A MONTHLY PERIODICAL, CHIEFLY DEVOTED TO THE ADVOCACY OF POLITICAL, RELIGIOUS, AND NEW SERIES, No. 2. The Coming Session CONTENTS. Dialogue between a Rector and a Wesleyan The Anti-State-Church Movement, No. 2-Policy of Dis senters. Independence-Hindrances and Exemplifications To the Episcopalians of Kettering 10 11 11 13 13 REVIEW -Conference Papers No. 4.—Mr. Massie's Paper 14 POETRY.-The Apron and the Gown. The Mind its own Standard Notices to Correspondents Publications received Advertizem ents THE COMING SESSION. 15 15 15 16 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1845. likely to have upon the condition of TIME was, that, when the country makes them dependent on mercy, leaves UNSTAMPED, ID. the propriety of standing like starved and crouching beggars at the door of government, and receiving as an alms that which is due to us as a right. It is really somewhat astonishing that those who admit the selfish tendencies of our nature, and the consequent proneness there is in man to abuse irresponsible power, should ever have imagined they had found a logic that would prove a concentration of power at any given point of society-such as takes place in the case of a monarchy, or an oligarchy-compatible with the general interests of mankind. Hobbesism is the very quintessence of inconsistency and absurdity. Without going the whole length with persons of that school, in their selfish system of philosophy, we are taught by all history and all experience, that weakness by the side of power is never safe; that power is needed at every point of society, for the purpose of self-defence; and that the more widely and equably it is diffused, the more calm and tranquil is its pressure, and the safer are the interests it defends. This, however, is a boon which neither Tory nor Whig, nor the would-be patriots of the Young England school would ever bestow upon the people. Power indeed! anything but that. Eat, drink, and wash, the people may and must, to some small extent; but to legislate, or to have anything to do with legislation, is altogether out of the question. Those who, in giving expression to their patriotism, talk of nothing but defending the rights of the church, the privileges of the peers, the prerogatives of the crown, and the welfare of the commons (not supposing the latter to have either rights, privileges, or prerogatives), are never very likely to understand the doctrine of popular rights. We do not deny that persons-reformers, if you will-of this class are humane and benevolent men, and would have the poor happy, at least easy; but no class of aristocrats would guard more cautiously, or defend more pertinaciously their exclusive privileges; and the efforts they are putting forth in the AND A WESLEYAN PARISHIONER. this morning. I hope your wife and family are Rector.-Well Thomas, I am glad to see you well. Thomas.-Thank you, they are; and I'm very glad to have met with you, for I've just now heard what I think cannot be true. R.-What is that, Thomas? T-Why, one of your hearers told me that you said yesterday in your sermon, that all who did not attend the parish church were guilty of to judge them, you could not help fearing that a great sin, and that though you did not wish they were all in a state of great danger. R.-I did say so, Thomas. alone, or the present salvation which is by faith; these also are Dissenters of a very high and were their principles universally to obtain, kind, for they likewise strike at the foundation; there could be no true church on earth. Lastly, those who unduly administer the sacraments, who (to instance but in one point), administer the Lord's Supper to such as have neither the power nor the form of godliness. These too are gross Dissenters from the Church of England, and should not cast the first stone' at others." R.-Where has Mr. Wesley said these things? under the date of February 6, 1740. I copied T-You may find them, sir, in his journal, them this morning and put the paper into my pocket, intending to show it you, whenever an opportunity might offer: and really, sir. I do think they will show you to be the schismatic rather than some you denounce as such. cause of social improvement appear to A DIALOGUE BETWEEN A RECTOR them, those who deny justification by faith us to be only an attempt to lime the wings of rising liberty. Which efforts, however, will be but a kind of John Gilpin method of arresting the progress of the flying courser; their convulsive gripe and noisy terror will only urge him on the faster. The movements from which even the aristocracy cannot stand aloof, will all help to elicit thought: thought will lead to discovery, discovery to dissatisfaction; that, again, to vigorous action, and action directed by reason to social revolutions the most important, extensive, and salutary; for the moment the people feel that they have rights, they will feel that they have might; and no sooner shall firm resolve take hold of them, than their importance will be felt. A hundred heads and a hundred arms-as it was fabled of the royal gods of old-shall spring out of every pair of shoulders, and the Titans of monopoly, oppression, and partial legislation, maugre all resistance, will be cast down to the regions of deep chaos and eternal night. But as it regards the question, what will the parliament do? this may be met by another question, what have the people been doing? What are they doing, what are they prepared to do? What free, spontaneous, unextorted good will ever