page is blank. What have you lost? The sisters, whose minds have been influencpage is crowded. Time-talent-oppor-ed in some measure by the spirit of relitunity peace usefulnesswell nigh gion, how much have you to lament in hope; this is what you have lost. Oh! the remaining worldliness of your spirit you who have been baffled, fatigued, and and your desires! You have comproemptied by the world, is it not time for mised too much between God and the you to turn, and now under God to com- world; you have given to Him the wreck mence a new and nobler existence, that and the remnant, while time has had the shall at once fill that vacant spirit with the principal and the power. You have elements of enjoyment and of eternity? stopped to take up the golden apples on Others amongst you, perhaps, are yet the course, instead of striving for the warm and eager in your pursuits; you goal. You have been waiting, amused, see not yet the evil, and your minds are to sketch the scene of your pilgrimfilled with the anticipation of expected good. age, when you should have been hastenThe veil will be taken from you at last. ing on towards the heaven of final rest. The tinsel of worldly things will be rip"If ye be risen with Christ, seek those ped off, and the bald reality will appear. things which are above, where Christ And what a discovery at last will be made, sitteth on the right hand of God; set my young friends especially, if you con- your affections on things above, not on tinue in your course, before you die! You things on the earth." Be more spirituwill find, that you have hunted after a ally minded, which is "life and peace." gaudy insect, which as you grasped it, Disentangle yourselves from obstacles, had its brightest hues brushed away, and that you may minister to the salvation of it perished. You will find, you are the world; and while you perform the under a gourd, on which ere long the duties of life, social and civil, let the wind of the desert will pass, and it will duties of the present state be performed wither. You will find, you are reposing only with a view to higher objects-useunder a tree, which ere long the forked fulness in the cause of God, and the lightning from the thunder cloud will salvation of the soul. And if wealth, or strike, and it will then stand bare and pleasure, or vanity, or ambition, someblasted on the heath. You will find, you times would spread their blandishments, are cherishing in your very bosoms a and utter their invitations downwards, viper, which is but warming that at last answer them all, in your spirit of absorbit may sting you to the heart. Believe ed devotedness, as did Nehemiah the adthe experience of ages; believe the tes-versaries of the temple-" I am doing a timony of the Word of God; and as you shudder at the abyss before you, hear the voice of mercy, that tells you to turn. "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters; and he that hath no money, come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto Me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness." The banquet is spread; come, and eat. The robe of righteousness is ready; come, and put it on. The fountain for uncleanness is open; come, wash in it, and be pure. The to heaven is sweetly wooing you; come, walk in it, and be safe. way The Spirit and the Bride say, Come; and let him that heareth say, Come; and let him that is athirst, Come; and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." O worldlings! ye who entered this sanctuary devoted to earth and time turn ye, turn ye" thus; "for why will ye die ?" Let Now be the moment of dedication; and henceforth begin to live for God. 66 ! And you, my Christian brethren and great work, so that I cannot come down; why should the work cease, while I leave it and come down to you?" No, Christian; let us continue labouring to enter into rest," and everywhere be as though we heard the voice, calling us to arise. I hear it speaking—to me; and it speaks through me to you. "Arise; depart; this is not your rest; it is polluted." Do you not hear it? Has not conscience a response? and within you is not the response silently, but powerfully, reverberating now? "Arise; depart; this is not your rest; it is polluted." Rise from transitory things, "Whom have I in heaven but Thee ? and there is none upon earth, that I desire besides Thee. My flesh and my heart faileth; but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever." And in God may you all find a "portion" for yourselves! THR OLD SEA CAPTAIN. cl. bds. pp. 324. "THE old Sea Captain," as will perhaps be conjectured, narrates to some admiring boys "the works of the Lord and His wonders in the deep." Seeing how the young mind is spell-bound by a tale of peril, he gives them accounts of shipwrecks such as the Essex and the Royal George; and of some fires at sea, some