David are sung early in the morning, and late at night; and from thence the Abyssinians are reminded of their great Queen, the Queen of Sheba, and the high birth of Menelik, her son by Solomon the King, and of his coronation in the temple of Jerusalem. In those convents, though somewhat mixed with human superstitions, the name of Jesus is adored and many a monk wanders about from time to time, to remind people that Jesus, the Son of the blessed Mary, is the Son of the Highest" (p. 348). Immediately preceding this, Dr. Wolff gives us a specimen of their holy morning prayer :— "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy upon us! "For the sake of Mary, have mercy upon us! "For the sake of Michael, have mercy upon us! "For the sake of Gabriel, have mercy upon us! "And for the sake of all the Saints, have mercy upon us!" All this is thorough Puseyism or Froudism; in other words, it is setting up tradition and "antiquity" (that beloved word of the Oxford sect) as something at least equal with the Scriptures, and the doctrines of the Scriptures. The hatred of Dissenters and of extempore prayer; the hatred of "Protestantism;" the love of ancient liturgies and the homilies of the Fathers; the admiration of the fanatical" Saints," Hermits, and Monks; the superstitious belief of idle traditions and absurd legends; the adoration of the apostolical succession; and the abhorrence of disturbing the Priests and Bishops of the Greek Church in their superstitions, all this is characteristic of the school, especially when interspersed with hard sentences against "Romanism," apparently to save appearances. Dr. Wolff does not hesitate to say that the Heathen Arabians were converted" by Simeon the Stylite to Christianity. But what then is Christianity in the opinion of Dr. Wolff? Did that pitiable ascetic represent this cardinal truth of the Christian Religion, that "to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness," when for thirty years attenuated by fasting, and exercising himself in the postures of an antic devotion, he lived on the top of a stone pillar, exposed to the inclemency of the atmosphere, and covered only with a shaggy skin. Does Dr. Wolff call the disgraceful baptisms of the heathens who came to gaze and wonder at this aerial portent, "conversions to Christianity ?"—The Arabian idolators, who congregated to see this strange sight, beheld, indeed, the wretched man bending his meagre skeleton from the forehead to the feet twelve hundred times, without intermission, and heard with amazement that his celestial life was supported by only one meal in the course of the week, this was enough for them-they were convinced he must be some new exhibition of the power of the gods, and they were baptised into a new form of idolatry, which the Fathers call conversions to Christianity. Simeon was not a christian; he most vividly represented the widest divergence possible from Christianity; for if his life was meretorious, or indeed not sinful, then must salvation by faith in the crucified Son of God, and a participation in his righteousness, be a fable. But, in truth, Simeon the Stylite was, to the Syrian christians, one of the new demi-gods whose worship was then coming into vogue; he was an idol, and even in his life-time images of him were used as idols in the worship of the faithful, as we may see by this unsuspecting and admiring testimony of Theodoret : ως εν άπασι τοις των προπυλαίοις εικονας αυτα βραχειας αναστήσαι, φυλακην τινα σφισιν αυτοις και ασφαλειαν εντευθεν πορίζοντας. Dr. Wolff has, however, given himself up without restraint to the delusions of superstition. He tells us, with the utmost gravity and composure, of the very hole in which the cross of our Lord was fixed on Golgotha, where he, Dr. Wolff, "knelt and wept;" of the room in Bethlehem where Christ was born, where he also knelt down and prayed; of the room where St. Jerom translated the Bible, and other puerilities of this sort, though he must at least have heard the decisions of antiquaries on these pretended holy places, and holy rooms, and must, we think, have exerted no small force on his imagination to get up even a temporary belief in the sanctity of these delusions. The journal is throughout written with the utmost simplicity, in the form of letters; and owing to its simple unaffected style is very amusing: some anecdotes are recounted with surprising naiveté : take as an example the following: "At Khamees a band of Wahabites 395). The well-flogged missionary makes no further remark on this curious adventure. Dr. Wolff was ordained a Deacon of the Episcopalian Protestant (though he hates the word Protestant) Church at New York. Bishop Doane was the ordaining Prelate on this occasion; previous to his ordination he was examined in ecclesiastical history, the articles of the church, Hebrew and Greek, Natural Theology, and Philosophy. The following were the questions and answers in his ordination examination on Natural Philosophy. Examiner. "How do you get up wa ter?" Myself. "By a pump." Myself. "You must pull hard." The learned Missionary was thoroughly approved, and canonically ordained in the line of the apostolical succession. By order of Bishop Doane he for one month acted the part of curate at Salem, to the Rev. Mr. Prescott. THE DISSENTERS, CHURCH RATES, &c. A PUBLIC meeting was held on Wednesday, Dec. 4, at the London