come from that Ilouse to them? Every word of peace and justice it speaks to them must be the echo of the nation's voice. And in no faint and hesitating tones must the people speak, to get this. The very fact of that House needing reform makes the work of reform extremely difficult. What we have to do, is to make that branch of the legislation what it pretends to be-the organ of the people. This we must do, at whatever cost. The money-changers, and those who, if they do not sell, buy doves and geese, must be cast out of it, and replaced by honest men. This can only be done by extorting from the present house some great measure of organic reform. This once done, the people are their own rulers. The House of Commons, that has been increasing in power and importance now for centuries, especially for the last two, must be a powerful instrument either of good or ill to the nation; and once made popular in its constitution, the power of the peers would pass away, like mist before the sun. The business of the state would be done elsewhere, and the House of Lords, like a limb never brought into exercise, would wither and perish. 7. Well, I am greatly surprised, Sir, that Church is God's ordinance, and if we forsake T-Certainly, Sir, but I do not forsake the 66 Wesleyan Chapel," written on it.) I go twice church which assembles in that building. Pray R.-Oh! of course the church which you see what you mean, sir, but I cannot sce its ears. R.-Me a schismatic! No, I am a regularly ordained minister of the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, by law established in these realms. T.-Sir, forgive me for saying you were guilty of reviling and evil-speaking yesterday, and so you proved yourself to be a Dissenter according to Mr. Wesley's first mark; that you do alone, but teach baptismal regeneration, and not teach the doctrine of salvation by Christ Wesley's second mark; and, I am sure, you are therefore a Dissenter according to Mr. administer the sacrament to improper persons, and are, therefore, a Dissenter, according to Mr. Wesley's third mark. R.—Thomas, you forget your duty of submitting to your spiritual guides, who have been properly ordained, and of thus shewing yourself a true son of the Church. T-Pray, Sir, what is the Church you speak R.-Its ears! what do you mean, man? T-Why Sir, I read in the Testament that tidings came to the ears of the church which of. Just now you told me that yonder fine the first apostolic church had cars; and your course, you do not mean that I should obey ə was in Jerusalem," from which it is clear that building, with a steeple, was the Church. Of church, as far as my eyes enable me to perceive building. You must use the word now to has no ears, and I fear, therefore, is not apos- mean something else. Will you tell me what it is? for I really do not know. tolical. fully as you usually do. Our R.-I will explain to you, Thomas. holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, as by law T.-I am sorry, sir, to be thought disre-established in these realms, and from which no spectful; but when a gentleman of your station one can separate without being guilty of schism, utters such things as you did yesterday about is-ahem-it is, in truth, Thomas-ahem-that me and my fellow worshippers, I think I have excellent institution governed by the Bishops some right to speak plainly; and, sir, I think 1 and Clergy, which you find in all parts of this can perceive you to be a Dissenter, and there- kingdom. But now tell me what your Church fore, exposed to the danger you have spoken of. is, of which you have been talking, R.-How so, Thomas? T-Why, sir, you know I have great respect for the opinions of Mr. Wesley. R.-True, Thomas, and I wish the Methodists were as loyal now, and as true to the church, as in the days of Mr. Wesley. T.-Well, sir, Mr. Wesley says "Our 20th faithful people wherein the true word of God is Article defines a true church, a congregation of preached, and the sacraments duly administered.' According to this account, the Church of England is that body of faithful people (or holy believers) in England, among whom the pure word of God is preached, and the sacraments duly administered. Who then are the worst Dissenters from this church? (1.) Unholy men of all kinds, swearers, sabbath-breakers, drunkards, fighters, whoremongers, liars, revilers, evilmoney, the lovers of dress or of praise, the lovers speakers, the passionate, the gay, the lovers of of pleasure more than the lovers of God. All these are Dissenters of the highest sort. continually striking at the root of the church, and themselves belonging in truth to no church; but the synagogue of Satan. (2.) Men unsound in the faith, those who deny the scriptures of truth, those who deny the Lord that bought T-Cheerfully, Sir. There are about thirty persons who meet in yonder little Chapel, who profess to love God, and give evidence that they have received the grace of God in truth. They meet together to worship God, and aim to promote each others' spiritual comfort and improvement. They are the Church I spoke of. If the case, walk disorderly, we expel them; and, any of our number, as sometimes is unhappily if others make a credible profession of religion, we gladly receive them into our little society. So that our Church has ears to hear, and a mind to judge, and hearts to feel. It is entirely a religious society, with which no ungodly men, whatever their civil station, have any right to interfere. And now, Sir, pray be kind enough to tell me wl at your Church is, for when you said it was "that excellent institution, &c.," I tion. Will you, Sir, be so kind as to make the felt a wish that you would explain what institumatter plain to an un carned man? R.