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face of the earth; and, moreover, it is lawful for it to use all available means for the extinction of Protestantism.

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Now, then, we shall hear no more, we trust, of the changed and comparatively innocuous character of Popery. The liberalism of the age has manifested itself most grievously in this channel; and all the sanction and support given to the endowing and upholding of the Papacy, have originated in the influence of this spurious liberalism : Popery is not what it once was-the Catholics of the present day are ashamed of the bloody deeds of Queen Mary”— Thus, in high circles, as well as lower, we have lately been accustomed to hear men talk; and no wonder that the result of such sentiments should be the measures adopted and contemplated in favour of Popery. But, now, we trust that the eyes of such mistaken liberalists will be opened, and that by the announcement of the Papists themselves: yes, and of those who stand at an infinite distance from John of Tuam, and have ever been considered as the mildest and least bigoted of our Roman Catholic aristocracy.

We cannot but regard the rejection of the Relief Bill, and the important debates upon it, as a bright ray from heaven, indicating perhaps the merciful relentings towards our sinful nation of Him who has been pleased with the penitent turning of His people; of Him who has all hearts in his hands, and can turn them as seemeth best to his godly wisdom, and has thus marvellously turned the hearts of our senators, causing our foes to be our most efficient friends, and thus laying a more sure and hopeful foundation for the establishment and advancement of Protestant Truth.

And shall we not hope that there is something more than a casual coincidence in this parliamentary development, just on the eve of a general election? Will not the Protestant constituency, to a man, have their eyes opened to the evils against which they are called to exert their influence?

The Papists have publicly avowed, that they aim at nothing less than the entire extinction of Protestantism.

Then must not the question be put to every candidate for our votes"Will you directly or indirectly give your support to any measures which are proposed for the endowment or upholding of Popery, or for the relaxing of existing Acts of Parliament, which at present protect our Protestant constitution from its encroachments ?"

The times demand that every other matter should merge in this. No excellence of private character, no personal attachment, no unwearied and valuable efforts in other important objects must be allowed to influence the choice of our future representatives in parliament.

As Protestantism becomes extinct, we may depend upon it the dearest interests, not merely of morality and religion, but civilization and liberty, of every social and relative blessing become extinct also.

God be praised for the healthier tone of public feeling for which we now see the materials so unexpectedly furnished; and as He has in mercy directed, we trust, the great councils of the nation, so may he overrule the movements of the approaching elections for the furtherance of his own glory, and the best interests of the British Empire!

LORD MORPETH'S

It is not fair to deduce a public man's opinion on a grave and solemn question, from some casual expressions in a speech reported in the newspapers; but, at the present moment, latitudinarian principles on religious subjects are so prevalent in high quarters, that we cannot refrain from quoting a

SPEECH AT YORK.

passage from the above named amiable nobleman's recent speech at the annual meeting of the Yorkshire Yeoman School, which we have read with regret. We trust that either the report in the Times is incorrect, or that we have misapprehended his lordship's meaning.

After noticing various objections to the Goverment scheme of education, Lord Morpeth proceeds to state, as his own reasons for supporting it—

"It is because I know that out of the pale of the church, beyond the limits of the denominations, there is a vast destitute neglected mass, festering in our streets and alleys, with every sight and sound of contamination, choking the accesses to every sense, without any sense of duty to earth or to heaven, upon whom no word of instruction ever falls-upon whom no breath of love ever settlesthese unclaimed by Lambeth, unknown to Geneva, unconverted by Rome, I would invite-I almost wish, I could compel to come in—(Applause)—I do not so much care to which fold, so that there was a hope of teaching them that man is their brother, and that "God is love."—(Renewed applause.)

That there are such forlorn outcasts as Lord Morpeth describes, is alas! too true; but it is not correct to say, that the Church of England does not claim them, as the words "unclaimed by Lambeth" would seem to imply. If the noble Lord will refer to the Church Pastoral Aid Society's Report, he will see how earnestly the Church longs to extend the offices and instruction of religion to the most destitute districts of our country, and that she is withheld from doing so only by the want of pecuniary means. The fault is not that of the Church in neglecting to claim, but of her members, who will not supply the funds to enable her to claim with effect.

