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Ought not a sponsor's conscience to condemn him, if he sees the individual, whom he presented at the font, living an ungodly life, and reflects that he took no pains to lead him in a right path? It is true that no sponsor can compel a child to keep his baptismal vows; but is he not very guilty if he neglects to perform what he promised for his own part, and neither gives instruction, counsel, nor warning? Is it not to be apprehended that, for this neglect, the blood of some one who has perished may, at God's tribunal, be required at his hand?

These, let me say, are very momentous questions, and may well demand a serious consideration. I need not dwell, as I might, on the aggravations of the fault herein very prevalent among us; but I would just ask, whether it be any wonder that irreligion and profaneness prevail so widely, when God is so perpetually mocked at the very entering of his temple? If, in his presence, under a shew of worship, men make promises which they never intend to fulfil, is it surprising that he manifests his displeasure by with holding his blessing? I know that an excuse is offered, to the effect that, so long as the parents live, the duties of the godfathers and godmothers are quiescent; and I am very ready to allow, that the spiritual care, which natural parents ought to take of their children, cannot be superseded by the appointment of sponsors; but, surely, the latter are bound, at least, to ascertain whether the training and discipline of the child be, as respects religion, of a satisfactory character. If the parents be irreligious and neglectful, the godfathers and godmothers are especially called on to interfere with persuasion and advice: if the parents be religious and watchful, they will value and welcome the seasonable help thus afforded additionally to their own instructions.

It may be said, that some parents would allow no kind of interference with their family. But as it is the parents' duty to select for sponsors those who, they conscientiously believe, will most feel the responsibility of the office; so it is the duty of the sponsor, in the prospect of that responsibility, to require, before he undertakes it, that free leave be given him to examine, admonish, and teach, for the discharge of his conscience, the child for whom he is to answer. If this permission be refused, he is then bound to decline an office of which he would not be admitted to fulfil the duties. And if he undertakes it, not knowing or caring to ascertain how far liberty might be in this respect allowed him, he has only himself to blame for the evil consequences of his neglect.

It ought not to be needful to use any

argument to persuade professing Christians to fulfil an evident duty; but I may venture to remind sponsors, that if it be possible for one promise to be held more sacred than another, there are several reasons why they should consider that, wherein they engage to overlook the religious training of their godchildren, especially binding on them. For it is made in the immediate and awful presence of God, who declares expressly, that he requires at men's hand their vow, and will not have them defer to pay it. It is on the faith of this pledge that the Church commits to their arms the little helpless lambs of her divine Shepherd's flock: "Take these children, and nurse them for me;" not for the supply of their bodily wants, but in order to the salvation of their souls. It must be remembered further, that if, through any one's fault, a "brother perish for whom Christ died," no repentance or remedy could reach that mischief: its evil consequences would extend through everlasting ages.

Some conscientious persons are so impressed with the responsibility of the office of sponsors, that they make a determination never to accept it. But this is, I am persuaded, an improper shrinking from duty. Certainly, if they were likely to be denied opportunities of fulfilling their vows to their godchildren, they ought, as I have previously said, to shrink from making promises which they could not perform; but if on any other grounds—a dislike of trouble, a nervous sense of incompetency,-they refuse to receive a talent which they might improve to God's glory, they will not easily, I conceive, justify themselves from the charge of culpable slothfulness. By the reluctance of such individuals, the duty may devolve into far more thoughtless hands. Let not, therefore, the observations I have made be the means of deterring any simple-minded Christian from undertaking this office: let them only incite him to behave himself in it with more zeal, more diligence, more self-denial. Let him more earnestly implore the guidance and strength of the divine Spirit; and then it is hardly too much to say, that the children of many tears and prayers shall not be lost.