-Why the Church-ahem-but it is needless to hinder time thus. Everybody knows what the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church is. T-No, Sir, a great many of us have but just begun to understand this matter. I myself thought very highly once of what you call the Church, but, lately, my views have greatly changed. I now see, clearly, it is a worldly system, and, as the Rev. Mr. Bugg, of Desborough, admits, in a work he has lately published, "as truly a house of merchandise as is the Royal Exchange." What you call a Church is not a Church at all, but a mere political system with the name Church improperly given to it, and in which ungodly men stand, at least, as good a chance of promotion as pious men. I know, Sir, there are good people among you, and such good people, assembling here and there, form, in reality, Churches; but, alas! your system shuts then out from the Church Catholic in these realms, that is, from the great body of believers; and, thus instead of nourishing them in christian love, turns them into real schismatics. Methodists, and Baptists, and Presbyterians, and Independents, and others, can all unite in good things, but you stand aloof from them all, and the clergy are now teaching their filccks to be more sectarian than ever. In Would that Whitfields and Wesleys were multiplied! Would that all the Lord's people were prophets! But they are not so; and one grand cause that slumber is on our land is the shade upon vivacious truth and earnest godliness, and consequent lethargy, induced by a State-Church Establishment. But suppose we were all more zealous for the cross; does not Mr. Townley know that there may be a true and burning zeal for the salvation of mankind, with the most erroneous views of Christ's rule for the order and sustenance of His Church? Do we not know that christians should be the salt of the earth, not of part of it? They are to maintain the whole truth of Christ from corruption and neglect; not only that which immediately affects the eternal weal of man, but that which, no less, certainly, though less directly, affects it, by touching the government He has prescribed. To uphold "the least" of his comnaudments is to honour him and subserve his cause. To diffuse scriptural sentiments on civii or religious liberty, is to prepare for "the coming of the Lord" by removing obstacles in the path of christianity, and making "free cousre" for the Gospel, that it may "ron and be glorified." Just as Christ must be preached, if we would have men become converts to him, so, if we would have them become converts to his doctrine on Church-government, that must be instilled. Those who, in our judgment, have OBJECTIONS TO THE ANTI-STATE-taught this latter well, we call benefactors. Had our Nonconformist fathers (whose degenerate children, according to Churchmen, we are) better understood the principles of just liberty, would it not have saved us from undeserved reproach and needless difficulty? Would it not have been better for us-beiter for our land-better, through us, for all the world? Better, surely far better had it been for the heathen abroad and our kinsmen at home-better for earth, and better in the sight of heaven! truth, the clergy of your Church are just now the most thorough-paced schismatics in the world. R.-Thomas, I fear you are in the way to infidelity. I cannot stop to bear you talk thus. T-I am sorry to have offended you, Sir, but please to remember that you have not yet told me what the Church is. CHURCH MOVEMENT ANSWERED. No. II.-POLICY OF DISSENTERS. INDEPENDENCE-HINDRANCES AND EXEMPLIFICATIONS. THE nobility which invests a truly independent spirit, is universally recognized. Even those who hate it, because it may thwart their path and plans, are compelled to respect it, because it is great. Nothing can be more interesting than to see a person docile, yet firm; ready to avail himself of other's thoughts, yet thinking for himself; treating even the meanest of his fellows as rational, yet not forgetting, in the presence of the most illustrious, learned, and powerful, that he, too, is endowed with reason: that he, too, is made in God's image, and is to be treated as a man: who will place at an equal distance from him, captiousness and obsequiousness: who will always bend to conviction, never to dictation: whose motto is, "Convince, and command nie.” To the exercise of such a spirit there are many hindrances in this world, and even in our own country. lnterest, in A man's many cases, is opposed to it living is an important consideration. It is not easy for a man to put it out of sight, when choosing betwixt two different and opposite courses of action, and to keep truth, duty only, in view. This, however, it is sometimes necessary he should do, if he would be an independent man. That So much for Mr. Townley's objections. Now for the policy which the excellent objector recommends. "The most effectual way," he says, The temporal interests of the many are to accomplish the emancipation of the Episto so great an extent in the hands of the copalian Church from the State-thraldom under few, that a man must often be a sacrifice which it labours, and to put an end to national either to despotism and intolerance on the ecclesiastical