By "Geneva," we presume are symbolized the Evangelical Dissenters; and had the noble lord stopped

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The three " 'folds" to which the noble Lord had just been adverting, are, 1. The Church of England, 2. The Evangelical Dissenters, and 3. The Church of Rome. And the concluding remarks would seem to imply, that Lord Morpeth does not so much care whether one of the poor outcasts of whom he has been speaking become a Protestant or a Romanist, provided there be a hope of teaching him that "man is his brother, and 'God is love." "

A code of divinity so meagre would be assented to only by a Socinian. The grand doctrines of Redemption are wholly unnoticed : were such outcasts taught nothing else than a cold sentimental divinity like this, they might become more enlightened in intellect, but just on that account the more remote from God. The Gospel of Christ must not be diluted, not be kept in the background. True morality can be founded only on the Gospel, and no theory can be tolerated by a Christian which implies their independent existance. There must be no sentimentalism on religious subjects. If the Gospel be true, then every principle in religion or morality must be regulated by a strict recognition of its precepts. What God has ordained of chiefest importance, must never be placed in the background.

DR. CANDLISH.

THE following passage occurs in Dr. Candlish's speech on the Government scheme of Education, before the Free Church Presbytery of Edinburgh, on the 7th April. After generally expressing approval of the scheme, he proceeds to say, as reported in the Scotsman newspaper

"No doubt there was a consider

able practicable difficulty in the case, from the monstrous anomaly that existed in England, namely, a church, which, according to the constitution, must of necessity be recognized by any government as Protestant and Evangelical; but which, in point of fact, according to its practical working, was on the side of Popery, very

nearly, if not entirely. There was a similar and corresponding difficulty in Scotland, only less in proportion to the infinitely less power and smaller influence of the Scottish Establishment."

We believe Dr. Candlish to be a good man; and we quote the above passage from his speech, only to express our deep regret, that he should have made remarks so justly offensive to members of the Established Churches of England and Scotland.

We, of the Church of England, are at a loss to divine to what Dr. Candlish refers, when he speaks of the "monstrous anomaly" which he imputes to us. Is he referring to the Tractarian party amongst us? Then why impute to us collectively charges which belong properly only to a small, though active, portion of the church? We defy him to prove that the Church of England "is, in its practical working, on the side of Popery, very nearly, if not entirely.” We cannot call these expressions other than calumnious.

But, if the Church of England has reason to complain of Dr. Candlish's expressions, what are we to think of their intense and undeserved bitterness as applied to the Scottish establishment?

How can the doctor, by any process of ingenuity, fix a charge of favouring Popery upon the establishment in Scotland? He may, as a conscientious Presbyterian, as we believe him to be, object to our

episcopal order and liturgy; but he can have no such objections to the Scottish establishment. The Free Church and the Establishment use precisely the same formularies, the same discipline. There can be nothing, therefore, in the standards of the Establishment which the doctor considers as shewing a leaning to Popery; and we never heard of any act of the Kirk authorities, either before or after the secession, which could by possibility be twisted to support a charge so grave.

We will not quarrel with Dr. Candlish for telling us our faults. The Church of England no doubt has faults-as every church has—and we will gladly listen to a Christian remonstrance from the doctor, or any one else of our Scottish brethren. But let the remonstrance be made in calm and temperate language. Let it be founded on well authenticated facts, not on vague and sweeping generalities. Let the doctor recollect that he is not merely a minister of the Free Church, but a member of the Catholic Church of Christ: and if he believes us to be his fellow-Christians, let him treat us as such, anxious indeed to correct our faults as a friend and a brother, but not to expose and abuse us as an enemy.

Oh! for more of the spirit of love in the church-the spirit of tender, considerate Christian charity; from the want of which, theological controversy has too often become a byword to the world.

NOTICE TO CORRESPONDENTS.

The Editor is greatly disturbed to find that his monthly parcel for April failed to be in London in due time. He assures his readers that the fault was entirely in the unwarrantable detention of the parcel on the Railway.

The Editor will always be thankful to hear from "X."

"Arne" quite too long for insertion.-Received, "R. C., of E."

THE CHRISTIAN GUARDIAN,

AND

CHURCH OF ENGLAND MAGAZINE.

JUNE, 1847.

THE LATE REV. CHARLES SIMEON.

MR. SIMEON having accidentally heard that a friend had made some remarks upon his habit of giving expression to his religious feelings in "sighs and groans," as if it indicated that "all was not right in his experience," drew up the following paper :—

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CIRCUMSTANCES OF MY INWARD EXPERIENCE.

