"This objection, however, is more specious than true. The more intelligence advances among the small proprietors, by means of the agricultural colleges, and of the schools of agricultural chemistry, which are being founded throughout Germany, Switzerland, France, Belgium, and Holland, for the express purpose of training the children of the peasant farmers in the science of agriculture, and which are raising up a class of small proprietor farmers, who, for the knowledge of agriculture, put to shame the majority of our large tenant farmers -the more, I repeat, intelligence advances by these means among the small proprietors, the better will they understand how to combine among themselves, so as to help one another to carry out those particular operations, which require an accumulation of capital for their successful prosecution. "As Counsellor Reichensperger says, There is nothing to prevent small proprietors availing themselves of the more costly agricultural machines, if several of them unite in the purchase of them, and keep them for common use. It is always a very easy matter so to arrange the agricultural operations of several farms, that one machine may perform them all without putting any of the proprietors to any inconvenience." Still another objection to the system of peasant proprietors is, that under it society must remain in a stationary state-there can be little progress or enterprise-one generation must live exactly like its predecessor. It is said to admit of no advance in the ways or means of living, acting, or thinking, beyond a certain fixed hereditary standard. The man of the 19th century is the man of the 14th, where this sys. tem has prevailed long. All are producers of almost all they consume, and no class is wealthy enough to set to work a class of producers of objects required for their gratification. Each family is a self-supporting isolated unit, living a kind of Robinson Crusoe life on its own patch of land, producing in a rough way all its wants, and going without what it cannot produce. The want in this social state of a class with more than the bare means of living, and with the leisure to apply to higher material or intellectual objects than the supplying of their own household wants by their own household work, is not favourable to the progress of society. Education of an ordinary kind may be very widely diffused in this social state; reading, writing, and useful acquirements may be imparted to all the population; and yet education may be very defective and uninfluential, and may lose in depth what it gains in breadth. Few in this social state are in a condition to enter into those higher studies and sciences, which not only elevate the individual to a high pitch of mind, but give society itself the language, ideas, and spirit of a higher intellectual condition.‡ Now, even if this should be allowed to be a fair statement of the bearings of the system in question (and there may be some truth in it)-still, if the result should be a happier, simpler, and altogether better-conditioned mode of life among the mass of the people, we hold that the balance would be greatly in its favour. What we proudly boast of as the † Kay, i. 125, 126. *Kay, i. 117. See Mr Laing's Work, chap. vi. civilization of our age, is a system that involves masses of our people in far deeper degradation than can be found where the peasant-proprietor system is in operation. Look at the condition of our farmservants-homeless, heartless, and regardless of all that should interest rational and immortal beings. Look at our miners and colliers, immured all day long in a living grave, and coming out, like owls, at evening, black and misshapen spectres, that seem to mock and insult the blue sky of heaven, and the green verdure of earth. Look at our railway servants, our steamboat crews, our police, our cabmen, our omnibus-conductors, and we know not who more besides-mainly, if not entirely, shut out from all the blessings of the Day of Rest, and to whom life is one unbroken scene of monotonous and oppressive labour. Enter the building at midnight where that pyramidal chimney still vomits its cloud of smoke-see these poor men, bathed in perspiration, working beside that fearful furnace; think how, night after night, while you are asleep, they are busy with their exhausting labours; how, in going to their abodes, they have to run the risk of passing from that fearful heat to the keen frosty atmosphere outside; and how, in their households, you can hardly tell day from night-for, as if Europe and America were combined in them, it is never day, and it is never night, to all the household at the same time. Take a turn with us, if you please, through the "low haunts of London," or indeed of any other large town, and mark the fetid misery, the sad, sickening, appalling manifestations of crime and destitution that thicken around you. No, gentle reader, we are not ashamed to confess that we are not of those who look with unmingled complacency on the civilization of the 19th century; and