hairbreadth escapes, and some enterprising expeditions. Mingled with all this, however, is a large store of information on the construction and the fittings of vessels, the phenomena presented by the sea, the instincts and habits of fishes, the compass, the wind, and sailors themselves. The cruise of the Phoenix, and the wreck of La Meduse, the Alceste, and the Maria, are particularly interesting; but the book gives a complete picture of a sailor's life, and the whole is well told. The various cuts also are beautifully executed. There is a vein of pious thought running through the work; and the writer seems ever to remember "Events are flowing waves, that onward roll; Death, the last billow, soon to break on shore; We like "the Sea Captain" much, and recommend our young friends to "speak him," if they have any thing of a youth's curiosity concerning ocean scenes. DEFENCE OF PROTRACTED MEETINGS. Special Efforts for the souls of men justified, and observers of such efforts admonished; in a discourse delivered in St. Ann Street Chapel, Quebec. By W. M. HAVARD, Wesleyan Methodist Minis. ter. pp. 48, price 6d. THE name Mason, Paternoster Row. "Protracted Meetings" is, we think, ill selected; but the thing intended must surely have the approval of all, who consider the value of the soul. The facts, which can be pointed to, as well in Scotland as in America, should silence the objector, if he is open to conviction or willing to admit truth. If any doubt, Mr. Havard's discourse is overwhelming in argument; it disposes of every charge, brought against these efforts, and urges with great energy the duty of employing them. THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION. A Sermon, preached by the Rev. ROBERT Ross, M.D. THE BLESSEDNESS OF HEAVEN. A Sermon, by the REV. ROBERT Ross, M.D. Tegg, and Kemp and Co., Sydney. ALTHOUGH no English publisher's name is affixed to these sermons, they may easily be procured here, and are therefore within our province to notice. They are plain and sensible discourses, decidedly evangelical, and full of that earnest argument, which so often distinguishes American speakers and writers. The second sermon contains some interesting particulars of the death of Miss E. S. Lloyd, a member of the preacher's congregation. THE ANIMALCULE. pp. 32. Religions Tract Society. THIS is another of those neat little scientific treatises, of several of which we have had occasion to speak. It is far from being the least interesting of the series. The tiny world through which it leads us, hidden from the unassisted eye, yet pressing all around us, has strong attractions for the inquiring mind; and we cannot recommend a better guide than is within these leaves. ON THE PREACHING OF CHRIST CRUCIFIED. A Charge by CHARLES P. M'ILVAINE, Price 4d. Religious Tract Society. CHEAP and desirable editions of two admirable works, worthy of a Bishop of any Church under heaven. They treat on most important subjects, and are filled with weighty and timely counsels. THE EVANGELICAL REGISTER. DECEMBER, 1842. THE CLAIM OF EXCLUSIVE APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION, TESTED BY FACTS. No rational man can doubt, that it is essential to the continuance of a visible Church on earth, that some system of government be maintained, -some settled provision made for the continuance of a ministry of the Word among men. The New Testament shows us, that this necessity was seen both by our Lord and His apostles; and that a course was taken, so to keep up a succession of ministers of the Gospel, unto the close of the present dispensation. An effort, however, has been continually made, and repeated, and at this moment presses upon us with peculiar urgency, to go beyond the instructions of Holy Writ, and to establish the belief that not only was a provision thus made, but that the gift of the Holy Ghost was also entirely and exclusively made over to the order of ministers thus provided; in such sort that salvation could be obtained at their hands, and at their hands alone. In the Preface to the second portion of Mr. Froude's Remains, Messrs. Keble and Newman thus enunciate this doctrine :-"That, before Jesus Christ left the world, He breathed the Holy Spirit into His apostles, giving them the power of transmitting this precious gift to others by prayer and the imposition of hands: that the apostles did so transmit it to others, and they again to others, and that IN THIS WAY it has been preserved in the world to the present day." Hence "to dispense with Episcopal ordination is to be regarded not as a breach of order merely, or a deviation from apostolical precedent, but as a surrender of the Christian priesthood; a rejection of all the powers which Christ instituted Episcopacy to perpetuate; and the attempt to substitute any other form of ordination for it, or to seek communion with Christ through any non-] n-Episcopal association, is to be regarded, not as a schism merely, but as an IMPOSSIBILITY. Such is the nature of the position taken. "The gift of the Holy Ghost" has been preserved in the world solely by means of the Episcopal succession; and "to seek communion with Christ" by any other channel is to attempt au "impossibility." It is, perhaps, hardly possible for any proposition to be more broadly and palpably opposed to historic truth. 