bitterness and strife, is for sccc-| ders to win unconverted Churchmen to Jesus Let us, then, I would say, beloved fathers and one hand, or to truth on the other: he Christ. Till this, in very considerable numbers, brethren of the Nonconforming Bedy, combine must either do violence to his conscience, be done, the immensely preponderating political-combine not to offend, not to be unfair, not or injure his temporal interests. influence of those who hold the Establishment to be litigious, not to trample harshly on early farmer who keeps so respectable a house, principle will of necessity prevail. Whitfield and strong-grown prejudice, and contemptuously riles such a capital horse to market, makes and Wesley, who were really Dissenters, though to scoff at weakness;" but, as on a great without the name, did immense things for the question of philosophy, with which the highest so important a figure in society, and looks like a furtherance of religious liberty, by turning vast temporal and eternal interests of men of all sensible, straightforward kind of multitudes of Churchinen into real Christians, nations and their posterity are linked-a ques-person, might, by a single expression of who became converts to freedom and to Christ tion of religion, which obedience to God forbids sentiment, perhaps, reduce himself and us to put by ;-let us combine to instruct every-family to poverty, and almost to beggary. where the ignorant in the duty of exercising The tradesman, who has such a flourishing private judgment, and the consequent right to business in some agricultural district, has exercise it, and the consequently necessary wrongness and impolicy of all State-Church Establishmea's. Let us do this in the beautiful spirit of Mr. Townley-the spirit of our master; and with God be the issue, as, for my part, I am persuaded, with him is the movement, and to him will be the praise. at one and the same time." I hope Mr. Townley will reconsider this, and correct his judgment, that men converted to Christ are, as a inatter of course, become converts to freedom at the same time. I trust I do not undervalue piety. I am deeply im. pressed with the truth of a sentiment recently uttered by Dr. Harris, and which expressed a cherished conviction of my own mind, that the reason why the cause of Church emancipation from worldly thraldom (as I understood him) is so ill supported by us, is because there is, comparatively, so little deep piety amongst us. If all Dissenters possessed the piety of Mr. Townley, and were, withal, duly alive to the vast importance of their principle, civilly and religiously, as Dissenters from all State-Church Establishments, and to the magnitude and multitude of the evils necessarily incident upon the existence of any and every State-Church, I feel persuaded there would be such a pressure into the Anti-State-Church ranks, and such effects, in consequence, as would shortly convince Mr. Townley himself that the ment" was of God, by bringing to his eye the near vision of the day of hallowed triumph, when every good man, of whatever vame, shall hear, and, exulting or not, have cause for exultation while he hears the cry-" Babylon is fallen is fallen!" Of the Congregational Union, when even weak defenders were better than noue, I have always been the sincere, though watchful, friend; but its ability, whatever might be its legitimate operation, is not (adequately) here. Let us, then, I repeat, combi e. The cause of Christ at home and abroad requires it; and, though frowns and contumely should await some of us here, strengthening ourselves in the Lord our God, we will look youder! I am, Sir, you's sincerely, EDWARD SWAINE. THE STATE CHURCH.-The church establishments twice as large as the revenues of some countries, of this country cost, annually, £9,949,565; a sum five times greater than that received by the clergy of France, and more than half as much as is expended upon the ministration of Christianity all over the globe!-Complete Suffrage Almanack. only to declare himself boldly in favour The spirit of feudalism has not yet left this country. Feudalism itself still lives. It has been crippled, but not destroyed. Those who travel the public road of duty have often to come into collision with those ancient marauders, whose impudent demand still is, Surrender, or die. Your honour, or your living. Your manhood. or your means." England has its slavemarket, as well as Cuba, or Georgia. Zeluca is not the only person who should be tried at the bar of his country for trafficking in human beings. Are there not always purchasers standing ready for those who are prepared to sacrifice honour to interest? Every general election are there not thousands upon thousands sold, as much as cattle in the market? There is scarcely a charity doled out to the poor that is not made the price of liberty. Des he go to meeting? Does he go to church? The spirit of party is opposed to this freedom of thought and action. When a man commits himself unreservedly to a party, he commits himself to their policy, right or wrong; he adopts their faults as well as their excellencies. It is not the triumph of truth he seeks, but of a certain class of men with whom he has identified himself. He gives up, for the most part, his own individuality, and becomes only one limb of the body in question. His actions do not express his single will, but the sentiments and wishes of a party. He is no longer a complete man, but only the tenth, twentieth, or the ten thousandth