we are not sure that we would break our heart, if we lived under a system which produced fewer luxuries and conveniences, but did not degrade such masses of the people. But, after all, is it true that the peasant-proprietor system, applied to the agricultural interest of a country, is necessarily so stationary? Not so much so, certainly, as is alleged. Why, for example, should not the peasant proprietor carry part of his agricultural produce to the markets, and exchange them for other commodities which he needs, and which he can buy cheaper and better than he can produce? In proof of the position that peasant-proprietorship does not deaden the spirit of enterprise, hear what Mr Kay says: "In 1843, the minister of the interior of Prussia presented to the king a report upon the condition of agriculture in Prussia, in which it is said that the system of peasant pro prietors, which was introduced into Prussia by Frederic William III., has greatly improved the condition of the peasant both intellectually and socially, and that it has not failed in its expected effect upon the material prosperity of the country, but has undeniably increased the activity and enterprise of all the people engaged in agriculture, and has been the cause of the visibly growing prosperity of the people." Even Mr M'Culloch, who is the great advocate of large estates, speaking of the famous Prussian edict of 1811, which enabled the peasants of Prussia to become proprietors, says : "It has given a wonderful stimulus to improvement. The peasantry. have begun to display a spirit of enterprise and industry that was formerly unknown. . . . . . The want of capital, and the force of old habits rendered the influence of these changes in the outset less striking than many *Kay, i. 135, 136. anticipated; but these retarding circumstances have daily diminished in power, and it may be safely affirmed that the country has made a greater progress since 1815, than it did during the preceding hundred years." In regard to the bearings of the system on intellectual or scientific progress, it should be remembered, that under any system the rural or agricultural population of a country never contributes very largely to that. It is in towns that we must ever look for the active prosecution of literature, science, and art. And, certainly, the world knows well enough by this time of day, that it is to comparatively poor men we are indebted for almost every great intellectual achievement, and that it has been the rarest thing in the world to find a wealthy philosopher, or even a wealthy patron of learning and science. Our space is beginning to warn us to be drawing to a close. We shall conclude our extracts by quoting the sentences in which Mr Mill sums up the results of his investigation of this subject : "As the result of this inquiry into the direct operation and indirect influences of peasant properties, I conceive it to be established, that there is no necessary connection between this form of landed property and an imperfect state of the arts of production; that it is favourable in quite as many respects as it is unfavourable, to the most effective use of the powers of the soil; that no other existing state of agricultural economy has so beneficial effects on the industry, the intelligence, the frugality, and prudence of the population, nor tends on the whole so much to discourage an improvident increase of their numbers; and that no other, therefore, is on the whole so favourable, in the present state of their education, both to their moral and their physical welfare." + pensable to the attainment of the ends for which God, in his providence, places some men in situations of affluence, where they do not require to toil with their hands for their daily bread. God never designed that any of his creatures should be idle; and those whose situation does not call for work with their hands, are called to work with something else -to work with their heads, and to work with their hearts. The proprietor, to whom all the comforts of life are furnished without one hour's bodily exertion on his part-to whom the sweat of other men's brows, and the strain of other men's muscles, supply the most ample livelihood, has his own sphere of labour, ordained, not indeed by man's law, but by the more inviolable laws of Heaven. It is his heaven-appointed office to be the friend, counsellor, and protector of all that are connected with him-to think out the problem of their welfare, and help practically to solve it-to take an interest in their physical, intellectual, and spiritual prosperity-and besides performing these duties to his own dependents, to contribute his share to the discharge of public business, and to the direction of charitable and philanthropic institutions. Well would it have been for this country if our lords of the soil had generally been men of this stamp! But when we think how the case has actually stood, we cannot help recalling the letters on the Babylonian palace wall, "Weighed in the balances, and found