Tavern, with a view to form an Evangelical Voluntary Church Association. This new Association is, by a fundamental law, debarred from applying to the legislature, and its "sole object" professes to be the diffusion of information on subjects connected with the voluntary principle. Sir Culling Eardly Smith was called to the chair, and made a temperate speech, of which, however, one or two sentences are open to animadversion. "It was in the highest degree unjust, that one set of persons should be placed in superior estimation to others, not because they were better men or better citizens, but because they gave their nominal adhesion to a particular form of religion." "He trusted that they would consider themselves pledged not to throw away the weapons of their warfare, till every hold, he would not say of irreligion, but of a falsely understood religion, erected against the truth, should be, not pulled down, but till such light should be let in that the public should judge whether they ought to be pulled down or not." Here are two capital errors: 1st. The viewing a Christian's standing in the world as a matter of civil right: 2nd. The appeal to the world to pull down "false religions" in order to give fair play to all sectarians. Two errors we have named these; but, in truth, they may be considered one, for each is based on the most mistaken notion, that this world is the portion of the saint. The dissenters are always complaining of their inferior position in English society, and are always murmuring against the superiority of the church people, whom they want to pull down to a level with themselves. This inferiority may be a political injustice, or it may not; it may also, if examined more closely, be found to originate in some moral circumstances of which the dissenters seem to have no suspicion but where can we find in the Scriptures this picture of the Church of God, bustling, striving, and struggling to bring down the high things of the earth, in order to elevate the church to an equality with its worldly masters; and agitating, holding meetings, and forming associations "to diffuse information on the voluntary principle." Do the dissenters suppose that their case, as Christians in the world, is different from the condition of those whom the apostles taught? and is the portion of the saints upon earth to be changed in these days for the accommodation of " dissenting gentlemen." "Unto you it is given on the behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His name's sake;" this, it appears, is obsolete for the dissenters; they reject the gift of suffering, and clamour loudly for worldly equality and justice in society. "In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world;" which the dissenters would paraphrase thus: "In the world we will not have tribulation, for we ourselves will overcome the world." The speakers at this meeting_complain much of the world's hatred, and Sir Culling Eardley Smith says, it is "most unjust;" but how was it at the first? "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world the world would love its own, but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I have said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me." It is our sincere wish that Sir Culling Eardley Smith, who is animated with the best intentions, may be led into a closer consideration of the kingdom of Christ, that he may see it is the portion and privilege of the saints to suffer, and not to rule, in the world-that he may perceive the false position the children of light assume, when they strive about carnal matters with the children of this world; and that he may, ere long, be most happily emancipated from the professional dissenters, and all their unedifying and unprofitable associations for ecclesiastical equality. The remarks of the editor of the "Patriot'" newspaper, on this meeting at the London tavern, are in the old strain,"we wish to see political questions treated in a religious spirit, and taken up on religious grounds." There are, however, no religious grounds for politics, and the only religious spirit which we acknowledge, is "the Spirit of Christ" and its fruits (Gal. vi. 22, 23), none of which can come to maturity in a political atmosphere. CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. "Dr. Chalmers' Address to the Dignitaries and Ecclesiastics at large of the Church of England." "......It will be enough for my purpose, that, satisfied with our common Protestantism, you are willing that each of the two Churches should abide in the undisturbed possession of their own distinct governments and forms; and that each should be upheld as the best and readiest engine for the Christian education of the people in their respective countries. This, I believe, to be the real practical disposition of the great majority of ecclesiastics in both kingdoms. There may be Puseyists with you, who conceive that ours is not a true Church of Christ; and there may be some with us (though I never met with them) who can still speak of prelacy as an un-christian abomination; but the aggregate feeling of each for the other is, I have no doubt, that, not only of perfect toleration, but of positive cordiality and good-will. I am not sure that an individual could be found in either Church, who would join in a crusade for the overthrow of the other; and though not a formal, there is on