way sanguine as to the quantum of good that will result from this episcopal movement. As it regards the increase of Bishops in our colonies, the more largely delegating of almost irresponsible power, is very questionable. At home, there is a salutary control: public opinion and a vigilant Parliament will prevent any arbitrary and tyrannical exercise of authority. But it is not so abroad: a Bishop is absolute; and if he be influenced by the semipopery of the day, or any other heterodoxy, the mischief is incalculable. Our colonies, at this moment, are suffering a fearful blight, not only from the unevangelizing influences of Bishops who are themselves Tractarian, but where this is not the case, from the influence upon them and others, of chaplains and officials who are decidedly so.

We do not mean to say, that we have no confidence in the present ministry for making safe and cautious appointments, to the utmost of their power on the contrary, if there be one point on which Lord John Russell seems to have gained our confidence it is this. The two last elevations to the bench do him infinite credit: better men could not have possibly been selected for the episcopate; and, indeed, of late years, the Whigs have been far more satisfactory in their appointments than the Conservatives, for which our Church owes them a tribute of gratitude. We hope the day is gone by when worn-out schoolmasters, or the junior branches of nobility, eligible only on political considerations, will be the feeders of the episcopate.

We hope, too, the same with regard to heads of colleges, and professors. Of all men in the church, they are least acquainted, practically, with what can efficiently form the episcopal character; and, from their habits in a long college residence, must necessarily be wanting in that energy and decision which are so essential for such an office.

But in contemplating the increase of Bishops, we confess that we have another difficulty. We have long been convinced that the English episcopate, to be thoroughly effective, must undergo an entire reform, as it

respects the worldliness and dignity which it presents in society. Here is a grand evil, and one of the most indefensible remnants of popery; the charge of which, on the part of the enemies of our Church, we are constrained to hear in silence and in sorrow. The pride of life and magnificent splendour of many of our Bishops are notorious. Vying, as they do, with the first nobility of the land in the splendour of their entertainments, the retinue of powdered lacqueys, &c.; they only excite their jealousy and cutting sarcasms, and thus alienate from the church, as so unbecomingly represented, those who have the wish to be its supporters. And if a Bishop is well known to be more interested in his hunters than his clergy, or to have been in haste to add to his already abundant accumulations by railway speculations; if every thing that is sacred and justly clerical is thus allowed to merge in the entire man of the world, the orthodoxy or the energy of triennial charges will do little indeed.

It may be said, that it is impossible to guard against individual instances of unworthy character, and we readily concede it; but we maintain that the system is faulty; and that the Bishops are in error in supposing that such a degree of worldly dignity and conformity is essential. We do not for a moment say that this is the case with all. Happily there have ever been honourable exceptions, but they are only the exceptions-few, and rare. The system is faulty. It is a mistaken notion that such a system is indispensable in order to maintain a due position in society. This is not the way to gain the respect of the world. Let a Bishop try another course. Let him seek to gain an influence by weight of character; let him look, not only for his credentials but his spirit, his model, his pattern, to the records of Scriptural episcopacy; let him aim at the mind which was in Christ Jesus, the chief Shepherd; and, like him, be willing to be the servant of all, instead of lording it over God's heritage; and then the episcopate will put forth its proper light, a burning as well as a shining light, not only directing but encou

raging the clergy to cultivate the spirit of genuine Christianity; and thus diffusing through the laity a healthful and blessed influence.

Another happy consequence of this abstractedness from the world, and becoming simplicity, would be that of making the Bishops more accessible to the poorest of their clergy. A Bishop should, of all men, be the most easy of access, and specially so to those who most require his succour and sympathy. But, alas! how often is he engrossed by the hangers on, and flatterers, and dignitaries, in the neighbourhood, who willingly sacrifice every thing to their servility, and are rewarded by securing to themselves the Bishop's patronage.

How often, if the Bishop is kind and condescending to the clergy, are they repulsed and deprived of beneficial intercourse with him, by the hauteur and cold reserve, if not the absolute rudeness, of the members of his family! A simpler and more Scriptural system would put an end to all this fictitious and unseemly consequence, which too often seems to say to a poor curate, "stand by, for I am holier than thou." And thus, an important barrier would be removed out of the way of a free and proper intercourse between the clergy and their diocesan. Again and again have we heard clergymen declare, that they had met with that reception at the Palace which had made them resolve never to set foot in it again.

We may rest assured that the times are coming, when the Church of England will need all that she can muster in the way of defensibility. She is strong in her Scriptural Articles, her constitution, her worship; but if she is to stand her ground, she must be strong in the character of her administrators. When tongues are let loose, and men's mouths are open ready to devour, it is not the pomp and pageantry and pride of life which can form the shield and strength of her leaders; it must be the sanctity of the hierarchy, which will lead the enemies of our establishment to falter

and to pause, before, in their inveterate hate, they cry out, "down, down with it, even to the ground."

