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Aye, speed thee well, nor stay till thou
Thy long-loved Lord shall see;
No angel hand or signal new

Need point him out to thee;
Attracted by some secret spell,

Thy love shall find him: speed thee well!

Where novel glories never cease,
Where choral spirits stray,
Or linger in some bower of peace,
Where sparkling fountains play;
While loved ones, gone before, shall tell
Salvation's story, speed thee well!

Beyond created vision far,

In robe of dazzling white,
From sun to sun, from star to star,
Speed thy unbounded flight;
While Jesu's name and glory swell
Throughout immensity, speed well!

Him follow here in tears and pain,
And thou shalt surely be
A follower in his courtly train,

Nor tear or sorrow see:

How bright the goal is none can tell :

The race is short; speed, speed thee well!

Μαθητης.

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(p. 338 of Bunsen's Collection.)

Lift up yourselves ye joyous strains,
To God, enthroned in light above;
He hears, to us the world's Lord deigns
To listen with a Father's love:

Bless this new pair, O God, we pray,
O thou that wast, shalt be, and art to-day!

Yea, may God bless ye both; may he

Who knows each hair that quits the head,
With light and power still strengthen you,

Your path through this dark world to tread!
Bless this new pair, O God, we pray,

Be with them now, be with them still for aye.

Fashion your souls like Christ to be;

By God's word rule each thought and deed;
Think ever on eternity,

Thither this pilgrim life doth lead:

Bless this new pair, O God, we pray,

Be with them now, be with them still for aye!

This and the following hymn are translated from the great collection of Prayers and Hymns published at Hamburgh in 1833, and entitled " Versuch eines allgemeinen evangelischer Gesang-und Gebetbuch." They are both almost literally translated, and in the second it is endeavoured to preserve the metre of the original. They are only to be considered as a specimen of a very remarkable, and, in some respects, a very valuable work; and they may probably be followed by additional extracts.

Count it not shame God's grace to implore,
Without it joys will never flow;
Be diligent to stand before

The Lord, till with his love ye glow :
Bless this new pair, O God, we pray,
Be with them now, be with them still for aye!
Come! grasp the pilgrim staff, go on
Your way rejoicing, in full trust
That nought from God, or from each other,

Shall part you, till you're laid in dust: Bless this new pair, O God, we pray, Be with them now, be with them still for aye!

Come on! may ye be blest with peace, With truest love a long life long; Daily your Christian strength increase With morning and with evening song : Bless this new pair, O God, we pray, Be with them now, be with them still for aye! Come on! say now, "We vow to thee

Eternal truth, Lord, hand in hand, Till some day we shall look on thee

In that bright home, our heavenly land." May God that was, shall be, and is to-day, Be with you now and evermore, we pray.

EVENING HYMN, BY MOONLIGHT.
(p. 421.)

The fair moon hath ascended,

With golden stars attended,

Bright glittering in the skies

;

Black stands the forest, sleeping

In silence; and, soft creeping,

The white mists from the meadows rise.

How still the world is resting,

With Twilight's veil investing

Its half-hid loveliness!

Like some still room, where sorrow

And cares, until the morrow,

Ye lose in sleep's forgetfulness.

See ye yon moon to-night?
There is but half in sight,

Yet is she round and fair;

Thus many things there be
Which in our boldness we

Scoff at, unknowing what they are.

O lofty human kind!

O boundless reach of mind!

Poor sinners are we all;

Our airy projects spinning,
Still seeking, never winning,

We nothing know-we climb to fall.

Let us, Lord, know thy love,
And trust not what will prove
But fleeting vanity;

With single heart adore thee,
And here on earth before thee

Like children good and joyous be.

Then by a painless death

May we resign our breath,

When our fit time shall be ;

And, this world overpast,

Make us to come at last

To heaven, O Lord our God, to thee.

In God's name let us then

Lie down to rest again;

This night thy judgments spare:

O Lord, in mercy tend us,

With peaceful sleep befriend us

And our sick brethren everywhere.

CORRESPONDENCE.

The Editor begs to remind his readers that he is not responsible for the opinions
of his Correspondents.

THE DUBLIN REVIEW ON THE "HIGH-CHURCH THEORY OF DOGMATICAL AUTHORITY."

SIR,-In the fifth number of the "Dublin Review" there is an article entitled, "The High Church Theory of Dogmatical Authority," to which, with your permission, I will call your attention and that of your readers. It professes to be a review of " Professor Keble's Visitation Sermon" and the 40th number of the "British Critic," and is intended to shew that the VIA MEDIA of the Anglican church is unsatisfactory in theory, and unsafe in practice. Some of its statements and reasonings are sufficiently common-place to require no new answer; but some, unless I greatly mistake, are such as might fairly stagger a thoughtful and earnest inquirer, not well accustomed to the Romish controversy, and perhaps not clearly understanding the principles of catholicity. I am not without hope that the following observations may have some weight with those, too, whether catholics or Roman catholics, who have been almost induced to rest on the arguments of the Dublin reviewer as unanswerable, even if not quite satisfactory to the mind. I shall not attempt to answer any sneers, insinuations, or ridicule; it is too solemn a matter that we have in hand. If, as it seems, the controversy with Rome is to be revived in our day, let it be in a loftier and holier spirit. Let us not think to save souls, or restore our too much broken unity by either anger or laughter. Whether we think it or not, we are writing for eternity.

