these visits were unprofitable, from their total ignorance of English. Though nominally Roman-catholics, these islanders have no priest resident among them: they know nothing of the tenets of their church, and their worship consists in occasional meetings at their chief's house, with visits to a holy well, called in their native tongue, Derivla.' Gloomy as is the description already given of this people, there is yet a darker shade to be unfolded. Here the absence of religion is filled with the open practice of pagan idolatry, as fearful to contemplate as that prevalent on the banks of the Ganges. In the south island, in the house of a man named Merrigan, a stone idol, called in the Irish Neevongi," has been from time inmemorial religiously preserved and worshipped. This god in appearance resembles a thick roll of homespun flannel, which arises from the custom of dedicating a dress of that material to it whenever its aid is sought: this is sowed on by an old woman, its priestess, whose peculiar care it is. Of the early history of this idol no authentic information can be procured; but its power is believed to be immense: they pray to it in time of sickness: it is invoked when a storm is desired to dash some helpless ship upon the coast; and again, the exercise of its power is solicited in calming the angry waves, to admit of fishing, or visiting the main land". .. "Such is a brief outline of the melancholy state of this portion of the west of Ireland: it speaks too forcibly to an enlightened community to need comment; it forms, too, a powerful appeal to the sympathies and principles of every Christian to aid in cleansing the stain of heathenism from our shores. I find that on the mainland in this parish there are but three scripture-readers among a population of 6,000 and upwards. No instance, I have been told, has been found in this district of admittance being refused, or attention withheld, to the reading of the word of God. There are upwards of 400 convinced of error in popery, who discuss its tenets among themselves, and crowd the houses entered by the readers, and the rev. Mr. Hewson, the rector of the parish, to listen to the exposition of gospel truth. Mr. H. informs me he has had two such meetings during the past month, attended by 124 individuals. There are four scripture schools, attended by 230 Roman-catholic children. So anxious are they for instruction that no priestly intimidation suffices to keep this little | band away; neither have they at any time received any food or other inducement to ensure their attendance. I find a scripture-reader has been sent to Inniskea to reside; and, though his position is hazardous, he is prudently and zealously making known the blessed gospel from the scriptures to these poor heathen" ("Progress of the Reformation in Ireland." By the earl of Roden. 1852). that "those are not to be called oaths, but rather perjuries, which are taken contrary to ecclesiastical utility, and the institutions of the fathers." Cardinal Wiseman repudiates the idea that Rome interferes in temporal things; but what says Reiffenstuel, a high Maynooth authority? "In every promissory oath, however absolutely made, certain tacit conditions are understood: for instance, where an oath is deemed unlawful, because it cannot be kept consistently with the honour of the apostolic see."" We ask the salaried president of Maynooth college, what of an oath of alle giance to the heretical queen Victoria? Is such an oath consistent with the honour of the Roman see?" The same Reiffenstuel inquires, "Are vassals, and servants, and others freed from any private (individual) obligation due to an heretic, and from keeping faith with him?" Answer: "Yes: all are so, by the clear ordering of the law" (Decret. Tit. vii. sec. vii. quest. 6). Nay; the code of the canon law enacts that "they are freed from the debt of fidelity and all obedience to man, whosoever is bound by any sort of covenant, though fortified by any sort of affirmation whatsoever, to such as are manifestly lapsed into heresy." Also: "He, who vows anything to a heretic, by way of purchase, promise, exchange, pledge, deposit, loan, or any other contract, is, ipso facto, free from the obligation, and is not bound to keep his promise, bargain, or contract, or plighted faith, even though sworn, to a heretic." Hence the true Romanist knows full well that an oath of allegiance or fidelity to the British sovereign or laws, is no oath at all; and that his obligations to any protestant, however solemnly contracted, is at the very moment of contracting them null and void. May the God of truth open the eyes of the British parliament to the duty of casting away the sin of fostering such teachings as those with whica our dear sister-country is accursed. H. S. MAYNOOTH COLLEGE.-As we sow, so must we reap we have sown the seeds of a spiritual and temporal pestilence in Ireland, and we are now reaping the fruit of its matured desolation. We speak of that which we know; and the reader may know as much, if he will again search with us into the standards by which its alumni are trained. It has been shown that protestant Britons are held to be rebel-members of the Roman church, and liable to all the tender dealings of its canon laws. Let us now inquire into its enactments concerning "oaths." The learned Bailly tells us, that a promissory oath obliges, under the penalty of mortal sin, to do Minister of Trinity Church, Gough Square, Fleit. that which is promised' in the oath, provided no legitimate cause excuseth" ("Moral Theology,' vol. ii. p. 117). Now, one absolving cause, tacitly and silently understood, is "the intention of the SKETCHES. BY THE REV. DENIS KELLY, M.A., street. No. XLVIII. swearer;" and one condition is, "saving the right THE PHILOSOPHER OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. of another;" in other words, of the pope, and the swearer, bishop, or priest. The superior (that is, the general of all the monkish orders), can va lidly, even without cause alleged, make void the oaths of all subject to him. This is quite in harmony with Bailly's affirmation, that "there is in the church a power of dispensing with vows and oaths" (p. 140), namely, for the benefit of the church. When there exists a doubt, any bishop can grant a dispensation from an oath." When his holiness the pope too determines that an oath, manifestly lawful and useful, is not to be kept, the swearer is absolved, because something occurs to be done for the common good; and an oath can be made void by a person placed over the swearer, if it regard things subject to that person's jurisdiction. All this is but a sequence of the sixteenth canon of the third Lateran council, which declares A daring infidel (and such there are Of all earth's madmen most deserves a chain." YOUNG. THE philosopher of the nineteenth century differs materially from those who claimed the title in former ages. The attributes and characteristics of the philosopher of old were profound thought, strong, clear, acute