wanting!" The hard-hearted avarice that has ever tried to squeeze the last penny from the sinews of an over-toiled peasantry, may have been but rare; but certainly it has not been rare to meet with proprietors of the soil whose idea of their situation has just been, that "by good luck" they were placed in circumstances where they might gratify every inclination without trouble, and make life one varied scene of luxurious ease and self-indulgence. The great city, and the watering-place, and the continent, and the ball-room, and the race-course, have been laid under contribution to furnish this pleasure; while the peasantry have been entirely handed over to an agent, necessarily incapable of performing the paternal duties of the proprietor, and whose principal office has been to collect the rents. When we think how grievously the duties of property have for the most part been neglected and ignored-how little the principle seems yet to be acknowledged, that every proprietor is under an indefeasible obligation to work with his head and heart for the benefit of his people, and how opposed the class of proprietors has been, on the whole, to vital Christianity-we confess our hopes are but faint of seeing their influence largely sanctified, or consecrated to the advancement of the Christion good of the community. Still, we would not like to see a station abolished, which is capable of being turned, through God's blessing, into such a powerful agency of good, and which could supply some elements of usefulness that would not be found under another. Much of the happiness of men arises from the relations of superiority and dependence in which they are placed to each other, when these re The conclusion to which we come on the whole subject is, that there are many important advantages in the system of peasant-proprietorship; but that these are not so universal, nor so comprehensive, as to make it desirable that the whole land of a country should be under the system. As in literary composition, it is said that the best effect is produced by a due mixture of long sentences and short, so in social economics, the best state of things seems to consist in a proper combination of large properties and small. We would desire, at the least, to see a considerable number of small properties in every parish or district, enough to constitute a class of sturdy, independent yeomen, like the "Adam Ayliffes" of former times, and to furnish a sufficient stimulus to the industry and honest ambition of the poorer inhabitants of the district. But we would not like to see all large properties broken down into fragments. There seems to us something peculiarly beautiful in the relation between a proprietor and his tenants, or other dependants, when it is thoroughly sanctified and directed by Christianity. That picture in the first chapter of Ruth, where the kind-hearted and godly Boaz comes among his reapers with such simple dignity, and exchanges with them such kind and pious salutations, is one which we can never look on without emotion-one which we sigh to see a reality again. But it is sad to think that the age of kind and simple Christian intercourse between proprietor and tenant is receding more and more into the back-lations are under the influence of a kind, Christian ground of the past, and that the cases there are of it are so very few, as almost to stand solitary in their respective districts. We would, indeed, desire to see our largest properties reduced to such dimensions as would enable the proprietor to be personally acquainted with all his tenants, and personally cognizant of all that is going on. We deem this indis*Geograph. Diction., apud Kay, i. 142, 143. † Mill i. 360, 361. spirit. Divorced from that spirit, and placed under the direction of a greedy selfishness, they become sources of unmeasured cruelty and suffering; reclaimed from the dominion of selfishness, and placed under the holy guidance of Christian truth and love, they are turned into prolific springs of happiness and comfort. And though on our social horizon no very encouraging prognostications are to be discovered of a change that will turn the mass of our landed proprietors into holy guardians of the temporal and Christian welfare of the families under them, yet we could not but grieve over the general demolition of so many rills or channels, through which unnumbered blessings might be carried to thousands of our families. But in our country, even if the requisite facilities were afforded for the introduction of peasant-proprietorship, or small estates, there is no likelihood of the subdivision being carried too far. The abolition of some of our old feudal laws of succession-the simplification of the forms, and lessening of the expense of conveyancing, and the occasional exposure of landed property for sale in such lots as would be suitable for peasant-properties-are the most of the changes that could be desired to facilitate the introduction of the system. The division of the largest class of properties into estates