Though the article of the Review is not very systematic, I will (for

the sake of easiness of reference) go through it in order; noticing point by point as they are brought forward. The reviewer commences, at p. 46, with a general summary of the English high church theory, to which I readily give the credit of much fairness and impartiality, with one exception-viz, the assumption of the term "catholic" for the Roman church. It is plain that this is the very point in debate. We do not call them "Romanists" in any ill spirit, not denying them to be " catholics" as well as ourselves. We call them "Romanists" just as we call ourselves "Anglicans," just for distinction's sake; both being, with more or less of purity, as we think, catholics.

The subject opens, at p. 50, concerning the rule of faith. Having recorded the high-church admissions chiefly as to the value of truly apostolic tradition, and its preceding scripture, and attesting its canon, the reviewer writes thus::-"Let us balance the admissions of this sermon, on the one hand, that originally tradition, or a body of doctrines held in deposit by the church, was the appointed and sufficient standard of faith, with a divine sanction,-and, on the other, that scripture never claims all-sufficiency [or declares the cessation of the previous commission to teach];* and we leave it to a candid reader to judge whether the acknowledged rights of the earlier method of preserving truth can have been superseded by the introduction of the second." To the same "candid reader" I must also beg to appeal, and request him to peruse pp. 28, 29, 30, and 31, of the Sermon, and I think he will take them to be a sufficient answer to the reviewer. He will there see that we do not argue that tradition is "superseded" by scripture, but only regulated by it. The very nature of the case would require (as the least reflection must convince any man) that when the canon of the New Testament was once fixed, it must, at least, furnish some check on all subsequent tradition. Will the Romanist go the length of affirming that Almighty God could have declared any part of his will in a written revelation, and yet that such a declaration should produce no effect on the future religious judgments of mankind? And yet, I think, the Dublin reviewer must go to this length if he be consistent; and so, to support the authority of the church of Rome, deny that scripture is any standard authority at all. Surely a thoughtful Roman catholic must own that to some extent scripture is an authority and a standard;† the only question between us is, or can be, whether it be an all-sufficient standard? We think it, indeed, on à priori grounds, to be intrinsically probable that it should be so; but whether it be thus or not, we are content to waive at present; for, strictly speaking, it is a matter which may and must be decided by observa

* The incorporating of this sentiment, thus expressed, (which I have enclosed in brackets,) with that concerning the sufficiency of scripture, is not right or fair, because the Anglican church does not hold this.

Even the Old Testament, though it go not the whole extent of Christian doctrine, was yet appealed to by our Lord and his apostles as some sort of standard, as far as it did go. Obscure, for example, as were the Old-Testament intimations of the doctrine of the resurrection, yet, in proof of it, our Lord made his direct appeal to the Jewish scriptures, saying to the disputing Sadducees, "Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures." Surely no reasoner can deny that if scripture be true at all, then, so far as it goes, it must be a standard.

tion and inquiry. We appeal to the catholic church to decide between her Anglican and Roman members. It must be owned to be theoretically possible that a certain sacred volume might contain all-sufficient truth. We think that it does, as a matter of fact. Let the Romanist adduce at least some one truth, which the church catholic (" semper ubique et ab omnibus") has received as indispensably necessary to salvation, and which, nevertheless, is not contained in the bible; then, and not till then, he will have proved his point; then (and not till then) shall I call the Anglican opinion an error; then (and not till then) shall I cease to believe, with St. John Chrysostom, that " Whatsoever is required to the salvation of man is fully contained in the scripture of God."*

Page 53. Having passed from this topic, the reviewer next glances at the question of the validity of the English ordination; and (I am sorry to say) declines to enter upon it at all. He only suggests the difficulty, that if we hold its validity and "supernatural grace," then we must hold orders to be a sacrament; because our own Catechism defines a sacrament to be an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace ordained by Christ himself, &c. To which I briefly reply, that the imposition of hands (which they call the "outward sign") in ordination does not appear to have been "ordained by CHRIST HIMSELF," although it is an apostolical practice. The twelve were ordained by our Lord "breathing on them, and saying, Receive the Holy Ghost." Therefore the definition in our Catechism does not oblige us to consider orders a proper sacrament. Further, I should add, that the great divines of our church, since the Reformation, have not thought it inconsistent to hold that to the offices of the CHURCH, as such, there is allied a sacramental efficacy, (and so they make a distinction between what may be called "sacramentals" and the " proper sacraments,") and at the same time maintain, in the words of the Catechism," that there are two sacraments only generally necessary to

salvation."

Page 54. After hastily leaving the unwelcome subject of the English ordination, the reviewer proceeds to consider more closely the English doctrine of the "Via Media." Strangely enough, he seems even to question the possibility of " a middle state between individual judgments and infallible definitions," (see also p. 75.) I only know that I am, as far as I myself can determine, exactly in that very middle state which the reviewer considers impossible; and I believe that most men, whatever their creed, are somewhat similarly circumstanced with myself-relying partly on their own judgment, and partly on something else. It may seem surprising to the reviewer, but I really think that he himself is in a "middle state." He himself would not trust the "infallible" definitions of his own church, if his own "individual judgment" did not bid him. I think that the not being in a middle state is the impossible thing, after all, for a rational and social being. So that instead of the "Via Media" being a "mere theory," as we are told again, p. 64, it is the only really practical thing. The

Homilies, book i. p. 3.

3 Y

VOL. XII.-Nov. 1837.

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