reasoning powers, learned investigations, discoveries in the field of science, the enlarging of the boundaries of human knowledge, &c. But these qualities are now compensated by a splendid self-conceit, by a noble disdain of all revered names and authorities, by a magnanimous self-reliance, by an admirable flippancy, by a most vivid imagination, by a fine talent for effect, and by a railway rapidity and telegraphic celerity in rushing to conclusions. The great constituent for the philosopher, now-a-days, is to form a mean and despicable opinion of human nature; to get into his head the notion that all mankind have been, up to these enlightened times, a poor, weak, deluded herd, misled by popular errors, enslaved by vulgar prejudices all blinded, besotted, incapable of reasoning; that the subjects which have most awakened their reverence and awe, and most engrossed their thoughts and affections, have been popular de lusions. He must learn to sit apart from them, as it were, on an elevated height, wrapped up in his own profound wisdom, and look upon mankind at large as a poor deluded multitude; himself only endued with powers of perception, he only having his eyes opened to see the errors by which millions have been led astray. The subjects which have commanded the veneration of the greatest and profoundest minds which have ever shed lustre upon the world, he is to regard as mere delusions*. If it be objected, "Is it likely that men who were so vastly their superiors in acuteness, penetration, and force of intellect, men that even their own exorbitant self-conceit could hardly aspire to an equality with, should be so easily duped?" they are not embarrassed by the inquiry. They have a ready answer. They, in the plenitude of their wisdom, have discovered that these were the lamentable weaknesses which are sometimes found in great minds, and melancholy proofs of the influence of education, of first impressions, and of early prejudices-weaknesses which they have been able magnanimously to cast off. The characteristic of the philosopher of ancient times was an earnest desire and thirst for greater light than unassisted reason afforded him; a deep conviction of its limited power, and its inadequacy to lead him into the knowledge of those truths and mysteries which it most concerned man to be made acquainted with. The constant cry and complaint of a Socrates and a Plato, &c., was for "more light." They went so far as to assert that, except the Supreme Being, the ruler of the world, would in some way interpose, they saw no hope of any moral reformation in the state of mankindt. Many prophets and wise men desired to see the things which ye see, and to hear *Thus, e. g., a celebrated poet of modern times thought to convince us, by a musical couplet, that the whole world had for ages been the dupes of a wretched delusion in believing m the doctrine of the resurrection of the body. "Look on its ruined arch," &c. "Can all saint, sage, or sophist ever writ, People the lonely tow'r, the tenement refit." Prodigious reasoning! And this from a man who, however great he may have been as a poet, was confessedly contemptible as a reasoner. Again: a modern French philosopher has openly, daringly, and thrasonically proclaimed his disbelief in the existce of a God, and has produced the unanswerable argument, Bow first brought forward after six thousand years, which is to startle us all from our delusions and to enlighten our darkess: "I deny," he says, "that there is a God. If there be God, let him show himself; let him prove it." To which mighty argument the best reply, probably, that could be given, would be in an expressive monosyllable, Bah! The well-known saying of one of them was, "That there could not be reformation unless God would take flesh." those things which ye hear, annd have not heard them." But the characteristic of the modern philosopher is a contempt for the superior light which they so longed for. He would fain go back from the light which God has given us from heaven (and which has made subjects clear as noon-day which had been involved in thickest night to them) to the light of unaided reason. He contemns the light from heaven, whilst he deifies the light of reason. Intellect is his god now. To the unassisted efforts of the human mind he attributes a power, a virtue, which they, who in former times possessed these powers in the highest degree, were never able to discover. Enlightened reason, according to the modern sages, is to accomplish every thing for man. It is to deliver him from the thraldom of errors which have enslaved him for centuries. It is to take off the incubus which has rested on him and prevented him from rising up to the true height of his moral being. The modern philosophers seem, however, to have forgotten one obvious fact-that this supposed allpotent reason has kindled its torch at the altar of revelation, and that, if all which it has borrowed from revelation, without acknowledgment, were given back, it would be a dim taper indeed. But human intellect, reason, is the idol of these men. To it they ascribe enormous power. Upon the wings of reason men are to soar to loftiest heights, and penetrate into deepest mysteries of the universe, to unravel "the cause of all things." To its efforts man must be indebted for every step he advances towards the perfection of his moral being and happiness. Reason is to be the great regenerator of mankind. These profound men, so superior to all the vulgar prejudices and weaknesses and superstitions of mankind, can speak of the religious world, of Christianity, as they would of some obsolete act of parliament, or an old almanac, or a musty record. It was intended to last a certain term of years. It has nearly run its course. It has had its day, and we must have done with it. The human mind has outgrown its trammels. It now seeks for something different. There is an impatient thirsting after a new kind of religion. What it is to be they cannot exactly tell. But that does not signify. The very dimness and obscurity and mystification, which hangs over the subject, only makes it the better theme for poesy and impassioned sentimental oratory. It might be supposed that one obvious objection which would that the strongest and clearest intellects which occur to the mind would be, "Is it not strange ever enlightened the world should have been so easily duped and gulled for so many centuries by this religion?" of which they can speak with such magnanimous scorn. But these superior men are not in any way disconcerted by this objection. Lifted above all the weaknesses and fears of humanity, they can look down with pity on what they deem their weaknesses; for no men, it must be admitted, ever surpassed these moderns in the utter scorn with which they can look down on all which we, the vulgar, unreasoning herd, respect and venerate. None ever excelled them in finding fault with things as they are. None ever so bravely pulled down. No such levellers! This we admit. The only quarrel we have with |