I am persuaded, that if sponsors generally were duly sensible of the importance of their duties, true religion might be expected to spread far more widely amongst us. A salutary influence would be established over the minds of the young, which, I firmly believe, God would be seen to bless. Much might be done to this end, if the clergy would take every opportunity of pressing, both in their sermons and in private, upon parents the importance of selecting faithful sponsors: and upon sponsors the necessity of rightly

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WE earnestly invite the attention of our readers to a subject, affecting, we are persuaded, in no common degree, the best interests of our Irish brethren. very large number of the inhabitants of the sister island are acquainted with the Irish language exclusively; and multitudes besides, who, in some measure, understand English, cherish their native tongue with peculiar affection. A word spoken in it seems at once to reach their hearts. Hitherto this language has been acquired by very few of the clergy of the Established Church,-chiefly because no means existed in the University of Dublin of promoting the study of it; -and they have thus been unable to make their people partakers of the Protestant privilege of hearing in their own tongue the wonderful works of God.

We are

thankful to say, that this deficiency is now about to be supplied. It is proposed to establish a professorship of the Irish language in Dublin University; and a body of trustees have been appointed-the Earl of Roden, the Provost of Trinity College, and the members of parliament for the University, are among them to procure funds for this most important object. A sum of 50007. would be necessary to secure all the advantages contemplated; but we understand that, in order to prevent delay, as soon as 15007. shall have been raised, a professor will be appointed, and his work be begun.

The University of Dublin is of itself utterly unable to endow the professorship; and therefore the help of those who desire the spread of truc religion is absolutely needed. If persons, to whom God has given the ability to promote this object, do not come forward, the plan must be relinquished. But we will not believe this possible. We believe that there are true Protestant hearts enough in England to feel, and open Protestant hands enough to give, that which may be for the best interests of Ireland; and we are bold to state it as our deliberate judgment, that this is, in its claims upon Churchmen, and in its probabilities of accomplishing, under God's blessing, most extensive good, second to no cause. For our part, we promise from time to time to call our readers' attention to it; and till the whole desires of the promoters of it be successful, we will not cease to require from the British public this JUSTICE TO IRELAND.

We may add, that at the head of the subscriptions already received stands the lord primate's honoured name. We will at present make no further observations of our own; but will present our readers with some extracts from the forcible statement put forth by the trustees.

"Were a public college to be founded in any land for the education of its inhabitants, it would obviously be a reasonable expectation, that some part of the endowment should be applied to the purposes of instruction in and through the medium of any language which might be that of a large proportion of the people; more especially if the object to be attained by that establishment were to qualify students for the ministry of the Gospel: and that expectation would naturally be increased if it appeared that every pos

sible encouragement was to be given to the acquisition of other tongues.

"When England began to feel it to be her duty to turn her parental attention to the instruction of Hindostan, her first care was to found colleges, and to establish professorships in the Indian tongues; at home, we see the instruction of Gaelic clergymen attended to; and the incumbents of certain parishes in Scotland and in Wales required to be capable of addressing all their people in their native languages; the Presbyterians of. the north, instructed by the example of their intelligent neighbours, have introduced teaching in the Irish tongue into their great seminary at Belfast; and the Romanists, ever wise in their generation, as soon as they gained the footing of a public college at Maynooth, appointed a professorship in that language-encouraged its acquisition and its use-and thus succeeded in continuing it as a great stamp of religious and national difference between Protestant and Roman Catholic, Saxon and Hibernian. The place in which alone a minister of the Established Church can complete his education in Ireland, exhibits a solitary example of a college, in which no encouragement is given, by salary, premium, exhibition, or otherwise

to professor, teacher, student, or writerwith a view to the acquisition of the native language of the country; although it is a language cherished in the affections of almost all its inhabitants, best understood by upwards of 2,000,000 of their number, and exclusively spoken by thousands among them....