all hands the practical agreement-that nothing should be done, at this time of day, to unsettle the established methods, or to subvert the fundamental principle of either. I ask no more. I am not afraid of your indifference, and far less of your hostility, when I make a statement of our case. You will at once perceive that it amounts to a crisis-in which a wrong decision might endanger the cause of religious establishments in general-and, while it would be a fatal blow to the liberties of our Church, would be convertible into a precedent and effectual stepping-stone for the overthrow of the liberties of the Church of England." This is indeed stating the case very plainly, for it amounts to this: that it matters not what the established religion may be, for this only is to be kept in view the upholding all establishments as a general principle. It is the cause of" religious establishments in general" -that cause which is advocated by our East India Government, and which extends the support of Government to the Brahmins, Mohammedans, Jains, and Buddhists. Dr. Chalmers, however, has fallen into a strange oblivion of the real feeling between the priests of the two Churches : we would refer him to the February number of The Inquirer for last year, where he will see extracts from speeches delivered at the "Centenary Commemoration" of the assembly of the Church of Scotland, which, in 1838, abrogated the episcopacy set up by James and Charles. On that occasion, several Presbyterian ministers of note uttered such sentiments as utterly contradict Dr. Chalmers' description of harmony and good feeling between the two Churches. Some of the reverend orators did not hesitate to call the Church of England "the beast," and to assail the prelates with several old puritan rebukes, which need not here be repeated. Moreover, the Committee of the Christian Knowledge Society, wholly under the patronage of these "dignitaries" whose aid Dr. Chalmers now invokes, did, on January 15th, 1838, pass the following resolutions :"1. The Church of Christ is planted in Scotland. 2. There are not two branches of the Protestant Church. 3. It is implied that there are two branches of the Church in Scotland, these being the Papal and the Protestant Episcopalian. 4. The other professedly Christian body, popularly known as the Church of Scotland, is no part of the Church of Christ." This sudden declaration of love and amity is therefore somewhat extraordinary. Dr. Chalmers labours under a great misapprehension, when he says, "A bishop would not, at the bidding of a civil court, confer ordination; he would receive no order from such a quarter on the subject: the duty of obedience to the law would not carry him to the length of admitting any one into holy orders, in opposition to his own views of right and duty, as an office-bearer in the Church of Christ." The bishops are continually in a state of coercion in the matter of episcopal consecrations. When the Queen's mandate has gone forth for a congé d'élire to a chapter, the chapter must elect the person named by the crown, or incur the penalty of a premunire, and the bishops must consecrate the person so elected. They have no choice left; they would be deprived if they refused; they are not allowed to give their opinion about these chief" office-bearers in the Church of Christ"-having entered into a marriage union with the state, the Church is obliged to obey her lord and master. A striking instance of this is on record. When James II. was waging war with the Established Church, he appointed Parker to the vacant see of Oxford, and Cartwright to that of Chester. Bishop Burnet says, 66 They were the two worst men that could be selected, and they were pitched upon as the fittest instruments that could be found among the clergy to betray and ruin the Church." So bad were these men, and so unpopular their appointment, that "some of the bishops brought to Archbishop Sancroft articles against them, which they desired he would offer to the King in council, and pray that the mandate for VOL. III. consecrating them might be delayed till time was given to examine particulars" "the Archbishop promised not to consecrate them till he had examined the truth of the articles, of which some were too scandalous to be repeated; but when he saw the danger he might incur if he were sued in a premunire, he consented to consecrate them, and the two new bishops were consecrated in the chapel at Lambeth-palace, October 17, 1686." This is a curious record of ecclesiastical history, affording also an incidental illustration of the peculiar nature of that apostolical succession" which is now the very life of the Established Church. 