Poetry. THE REAPER AND THE FLOWERS. BY HENRY W. LONGFELLOW. THERE is a reaper, whose name is death, He reaps the bearded grain at a breath, "Shall I have naught that is fair ?" saith he, He gazed at the flowers with tearful eyes; It was for the Lord of Paradise He bound them in his sheaves. "My Lord hath need of these flow'rets gay," And saints upon their garments white And the mother gave, in tears and pain, O, not in cruelty, nor in wrath, The reaper came that day, Notices of Books. Memoirs of the late Christmas Evans. By DAVID RHYS STEPHEN. London: Aylott and Jones. 1847. CHRISTMAS EVANS was for many years bishop of the Anglesea Baptists, and one of the most popular preachers in Wales. Next to the fervour of his spirit, his great power lay in his exuberant imagination. To his vivid eye and poetic fancy Bible texts started up living forms and images of fire; and his burning words conveyed to the most susceptible of all auditories-a Welsh congregation-the dazzling realizations of his fervent spirit. In this volume we have one or two good specimens of his peculiar style, and much instructive information regarding the state of religion in his own denomination. The Memoir is so brief, that we read it all with unflagging interest. The following advice occurs in a letter to a young minister; and though the simile has been employed before, its force has never been more livelily brought out: Now, brother, follow the natural course of affection and voice. Raise not the voice while the heart is dry, but let the heart and affections shout first; let it commence within. Take this comparison: go to the blacksmith's shop; he first puts the piece of iron in the fire, and there is no sound of striking the anvil; he collects together the coals for heat; then he tells the boy, Blow,' while he masterfully manages the MISSIONARY HYMN FOR SABBATH SCHOOLS. shovel, adjusting the coals, and asking sundry 'Twas an angel visited the green earth, And took the flowers away. O'ER the desert's burning sands, "Come to help us !-come to save!" Leave immortal souls his prey? All his wondrous works make known. Lord, 'twere blessed to declare Preach the mercy of our God. At the Babe of Bethlem's birth, Praise to God and peace on earth! So would we to every land Send the message from above. –Banner of Ulster. INFANTS SAVED BY IMPUTATION OF THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST. BOLD infidelity turn pale and die! Say, are they lost or saved? If death's by sin-they sinned, because they're here; Revere the sacred page, the knot's untied; A NIGHT THOUGHT. GLORY to Him who framed the spheres, J. P. BROWN. questions. He calmly looks at the fire heating the iron, and does not yet take hold of the hammer, nor order his assistants to use the sledge; but at length, seeing that the iron has attained the proper malleability, he takes it out, covered with sparkling fire, puts it on the anvil, handles the hammer, and orders his workmen to take the larger one, and fashions it according to his pleasure; and so on, all day long. Here, observe, he does not beat the iron in order to make it hot, for without first heating it, the beating process is in vain; equally vain is the hammer of vociferation, unless the matter is brought home with warmth into our hearts. We have often sought to produce effect, and to influence our hearers, much as though the smith merely put the iron in fire, and barely warmed it; it is contrary to the nature of things to use the hammer while the material is not duly tempered." (p. 92.) A Treatise on the Physical Cause of the Death of Christ, and its relation to the Principles and Practice of Christianity. By WILLIAM STROUD, M.D. London: Hamilton and Adams. 1847. INDEPENDENTLY of his professional attainments, Dr. Stroud is known to many as a man of elegant scholarship and extensive reading. A member, as we understand, of the Countess of Huntingdon's orthodox and respected connexion, his principles and character have associated him with some of the most eminent ministers and honoured societies of the present day. And in the work before us, he has contributed to Christian literature a gift which reflects as much lustre on himself as it is likely to render service to the cause of exegetical and doctrinal theology. By means of an induction which must be read before it can leave its demonstrative impression on the mind, by comparing the evangelical narrative with the ascertained facts of physiology, Dr. Stroud has proved that though the Saviour died upon the cross, crucifixion was neither the sole nor proximate cause of his death. Several instances are recorded where terror or sudden anguish of spirit brought on a bloody sweat; and numerous instances are quoted where the same causes have occasioned rupture of the heart and instant death. But the remarkable circumstance is, that if a person die from a ruptured heart, the pericardium, or membrane enclosing the heart, fills with blood, sometimes to the extent of several pounds, and this blood resolves