'It is now a little above forty years, since I began to seek after God; and within about three months of that time, after much humiliation and prayer, I found peace through the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world. About half-a-year after that, I had some doubts and fears about my state, in consequence of an erroneous notion which I had imbibed from Mr. Hervey about the nature of saving faith. But when I found, from better information, that justifying faith was a faith of affiance, and not a faith of assurance, my peace returned; because, though I had not a faith of assurance, I had as full a conviction that I relied on the Lord Jesus Christ alone for salvation, as I had of my own existence. From that time to the present hour, I have never for a moment lost my hope and confidence in my adorable Saviour; for though, alas! I have had deep and abundant cause for humiliation, I have never ceased to wash in that fountain that was opened for sin and uncleanness, or to cast myself on the tender mercy of my reconciled God. JUNE-1847.

"With this sweet hope of ultimate acceptance with God, I have always enjoyed much cheerfulness before men; but I have, at the same time, laboured incessantly to cultivate the deepest humiliation before God. I have never thought that the circumstance of God's having forgiven me, was any reason why I should forgive myself; on the contrary, I have always judged it better to loathe myself the more, in proportion as I was assured that God was pacified towards me. (Ezek. xvi. 63.) Nor have I been satisfied with viewing my sins, as men view the stars in a cloudy night, one here and another there, with great intervals between; but have endeavoured to get, and to preserve continually before my eyes, such a view of them as we have of the stars in the brightest night: the greater and the smaller all intermingled, and forming as it were one continuous mass; nor yet, as committed a long time ago, and in many successive years; but as all forming an aggregate of guilt, and needing the same measure of humiliation daily, as they needed at the

very moment they were committed. Nor would I willingly rest with such a view as presents itself to the naked eye. I have desired, and do desire daily that God would put (so to speak) a telescope to my eye, and enable me to see, not a thousand only, but millions of my sins, which are more numerous than all the stars which God himself beholds, and more than the sands upon the sea-shore. There are but two objects that I have ever desired for these forty years to behold; the one is, my own vileness; and the other is, the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ; and I have always thought that they should be viewed together, just as Aaron confessed all the sins of all Israel whilst he put them on the head of the scape-goat. The disease did not keep him from applying to the remedy, nor did the remedy keep him from feeling the disease.

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By this I seek to be, not only humbled and thankful, but humbled in thankfulness, before my God and Saviour continually.

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"This is the religion that pervades the whole Liturgy, and particularly the Communion Service; and this makes the Liturgy inexpressibly sweet to me. The repeated cries to each person of the ever-adorable Trinity for mercy are not at all too frequent or too fervent for me; nor is the confession in the Communion Service too strong for me; nor the "Te Deum,' nor the ascriptions of glory after the Lord's Supper, Glory be to God on high,' &c., too exalted for me; the praise all through savours of adoration, and the adoration of humility. And this shews what men of God the framers of our Liturgy were, and what I pant, and long, and strive to be. This makes the Liturgy as superior to all modern compositions, as the work of a philosopher on any deep subject is to that of a school-boy, who understands scarcely anything about

it.

"The consequence of this unremitted labour is, that I have, and have continually had, such a sense of my sinfulness, as would sink me into utter despair if I had not an assured view of the sufficiency and willingness of Christ to save me to the uttermost.

And at the same time, I have such a sense of my acceptance through Christ, as would overset my little bark, if I had not ballast at the bottom sufficient to sink a vessel of no ordinary size. This experience has been now so unintermitted for forty years, that a thought only of some defect, or of something which might have been done better, often draws from me as deep a sigh as if I had committed the most enormous crime; because it is viewed by me not as a mere single grain of sand, but as a grain of sand added to an already accumulated mountain. So deep are my views of my corruption, that I scarcely ever join in the Confession of our Church, without perceiving, almost as with my bodily organs, my soul as a dead and putrified carcass; (Isaiah i, 6.) and I join in that acknowledgment, 'There is no health in us,' in a way that none but God himself can conceive. No language that I could use could at all express the goings forth of my soul with those words, or the privilege I feel in being permitted to address the God of heaven and earth in these words, 'Almighty-and most mercifulFather.'

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"Hence, then, my sighs and groans when in secret, and which, when least thought of by me, may have been noticed by others. And if the Apostle Paul so felt the burthen of sin as to cry, 'O wretched man that I am; who shall deliver me from the body of this death?' (Rom. vii. 24.) if he, who had the first fruits of the Spirit, groaned within himself, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body;' (Rom. viii, 23.) yea, groaned, being burthened,' (2 Cor. v. 14); who am I, that I should not so feel, or so express my feelings; or that I should even wish to be exempt from them? So far am I from wishing to be exempt from them, that I wish and long to have them in a tenfold greater degree; and as already in my daily approaches to the throne of grace, and in my solitude, and in my rides, it is in sighs and groans that I make known my wants to God more than in words, for 'He knoweth the mind of his Spirit speaking in me;' so I desire

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