Public opinion, through all the grades of society, from the highest to the lowest, will uphold and protect a working, heavenly-minded, holy, condescending, almsgiving Bishop.

We are aware that it is almost impossible for the position of our Bishops in the House of Lords not to engender the spirit and the system we are deprecating; but if the two are inseparable, if the Bishops feel that they cannot be kept from vying with their compeers in the pomp and pride of life, then we hesitate not to say that, rather than such a beauty of episcopal simplicity should not break forth upon our Church, to form her highest ornament, and to impart the most important influence amongst laity as well as clergy, and to make her indeed a praise throughout the earth; rather than forego what we feel to be a most essential benefit, we could consent to see the Bishops without seats in the House of Lords, beyond three or four as the representatives of the Church.

We meet on all sides with a rapidly extending opinion that on all accounts it would be more for the interests of religion, throughout the dioceses, if the Bishops had not the present necessity for leaving them for so long a period in the year; and if any other argument were needed to bring us to the same opinion, beyond that which we have already stated, it would be the conviction that the Bishops have rarely been of that service in Parliament which they might have been. Their votes have frequently, of late, been very unsatisfactory. There has often been a sad want of moral courage in the support of vital and essential points, while the Bishops have had largely to do with some of the most obnoxious and oppressive laws of the realm.

May the Great Head of the Church give wisdom in these difficult days; and may our beloved Church, in the eventide of her existence, glow with increasing light !

He was one of the most constant and not least devout worshippers of God within these walls. And one of the latest acts of his life was, with a delicacy and modesty peculiarly his own, to make your honoured pastor acquainted with the fact that it was to him, under God, he was indebted for that knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, which had so long been his stay and peace in health, and was then his solace and joy in sickness and affliction. After he had communicated this gratifying intelligence to your pastor, he remarked that "he hoped he had not done wrong,' adding that "he knew clergymen had enough to try them, and he thought it right not to withhold what might encourage them." And he judged wisely. I cannot doubt but that it will prove a great encouragement to your pastor and to you-to him, inasmuch as it affords him direct proof that the Lord is among you, bearing fresh testimony to the word of His grace to you, inasmuch as it affords you direct and palpable proof that the words you hear from your pastor's APRIL-1847.

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lips are not cunningly devised fables, but the words of life, which, from the first, the Ministers of Christ were commanded to speak in the ears of the people.

Under such circumstances, I feel that we are called upon with more than usual solemnity and, perhaps, with more than usual minuteness to recal to our minds the example of our brother who is gone before us, not that I am about to eulogize or to flatter, nor yet to gratify an undue curiosity; but simply and soberly to stir up our minds by way of remembrance, that we may in our several vocations glorify our God and Saviour, and be followers of him, even as our beloved brother was.

From a child he was of a thoughtful and devotional turn of mind-yet having no lovely view of God as a Father reconciled in Christ. In his youth, he was accustomed to attend divine service at the parish church in this town; and in after years, he used to speak with regret of his ill behaviour there. He was like many youths-light and trifling when he

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ought to have given heed to the things belonging to his peace. He was naturally of quick parts of an amiable temper of a cheerful and playful disposition-perhaps too much inclined to be satirical. He was a lover of truth, to which he rigidly adhered. His own mother could always depend on him, and his affection for her was unvarying. It is not, however, my intention to trace the earlier part of his career, but rather to point out to you—

The PRINCIPLES by which he was influenced, and

The PRACTICES by which he was distinguished in later life, after he became a Christian indeed.

Those PRINCIPLES appear to me to have been two

1. He had a profound knowledge of the nature and evil of sin. He did not gloss it over or cover it up, but dragged it to light-his own sin first and most. He felt it as an offence against God, and he lamented that he did not feel it more deeply. He longed to loathe every sin, and he did loathe himself on account of his own sin before God. It is true to say of him that he did not judge of himself by comparing himself with other men, but he compared himself with the requirements of God's holy law. By measuring himself by this perfect standard-he saw and felt, truly and really, his short comings and misdoings. Grace was given him so to look in the glass of God's law as to see its unsullied purity, and his inexcusable sin. This led him to a true knowledge of himself, and this again led him not to rest till he attained a true knowledge of the Saviour.