1. That the gift of the Holy Ghost" was handed down from bishop to bishop, and only thus preserved in the world: Why, how is this reconcileable with the notorious fact, that Rome herself, viewed, throughout the West, as the "mother and mistress of all Churches," was ruled during the ninth, tenth and eleventh centuries by a set of men whom Cardinal Baronius calls "monsters of wickedness?" And Genebrard tells us, that "for nearly a hundred and fifty years, about fifty Popes, from John VIII. to Leo. IX, deserted wholly the virtue of their predecessors, being apostatic rather than apostolic." But was this confined to the middle ages? Far from it. Hear the Times newspaper:" Dr. Phillpotts seems to claim some mysterious dominion, which it is impious to resist, over the minds and consciences of the clergy of the diocese of Exeter, because a layman, a Minister of the day, has made him its bishop. Was there any miraculous effusion of the Holy Spirit upon two such worldlings as I < VOL. XIV. 2 a could name, because Pitt gave each of them for secular services the richest bishoprics in the kingdom? the progeny of one of whom is as infamously wasting the revenues of the Church in gaming, as they were shamelessly heaped upon him by his unprincipled father." And is it not matter of general notoriety, that one of the parties alluded to in the last clause of this paragraph, a clergyman and a cathedral dignitary, was a defaulter at the last Epsom races to the amount of some 3,000 or £4,000? We touch not upon private scandal; we speak merely of what has already appeared in half the newspapers in London. So much, then, of "the gift of the Holy Ghost" being thus transmitted, and in no other way preserved among mankind. 2. But now of facts of an exactly opposite character. About a century since there lived an honest oilman in London, who left behind him an orphan of such promise, that a noble Lady offered him a University edu cation for the Church, with her patronage afterwards. This offer, which set before him a certain provision for life, the youth declined, casting in his lot with the Independent Dissenters, among whom he lived and died, the minister of one of their meeting-houses in a country town. He left behind him a little volume, entitled, The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul, of which it is but moderate praise to say, that it has been the means of conferring "the gift of the Holy Ghost" on more souls, than any bishop since the apostles' times can hope to welcome in heaven as his spiritual children. Just fifty years after, a copy of this little book fell into the hands of a young gentleman of gay and worldly habits, immersed in pleasure and public business, and who, though baptized and confirmed in the Church, and educated at one of our Universities, was an utter stranger to the very first rudiments of spiritual religion. It was read, and thought over, and, in his case, as in thousands of others, it was made the means of changing his heart. He became "a new man;" he received "the gift of the Holy Ghost;" and the medium by which this entire change was effected, was that little volume, the work of a Dissenting minister,-The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul. But the change became manifest by its fruits; the young gentleman himself, though only a layman, felt inwardly moved to become a teacher of religion. He writes and publishes a book, called, A Practical View of Christianity,-of which it may perhaps be said with truth, that the good wrought by it emulated that done by the volume, to which its author owed his conversion. We pass on a few more years, and we behold a volatile young clergyman, who has just taken orders, without any just or serious views of his responsibilities, and without any personal knowledge of that Christianity which he has undertaken to teach. A copy of the Practical View of Christianity is put into his hand. He opens it; is arrested by the power of the Holy Spirit; the night passes on, but he is unable to lay down the book until its perusal is completed; and he rises up a changed man. And the fruits of this change, even if we only think of what has already past, have probably exceeded either of the former. But when we add together the three works, The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul, The Practical View of Christianity, and The Annals of