heart; and whatever is deepest, truest, most assured and precious, thenceforth engrosses every power. At that dread yet blessed hour, the soul clings with a new intensity and deliberation to the most certain truths, to the most prized and familiar words. The mental creations of an intellectual over-subtlety, or of a thoughtless enthusiasm, or of an unbridled imagination, or of a hidden perversity of will, or of an unsuspected unreality of character, fade away or are discarded. To gaze upon the naked truth is the one necessity; to plant the feet upon the Rock itself, the supreme desire, in that awful, searching, sifting moment. Often, too, at a man's last hour will habit strangely assert its mysterious power of recovering, as if from the grave, thoughts and memories which seemed to have been lost for ever. Truths which have been half forgotten or quite forgotten since child

335

hood, and prayers which were learned at a mother's knee, return upon the soul with resistless persuasiveness and force, while the accumulations of later years disappear and are lost sight of. Depend upon it the martyrs prayed to Jesus in their agony, because they had prayed to Him long before, many of them from infancy; because they knew from experience that such prayers were blessed and answered. They had been taught to pray to Him; they had joined in prayers to Him; they had been taunted and ridiculed for praying to Him; they had persevered in praying to Him; and when at last their hour of trial and of glory came, they had recourse to the prayers which they knew full well to be the secret of their strength, and those prayers carried them on through their agony to the crown beyond it."

THE CHURCH IN ITS RELATION TO THE STATE* is a seasonable address from the Society of Friends to their fellow countrymen. No body of people have a better right than the people called Quakers to be heard on the great question of the present day, and none could speak more pertinently upon it than they do speak in this neat little pamphlet. In a spirit of religious seriousness they approach the topics which are now attracting public attention; and their deliverance upon them is distinct, frank, and full.

As pre

liminary to the question of the separation of the Church from the State, the pamphlet treats of the argument in favour of Church Establishments usually drawn from Mosaic institutions. These, in so far as they were ceremonial and typical, were necessarily temporary, and so did not furnish any precedent for the imitation of the Church after the type had been displaced by the substance which it prefigured. Yet as a preparatory dispensation it affords none of those arguments for religious establishments which certain modern

London: E. Marsh, 12, Bishopsgate Street
Without.

churches fabricate out of it. The religious provision which was made by the law of Moses was for the whole people. The Jewish church was nanational because it could produce its divine charter of incorporation, which claimed the people's acceptance, and because it supplied but one priesthood and one worship for all. The so-called national Church of England ceased to be national when the State sanctioned the existence of entire communities of Christians, who disclaimed allegiance to the Church. And as that Church can produce no divine charter for its incorporation, and has no exclusive title to the sympathy and support of the people, it can derive no claim to be considered national, on any analogies derived from the Mosaic dispensation. Again, the law of Moses allotted the whole land to the people of Israel as a donation from God Himself, reserving the tenth, called the Tithe, for His special service, and appropriating it to those who, having no share in the land itself, had God as their sole jaheritance (Num. xviii. 20-24). But there was no law to compel the payment of tithes everything being left to the con

science of the tithe-payer. And as Moses delivered no compulsory enactment for the support of religious worship, no such thing as forced payments for it are ever read of in the Old Testament. Nor did any of the kingsoppressive as many of them were— resort to such violent means of maintaining religion among their subjects. Still further, the Jewish Church was never in reality subject to the State. Its worship was never interfered withnot even appointed by State authority. David, as a pious king, "prepared with all his heart" for the better performance of divine worship; but all that he did was done by divine direction, and the people willingly followed his example, because they believed him to be obeying divine instructions. Moreover, the national priesthood appointed by the divine law allowed of another order of religious men as instructors of the people. The prophets were as truly men of God as the priests were. The Spirit was in them even more manifestly than in the sons of Aaron; and so far from encouraging any jealousy of their increase, Moses wished that "all the Lord's people were prophets, and that God would put His Spirit upon them all."

