DISCOURSE LIV.

ALEX

LEXANDER KING, D.D.

DR. KING was born in the county of Wicklow, Ireland, in the year 1814. His father, named Thomas King, had been brought up a Presbyterian, and was related to several of the eminent men who had been prominent in the movements of the first "United Irishmen," before those movements became implicated in anti-Protestant conspiracies; and though attached to the Established Church (there being then no Presbyterianism in the county of Wicklow), yet retained his Presbyterian and liberal notions. His mother had been educated in the English Established Church; was of an English family named Watts, collaterally related to the family of the celebrated Dr. Watts, "the poet of nonconformity." The son was designed for the ministry in the Established Church; but his earliest impressions did not tend to form a strong attachment to that institution. He became familiar with liberal and popular notions; learned the Shorter Catechism and Watts's hymns for children; and, next to the Bible, had been most accustomed to quotations from Brown's poems (which his father seemed to have always at hand from memory), and to various incidental references to the great doctrines of liberty and right. When quite a grown boy, and possessed of a good share of general knowledge, he regarded his mother as singular among and above women, for every thing excellent and lovely, and it was from her piety he received his first religious impressions.

His conversion occurred when he was about fourteen years old, in the Established Church, in which he was confirmed. He afterward formed decided convictions as a Dissenter, principally in consequence of the constitution of an ecclesiastical establishment appearing to be contrary to religious liberty, and opposed to the New Testament; and the system of "priests' orders" and the sacraments, being, as he conceived, derived from Popery, and not from the Word of God.

An excellent clergyman in the establishment, who knew his conscientious difficulties, was the first to recommend him to enter the ministry among the Independents; and this worthy, liberal Christian man still continues his warm personal friend, although conscientiously retaining his own position. He was educated, principally, in Dublin, and spent the last four years, preparatory to entering upon the ministry, in the Dublin Theological College, under the instructions of the late Rev. W. H. Cooper and others. He was ordained to the ministry in 1838; spent nearly two years at home missionary work, and settled as pastor of the Independent church, in Cork, in 1840.

In 1846 he returned to Dublin and took the pastoral charge (temporarily) of the old Congregational church, in "Plunket street meeting-house," while assisting to conduct the mission of the Irish Congregational Union. In 1848 he visited America,

at the request of Dr. Baird and other friends, for the purpose of interesting the American churches in missionary effort in Ireland, where he received marked attention, and accomplished great good. In seven months he traveled about six thousand miles, going by the north out to St. Louis and Illinois, besides visiting through all the Atlantic States, from Washington City, District of Columbia, to Maine. He also made a short visit to Canada, and was the first minister from the Old World to attend and preach at the annual meetings of the Congregational Union of Canada. From the beginning of 1849 to the middle of 1856, he labored in Ireland (principally for the enlightenment of Roman Catholics) in connection with American societies. In November, 1856, he commenced pastoral ministrations in a new sphere, in a beautiful new chapel, lately erected in Brighton (south of England) by the English Congregational Chapel Building Society.

Dr. King has not published any large or important works. His first pamphlet, entitled, "The Might and the Right of the People,"* contains the first public call for the movement which originated the initiation of the Queen's College, and he was the only minister of religion who took part in the preparatory meeting for obtaining these colleges, which took place in the city of Cork. His letter to Father Mathew occasioned his issuing a cheap edition of the Douay Bible, which circulated largely among Roman Catholics. Other pamphlets have been on "The Life and Labors of St. Patrick," and on various points of the Roman Catholic controversy.

Dr. King speaks and writes in a bold, dashing manner, and though comparatively regardless of the niceties of style, is often highly rhetorical and effective. His marked peculiarities are pretty fairly brought out in the subjoined discourse, which was preached in Queen's Square Chapel, Brighton, last December, and forwarded by himself for insertion in this work. It is, by permission, somewhat abridged.

A WARNING TO THE CHURCHES.

"He that hath an ear, let him hear, what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”— REV., ii. 7.