the Poor, and contemplate their united effects on the Church of Christ,--not in England only, nor merely in Europe, but throughout the world, how do these squabbles about "apostolical succession" fade into insignificance, or only excite a feeling of indignation, that men's minds should be drawn aside from realities, to dispute about external forms and points of order! When we trace up the Annals of the Poor to its providential cause, and find it to spring out of the Practical View of Christianity; and then follow that work upwards to its source, the Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul, and find its author a Dissenting minister, we call to mind from whom "all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works do proceed," and we see, in the evidence of undeniable fact, that it is not true that "the gift of the Holy Ghost" is limited, as Messrs. Keble and Newman would teach us, to any external lineage of so-called apostolical succession.* * We have extracted the foregoing Article from a recent number of The Record. A SERMON, BY THE REV. HENRY MELVILL, B.D. PREACHED AT CAMDEN CHAPEL, CAMBERWELL, ON THE SUNDAY BEFORE EASTER, 1834. "Herein is love; not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”—1 John iv. 10. his hope of immortality. But over and above the ascertaining what we call the thorough orthodoxy of our sentiments, the atonement should be very often considered, with the design of stimulating our languid affections, and kindling a new flame of love in our hearts. The most devoled amongst us are so apt to grow cold and dead in spiritual emotion, that they should frequently contemplate the amazing manifestation of God's unwearied love towards sinners, hoping that the sight may shame them into fresh gratitude, and throw greater warmth into their love of their Benefactor. THE present season may be said to prescribe the subject of discourse. Of what but the death of Christ should we speak on the first day of Passion Week? You cannot need to be told, that the leading and fundamental doctrine of Christianity is the doctrine of the atonement -that Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, died in our stead; so that he "bare our sins in His own body on the tree.' This truth we may suppose confessed by you all; and on it, we hope, you all build for eternity. It is not, however, your acquiescence, be it ever so hearty, to this doctrine of our religion, that can render unnecessary its strictest Now the words which we have brought statement from the pulpit; there must be before you from the writings of St. John "line upon line, and precept upon pre- give a doctrinal statement, and, at the cept," the risk being always considerable same time, fix attention on the greatness that truths with which use has made of the Divine love, as exhibited in our reus familiar, may not receive that attention demption. There is the statement, that which their importance demands. And God" sent His Son to be the propitiation in regard to the atonement, the likelihood for our sins;" and this is purely a docis so great of our not having any but vague trinal delineation, in short, of what we and undefined views of the doctrine, to understand by the atonement. But there say nothing of the probability that our is also mention of the originating cause of notions, if rigidly examined, would be our salvation. It was love-love not exfound incorrect-that its frequent careful cited in return for any we entertained consideration should be pressed as a duty towards God, but felt by God, while we on all ranks of Christians. We do not, of were "enemies in our minds by wicked course, mean, that the only thing requi-works." So that our text seems to set site is the ascertaining whether we un- before us the atonement both under a derstand with critical exactness, in what doctrinal and practical point of view, and manner Christ's death was a propitiation for sin. This indeed is important, in order to your being armed against the attacks of heresy; but we doubt not, that many a poor and unlettered man believes with a saving faith in the Mediator, who could give you no tolerable explanation of the precise mode, in which that Mediator's sufferings are available to his pardon. He knows generally that Jesus died for him; and this general knowledge is a sufficient groundwork, on which to rest thus to afford materials for meditation, whether on the nature of Christ's work, or on the return to be made by ourselves. There are, in short, two great principles laid down in the verse, with regard to the redemption of our race. The one is, that the plan of our redemption must be referred exclusively to the love of God: the other is, that the execution of the plan required the sacrifice of God's only begot ten Son. In discoursing on this subject, we shall invert their order, so as to bring |