"Above a century ago, a narrow policy suggested the very absurd idea of endeavouring to exterminate the Irish language, to expel it by legislation, or to waste it by neglect and contempt. Facts have, however, proved the folly of all this – for although every possible premium has been put upon the acquisition of the English tongue, and every imaginable drawback laid upon that of the other, still, while the number and proportion of the English-speaking people has doubtless increased, the number also of those who are confined to the native tongue has done so too, and it is now greater than the entire population of Ireland was 100 years ago. Some other plan should therefore be resorted to; and if these people are to be taught the Gospel, it should be by one more analogous to God's system of working, as exfeeling is a common objection, that if the Irish peasants hibited in the day of Pentecost. Connected with this were inclined to learn, there are every where English schools for their use; and if they be taught in Irish ones, the result will be the continuance of a barbarous language; but if they be not inclined, they should surely be induced. The character of Scriptural truth is now sufficiently known-that it must not be left to be sought for, as no one is by nature inclined to it, but that it must be both aggressive and inviting-and if they will not go to the English school, or take the Bible in that tongue, they should surely be provided with these blessings in the way in which they will not be neglected or rejected, but affectionately and anxiously received. And as to the objection to the continuance of the tongue, it should not hold for a moment where the salvation of souls is concerned. Are the souls of such of the present generation, as neither can nor will give up their vernacular tongue-who are too old, or too prejudiced, to receive the English-to perish for lack of knowledge, while we are waiting, perhaps too like the rustic by the river's side, for the Irish language to pass away?' And besides that, it is quite absurd to fear the dominancy or the encroachment of the Irish tongue, as long as English is the language of the state, the court, the bar, the stage, and of all society in any the least degree civilised-the result is far different from what has been apprehended. It is very generally known what the celebrated Dr. Johnson, when consulted about the policy of printing a Gaelic Bible, wrote to the conductors of the Christian Knowledge Society-It is not certain,' he says, 'that the

same method will not preserve the Highland language for the purposes of learning, and abolish it from daily use. When the Highlanders read the Bible, they will naturally wish to have its obscurities cleared, and to know the history, collateral or dependent. Knowledge always desires increase; it is like fire, which must be kindled by some external agent, but which will afterwards propagate itself. When they once desire to learn, they will naturally have recourse to the nearest language by which that desire can be gratified; and one will tell another, that if he would attain knowledge, he must learn English.' And now this conjecture, verified in Scotland, has been remarkably so also in Ireland; and it has been the uniform result, in numerous instances, of all the efforts lately made in Ireland to instruct the people in their own native tongue-to lead them to learn the English language-to frequent the English school-to seek for the English Bible-to reconcile them to the English Protestant-and to raise in them a desire to hear the preaching of the English minister.

"But the principal cause of the circumstances alluded to has been the extraordinary mistake that has, for upwards of a century, and until of very late years, prevailed, that the Roman Catholic population formed no part of the flock of a Protestant incumbent; and the necessary consequence of this has been, that the Irish language, which is almost entirely confined to Roman Catholics, became in every way shut out from a connexion with the Protestant part of the establishment, totally excluded from the universities, as unnecessary to the clergyman, and even deprived of its only remaining bounty there,-the endowment called Native's places.' Thus was the only key to the Irishman's heart, and the best channel to his understanding, surrendered to the priest. The Romish clergy were aware of the great advantage, and neglected not to use it, but not for the purpose of instruction in Scriptural truths; and to this, more than to any thing else, are we to attribute the ignorance in which the lower Irish are now immersed. The fond national prejudices of the people were left to be nursed and educated in their mother tongue -nature spoke irresistibly to their

affectionate hearts, and there was no native Bible through which the accents of grace could be heard-no herald upon the mountains to 'preach the Gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things.' 'How

then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed, and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher, and how shall they preach except they be sent?' (Rom. x. 14, 15.)