REASON and religion unite to testify that this world is under the moral government of God. As professed Christians, we are bound to recognize and appreciate this glorious fact; and to study human history and divine providence in their relations to the gospel of Christ. Christianity is the great exponent of God's moral government. Yet we may learn something of the principles of that government, and discover its presence and its power, through circumstances and events, in themselves trivial, secular, carnal, and altogether destitute of a sacred character.

When we speak of God's moral government of this world, we allude to his superintendence and control of the affairs of men, and the exercise of his sovereignty and righteous judgment regarding them. The affairs of men are frequently associated with littleness, and vileness, and ungodliness and wrong; but, considered in connection with the government of * Consisting of letters to Daniel O'Connell, Father Mathew, and others

God, they appear invested with a solemn interest that is derived from the awful grandeur of this relationship; just as the glories of heaven's sunlight are shed upon the beggar's rags, upon the dungeon's walls, upon the horrors of the gibbet or the battle-field, and upon all the sorrows, and crimes, that crush and curse the earth. As Christianity is the fullest embodiment and expression to us of the objects and principles of God's moral government, so, doubtless, that government is administered with special reference to the honor and progress of the gospel. The divine word expounds the divine administration in regard to human conduct and affairs, so that we may estimate the actions and characters of men by reference to the laws of God; and the divine government proceeds upon principles by which human conduct and affairs take rank in the universe, according to their relations to the interests of Christianity.

These are solemn and suggestive thoughts: Omnipotence reigns, to give effect to mercy. God governs, to redeem and bless. Jesus is exalted a Prince and a Saviour. He reigns in righteousness, mighty to save. He must reign until all his enemies be made his footstool. Whatever resists his purposes of mercy, must perish by the breath of his anger. His power shall punish and destroy all that is hostile to his reigning and redeeming love.

It is in harmony with these thoughts, and not in any spirit of sectarian animosity or moroseness, that we design to notice some instructive facts in the constitution and history of the Papacy; and to glance at some remarkable modern incidents in the conduct and circumstances of its chiefs. The Papal power is unquestionably one of the most wonderful systems ever known among men. In its origin and growth-in its organization and development-in the depth of its administrative sagacity-in the height of its aspiring ambition-in the daring grandeur of its assumptions in the appalling mystery of its achievements-it stands unrivalled and unique in the history of the world! To many now it appears incredible, and to all it will yet appear as a great mystery in the history of our race, that such a system could have sprung from an institution for teaching religion; and that religion the purest, the meekest, the most spiritual and holy, the most beneficent and divine, ever known among mankind. This is the peculiar, perplexing, instructive fact in the Papacy. It has an "apostolical succession!" It is, in a sense, the historical offspring of a pure and scriptural Christian church. It stands, and has for ages stood, on the ground where once the imperial Paganism proudly decreed the annihilation of Christianity-on the ground where proud, persecuting, imperial Paganism fell, before the Christianity it had attempted to destroy. It claims to be the representative and inheritor-nay, the very completion and development-of that Christianity by which that Paganism was overthrown. It possesses trophies which that victorious Christianity wrested from its fallen foe. It has set up its own seat of power in Cæsar's palace, amidst the ruins of the temples of Cæsar's gods;

and it challenges the world's assent to the historical demonstration that Christianity is divine; AND-that the chair of the Pope is the throne of God on earth!

Among the thrones and crowns of worldly authority, it shines with awful splendor as the oldest dynasty in Christendom. In its extremest debasement and decrepitude it holds alliance with the proudest sovereigns in the world; and by wielding a power with which none of them can trifle, it makes them the instruments of its aggrandizement, and the vassals of its supremacy. By an imposing and tragical exhibition of Christian facts, and by the aids of a gorgeous ceremonial, it secures the religious homage of multitudes of devout and humble souls; and by its sublime assumption of political autocracy and divine attributes, it establishes its authority over the most ardent and ambitious. Thus the Papal power has secured a temporal dominion, and established a religious despotism, in the name of Christianity. The nations have wondered after this great mystery, as with "the voice of many waters" its authority has been acknowledged, and its praises have been celebrated in the earth. It history has shown such spoils and trophies as no other conqueror can boast: monarchs dethroned-kingdoms convulsed-nations enslaved-and the civilization, literature, wealth, liberties-all the rights and resources of the mightiest states-compelled to do homage to its power. Nay, even the ordinances of heaven have been repealed-the word of God has been prohibited-the doctrines of salvation have been set aside for monkish fables and heathen rites-and the gospel of peace and love has been turned into an implement of priestly domination-the symbol and the sanction of tyranny and blood.