part of a man. Long identification with such a body, will often trammel the person, even if his views should happen considerably to change. He does not like to leave, to offend, to sacrifice in any way the good will of those with whom he has been so long acting. The connection is a false one, but it is a close one. It is a fetter upon his limbs, but it is a fetter so tightly and firmly riveted-one that has eaten so deeply into the flesh-that the pain of removal were greater than the inconvenience of still wearing it. How many are thus situated, both in the religious and political world! There are, no doubt, many dissenters in the Church of England; and many politicians in mcst of our great towns, who, were it not for their long connection with the whig party, would be some of the staunchest radicals in the country. But it were needless to enumerate all the influences which, even in a county like our own, operate against the spirit of independence. Tradesmen in large towns, and manufacturing labourers, together with mechanics in general in such districts, enjoy a much greater amount of independence. There, the influence of the aristocracy is little felt; the rich have less influence over the poor, and masters pay less attention to the sentiments, whether religious or political, of their workmen. If they made the attempt to influence them in this respect, it would be for the most part in vain. The necessary influence, hence, of trade and commerce, is to promote liberty. Mental inaction is opposed to the spirit of independence. The man who is too lazy to think for himself, has no opinions of his own. Such a man is not likely to be independent in action. He would much rather be borne along by the crowd, than make use of his own legs, and take the trouble to shape his own course. Igno. rance, as favourable to mental inaction, is unfavourable to the development of this spirit. Without intelligence, no man can have legitimate confidence in himself. He cannot say with propriety, this is my opinion, my conviction, my way. The ignorant are the blind of the human race, who can only go whither they are led. It In every age of the world, we have had has, consequently, always been the wish some illustrious examples of this spirit. of despots to keep the common people in We have persons standing out prominently ignorance. The history of human igno- and boldly to view, as the stern, unflinchrance, is nothing but the history of slavery. ing advocates of truth; the devoted worAnd nothing tells better for the present shippers of reason; who, in the midst of age, than the vast and universal importance a weak, selfish, slavish, time-serving genethat is beginning to be attached to eda-ration, have dared, at whatever risk, to be cation. Intemperance an improvidence are hindrances to the exercise of an independent spirit. These are productive both of ignorance and poverty. They destroy the taste for reading and intellectual pleasures. They waste the time that should be devoted to self-improvement. They waste the resources which, properly husbanded, would place the person more nearly on a level with those on whom he is now, perhaps, quite dependent. So that, on the supposition that one portion of the community were temperate and provident, and the other intemperate and improvident, other things being perfectly equal, the latter must ever be in a state of dependence on the former. If, therefore, the working class in this country would be free, as members of civil society, they must emancipate themselves from the slavery of the appetites. Indulgence is sweet; but the fruit of it is bitter. The cup of pleasure is ever at hand. Many cannot resist, Drink, fool, and be a slave! disinterested and honest. Some of the most illustrious examples of this kind to be found in the history of the human race, are to be found recorded in the Scriptures. Who can help viewing with profound admiration this spirit, as evinced by Moses, when all the pomp, luxury, and blandishments of a court, in the midst of which he was brought up, proved less attractive to him, than the thought of being useful to the most wretched, despised, and downtrodden people on the face of the earth? Here was true patriotism. Can we conceive of anything more noble than the conduct of Daniel, who, when all the principal nobles in the kingdom had conspired against him to destroy him, and got a law passed that would, through the medium of his religion, put him completely into their power, dislained to make any alteration in his practice of devotion, but moved on as calmly and steadily in the path of duty, as though no such law had been passed! Oh, how differently would certain religionists of the present day act in similar circumstances! "Softly, softly," (are they ever crying to those of their brethren who, with a loud voice and fearless spirit, declare the truth:) "softly; thereyou will rouse the slumbering foe; you will get us into trouble; we shall be persecuted." Persecuted! and what then? Has not honesty ever been persecuted in some way or other? But has not honesty always been superior to persecution? The history of christianity furnishes almost innumerable examples of this spirit. At the head of the list stands Paul. But on these we shall not dweil. Suffice it to say that it is in the very nature of such a religion to promote this spirit. If there be a man in God's universe more likely than another to abide, at all risks, by the dictates of his conscience-not being swayed in an