"It is a sign of grace when bad policy is not suffered to destroy; and when, having been allowed to exhibit itself in all its evil consequences, a reaction is permitted to take place. Just such is the case here; the instruction of the native peasantry through the medium of their own tongue has been at length attempted with success, and with such exceeding and rejoicing success, that all ranks of persons are turning their attention to the subject; most especially the clergy are universally convinced, that the Irish language is the appointed medium through which religious animosity in Ireland is to be subdued, prejudices reconciled, the light of the Gospel admitted, mental emancipation secured, regeneration and reformation accomplished; very many of them are struggling to make amends for their deficiencies in education for an Irish ministry, by attempting even now to get acquainted with the tongue-those of Connaught especially, with their archbishop at their head, declared . . . their opinion of the Irish language, from their personal knowledge and experience, as 'the readiest and surest means of access to the minds and the hearts of the people;' and that prelate was induced to give notice, that after the first day of January 1833, he would require a knowledge of the Irish tongue in every curate that was to be employed in the more remote parts of his dioceses.

"The striking fact, that his Grace of Tuam was obliged to recede from this requirement, lest he should be left without new curates at all, as none were found who possessed the necessary qualification mentioned in it, nor were there any means to facilitate their acquiring that requisite, brings us to the great object of this paper. It is proposed to establish a professorship of the Irish language in the University. The provost and board of senior fellows have unanimously approved of the proposition, and have agreed to allow chambers and commons to the professor; but having very lately involved the college in an additional expenditure of 15001. annually by the establishment or augmentation of four professorships, they cannot at the present do more. To provide, therefore, for the salary, and other expenses, six trustees have been appointed,... in whose names money is to be collected, and lodged in the bank of Messrs. La Touche; and by whom a proper person is to be nominated.... The salary may be provided for in three ways-by annual subscriptions to the trustees, by sums collected from donations and funded, or from both of these combined. It is obviously most desirable, both to secure permanency, and to avoid continually repeated trouble and expense, that a large sum should at once be collected. The salary, and other expenses, as premiums and exhibitions, &c., will require a provision of at least 2007. per annum; and a sum of 50001. would be requisite, in order to ensure a perpetuity to this amount. Contributors are, therefore, especially solicited to give donations, if they find it to be equally convenient; and if not, to specify what amount they are willing to subscribe annually. Candidates have offered themselves; and it is expected that, upon the notice now given, persons qualified will be enabled to acquire undoubted competency before the time of appointment arrives.

"Although the first object holden in view is to provide for the ministry of the Gospel in the vernacular tongue of very many of the parishes of Ireland, there is another which must be considered to be highly important. The native language should be further examined; and, as Dr. Johnson expresses it, preserved for the purposes of learning to do this is the duty of an Hibernian University."

Subscriptions will be received in London at the bank of Messrs. Puget and Co.

Biography.

LIFE OF THE REV. SAMUEL WALKER, B.A. OF TRURO.* "THOSE of the clergy," says Mr. Stillingfleet, with reference to the subject of this memoir, "will excuse my importunity if I bespeak their more careful attention in reviewing the life and writings of Mr. Walker. Though neither eminence of station in the world, nor rare and uncommon attainments in human literature, will excite their admiration; for he lived and died a curate, and though he was no way deficient in any branch of learning pertaining to his profession, yet he was engaged in too active and busy a scene of life to have leisure to acquire that extent and depth of erudition, which many men of less employment, without superior abilities, have attained to. But they will find in him excellencies of another kind, no less worthy of their regard; they will here contemplate the life and doctrines of one possessed, in an eminent degree, of the knowledge, spirit, and zeal, of a primitive Christian teacher; of one who, though poor in this world, was rich in faith and good works; of one who had learned to esteem the reproaches of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt."

See Stillingfleet's Memoir, prefixed to two volumes of Posthumous Sermons; Sidney's Life, Ministry, and Selections, from the Remains of Rev. Samuel Walker, &c, &c.