The 2nd principle was this:He had a lively faith in the atonement of Christ Jesus our Lord. Perhaps few men ever felt more deeply the necessity of an atonement to take away sin. He constantly spoke of this as a work beyond the power of man, or of all men to achieve. No man could, by any means, redeem his brother, or give to God a ransom for his soul. None but Christ, God and man-one Christ,—could take away sin. In a few memoranda which it has been my privilege to look over, I find him at one time saying, “I sincerely desire to glorify God in my

body and my spirit, but I find it a difficult matter. If we were rewarded according to our deserts, and we had no better righteousness than our own to depend on, we should surely none of us see life.”

At another time, "What a privilege it is to have an interest in the sympathies and prayers of a Christian friend! But how much higher is the privilege of having an interest in the atonement of Him who is emphatically the sinner's friend. O may I feel this more and more!"

So far our dear friend appears to me to have been enabled, like one of old, to say, "My sin is ever before me;" for he beheld it as committed against his God, and as involving, if unrepented of and unforgiven, his own destruction. But this was not all; he could also say, with the Psalmist, "I have set the Lord always before me;" for he beheld Jesus, the taker away of his sin, he saw in his offering a full, perfect, sufficient satisfaction and oblation for the sins of the whole world, and this gave him peace a peace the world could not give him, and blessed be God, a peace which none could take away.

But I proceed to call your attention

TO THE PRACTICES BY WHICH HE WAS DISTINGUISHED.

Mark, 1st. His constancy in the use of all private and public means of grace.

At one time I find he was in the habit of praying to God four times a-day; but latterly, as his practice increased, and his engagements multiplied, five times a-day he was closeted with his God. This was the secret of his strength-of his consistency. Here he filled his quiver with arrows, and nerved his arm with strength, to fight against the world, the flesh, and the devil.

His plan was to read the Scriptures through in order, and to read them the first thing every day, in his own study. Thus did he come within the range of that precious promise, "Them that honour me, I will honour."

His attendance in this Church was most constant. It was a real grief to him when duty called him away. He did not suffer trifles to hinder him, and often expressed his sorrow when

'a fall of snow" or "heavy rain” kept others away, lamenting that such trifles were sufficient to keep many back from the privilege, to use his own words, of "hearing a Gospel minister repeatedly again and again unfolding the blessings and wonders of the better covenant;" "but oh," he adds, "what a fearful responsibility is connected with that privilege."

Many of you, too, will remember him at the Supper of the Lord. From the time of his establishment in the faith of Christ, he always looked upon that Supper as a privilege to be highly valued. He considered it " an important means of grace which no Christian can slight or wilfully and habitually neglect;" and after one such privilege, he records the prayer, "Oh that I may be finally admitted to drink new wine in the everlasting kingdom of my Redeemer." We may not doubt, brethren, but that at this moment he receives the answer to that prayer.

I must not here omit to notice, that he acted upon a fixed determination to honour the Sabbath.

And in his profession, this was a difficulty. The thoughtlessness of patients and their friends, is often strikingly exemplified in their conduct to medical men as to Sunday. Many, intentionally, postpone their application to them till that morning. Many more refuse to let the day pass without a visit from them, although there may be no real or imagined urgency in their case. Such conduct is exceedingly sinful. We have no right to rob a medical man of his day of rest. If there is danger, a reasonably apprehended danger, then we may ask their help, but not else. My beloved friend has more than once said to me, "You know I shall not come on Sunday, even though I might go to church with you. I am no wanderer, and especially I do not wander on Sundays."

On one occasion he was applied to on Sunday, to state what fees were due for professional services, but he refused-and thus records-"I took the liberty to remind him that this was not the proper day for making such enquiries."

And again, “I think the duties of the Sabbath cannot be neglected with impunity. The Sabbath is not a weariness, but a delight to me."

Allow me, my brethren, to ask of you to forbear all application to your medical men on Sundays, except in urgent necessity, and to decline their visits on that day.

2. His careful discharge of the relative duties of life.

Our brother was no out-door Christian, but an in-door Christian. He shone brightest at home. He yearned over his own family and immediate relatives with a truly parental solicitude. "Oh,” he says, "how exceedingly I should rejoice to see them all brought to the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus."

3. His diligence in his own professional pursuits.

"My desire is sedulously to cultivate my profession." "It is my anxious desire to be qualified in every sense for the discharge of my duties," are his words. He read much-he thought more. In the last year he was elected President of the Medical Association, and I believe he was the youngest man who had ever had that honour conferred upon him.

He was aware how fashionable it is become to suppose that a medical man can have no time to be religious --but he detected this falsehood, and loved to quote to himself and others, the examples of such men as Dr. Hope, Dr. Abercrombie, and Mr. Hey of Leeds, in proof of the fact that there is no incompatibility between the attainment of the very highest degree of medical science, and the exercise of Christian faith and practice.