The pamphlet next deals with the founding of the Christian church, which of course had then no connection with the State, and which never became national until a half heathen, halfChristian despot, Constantine, made it so. Passing from this ever to be deplored introduction of Church establishments, it contrasts the Christianity of primitive with that of later times. Here the points of contrast are very strongly put, and the views are well supported by references to ancient and modern writers. Then comes the closing part on the present aspect of the question. Freely recognizing the blessing granted to multitudes in the overruling Providence of God under the Established Church, it is still denied that such blessing is a conclusive evidence of the conformity of establishments with the divine will.

"The

genius of Pascal, the sanctity of Fenelon, and the zeal of Xavier, give no sanction to the corruptions of the Church of Rome.

Nor does the learn

ing of Usher, the piety and talents of Taylor and Bramhall, or the holiness of Bedell and Berkely, set the seal of

divine approbation on the Protestant church as it is established in Ireland." Attention is then invited to the following considerations:-That the united Church of England and Ireland is founded on compromise, and so stands on grounds altogether opposed to those of the national Church of the Old Testament; That the united Church of England and Ireland cannot be considered national, not being like the Church of the Old Testament, the Church of the whole people; That millions conscientiously dissent from it, and their right to dissent is recognized by the same law as that under which the Church exists; That the members of the Established Church are trained up under the impression that they have an exclusive inheritance in the Christianity of the State, and they are taught to regard their dissenting fellow-subjects as in some sort aliens with respect to the privileges which the profession of Christianity secures; That the interference of the State has tended to isolate the Church as established in this country, fostering a spirit of narrow "Anglicanism;" That the union of the Church with the State has had the effect of secularizing the former, inasmuch as it invests its bishops with worldly rank and power, and gives the right of placing ministers over congregations without any reference to their consent or concurrence. The closing paragraph we prefer to give in its entireness; and we request our readers to consider it well.

Are

"The great question that underlies every other in relation to the present subject, and compared with which every other must shrink into insignificance, is that which appeals to every heart, and in which all are alike interested. Are the Christian people of this land in right earnest to accept the responsibilities, and to take their legitimate share of the duties and privileges of the children of God? all to be priests, putting on the garment of salvation and the robe of righteousness, enjoying and exemplifying, in a holy life, the blessedness of the citizenship of heaven. The welfare of millions for time and eternity is involved in the practical response to be given to this momentous question. The affirmative answer of the nation's heart and life would be the establishment of the church indeed. How much, alas! on the other hand, is there in the united Church of England and Ireland, with its system of worldly compromise and

assumption, and in its exclusively clerical government, framed after the models of an age steeped in Byzantine despotism, which not only does not favour, but is a POSITIVE OBSTRUCTION, to the full realization of the New Testament idea of the kingdom of God. Do any really imagine that in removing the existing legal Establishment the State would cease to be Christian? Can there be a greater fallacy? It is not the State that makes the Christian: it is rather the Christian that moulds the character of the State. So far as the people are brought under the power of the gospel Christianity will rule supreme in the national councils, and influence the administration of law. Were this the case with every professor of the Christian name in this land, how much cause would there be for hope that the churches of England, no longered severed by State interference, but united in a true sense of their high calling in Christ Jesus, might become faithful witnesses of His power and redeeming love to the world around them; and might illustrate more than they ever have done, the truth and blessedness of the promise (Isaiah liv. 13, 14) All thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children. In RIGHTEOUS

NESS SHALT THOU BE ESTABLISHED.'

WILL CHRIST RETURN TO REIGN UPON THE EARTH is a penny book on the coming, the kingdom, and the reign of the Messiah, which presents the scriptural views of these great events in their own clear and commanding light. We like it for its simplicity and brevity, and for the quiet way in which it quotes and annotates the texts which the advocates of Christ's advent, to reign with the saints on earth, twist and torture to make them favour their fallacious notions. It is the want of some such cheap hand-light as this-a mere taper

Y

337

for its size, but a torch for the amount of its illumination-that many readers of the Bible have obfuscated their minds with the mistiness of millenarianism. Both the above may be had of Mr. E. Stock, Paternoster Row.

THE HIDING PLACE, AND ROOM IN IT FOR YOU THE NEW LEAF AND WHAT WILL YOU WRITE ON IT?-DAILY TRIALS, AND HOW TO BEAR THEM—A VOICE FROM ABERGELE; or, "Be ye also ready"—are excellent pennyworths provided by the London Book Society, to be procured at 28, Paternoster Row, or at the Bazaar in Soho Square.