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Till he was eight years of age, Samuel was educated under his father's roof, but received the next ten years' education at the grammar-school in Exeter. "We have no account," says Mr. Sydney, "of the progress he made in learning during his boyhood, or of his character in the midst of his schoolfellows; but his works all bespeak the judicious early cultivation of a naturally powerful and discerning mind. At eighteen he was sent to Exeter college, Oxford, where he cultivated logic with much success, and always considered his early devotion to that study as the foundation of the facility he afterwards attained in a clear and methodical arrangement of his ideas. When complimented by his friends, who admired the lucid and argumentative mode in which he treated every subject, he always observed that logic had been his favourite pursuit in youth, and recommended it to all young divines. Of his mode of life at the University, we know little; he appears to have possessed habits of application which prevented his entering with a congenial spirit into the gaieties and temptations that surrounded him. In addition to both capacity and inclination to acquire knowledge, he seems always to have had a pleasing propensity to adorn his conduct with the graces of integrity and virtue, and took pains to give to morals of a mere earthly temper the brightest polish they were capable of receiving. Besides mental endowments, and a character of no ordinary kind, nature had favoured him with a most attractive and commanding person, as well as handsome expressive features, indicating all the characteristics of manly open intelligence. Frank and unreserved in conversation, freely communicating his own thoughts, and courteously listening to others, he became an agreeable companion to such as appreciated the value of his society, and was respected by the whole circle of his acquaintance. But the scions of virtue and morality had been grafted on the wild stem of human nature, and produced nothing but blossoms: it was when his heart became changed by the grace of God that they ripened into fruit."

Mr. Walker took his degree of B.A., and also orders, in the year 1737. His first curacy was that of Dodescomb Leigh, near Exeter, which he held only till August 1738. Here he discharged the duties of a pastor with great diligence; and his private character was unimpeachable. He left this parish to undertake the tuition of the youngest brother of Lord Rolle during a journey through France; a proposal to which the advantages of travelling abroad induced him readily to yield. While on this tour he cultivated those lighter accomplishments which give a grace and charm to the man of letters, particularly the arts of music and dancing, in both of which he excelled. After being thus employed for two years, he returned home, and went to reside at Lanlivery, in Cornwall, as curate to his friend the Rev. Nicholas Kendall, canon of Exeter and archdeacon of Totness, on whose death, in the spring of 1740, he was presented with the vicarage of his parish, to hold during the minority of a nephew of Walter Kendall, Esq., patron of the living.

While resident at Lanlivery, he was both a teacher and an example of virtue. "His talents," says Mr. Sydney, "rendered him an attractive preacher, while his decorous life, and fascinating manners, ensured him much affection and respect. He reproved, exhorted, and watched over the people of his flock; preaching, catechising, and visiting diligently in pri

vate; nor could any minister more sincerely deplore evident unfruitfulness in his spiritual vineyard. His husbandry, however, extended only to the branches; he was unacquainted with the nature and cultivation of the root. While under a severe sickness in 1744, he dictated a letter, to be sent in case he should not recover, as his dying remonstrance to certain of his parishioners, whose names he desired to be taken down. These persons had been the most inattentive to his admonitions, and he thus manifested a sincere interest in their welfare. Could he have seen an outward decency in these individuals, he would have died content, and discovered the defects of his ministry in another world; but it pleased a gracious Providence to raise him from the bed of sickness, and to shew him the insufficiency of all virtue that does not spring from a heart made acquainted with its natural enmity against God and holiness, reconciled to him through the death of Christ, and purified by the holy, and therefore necessarily reforming operations of the divine Spirit."

In the summer of 1746, Mr. Walker resigned the vicarage of Lanlivery to the young gentleman for whom he held it, and removed to the curacy of Truro. He eagerly embraced the offer of a residence in this populous town, that he might enjoy the pleasures of exhilarating company, and engage in those social amusements of which he was passionately fond. Though regular and decent in the external observance of the forms of religion, he acknowledges his heart to have been in the world; and confesses that a desire of applause was, in a great measure, the motive of his exhibition of accomplishments in society, and of his sermons and activity as a minister. He had not yet preached or borne the cross; and therefore, during his days of worldliness, private rebukes and pulpit advice gave no offence.