into its solid and liquid constituents, technically called crassamentum and serum, but in common language "blood and water;" whilst after a death from ordinary causes, nothing is found in this cavity except an ounce or two of common blood. When the side of the dead Redeemer was pierced by the soldier's spear, our readers will remember how carefully John records that "forthwith came there out blood and water;" and how studiously he But unless the calls attention to the fact. heart had ruptured before decease, the effect with which John was so struck, could not have taken place. But following the minute and circumstantial narrative, it is easy to see that this was precisely the case. In Gethsemane the Saviour was overwhelmed with such sore trouble, that clots of blood were forced through the pores of his tortured frame, and he exhibited the anxiety and oppressed sensations, and uttered the loud cries as of one whose heart is injured. At that time, however, the cup passed away, and it was not till he had been some time on the cross, that the same paroxysm returned. But there again desertion and the frown of the Father wrung his holy soul; "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" and in this new access of agony, the injury of the preceding night was completed, and having only time to utter two brief ejaculations accompanied with a piercing cry, the heart of Jesus broke, and Messiah yielded up the ghost. We need scarcely advert to the surprise of the soldiers at his premature death, and the other facts which confirm the theory. To our own minds the proof is complete; and because of the fresh light it throws on the Christian evidence, and the fulness of meaning which it puts into some prophecies and many passages of Scripture, we feel very grateful for this demonstration. It is, indeed, a "new instance of the value of inductive reasoning, which, like a sounding-line let down into the ocean of time, has thus, from the depth of 1800 years, brought up to the surface a pearl of great price." Lowe's Magazine, for January, 1847. Edinburgh: J. D. Lowe. A CAPITAL number of this able monthly magazine. The first article, on the Duty of Electors, and the Notes of the Month, are weighty and well written. Interesting papers also will be found on the New Planet, the "People's Journal," the Pope and the Italian Question, and other topics. A Letter from Dr. Chalmers, and Professor Fraser's Introductory Lecture at the Logic Class in the Free Church College, increase the value of the present number. The Free Church Magazine, for January. John Johnstone, London and Edinburgh. THE "Free Church Magazine" is kept up with great spirit; and this is a good number. We especially name a letter from the Rev. David Brown, of Glasgow, on some points in Elliott's Hora Apocalypticæ, and a review of John Foster's ideas as to the eternity of future punishments, as articles of much value. Address to the Young Men's Society, in connexion with the Free Church, Oxford-road, Manchester. By the Rev. R. COWE, A.M. Manchester: Galt and Co. We have much pleasure in calling attention to this excellent address, of the character of which our readers may judge by the following extract: "Another benefit arising from an acquaintance with the writings and lives of those men (the Reformers) is the Christian stimulus which it will give to your minds. "In this mechanical age, when there is so much more noise and activity than depth and earnestness, what an advantage is it to raise the curtain that veils the past, and converse with men whose souls were stirred to the lowest depths by the life-giving verities of the Gospel. Those were no mere amateurs in theology, cultivators of taste without being devout wor shippers of God, but men who, while they thought deeply, also felt ardently, and did not shrink from daily peril in the service of the Lord who bought them. The Gospel was no toy in their hands, but prized and cherished as · 1 the pearl of great price. When you read the simple but burning words of John Welch, pining away in banishment for the testimony of Jesus, I refuse not to die with thee, my Lord, that I may live with Thee. I refuse not to suffer with Thee, that I may rejoice with Thee. Shall not all things be pleasant to me, which may be my last step, by which I may come unto Thee? When shall I be satiate with Thy face? When shall I be drunk with Thy pleasures? Come, Lord Jesus, and tarry not. The Spirit saith, Come; the Bride saith, Come. Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly.' Or the last words of the heavenly-minded Robert Bruce, with his eyes dim with the blindness of approaching death, and his finger upon the sublime conclusion of the 8th chap. of Romans, which peals with such swelling strains of love, breathing out his soul to God in calm and joyous assurance, 'Now God be with you, my children; I have breakfasted with you, and shall sup with my Lord Jesus this night. Or when you listen to the Divine harpings of the seraphic Samuel Rutherford, just before his flight to the mountain of spices, Oh that all my brethren may know what a Master I have served, and what peace I have this day. I shall sleep in Christ, and when I awake, I shall be satisfied with His likeness. Oh! for arms to embrace him; oh! for a welltuned harp! When you drink in the spirit of such triumphant sentiments as these, do you not feel as if transported into a new world; as if you were listening to men who, like Stephen, saw heaven opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God? Their words came fresh and powerful from the heart; and they show you that their life was a race, a fight, and their death, even in exile, a victory. "You thus meet with men, in those times, who made religion a matter of life and death. Their spirits, sentiments, and habits, prove that they were thoroughly in earnest. Their hearts were on fire with the love of Christ. It was their belief that much had been forgiven them, and therefore they loved much. They lived and moved as seeing Him who is invisible. Every thing was pushed aside that stood in the way of his glory. Now, by conversing with such men in their writings, by walking along with them in their sublime but arduous career, you catch a portion of their ardour; your souls begin to glow with a kindred zeal; a virtue comes out of them which makes you ashamed of lukewarmness; you feel the promptings of love rising stronger and stronger within you, and inspired by their devotion you resolve to do more for God than heretofore. Transported from a cold religion into one glowing with spiritual warmth and earnestness, the soul awakes from its torpor; its slumbering energies are called into action; you shake hands with the master spirits of former ages; and as if fresh from their society, and animated by their voice and example, you rise above the present world, and desire to be followers of them, who through faith and patience, inherit the promises."-p. 10-12. On the 8th "What was the result? There is, in the gaol of Funchal, a place called Bomba. Respecting that place I may mention, that the day after my release from prison I sent a friend to distribute bread to the prisoners, and on coming out of Bomba he gave unequivocal manifestations of his being sick, and nearly fainted, it is a most abominably disgusting den of filth. In that place there were, on the 7th of June, fifteen persons confined, for various offences, and on the 8th, when the prisoners refused to go to mass, there were five more added. I wished to go and take the dimensions of it, but could not get admission, and asked a friend to take them for me. did so; and the paper he brought to me stated that the Bomba is twelve feet square, by eleven feet high, and in that loathsome room twenty men were confined night and day. For what? For refusing to pay that homage to a bit of bread which man owes to his God! sustain comparison, for cultivated and conse-pelled; he felt that it would have been better THE GAOL OF FUNCHAL. WHEN I was in gaol, in 1843, there was no His grasp was overcome by violence, and at He "We are told, Christian friends, that Popery is changed, that she persecutes no more, that there is not a country on earth where Popery now persecutes, and that she is so changed that she would never wish to per secute. We answer, Popery does not drag out her victims and burn them at the stake in open day: no, for as yet she dares not. But she does what she dares; those who will not obey her despotic commands she throws into the Bomba, that there they may endure a death, far more lingering, and far more horrid, than at the stake. Let men look at the Bomba in Funchal gaol, and answer whether Popery does not now persecute."—Dr. Kalley. trouble, than such who, at a distance, seem NONE are more ready to shrink in a day of most daring.-Fleming. It is not perhaps so heinous an idolatry to set up a graven image, a senseless and a sinless stock or stone, as for a man to set up his own sinful corrupt affections, and devote himself to a compliance with them in opposition to the righteous will of God.-Charnock, he would rather converse 31 10 4 115 14 8 6 6. River-terrace-Rev. Josias Wilson 7. Chelsea-Rev. William Cousin 81 17 8. Southwark-Rev. Joseph Fisher 8 3 0 9. London-wall-Rev. Wm. Nicolson 100 0 0 10. Marylebone-Rev. Wm. Chalmers, 265 12 4 In addition to this liberal collection, the ladies of the congregation have expended a large sum in the purchase of materials for clothing, and have already transmitted between six and seven hundred articles of dress to the care of the Rev. Dr. Mackay, of Dunoon. By the liberality of the directors of the North Western Railway, they were conveyed from London to Liverpool free of charge. D'AUBIGNE'S HISTORY OF THE REFOR- JAMES DOWIE, PATENTEE MATION. THE ONLY TRANSLATION REVISED BY HIMSELF. Just published, with Dr. D'Aubigné's Autograph, in demy 8vo., beautifully printed with an entirely new and clear type, a VERY ERY CHEAP COPY of OLIVER and BOYD'S REVISED EDITION. Vols. 1, 2, and 3, being the only translation corrected and authenticated by Dr. D'Aubigné, to which he has also written a new preface, and made numerous important additions not to be found in any other translation; and Vol. 4, being the English original. Four volumes bound in one. 78. Price in cloth extra, richly gilt back. 6s. or, Cloth extra, richly gilt, and gilt edges, very suitable for a present The LIBRARY EDITION of the ABOVE, large type, in Four Volumes, post 8vo., price 14s., with Autograph, is also on sale. Also, Vol. 4 separately. Demy 8vo., large type, 12s. cloth. Medium 8vo., double columns, 3s. 6d. sewed. Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh. Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., London. GP EM OF TEAS. This Tea is consigned to the Proprietor by a relative resident in China. For richness of flavour, exquisite taste, 42 0 0 |and great strength, it is unequalled, and far surpasses any other Tea in this country. 6s. per lb. not yet reported 710 0 INVALID or DR. TURNER'S COCOA prepared after the formula of the eminent Chemist whose name it bears. 2s. per lb. Ho OMOEOPATHIC COCOA, 18. 6d. per lb. recommended by Dr. CURIE, President of the 946 13 2 | Homeopathic College. 737 11 2 Total, Jan. 23......... 1684 4 4 MANUFACTURER of ELASTIC BOOTS and SHOES, Wholesale, Retail, and for Exportation, and Contractor for Army, Navy, and Police Supplies, No. 455, STRAND, near TRAFALGAR SQUARE, LONDON. After seven years' trial upon an extensive scale among all classes of society, J. D. has great confidence in directing attention to his patent boots and shoes, as the only kind yet offered to the public, adapted to the structure and functions of the human foot, their elastic and extensible properties per. mitting the natural actions produced by the ever-varying positions into which the foot is and comfort in walking, softness and elasticity to thrown by exercise, which thereby secures ease the most sensitive parts of the feet, combining beauty of appearance with economy and durability in wear. By recent improvements he is now able within reach of all classes. to offer these articles at such prices as to be The patentee has much pleasure in laying before the public the following extracts from some of the testimonials he has received in reference thereto. From the minutes of the Royal Society of Arts for Scotland, March 15, 1839: ،،، Observations on Boots and Shoes, with reference to the Structure and Action of the Human Foot.' By JAMES DOWIE, F.R.S., S.A. "This was a very interesting paper, shewing that, as the human foot becomes elongated, to the extent, in many cases, of two-thirds of an inch, when under pressure of the body as in walking, unless provision be made for the elongation of the boot or shoe along with the foot, the feet and toes must be cramped, their healthy action impaired, and in many cases stiffness, and even distortion of the joints of the toes superinduced. This desideratum has been effected by Mr. Dowie in his Elastic Boots and Shoes, by the introduction of an elastic substance in the sole and upper leather, which while quite impervious to water, has the property of enlarging and contracting along with Subscriptions will continue to be thankfully SPECIAL NOTICE.-To secure the advantage of Play of the foot and to facilitate his marching." -Sir GEO. BALLINGALL, Professor of Military Surgery, Edinburgh University. "Your views on anatomy are correct; the foot has an internal play which should be preserved. On the full and natural motion of the foot depends the shape of the leg."-Sir CHAS. BELL, Professor boots and shoes, having immediate reference to the of Surgery, Edinburgh University, April 4, 1839. "A very great improvement in the construction of giving full play to the muscles of the foot, in consequence of which the wearer receives great comfort and ease in walking."-ALEX. MUNRO, Professor of Anatomy, Edinburgh University. "Particularly comfortable for those who, like myself, walk a great deal, from their elasticity, giving much less check than the usual leather soles to the natural spring in the arch of the foot."-J.H. DAVIDSON, Physician in Ordinary to Her Majesty for Scotland. "Strong walking shoes made on your plan possess a pliancy which adapts them to the ever-varying Positions of the feet, with an ease and comfort which I never experienced in ordinary shoes."AND. COMBE, Physician to the King of the Belgians. "I have for several years worn Mr. Dowie's shoes, and consider them superior in many respects to TWO MILLIONS FOUR HUNDRED THOU shoes of the ordinary construction; and I may add SAND POUNDS. The ACCUMULATED FUND exceeds THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND POUNDS. The ANNUAL REVENUE exceeds All Policies of Five Years' Standing are receivCHEEVER'S WANDERINGS of a PILGRIM ing annual additions, amounting in many cases to more than the sums paid as premium. Thus, for example:-Policy for 1000l. effected on the 1st March, 1832, on the life of a person aged 20, would, if it now became a claim, be worth 13481. 