opposite direction by custom, law, popular opinion, the smiles or frowns of the great—it is the man who is conscious of standing where christianity places him-in the midst of men who, like himself, are weak and sin ful, dependent on mercy, in the presence of a God with whom there is no respect of persons, and who searches the heart; in view of a judgment in which every man will be treated according to his deeds. That man is but a poor Christian, who has not the heart to do as his conscience bids him. If Luther had not been largely endowed with this spirit, he had never been the great Reformer. The despotism of the Stuarts had never received its death-blow, had not this been a characteristic of the patriots and reformers of that period. A striking illustration of the power exerted by a fearless and independent spirit, even on the worst of men, we have in the case of Dr. Paré, who was physician to Charles IX. of France. When the dreadful St. Bartholomew massacre was proceeding in all its horror, the king is said to have exclaimed to the Doctor, "Surely the whole world must henceforth be of one religion!" "As God is my Maker and my Judge," said the Doctor, "your Majesty promised me three things when I first became your physician:-that I should never be compelled to re-enter my mother's womb, go to mass, nor leave your Majesty's service." From that moment the king is said to have been dreadfully agitated, and to have or dered the massacre to be stopped. The answer which our glorious old poet Milton is said to have made to his wife's earnest entreaties, that he would take office under Charles II., is highly characteristic: "You, like most other women, no doubt, would like to ride in a coach; but I should like to live and die an honest man." Very similar was the conduct of Milton's great disciple, Andrew Marvel. A messenger being sent to him from the ministers of Charles, to ask if there were anything they could do for him; we are told that he called his servant man; asked him as soon as he appeared, what there was for dinner to-day? The remains of a leg of mutton that was dressed yesterday, was the reply: then turning to the messenger, said with a smile, you see sir, I am not the man to be bribed." Such a man is in all times a Marvel. This spirit is sometimes, not always, found associated with a high order of genius, as was the case with the abovementioned persons, and a striking instance we have of this, in the case of that greatest of metaphysicians, Kant. It is said that when his great work came to be published, the King of Prussia, thinking it contained sentiments that would encourage insubordination called upon him to retract them, threatening him with severe consequences, if he did not. The reply was noble, "Your Majesty must do as you think proper, but those sentiments are the result of forty years' reflection, and I can not deny the convictions of my conscience." This noble conduct had its proper effect on the monarch,-he was not further molested. Even at this moment there is, in the same country, we are told, a young poet who, though poor, has given up a pension he he had been receiving from the government, simply because it did not accord with his notions of liberty to take it, and that it might not fetter him in the expression of his sentiments. But we need not go out of our own country, even our own county, for a beautiful expression of this spirit. No further off than the village of Paulerspery, near Towcester, a number of poor peasants have lately shown a spirit of heroism that would do honour to any age or class. The farmers in that neighbourhood, backed no doubt by tory parsons and squires, having agreed not to employ a single man who went to the meeting-house, the poor persecuted men have told them plainly and boldly, "You may starve us, but you shall not turn us. We will not deliver our con sciences up to you." If many who can better afford it, would but act in this spirit, this country would not long be what it is. To the Episcopalians of Kettering. RESPECTED NEIGHBOURS, In 13 and of other in every organ be confirmed, or be ready and desirous to be stomach, the body; and this disturbance creates, confirmed." Observe, then: without godfathers and god-in spite of man's reason (no matter mothers, your children could not be taught the catechism; without the catechism, they whether he be saint or sinner, educated cannot be confirmed; without confirmation, or uneducated), a diseased appetite, an they have no right to the Holy Communion. appetite which originates a craving for So that, if the sponsorial service be unscrip- those very liquors which created it-a tural, your entire ecclesiastical system is like craving which experience fully proves a house built upon the sand. few persons have strength of mind to resist, and which grows stronger and stronger in proportion as it is indulged, till at last the victim of its indulgence becomes a confirmed inebriate. A great deal might be said about the sheer and painful unreasonableness of the questions put to the sureties, and the answers given by them. But my wish is to avoid all roundabout argument, and to come to the main point: - Does the Bible give any sanction to your sponsorial service? "I speak as unto wise men; judge ye what I say.' I put the question again, with all seriousness, to your consciences. Does the Bible give any sanction to your sponsorial service? This is a plain question, and admits of a plain answer. In the word of God, you read thus: "He