The first year of his being curate of Truro, his only ambition seemed to be that of being admired as a talented preacher, and of being a leader of the gaieties of the place. He was eminently qualified by his gentlemanly deportment to grace the ball-room, and by his conversational power to add to the hilarity of the convivial meeting; and his acceptance of the curacy was regarded as an important acquisition to the society of the place. He thus himself describes his ministry at this period:

"In the year 1746, I undertook (as curate) the charge of this populous and large town (Truro), in many respects the principal town in the country. God knows upon what unworthy views I did it, and how utterly disqualified my heart and head were for my ministerial trust. I had been then some years vicar of a neighbouring parish. But, dear sir, how must I have suffered the poor souls there to starve and perish, while I was only possessed of historical notions of all the vitals of Christianity; the corruption of man's nature, his misery, and helplessness; the satisfaction and sufficiency of Christ; the necessity of a renewed mind; the need of the work of the Spirit! These I knew notionally; but neither felt, nor taught them practically. You must own that I ought to go sorrowing to the grave upon a review of six years so passed over. Nevertheless I was well thought of, and indeed esteemed beyond most of my brethren for my regularity, decency, and endeavours to keep up external attendances, and somewhat or other in my public addresses."

It cannot be wondered at, therefore, that his ministrations at Truro during this period were not attended with success; that a cold formality, a spurious churchmanship, was substituted for vital godliness; and that there was no increase in grace and knowledge among his parishioners, at least none that he could discover. His eloquence, doubtless, delighted many of his congregation, and his punctuality in the regular performance of divine worship induced him to

be regarded as a model of ministerial faithfulness; but
his discourses lacked one thing, the one thing need-
ful, the full and explicit declaration of the Gospel of
the grace of God. Mr. Walker had not experimentally
felt, at this period, his own lost state by nature and actual
transgressions, his need of an entire reliance on the
Lord Jesus Christ for pardon and acceptance, and the
renewal of the heart to holiness by the life-giving
Spirit of God. He was, therefore, a blind leader of
the blind. It is painful to witness the results which
flow from imperfect views of the character of the Gos-
pel in those who minister in holy things. Talent is
not to be despised in a Christian preacher, far from it—
when consecrated to God's service, it is a mighty en-
gine for good; erudition is to be cultivated by him;
and all the stores of a well-informed mind are to be
brought to bear on the duties of his office; but if there
be not a faithful and unclouded display of the truth as
it is in Jesus, how can the fruits of vital godliness be
expected to be found among a people? The case of
Truro is not a solitary one. All pastoral experience
tends to prove the utter inefficiency of a ministry
which is not faithful in exhibiting the vital truths of
the Gospel. The experiment has been often tried-it
has been tried upon individuals-it has been tried
upon parishes-it has been tried upon whole coun
tries; and many a conscientious pen has been con-
strained to write the record of its utter failure. How,
indeed, could it be otherwise? There can be no efficacy
in what has been made palatable only by adulteration.
God will not honour what is not his own. He will not
set his seal to a message which gives no adequate
presentation of his revealed will, no convincing state-
ments of man's necessities, or of divine love. It is on
the word that goes forth out of the pastor's mouth,
pure and sincere, as out of the mouth of God himself,
that the promised blessing rests-It shall not return
unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I
please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I
sent it.'
The affecting details of our Lord's
matchless condescension and grace must be repre-
sented to the heart in all their necessary relations to
the salvation of man, before the soul will be melted
into repentance, or quickened into love. It is only in
proportion as the true word of the Lord is prophesied
upon the dry bones, that a 'noise' and 'a slaking' are
heard among them! God, in his providence, seems to
make but little account of the measures and contriv-
ances of men, in accomplishing his designs. All our
best arguments are good for nothing unless they are
founded upon the distinguishing doctrines of the cross,
and honour the Saviour by a faithful exhibition of
grace and love."*