Even in our own day, when the fires of persecution are extinguished, and the rusty implements of torture are, by most persons, regarded with disgust and horror, this mysterious power counts its millions of willing victims among the exalted and lowly, the rude and the refined. It holds spell-bound in superstitious veneration masses of the pious poor; while it boasts its converts drawn from the high places of educated and aristocratic Protestantism. With the stains of its past atrocities upon it-with its gripe upon the throat of liberty, and its heel upon the profaned and mutilated gospel-it stands up in presence of the august civilization of this age, and with admirable effrontery puts forth its pretensions, in the name of Christ, to the dominion of the world!

How and whence this enormous and stupendous development of evil, in connection with the Christian name? By what process did the Papacy grow to be what it has been, and what it is? This is a very important inquiry, and the answer is pregnant with instruction and warning of the highest interest. We must carry this investigation back to the inspired records of Christianity itself. There we learn how sadly the light of God's revelation has become darkened to the world by the follies and the sins of men. The same testimony that informs us of "the word

of truth, the gospel of our salvation," also warns us of insidious errors, false doctrines, and evil workings; by which the gospel is subverted, and men bring upon themselves swift destruction.

In the presence of miraculous gifts, and under the inspired ministrations of the apostles, we find nearly all the first societies of Christian converts in constant and imminent peril of departing from the faith, and some of them actually tending to apostacy. Some of them were fascinated by a revival of the "carnal ordinances" of Judaism. They forsook the simple doctrines of Christianity, for a religion of ceremonialism; or attempted to unite a code of ritual sanctity with the intelligent spirituality of the gospel. Some, "who loved to have the pre-eminence," set themselves up as leaders and dictators among their brethren, and endeavored "to draw away disciples after them ;" and thus introduced the evils of schismatical contention, and sowed the seeds of clerical ambition and ruthless intolerance, which afterwards wrought such mischief in the churches. Others, again, undertook to vindicate or modify the doctrines of the gospel, by amalgamating them with the speculations of Pagan philosophy, and throwing around them various conceits and expositions of their own, until the truth was buried beneath a mass of error. And some became so tainted by surrounding abominations, and perverted by carnal reasonings, that they sank into the grossest pollution, and "made shipwreck of the faith." On every hand we find roots of bitterness springing up, troubling the churches; the germs of incipient apostacy sometimes appearing to grow with appalling vigor and rank luxuriance, hastening to bring forth fruit unto death. Hence the frequent warnings and earnest expostulations of the apostles, exhorting the disciples to "keep themselves pure"-to "stand fast in the faith"-to "try the spirits" to receive "no other doctrines" than those which had been "delivered to them"-to "beware of false teachers"-to avoid unprofitable "contentions and strifes about words"-to reject "the traditions and commandments of men." "Even now," they said, are there many antiChrists!" "Many false prophets are gone out into the world." "The mystery of iniquity doth already work." From these early and fatal manifestations of pernicious errors within the pale of the Christian profession, they predicted that great apostacy, which should afterwards come, "with the working of Satan; with power, and signs, and lying wonders; and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved."

How marvelous that the spread and prevalence of false Christianity should thus become a proof to us that Christianity is true! And O, with what profound reverence and holy awe should we adore that inscrutable wisdom which prepares for the final victory and consummate glory of the Redeemer, by allowing, even within the precincts of his mediatorial dominion, the appearance and growth, through ages, of a diabolical