capable of being overseen personally by the proprietors, would be the work of several generations. On the other hand, in our large manufacturing cities, or abroad in foreign parts, or in our colonial possessions, great fortunes are being frequently accumulated, large part of which their owners are invariably anxious to invest in land. While many properties of considerable extent would thus remain in the hands of the original proprie tors and their descendants, purchasers would be found for many others, without the necessity of breaking them up into fragments. In some cases, it would be necessary to divide the property into small estates. Provision would thus be made both for the continuation of an aristocracy, and for the upraising of a class of honest and independent yeomanry; and were the influence of a vital Christianity superinduced over the whole-were the love and fear of God to reign throughout the community, and the favour and blessing of God to be the heritage of all-brighter days than any that we can look back on in the past, would dawn on our happy land. Our last utterance on this subject must be to repeat, that mere social arrangements are in themselves but the secondary conditions of a nation's happiness; and certainly we would not have taken up the attention of our readers with them, if we did not believe that they have a most important bearing on that “rightcousness" which alone "exalteth a nation," as well as upon that "sin" which is "a reproach to any people." LIFE OF THE REV. EDWARD MR BICKERSTETH belonged to a class of minds of which recent years have furnished many interesting specimens. Mr Simeon of Cambridge, Sir Fowell Buxton, Sir Andrew Agnew, and the present Lord Shaftesbury-are all instances of men, not gifted by nature with very remarkable talents, or with much of that kingly faculty that gains and sways other minds; but who, by a most diligent improvement and ener getic application of their abilities, by great simplicity of purpose, and Christian fervour of spirit, have gained a position of very high influence, and done a large amount of good. Mr Bickersteth belonged to this class. Besides the instruction which we may gather from this aspect of his life, there is much to be drawn also, from the beautiful exhibition of the spirit of Christian love which his character presented. If he was somewhat deficient in those elements of robust *Memoir of the Rev. Edward Bickersteth, late Rector of Watton, Herts. By the Rev. T. R. Birks, A M. 2 Vols. London, 1851. and manly vigour which are often found in Scottish piety, he excelled in that spirit of tender Christian affection, which is believed to be somewhat scarce on this side the border. Could more of Mr Bickersteth's loving spirit be infused into our Scottish_bosoms, the result would be, that a more beautiful and more influ ential style of piety would prevail among us, and the great cause, for which Scotland has suffered and sacrificed so much, would advance more and more. On the other hand, if the piety of such men as Mr Bickersteth had more of Scottish robustness in it, it would enable them to assume a finer and firmer position, and to tell with far more effect on the popu lation of their country. Mr Bickersteth was born among the romantic hills of Westmoreland, at Kirkby Lonsdale, on the 19th March 1786. His father was a surgeon in that town -of highly estimable character, but not, at that time, of evangelical religion. When only fourteen, a situation in the Post-office, in the Dead-Letter department, was procured for him, an elder brother having previously been appointed to a situation in the same office. His connection with this brother, who was a pious young man, seems to have been much blessed to Edward. It led him to consider earnestly his state before God; and after vainly struggling to reach a holy style of living by his own exertions, he was at length brought to a thorough knowledge of his sinfulness, and to reliance on Christ as his Saviour. The seed of the divine life being thus implanted in his soul, he used every means to promote and encourage it; and by a most diligent and unwearied "exercis ing of himself unto godliness," carried over his whole life, he was enabled to attain the singular measure of Christian excellence, and Christian usefulness, which distinguished his career. After being six years in the Post-office, where his duties were easy and mechanical, the activity and energy of his spirit were shown in his exertions to obtain some more active and useful employment. He became an apprentice to a solicitor, and remained in his employment till 1812, when he settled in Norwich, in the same capacity. The careful and methodical habits to which he was trained in these situations were of very great service to him in his future life. Meanwhile, his religious character expanded; and from the following "resolution" formed by him at the age of 21, it will be seen how high were his aims of personal improvement : "I will sincerely endeavour, and I also believe it to be my best