inefficient. Mr. Walker through life cherished a recollection of his days of unfruitfulness, with a view to humiliation before God, and to stimulate himself to more zealous exertion. It was a matter which, he told Mr. Adam, he "could never think of without great self-abhorrence." He felt ashamed that "conceit and interest" had guided him to Truro; that "by his worldly-mindedness and ignorance of vital religion, the service of Christ was prostituted, the souls committed to him starved, and he feared many of them perished; and that he had sought his own glory in the very pulpit where he was placed to proclaim the Redeemer!" "I know not," he says, "how to endure the reflection mourning over this scene I shall go to the grave. It is not a lost case, indeed; we have an Advocate with the Father; but I can never undo the wrong I have done to God and man." This was not a vain expression of morbid feelings. "I reap," he observed, "great benefit from it. The remembrance of my unfaithfulness humbles me, though not as it ought and as I desire; stirs me up to diligence and to labour more abundantly; and, what I chiefly rejoice in, serves in some measure to repress that conceit, wherein my desperately wicked heart would needs swell one thing upon another.'"

The period at length arrived, however, when a most decided change took place in the religious views and principles of Mr. Walker, which extended to the whole of his various ministrations. It was not wrought suddenly, but by slow degrees. "It was at least a year," says he, in the same letter from which an extract has already been re-made, "after the kind providence of God brought me hither, ere I fell under considerable suspicions or uneasiness about myself and my manner of preaching; when, by the frequent conversation of a Christian friend (verily the first person I had met truly possessed of the mind of Christ), I became sensible all was wrong within and without. My uneasiness was rather abiding than violent, possibly because my life had been free from gross sins, having been used, in good measure, to follow the direction of my conscience; and the change wrought upon me was slow, till, under a variety of means, I was brought to the knowledge 'of the truth as it is in Jesus.'" This Christian friend, whose conversations on the great fundamental doctrine of "justification by faith" were so much blessed for Mr. Walker's spiritual illumination, was Mr. Conon, master of Truro grammar-school. Constant intercourse with this excellent man, who shewed, in all the varied relative duties of life, the value of those principles which he maintained, had a beneficial effect upon him. His consistent Christian conduct gained him many foes,men opposed to the simplicity of Gospel truth, and hating that purity and devotedness in others which were not to be found in themselves; and he was actually removed from his situation, on no other ground, it would appear, than that of his religious character; for, at the period referred to, there was a general deep-rooted aversion to spiritual instruction, and a lamentable ignorance as to the true nature of spiritual religion; and parents were alarmed at the notion of their children imbibing principles which were regarded as subversive of sobriety and good order, and opposed to the doctrinal statements of the Church of England. We desire to bless God, the Fountain of light, that the light of Gospel truth has spread far and wide throughout the land; still, it is to be feared that, with a lamentable perversion of the true meaning of the text, "Be not righteous overmuch," many are opposed to the humi liating views of man's sinfulness, and of his need of a Saviour, which, in accordance with the revealed word of God, are so uncompromisingly set forth in the accredited formularies of the Church; and deride as enthusiastic that nonconformity to the maxims and example of the world at which all true believers aim. "Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you," is an exhortation suitable to the Christian in every age

The character and conduct of Mr. Walker at this period lamentably exemplify the nature of that besetting sin which has proved a source of ruin to thousands-the desire of worldly applause. All his actions seem to have been performed with reference to this; he expressly says that they were so; and it is to be feared that many are actuated to an ostensible zeal from the hope of some temporal advantages, rather than a heartfelt desire for the furtherance of the glory of God and the good of their fellow-men. One would not, indeed, have a man to set the world at defiance, and to strike out for himself new paths, instead of treading in "the old ways," or needlessly to cause the truth of God to be derided by his own aim at needless singularity; but unquestionably, young ministers especially require to be much on their guard, lest they should be seeking to please man rather than to be faithful to God. What proved a snare to Mr. Walker, has proved a snare to thousands. It has often rendered them contemptible in the eyes of the very persons whose favour they have sought to secure. marred their ministerial usefulness in a lamentable degree, and thus tended to render them almost entirely Bishop of Winchester's Charge, 1833, pp. 39-41.

It has

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