6s. 3d. The BONUS in this case would amount to 3481. 6s. 3d., whereas 311. 5s. only had been paid in premiums. To be followed by other Popular Works. "This enterprize deserves the most extensive patronage."-Biblical Review. Lately Published, price 4s., cloth. BUTLER'S ANALOGY of RELIGION; Natural and Revealed; with an Introductory Essay by DANIEL WILSON, D.D., Lord Bishop of Calcutta. William Collins, Glasgow and London, (James Blackwood, 44, Paternoster-row, agent). 66 that I believe soldiers who wear Mr. Dowie's shoes would march with more liveliness and ease than with the shoes usually furnished to them."--HENRY MARSHALL, Deputy Inspector-General of Army Hospitals. By means of the elastic waist of Mr. Dowie's boots and shoes, the yielding foot is furnished with a defence that also yields; the pressure of the boot or shoe is thus thrown over and around the foot and a power that are altogether impossible in the in every part alike, and the step gains a freedom unyielding leathern box of the old construction." - ROBERT WILLIS, Dover-street, London. Printed by ALEXANDER MACINTOSH, of No. 20, Great New street, Fetter-lane, London, and published by JAMES MACINTOSH, of No. 47, Church-road, De Beauvoirsquare, in the parish of Hackney, at the Office, No. 16, Exeter Hall, Strand, London. Monday, Feb. 1, 1846. Sold by HAMILTON, ADAMS, and Co., Paternoster-row and JAMES NISBET and Co., 21, Berners-street. PRESBYTERIAN NECTAMEN CONSUMER BATUR MESSENGER. THE great thing in the Church is Christ, the eternal deity of Christ, the blood of Christ, the Spirit of Christ, the presence of Christ among us. The great thing is Christ, but there is also advantage in a certain government of the Church. I am a Presbyterian, not only of situation, but of conviction and choice. Our Presbyterian way is the good middle way between Episcopacy on the one side, and Congregationalism on the other. We combine the two great principles that must be maintained in the Church-Order and Liberty: the order of government, and the liberty of the people.-MERLE D'AUBIGNE. HISTORY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN ENGLAND. ib. 397 government as seems most conducive to the interests and circumstances of the community, and the advancement of truth and religion." (Continued from page 362.) On the footing of this understood neutrality, It would be tiresome even to enumerate the the most fraternal and friendly relations were variety of hardships and persecutions to which kept up between the early English Reformers the Puritans were exposed in the latter part and Calvin, Bullinger, Knox, Beza, and other of the reign of Elizabeth. In 1583, on the Presbyterians, who maintained that the goaccession of Whitgift to the see of Canter-vernment of the Church was a matter of prinbury, the Queen charged him "to restore the ciple, and not of policy, and was to be derived discipline of the Church and the uniformity from Scripture rule, not from local or national established by law; which, through the con- statutes. nivance of some prelates, the obstinacy of the Puritans, and the power of some noblemen, is now out of square." New and stringent articles were accordingly framed, which reached further than any of the former tests of uniformity. It was required of the clergy "to declare that the Book of Common Prayer, and Ordination of bishops, priests, and deacons, containeth nothing in it contrary to the Word of God," a strange requirement this, concerning a book which contained in itself many contradictory statements, all of which, of course, could not be in accordance with Holy Scripture! The enforcement of this injunction gave rise to scenes of new and distressing persecution in all parts of England, and few faithful men were thereafter allowed to remain in the Established Church. Until the present time, the Protestants of England were more afraid of cutting themselves off from the alliance of other Reformed Churches than from communion with Rome, and they therefore maintained concord between their own Episcopal Church and the Presbyterian Churches in foreign countries. They professed to act on the principle, " that Jesus Christ has left on record no express injunctions with respect to the external form of government in the Church; but that every nation has a right to establish such form of On the 12th of January, 1588, in a sermon preached at Paul's Cross, Dr. Bancroft, Chaplain to Archbishop Whitgift, maintained that the order of bishops was distinct from that of presbyters, and had superiority, not by any human institution, but jure divino, by express and direct appointment of God. This was a new and startling doctrine even among churchmen of the most anti-Puritan type. It had always been admitted, that the superiority of the order of bishop over presbyter had no authority of Scripture, but merely had been an appointment of the Church, gradually taking place from about the third or fourth century. From Wickliffe, the morning star of the Reformation, down to