"But how is he to discharge that Ministry which he receives of the Lord Jesus? To make Him known, and all the blessings of the Covenant in Him, and to win men to embrace that Covenant-this is the work of the Ambassador of Christ. His whole Ministry, then, must tend to convince men of sin, and to lead them to Christ and build them up in Him. "On a Course of Theological Reading I can hereafter talk with you. As to what I may call the technicalities of the office, your manner of composing and delivering sermons, &c., I can also talk with you. The Pastoral duties, likewise—your visiting and personal intercourse with the people-may be considered hereafter. I have now touched a little on main principles. And may that blessed Saviour, who has called so many of your family into His immediate service as Priests and Levites to His Church, endow you with His choicest gifts and His abundant grace!" In the spring of 1835 Mr. Pratt took occasion, from his son's appointment to the Tuesday evening Lectureship at St. Lawrence's, to resign that for the Wednesday evening, which he had held since 1804. This weekly demand on his strength had been long felt to be too much for his advancing years; and though he retired regretting and regretted, he felt providentially called to take this step for his own relief. Toward the close of the same year he had the pleasure of renewing intercourse with his old friend, Bishop Chase, who in the autumn arrived in England a second time, as Bishop of Illinois, a newly-formed diocese considerably west of Ohio, from which it was separated by the intervening State of Indiana. The particular ground of his present Appeal was, that a vast tide of population was continually pouring westward into the Valley of the Mississippi, for whom there was no spiritual provision; and that in one year alone 100,000 persons had settled in the State of Illinois, the chief part of whom were from Great Britain and Ireland. He proposed to form a Theological Seminary, from whence a native clergy might go forth to minister to the spiritual wants of that vast population. Mr. Pratt was unable from infirmity to render him the same degree of active support as on the former occasion: but the Bishop returned to America with about 2000l.; and ultimately succeeded in accomplishing the object of his wishes. Mr. Pratt had a considerable share in the formation, about the same time, of the Church Pastoral-Aid Society. He had learnt, from experience, the indispensable necessity of some better provision to meet the pressing wants of our dense masses of baptized Heathenism at home; and his Missionary soul sympathized cordially with some of the London clergy and laity, who met, under the encouragement of their Diocesan, to form a Society for this object early in the year 1836, under the above title. He became a subscriber to its funds, and took a most lively interest in its early struggles and its growing prosperity. CHAPTER XVIII. 1838-1844. THE CHRISTIAN YEAR"-ERRORS OF THE TRACTARIAN SCHOOL-EXPOSURES OF THEM-MR. PRATT PREACHES ON THE SUBJECT AT ST. PAUL'SPOLITICAL CHANGES, WITH THEIR RESULTS-ALLEVIATING AND ENCOURAGING CIRCUMSTANCES TRACTARIANISM MORE DEVELOPED, AND - WORKS WRITTEN IN ANSWER TO IT-KRISHNAGHUR—THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE-SECESSION FROM THE SCOTCH CHURCH-THE CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY CONTINUES STEDFAST TO ITS PRINCIPLES-THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY AND THE BISHOP OF LONDON JOIN THE SOCIETY. THE decided and uncompromising view which Mr. Pratt took of the errors of the Tractarian School, and the readiness with which his discerning mind detected the real evils of their system from its commencement, have been already noticed. He had already, indeed, for several years before its appearance, been in the habit of cautioning his friends against what he considered to be the insidious poison of one very popular volume. Had it not been for the beauty of its poetry, and the sacredness of its subjects, "The Christian Year" could never have won so many ardent admirers among those who now entirely disapprove of the school whence it emanated. Beneath its attractive and fascinating dress, he detected a spirit of formalism and unsound doctrine: and he well knew that all this, if allowed to get possession of the mind, must lead to a grievous perversion of the Gospel. Little, however, Ꮓ did he suspect at that early period,* what a "deep conspiracy against the truth" was before long to rise up from this very quarter. The author of this work was one of a small band, who, in the summer of 1833—as we are informed eight years later by one of their number t-formed themselves into a Society for the express purpose of laying down, and inculcating in every way in their power, those pernicious and dangerous errors, which are now well known as the fundamental tenets of the Tractarian School. During these last years of Mr. Pratt's life, he scarcely ever wrote a letter without adverting to the progress of this new system. Thus, in writing to the Bishop of Calcutta in September, 1838, after making some remarks upon the character of a friend, he says: "He has none of the Popish fripperies and solemn nonsense, which have burst upon us from the fanatics of Oriel College and Christ Church. Ah! that opens an alarming subject. There must be heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.' That process is going on among us; and the disclosures are painful indeed. Numbers of the students and younger Clergy are becoming formalists and devotees; and the leaven is working to an extent among those who are older, which discovers the lean and withered condition of the Church in quarters where a better state was presumed. God is, however, raising up defenders of His truth; and in the end the truth will, no doubt, shine forth with increased lustre; but in the meanwhile many blossoms fall off, and much promising fruit is nipped and stunted. What youth, * "The Christian Year" was published in 1827. hardly conversant with any theology beyond the first elements, and little awakened to his need of mercy and grace, can bear to be sent forth with the assurance that, by virtue of his external call, he, and he only, in conjunction with such as have had the like call, can create and minister to the people the true body and blood of Christ?' He cannot, without a miracle of grace, escape the snares of the devil. This school, which seems to me to have had its birth in the spirit which was kindled some years since and breathed forth in Keble's mystified poetry, is now attempting to undermine and pervert every distinguishing doctrine of the Gospel. The deep conspiracy formed against the truth, has been so audaciously disclosed in a late work (Froude's Remains'), that it cannot well be that the voice of Authority should be still silent in the Church, on an evil which threatens her ruin far more than any assault on her endowments. "But all ecclesiastical history teems with this mischief. God will humble the sinner and exalt His own glory. Most men refuse all submission. If led by any thing short of converting grace to profess to seek God, the heart is still withheld from Him; and will have nothing to do with any religion which is not, under some of a thousand guises, all to be resolved into self." A few days later he writes again :— "The will of God is working its mighty way on the earth, and we are all, consciously or unconsciously, taking our places in the fulfilment of that will. Oh, to be right with God, how great the mercy! If wrong, He will still use us, but we lose our reward.' Many are wrong here [in England], and their number fearfully increases. Not, I suppose, that error prevails much against those who had an intelligent knowledge of the truth, but it runs with wildfire rapidity among the superficial, the ignorant, the ceremonious, the self-righteous; and makes sad disclosures of our weakness to those who have ill-will at |