interest, and a sure evidence of my salvation, and, through possible height of piety, and never to stop short, or to think I the merits of Christ, pleasing to God, to obtain the greatest have attained, till death crowns me with victory. To reach this, I must be the best Christian, the best friend, the best servant, the best master, the best housekeeper, the best son, the best brother, the best labourer; in short, I must strive to be perfect in my state of life, as my Heavenly Father is perfect. Here, then, is a work fitted for an immortal soul. It would indeed be vain to attempt to be this by my own strength; but here is my hope, I have a promise of a better strength, and this very night I will implore the aid, not of man, but of God, and he is able to work all this in me. That I may implore this aid the more ardently, recollect, I am running the race, and the prize is immortal. I am fighting a battle: I am on a journey. I am seeking a All these are but images; my dangers jewel and a crown. and also my rewards are, and will be, infinitely greater.” The desire to do good to others now began to fill his bosom. "I wish to live in the way," he says, "which will bring most honour on religion, and do most good to others." With this view, besides making conscience of the utmost diligence in business and blamelessness in his personal deportment, he joined himself to visiting societies, and adopted other means of usefulness. His parents, not sympathizing with his earnest feelings, expressed their alarm at his apparent fanaticism; he replied in terms that combined Christian firmness with the spirit of dutifulness and the desire to avoid offence. Afterwards, he had the great happiness to see his parents adopt his own views, and manifest his own spirit, in religious mat ters. When he removed to Norwich, every thing seemed to promise fair for his worldly prosperity. He had just entered into partnership with a like-minded friend, Mr Bignold; he had also been happily married to Mr Bignold's sister; and the business in which they were engaged brought ample means of subsistence. But the desire to devote himself exclusively to the service of Christianity had been steadily gaining strength. While in London, he had seriously entertained the question of taking orders; but the decision to which he was then led, was in favour of his remaining in his first profession. At Norwich, there was as yet no branch of the Church Missionary Society; Mr Bickersteth resolved to attempt the establishment of one. In this attempt, he met with much opposition; but opposition only confirmed his purpose, and deepened his interest in the Society. The Branch was established, and flourished beyond expectation, Mr Bickersteth being the life and soul of it, while he continued there. An office of Secretary to the Society being at this time vacant in London, and Mr Bickersteth being well known for his zeal and devotedness in the cause, it was suggested to him that he should apply for ordination to the Bishop of Norwich, and fill the situation for which he was judged so suitable. Some reluctance was shown by the Bishop to confer ordination so speedily on one who had not had a University educa. tion; but these difficulties were overcome, and in 1815, Mr Bickersteth became a clergyman, and was appointed one of the Secretaries of the Church Missionary Society. His first duty, after his appointment, was to visit the missionary stations of the Society in Africa, report on their state, and endeavour to remedy the somewhat untoward condition into which they had fallen. This difficult and important duty was discharged by him with much judiciousness and faithfulness, and at once gained for him a very high place in the regards of the Society. knowledge, joined to his judicious spirit, and thoroughly excellent character, laid the foundation for the great influence which he afterwards acquired, as a leader of the evangelical section of the English Church. Even after his retirement, in 1830, from the missionary secretaryship, he continued to undertake very many tours, and perform many other labours of love, in behalf of the Missionary Society. And this was not the only institution whose welfare was dear to him. The Bible Society-the Pastoral Aid-the Jewish Society-the City Mission-the Irish Mission and the Evangelical Alliance-were all peculiarly dear to him; and to the last, he exerted himself, in numberless ways, to promote their welfare, and ́increase their usefulness. When he undertook the missionary secretaryship, he associated with that duty the charge of the afternoon congregation in Wheler Chapel, Spittalfields. Various circumstances, especially his frequent absence from home, interfered with the success of his pastoral labours; and it was not till near the close of his connection with the congregation, and his entering on the full duties of the charge, that he found much encouragement in his ministerial labours. Even then he seems to have found his miscellaneous duties so oppressive, that when, in 1830, Mr Abel Smith, the