that hateth suretyship, is sure:" but in no part of that word can you find any warrant for the godfathers and godmothers of the Prayer Book. What follows? why this, that it is your duty, before God, to abstain in future from giving any sanction to the sponsorial service, the catechism, and the confirmation-service. If you are contented still to adopt for your selves and your children fashionable religious forms, you will persist in the observance of these "ordinances of men;" but if you take the Bible for your guide, you must abandon them: and as the Church of England (so called) will not give them up, you must give up the Church of England. Don't be startled. A great ecclesiastical crisis is at hand. The advocates of a ritual religion, and of stateauthority in things religious, will be found ranged on one side: the friends of evangelical doctrine, and all who believe that "the Bible alone is the religion of Protestants," will be ranged ou the other. I know enough of many of the Episcopalians in this town, and of their ministers, to believe that neither will be found wanting in that day of trial which is coming upon them. In the mean while, I beg of you, by all your love to the Scriptures, to avoid all participation, even the slightest, in the awful and anti-christian suretyship of your baptis. There has lately been established anong you, a Church District-Visiting-So-mal formularies, ciety; which society circulates tracts. some of these tracts, questions at issue between you and Nonconformists are discussed. Huiling this movement as an indication of an enquiring spirit, I now ask you to hear what may be said by those who differ from you. The present letter will relate to the sponsorial service which you practise: or in other words, to the use of godfathers and godmothers at the christening of infants. When your children become capable of it, they are taught a catechism; in which catechism they are reminded that they had sponsors; they are made to declare what these sponsors did for them; and also to affirm that they bold themselves bound to believe and do what these sponsors promised on their behalf. So that, if the practice of having godfathers and godmothers were abandoned, the fundamental part of the catechism must be aban doned. Next, your children are confirmed: and in the ceremony of confrmation, they take on themselves the vows made by their sponsors. If, therefore, you give up godfathers and godmothers, you must give up also your confir mation service. Further, "There shall none be admitted to the Holy Communion until such time as be And am, With the truest respect, yours, W. ROBINSON. Kettering, Dec. 18, 1844. I know your minister neglects this plain injunction, though he has declared his unfeigned assent and consent to everything prescribed by the Book of Common Prayer: for one of your churchwardens, and the only one who partakes of the Lord's Suppper, as your rector well knows, has never been confirmed. The illegal conduct of your minister, however, does not set aside the law. PHYSIOLOGY OF INTEMPERANCE. A THOUSAND persons in health, taking up their abode in a city infected with the plague, might as well expect that they should all escape, as that the same number of people, admitting they were in the habit of using intoxicating liquors, should continue a sober people. The reason is obvious, and will be found in the following corollary. The habitual use of intoxicating liquors disturbs the healthy action of the That such have been the effects of these liquors in all ages of the world and on all classes of persons, from the monarch on his throne to the meanest of his subjects, we have by far too many melancholy proofs. Witness, in our own nation, not the uneducated only, but men of the greatest learning and the most splendid abilities --Pitt, Fox, Burke, Sheridan, Burns, Byron, George the Fourth, and even the immortal Shakspeare, and a thousand others that might be named, including many ministers of the gospel. It is the opinion of the most eminent physicians of the present day, that drunkenness is as much a physical disease, as is the cholera or a broken limb. It consequently follows, that we might as well expect to cure the two latter by the gospel as the former. The objection, that the grace of God is sufficient to preserve from excess, supposes that alcohol is a harmless thing, when taken as a beverage-a supposition which is manifestly fallacious. It is in the very nature of intoxicating liquors to excite the animal passions into a state of dangerous activity. We may take, as an illustration of this, the following observation of the Rev. R. Knill: "Nearly all the blemishes which have been found on the characters of ministers, for the last fifty years, have arisen, directly or indirectly, from the free use of intoxicating drinks." It is the opinion of the most eminent physicians, that intoxicating liquors in any quantity, large or small, are unnecessary and injurious to persons in health. Without regard to this opinion, however, (for the facts proving the truth of it have existed cöeval with their use,) and admitting it had never been promulgated, chemical analysis proves their utter worthlessness as beverages, and physiology and experience condemn them as unfit for human beings in health-as articles which, at the very same time that they are precipitating all the actions of life, do directly produce a profuse and unnatural expenditure of vital power, cutting off the only source from which the loss can |