66 " To shew, however, how different circumstances can produce different sentiments between these two established Churches, we would remind our readers of "the solemn league and covenant for reformation and defence of religion," drawn by the Assembly of Divines, in in the year 1643, and enjoined by Parliament, to be subscribed by every person bearing office within the three kingdoms. This was the work of Presbyterian ministers, and both in Scotland and in England was their favourite declaration. The second clause of the solemn league and covenant is thus:"We shall in like manner, without respect of persons, endeavour the extirpation of popery, prelacy (that is, churchgovernment by archbishops, bishops, their chancellors and commissaries, deans, deans and chapters, archdeacons, and all other ecclesiastical officers depending on that hierarchy), superstition, heresy, schism, profaneness, and whatso ever shall be found to be contrary to sound doctrine and the power of godliness, lest we partake in other men's sins, and thereby be in danger to receive of their plagues; and that the Lord may be one, and His name one, in the three kingdoms." This covenant was signed by both Houses of Parliament in St. Margaret's Church, Westminster-but tempora mu tantur. DILEMMAS OF YOUNG DISSENTING MINIS TERS. From the "Eclectic Review," Jan. 1840. "WE speak that we do know, and we testify that we have seen." A student, at an early period of his career, is in N formed that he is to preach three times on the following sabbath, some thirty miles from the scene of his studies. He has but two sermons in the world-perhaps but one; and, now trembling with fear, now elated with hope, he hastens to make some preparation for the work, certainly to the partial, perhaps total neglect of his present studies for a day or two. Or, it may be, he has preached at the same place before, and having become, therefore, a bankrupt in sermons, is necessitated to give a still larger portion of time to some sort of preparation. He spends a part of the Saturday in preparing for his journey, and in travelling to his destination. As yet unaccustomed to the labours of the pulpit, a sabbath is to him a day of intense excitement and severe effort of mind, terminating in deep exhaustion. He spends a portion of the Monday in travelling back to his college, and arrives there so jaded and wearied in body and in mind, as to be little fit for any thing that day, and not fit for very much the next; perhaps also with some little disrelish for those silent and recluse studies which have only prospective utility to recommend them, utility which, from his very inexperience, he is unable fully to appreciate, and is therefore too apt to underrate; studies, too, which are attended with no present excitement, and with no flattering, though dangerous, gratulations. If the courses of study which he has been thus compelled to intermit or partially to neglect be closely connected in their several parts-as, for instance, the Mathematics, Logic, or Mental Philosophy, or certain departments of Theology, he has not vigour, or even time enough satisfactorily to make good, by his own unaided efforts, the gap which his engagements have occasioned, and at the same time to keep pace with the progress of the class. The consequence is that those portions of the courses in question are never satisfactorily mastered; while, from the manner in which they are interwoven with all the rest, the remainder is also necessarily acquired in a perfunctory and slovenly manner; and thus the student arrives at its termination, not only with that mere smattering of the subject, which is worse than no knowledge at all, but without that benefit of mental discipline which would have resulted from thoroughly mastering it, and which is in some cases the only sufficient reason for paying any attention to it at all. We repeat that we speak from experience, that we paint from life. Again, it seems desirable, for another obvious reason, that during a considerable portion of the whole term of study, students should not be permitted to preach at all. In sending them to a college to prepare them for the ministry, it is surely supposed that they have something to learn before they preach, or why send them there?-it is surely supposed that they are not yet in any way fit to undertake the important office to which they have dedicated themselves? Now, by suffering them to preach too soon, we not only set at nought this maxim, and lose, or at least diminish, the opportunities professedly given for supplying these deficiencies, but in some cases render it impossible that they should ever be supplied for in these very early efforts are too often acquired or confirmed that false taste and that vicious style, which it is a thousand times more difficult to unlearn than simply to avoid; and which, in fact, would in most cases have been avoided, if a little wholesome instruction had been timely administered. As it is, a great part of the instructions of subsequent years is consumed in counteract ing and correcting the faults of premature practice; what might have been effectual as a preventive, is too often only partially efficacious as a remedy. For these reasons we must insist on the necessity of sacredly reserving a considerable portion of the whole term of study to the purposes of study; nor do we think it difficult to show, that even during the remainder of it, preaching engagements should not be very frequent. We have already spoken of the absolute necessity that students should not come unpractised to the regular discharge of their ministerial functions, and so far therefore as it is necessary to secure this object, some public exercises become both requisite and beneficial; but as this is the object, so would we strictly confine ourselves to it: not a step further would we go. [The words in italics are not so printed in the "Eclectic."] TRANSLATION OF JOHN III. 8. To the Editor of " The Inquirer." In your number for November, No. 11, is a proposed new translation of John iii. 8. The following is the translation |