It

The SUNDAY MAGAZINE for October begins a new volume, but wisely retains some of its old contributors. opens with more tales than we have either time or taste to read: and it seeks to attract attention to these tedious stories by the interposition of a profusion of pictures. There is no doubt some policy in this; for childish readers, whether young or old, have quite a passion for what is pictorial, as well as for what is fictitious. And as the "Sunday Magazine" has a popularity to maintain, the means it employs for the purpose may be the best it could adopt. We need not begrudge the space appropriated to this lighter kind of reading, because the solid articles supplied to the more thoughtful classes are sufficiently numerous and extensive. Drs. Vaughan and Guthrie, Hanna, Lindsey and Alexander, with Professor Plumptre, and others, have enriched this first part with valuable papers; so that the current volume promises to be as excellent as any of its predecessors.

The SWORD AND TROWEL for October is, on the whole, a good number; but the chief merit is contained in the rare Discourse" of Samuel Rutherford, and the notes of a Sermon by Charles Spurgeon.

66

THE CHURCH, with articles from the pens of John Aldis, Charles Stovel, and Cornelius Elven, must be worth far more than the penny it costs, and cannot fail to command a wide circle of satisfied readers.-THE APPEAL is an admirable thing for distribution in families where tracts are not quite welcome, and it may be offered with

CASE OF GRETTON, NEAR

UPPINGHAM.

INSIDE the cover of our October number an advertisement appeared announcing the success which has attended certain efforts to establish a congregation and school in this village, and stating that a piece of ground has been given to put a building upon. Assistance is asked towards the effort, and to induce our churches to render such assistance a sort of promise is made that the building will be ultimately secured to the denomination, &c. This advertisement has called forth several letters to us, in strong condemnation of the course taken by the advertiser, and furnishing us with a history of his recent proceedings. We were at first inclined to print one or two of these letters, bearing the signatures of their writers; but, on further reflection, we think it better to suppress them, and for the present to content ourselves with the mention of a few facts, furnished to us by ministerial and other brethren of the highest standing in the Northamptonshire Baptist Association. To show that Gretton is not in the destitute state which the advertisement might be understood to represent, we are informed that a

Baptist church has existed there for about eighty years. The advertiser, who became its pastor, had, at the beginning of the present year, a serious misunderstanding with his people; upon which the Revs. T. T. Gough, of Clipstone, and James Mursell, of Kettering, at the request of both parties, undertook to mediate between them. In their presence the pastor gave notice of his intention to leave at the end of six months, but as there was no prospect of ending the strife while he remained, the mediators, in the name of the church, offered him the six months salary, on condition of his leaving at once. He accepted the offer, but instead of leaving the village he opened another room for preaching, to which he retired with his adherents, designing to raise a second Baptist cause in this village of nine hundred inhabitants. Without adding anything to this plain statement, excepting that the old chapel is sufficiently good and capacious for all the wants of the people, we express the belief that our General Baptist friends will not lend their sanction, or give any money, to the attempt now made to establish a rival dissenting congregation there.

EDITOR.

Denominational.

THE half-yearly meetings of the WARWICKSHIRE CONFERENCE were held at Wolvey Chapel, on Tuesday, September 29, 1868.

The Rev. J. H. Wood, pastor, conducted a preparatory devotional service on Monday evening, at which the Divine blessing was sought on the meetings of the coming day. The morning sitting began at halfpast ten, when brother Wood gave out a hymn, and brethren Ll. H. Parsons, and J. Perkins, P.B., offered prayer. Brother Lees, of Walsall, then read an important paper on "The Elevated Nature of the

Spiritual Life, and the means by which that life may be maintained." The writer began by referring to "Life" in general; its existence and manifestation unquestioned, yet its principle a subtle and sublime mystery which no one can understand or explain. The life in men is fourfold; physical, social, mental, spiritual-the Christian life being higher than them all. He then spoke of its nature and degrees; how it is self-revealing in its possessor -progressive, ennobling, influential on others, quickening to ourselves. It is too high for disturbance by aught below; above surrounding circumstances; superior even to death. Reference was made to a Queen