patron of the parish of Watton, placed that charge in his offer, he very gladly accepted of it, and in a few months entered on the oversight of a pleasant and moderately-sized rural parish. In the discharge of his pa toral duties, he was characterised mainly by his affectionate zeal for the salvation of the souls of his people. The objects of his life at Watton were thus laid down by him : "1. To devote myself ardently and fully to the work of the ministry. In preaching the glorious gospel diligently and laboriously. In visiting unweariedly every part of my parish, from house to house, with many tears, with much prayer. "2. To foster the spirit of religion in the county. By clerical meetings and intercourse. By religious associations and meetings in different places. By opening my house to every plan for doing good. "3. To pursue religious publications as God shall enable me, first trying to improve my present works. To write an address upon missions. To write a treatise on baptism, and on visiting the poor. "4. To attend specially to the religion of my own household. My wife, children, and servants, must have more of my thoughts, prayer, and time, as it regards their spiritual welfare. 5. To give that time to the Church Missionary Society which does not interfere with other duties. The most impor tant aid will be in journeys and committees. And in all, and above all, "6. To walk closely with God, content with nothing, but as I have communion with God in the duty, and seek not my here of special importance-prayerful reading of the Scripown glory, but His whose I am, and whom I serve. And tures, close self-examination, and much fervent prayer." "The labours of Mr Bickersteth in his own parish, did not differ, by any striking features, from those of any other faithful clergyman. He was constant and affectionate, though, others, in his private visits; but his chief strength lay in the from the pressure of public duties, less abundant than some ministry of the Word. His sermons were less adapted to arouse the careless by the terrors of the law, or to probe deeply the consciences of men, than to attract them by an earnest exhibition of the love of God in Christ, and to establish be For about fourteen years after his return, he continued to discharge the ordinary duties of Secretary. His former professional training gave him the business habits that fitted him for the mechanical part of his duties; while the warmth and fervour of his spirit, and his intense devotedness to the missionary cause, rendered him equally suitable for the more spiritual department. The two great elements of a missionary secretary were thus combined in him; and in office-work, pulpit-work, and platform-work, he was equally at home. Part of his duty was, to visit different parts of England to promote the interests of the Society; and it was in the discharge of this duty-in preaching, organizing, and watering-lievers by a glowing description of their privileges and their that his activity chiefly appeared. By this means, too, he became familiar with most of the pious clergymen in the church; he knew the state of religion in almost every district; and this extensive hopes, and of the peace and joy to be found in the gospel. His expositions in the school-room or in the family were peculiarly striking and impressive, from their simplicity of style, and heartiness of tone, and their rich fulness of divine truth." The results of Mr Bickersteth's incumbency are thus given: "Though no signal revival of religion, at any one time, had taken place during Mr Bickersteth's stay at Watton, there had been a gradual progress. The number of communicants, which was about 25 when he first came, had increased to an average attendance of more than 80 persons, and sometimes above 100 met around the Lord's table.* The Word of God, though the results were far short of what their pastor earnestly desired, had not been spoken among them in vain, and many a peaceful and holy deathbed had borne witness to the blessed power of the gospel of Christ." In the midst of all his labours, he found time to compose a considerable number of practical and devotional treatises, whose usefulness and acceptableness have been shown by the very large number of editions through which they have passed. In domestic life, the character of Mr Bickersteth appears to have possessed a very great charm. His biographer presents some very interesting and attractive pictures of family life at Watton Rectory. Speaking of the training of his family, he says:"Religion was never exhibited to them as a system of arbitrary restraint, or as contracting for them a wider circle of pleasures, in which the children of worldly parents would be permitted to engage. They were taught to regard it as a system of privilege, a constant fountain of domestic joy and mutual love. Their father carefully excluded them, it is true, from worldly society. Novels were practically prohibited, and vain and idle words in songs, even when they might happen to intrude in music-lessons