Miles Coverdale, the first English translator of the Bible, Fox, the martyrologist, and Cartwright, the father of the Puritans,-all who preferred the Word of God to the writings of the fathers and to the voice of tradition, agreed in denying the authority of bishops as a distinct order from that of presbyters. But now, under Archbishop Whitgift, the validity of Presbyterian ordination was for the first time impugned, and the whole clergy of the other Reformed Churches, where there were no bishops, were by many regarded as inferior, in office and qualification, to the priests of the Romish Church. Episcopal ordination, sacerdotal character, valid orders, apostolical succession, and other new and pernicious subjects of controversy, were added to the troubles of the Church. With regard to apostolical succession through the line of the Church of Rome, it is worth noting, that Baronius, the Popish historian, in his "Annals," confesses, that, in a succession of fifty popes, not one pious or virtuous man sat in the chair of St. Peter; that there had been no popes for some years together; at other times two or three at once; and that there have been between twenty and thirty schisms, one of which continued fifty years, the Popes of Avignon and Rome excommunicating each other, and yet conferring orders upon their several clergy! Can the true line be traced through so much confusion? or if traced, is it a thing for any Christian minister to be proud of? It is strange how the doctrine of apostolical succession found favour with any who called themselves Protestants; and still more strange is it, how even now, in the nineteenth century, there should be found so many who pride themselves on so disreputable and obscure a lineage. In 1558, after the delivery of the nation from the alarm attending the threatened Spanish invasion, the Puritans having made themselves conspicuous by their loyalty to the Queen and their zeal for the Protestant cause, once more ventured to seek some relaxation from the severity of the law requiring their conformity. On their petition being presented to the House of Commons at the beginning of the new parliament, one of the members rose and moved that an inquiry should be made how far the bishops had exceeded the laws in the prosecution of Her Another Majesty's Protestant subjects. moved, for reviving the bill against pluralities and non-residences, which was brought in, and having passed, was sent up to the Lords. This alarmed the convocation, who addressed the Queen to protect the Church. Hereupon the Queen forbade the House of Lords to proceed, and sent those members of the House of Commons into custody who had dared to break through her orders not to meddle with affairs of religion without her special permission; which put an end to all expectation of relief for the present. Some of the Nonconformists thought that by joining themselves to the French and Dutch reformed churches in London they might get shelter from persecution, and liberty of worship, seeing that their own assembling together was now illegal. But the Queen and council on learning this wrote to the ministers and elders of these churches, forbidding them, with threats of banishment from the kingdom, to receive any English subject into their communion. (To be continued.) THE FOUR NEW BISHOPS. THE legislature of this country has at length been aroused to its duty. The fearful state of moral and religious destitution throughout England, especially in the large towns, has long been deplored; and some measures of relief have been imperatively called for. Accurate statistical details have proved that tens and hundreds of thousands, in the most privileged parts of this Christian land, are living in a state of practical heathenism. Deeply sensible of this, Her Majesty's Government, after much conference and consultation among the dignitaries of the English Church, have resolved to appoint four new bishops! But there is another sort of bishops in the Church of Rome; and, we sincerely grieve to add, still retained in the Church of England. These are not pastor-bishops, but prelate bishops; overseers, not of people, but of presbyters; not feeding any flock, but ruling the clergy; not, as in primitive times, several in one city, but one over a large territory or diocese. If the Word of God be indeed the directory of duty, and the only rule of faith and practice, as Protestants profess, what defence can be made for these diocesan bishops, or prelates? It would take a long time for the Bishop of London, or the new Bishop of Manchester, or Nottingham, or Leeds, to go from house to house, teaching every man, warning every man, rebuking, exhorting, caring for the flock. The Church of England has already not a few faithful pastor-bishops in each of these great towns, and all the better it were if they had no other bishops to be lords over them. The apostles and evangelists, being extraordinary and temporary officers, had wider charge given to them, as missionaries still have, in