met his instant and decided disapprobation. He objected to dancing, and the ball-room was of course entirely prohibited. But the home circle was so happy-life was so rich with varied interest, that his children were little tempted to desire amusements, of which they felt no need, and which were habitually associated in their minds, with the ideas of unhealthy dissipation, waste of time, and extreme spiritual danger." Regarding his occasional visits on missionary business, Mr Drummond of Edinburgh thus writes: "His visits were indeed precious and soul-refreshing; they were such as to make us feel, as though we were entertaining an angel unawares. The announcement of one spread cheerfulness and happy expectation, and the joy or prospect was more than equalled in its fulfilment. Faith was confirmed; the mere earthly admixtures that mingled with contending for the truth, were rebuked, and love and forbearance were enlarged. His was the spirit that rejoiced as little in iniquity as it rejoiced much in the truth. The impressions made by his sermons and public addresses were uniformly deep and extensive. The influence of his private intercourse was pervading and sustained. The garden of the Lord seemed to give forth its special sweetness, when this spiritual labourer appeared, laden with the precious fruits of the gospel, peace and love." The great weakness of Mr Bickersteth, like that of most English evangelical clergymen, lay in his practical toleration for unsound principles, when not immediately or flagrantly productive of pernicious consequences, or not actively neutralizing agencies of good. When he saw a bad principle in the very, act of producing ruinous results, he placed himself in decided opposition to it; but when this connection was not palpable and outstanding, he was too ready to be satisfied. Hence he continued a member of the Bible Society, though Socinians were admitted to its committee, and its meetings were not opened by prayer-even while he felt these things to be wrong because he believed that practically God was honoured by the Society, and much good was done by it; he was for succumbing to the wish of the Bishops, against employing lay-agency in the *The population was about 900. Pastoral-Aid Society, though he believed it to be an unscriptural wish-because there was another Society that might still employ that agency; he disapproved, in the end, of the separation of the Free Church from the Establishment, even while he approved of Free Church principles, because he seemed to think the position of an Established Church se cured greater means of usefulness; and he held to the Church of England, notwithstanding all its anomalies, corruptions, and heresies, because there was a great deal of good in it, and because a great deal of good might be done in it. It is impossible for us in Scotland not to regard this weakness in the character of Mr Bickersteth, and other excellent men, with the keenest feelings of grief and alarm. It allows a quiet nest to numberless elements of error and mischief, where they may germinate undisturbed till they have acquired strength enough to convulse the church to its very centre; it lets the assassin or the thief secrete himself in the house, till the family are all quiet, when he may steal or murder as he pleases; it secures a little peace to-day, but at the expense of we know not what dangers to-morrow. Would only that this policy could be regarded as harmless ! As it is, it utterly prevents the sound men of the English Church from assuming the bold attitude of Reformers; while it gives rise to the most painful apprehensions, lest the cause of truth, in England, weakened by close contact with so many elements of corruption, may ultimately be overborne by the champions of error. 66 Perhaps the feature of all others most instructive in the Life of Bickersteth was his constant attention to the inward conflict, and unceasing endeavours to get all holy principles made active, and powerful, and triumphant in his heart. This is really the great practical concern of the true Christian. "If I do not unceasingly attend to this, my spiritual life is not worthy of the name." Mr Bickersteth did constantly attend to it. We have already seen proofs of this, and the memoir furnishes them in great plenty. On one occasion, for example, he notes seren things that are to be asked at the Lord's table,— grace for early rising-full private morning prayer constant mid-day prayer-diligent evening prayer self-denial in things pleasant to the flesh-intercession for the people committed to me-enlarged liberality." His own vineyard was kept with care, while the vineyards of others were cultivated too. In nature, good cultivation will make an indifferent soil produce more than a superior soil carelessly tilled. It is so also in the kingdom of grace. The soil of Mr Bickersteth's garden was not naturally very rich, but it was well kept. It was regularly opened to the dew and the sunshine of heaven. And much fruit was borne to the glory of God. |