partibus infidelium, or in newly evangelized countries; but the Reformed Churches deny that diocesan bishops are the successors of the apostles in the present day. Again we say, it is to be deplored that the English Church stands on this question on the side of the Church of Rome against the other Protestant Churches. It could not be so if the Word of God had supreme authority in matters of religion. In the Bibles which are used in our Presbyterian churches in England there is a passage which reads thus: "But Jesus called them to him and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and their great ones That this is a step in the right direction is at first apparent. For what is a bishop? The word means 66 an overseer;" and spiritual oversight is certainly required amongst our neglected population. A bishop, according to the Bible, is an overseer of souls; one whose duty, as described in the New Testament, is "to teach publicly, and from house to house;" "to feed the flock of God, taking the oversight thereof;" "neither as being lord over God's heritage, but being an ensample to the flock." Of such pastor-bishops every flock in the primitive Church had one; and in cities, where the number of converts was greater, there were several bishops. Such was the case at Ephesus, as we read in the twentieth chapter of the Acts, where St. Paul sent for the elders (or presbyters) of Ephesus, and charged them to take heed to the flock over which the Holy Ghost had made The actual annual revenue of the bishops them overseers (or bishops). This is one of of the English and Irish Church is upwards How many passages, proving also that presbyter of a quarter of a million sterling. and bishop are names for the same office. much more it is we cannot easily calculate; Nearly the whole of the Protestant Churches for who can tell all the fees and perquisites of the Reformation have these scriptural or of a diocesan or metropolitan? But let the Presbyterian bishops. They are not, how-annual income of the bishops be taken at ever, called by that much abused designation, 300,0007., and who will say that this wealth but most usually "ministers," or "pastors." is laid out in the best way for the glory of God and the good of souls? This 300,000%. could support more than 3,000 Scripture readers, district visitors, city missionaries, and preachers of the Gospel; and thereby something of the true use of an Established Church for the instruction and evangelization of the people might be effected. With the exception of a few foolish and unscriptural ceremonies, which had better be left undone, there is no ecclesiastical duty at present performed by the bishops, which could not be far better done by the presbyters of districts or provinces, in Presbytery, Synod, or Convocation assembled, as is the way in other Protestant Churches. In a letter in the "Times" of Feb. 19, it is said in reference to the bishops, "Would it not be better that these rulers of the Church should be multiplied greatly, paid more humbly, worked more to the purpose, and brought more in contact with the other clergy, who are in every respect their equals? It is time that the bishops step down from their seats on legislative benches and their episcopal thrones, and in their own proper persons act as labourers in the vineyard of the Gospel." Till the Church of England be further reformed, the field is not clear for Protestant to meet Papist in the conflict that is fast gathering around us. Instead of four new bishops being appointed, we should like the whole order of prelate-bishops to be abolished, and the English clergy meeting in Presbytery, Synod, and Convocation, as their brethren do in the other Reformed Churches, There would then be hope, even yet, for the cause of Protestantism in England. THE FAMINE IN IRELAND. - LORD LORD BROUGHAM has written discourses on natural theology, and has published an edition of Paley with notes, in which he speaks very piously of the ways of Providence, and the moral government of the world. But it does not appear that these studies and pursuits have been turned by him to good account in the practical business and affairs of life. For we read in the "Times" report of the proceedings of the House of Lords, on the 28th of January, that Lord Brougham and other Peers thought proper to ridicule the opinion expressed by some, that the present destitution in Ireland may be a judg ment of Providence on account of certain measures recently put on the statute-book. 'Do these bigots," it was argued, "consider, that the judgment is not falling on the legislators, but on the people legislated for; and, therefore, as the innocent, and not the guilty, are suffering, there cannot be any dispensation of Providence in the matter?" Whether the present condition of Ireland have any connexion with Popery, or any other moral evil there, we know not; but we cannot see what right Lord Brougham has to ridicule the honest opinions of those who may connect this national calamity with |