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stantly it welters with a silvery spoil. Again and again the eager throng hangs round him, till the sun is setting, and it is discovered that there are only a few small loaves among all the fainting thousands; but he speaks the word, and, as little loaves bulk out an endless banquet, the famished villagers rejoice in the rare repast. And, though he did not grudge his cures to centurions and rulers of the synagogues, they were usually the poor and despised who craved and got the largest share; the woman who had spent on physicians . all that she had; the impotent man at Bethesda; the Samaritan lepers; and Bartimeus, the blind beggar. And thus would the kind Redeemer teach us that, if there are always to be the poor on earth, there will always be the poor man's Friend in heaven. He would teach those sons of toil who are his true disciples, that in all their afflictions he is afflicted; that he knows their frame and feels their sorrow. And, should these lines be read by one who is indigent in spite of all his industry, let him remember how it fared with the world's best benefactor when here below: let him remember that the Saviour himself had once nowhere to lay his head, and, asking for a cup of cold water, could scarcely obtain it. But, now that he has all power in heaven and earth, that Saviour is as tender as ever; and to you, O children of want and woe! he says, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden; and I will give you rest.' But I hasten to notice the greatest boon which the Saviour purchased. Returning to an instance already mentioned: Had you seen the devoted missionaries pass into the leper hospital, along with admiration of their kindness you would have felt a grievous pang at such an immolation. To think that men in the height of health should thus be lost to the land of the living, that good men and generous should be buried quick in such a ghastly grave, it would have oppressed your spirit, and you could only have given grudging approbation to such a self-devotement. But, if at the end of a certain term they had appeared at the gate again, and along with them a goodly band of the poor victims restored to perfect soundness; if it turned out that they had not only been able to mitigate much suffering, but, in the case of every one who submitted to their treatment, had effected a perfect cure; and if, on examining the matter, the competent authorities declared that not only were these heroes of humanity themselves uninjured, but that those whom they brought with them were clean every whit, and might forthwith pass out into the world of the hale and the happy, you would be more than reconciled to the great price which purchased such a wondrous restoration. When Immanuel went into this world; when he first put human nature on, and in all his innocence identified himself with the fate of sinful men, we might almost imagine the anxiety awakened by this mystery of godliness" in any celestial spirit who did not foreknow the issue. But, when that issue was developed; when, with a multitude which no man can number, rescued and restored, the mighty Redeemer re-appeared at the gate of the lazaretto; when infinite purity and eternal justice and the holy This refers to an account the writer had previously given of the Moravian missionaries; but his statement is not quite accurate.-ED.

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law recognized not only an immaculate deliverer but in all his ransomed company could detect no stain of sin, no spot of the old corruption; when it was pronounced that millions of plague-stricken beings were now so convalescent and so pure, that they might even pass the pearly gates and join the fellowship of angels, enough was seen to justify the self-denial, through that self-denial was the incarnation of the Son of God-enough to recompense the sacrifice, though that sacrifice was the death of a divine Redeemer.

But

But this was the simple fact. An Angel of mercy, a Volunteer of pure compassion, the Saviour, assumed our nature, and visited our world. "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." And, coming into the world, he came into a moral lazaretto. Young and old, rich and poor, every soul was smitten with sin's disgusting malady. None were holy: none sought after God. All were corrupt: all were, to God's pure eye, offensive; and all were sickening towards the second death. And by coming hither, and taking on the human nature, the Son of God committed himself to our woful case. He virtually declared that, unless he brought a convalescent company with him, he would return to heaven no more. the balsam, which alone could heal this malady, was found to be very costly. It must contain, as an ingredient, something which could compensate for sin; something so compensating, that God would be a just God in forgiving the sinner. And nothing, it was found, could atone for guilt, save blood divine. But Jesus had counted the cost; and even this price he was prepared to pay. And he paid it. He offered himself as the propitiation for sin, and he was accepted. And, though amongst those whom he sought to save were atheists and infidels, murderers and liars, blasphemers and sabbath-breakers, thieves and robbers, drunkards and debauchees, that one offering was infinite, and more than sufficed. It finished transgression, and the Supreme Judge and Lawgiver proclaimed it to the world, "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin." And, reappearing at the gates of paradise with his ransomed,

the gates lifted up their heads;" and, having long since returned from that errand of kindness, and rejoined the acclaiming celestials, already has the King of Glory been followed by many a trophy of his life-giving death and peace-speaking blood. Dear reader, will not you be another? Will you not entrust your soul to one so skilful to heal and so mighty to save? Will you not begin to sing that new song even here: "Thou art worthy; for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood"? And will you not, from this time forward, give a higher place in your affections to that adorable Friend," who, though he was rich, for your sakes became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich"?

ANTI-ROMANIST MOVEMENT IN GERMANY.

THE APOSTOLICAL CHRISTIANS*. THE communication which you have made to me, that you do not possess the means of continuing your support to us, has occasioned us much sorrow, though it is alleviated by the assurance of Extracted from the correspondence of the rev. B. Jettmar, D.D.

people on Easter-day. German-catholic flocks at Spandau and New Ruppin are preparing to join us. By God's grace, the band of true confessors of the Holy Trinity is thus gradually gathering in strength and numbers; tidings which must be welcome indeed to you and your brethren who have been moved to do so much for us*."-Berlin, April 20, 1848.

The Cabinet.

GOD OUR FATHER. AS by this word "Father" I am taught to glory of thee and in thee, and all that ever thou hast; for thou art wholly mine, my Lord, my God, and my Father; so by this word "our" I am taught to glory of all the good that all and every of thy servants that ever were, are, or shall be, had, have, and shall have. For now I am taught to believe that thou hast called me into the communion of thy church and people, whom hereby I perceive thou hast commanded to be careful for me as for themselves, and in all their prayers to be as mindful of me I am taught to remember and render my duty I owe as of themselves. Again, as by this word " Father" to thee-wards, faith, love, fear, obedience, &c., so by thy word "our" I am taught my duty towards thy people, to be careful for them, and to take their sorrow, poverty, and affliction, &c., as mine own; and therefore to labour to help them in heart and hand after my vocation and ability, utterly abhorring all pride, self love, arrogancy, and contempt of any.

your unswerving love for us, and of the warm in-
terest which you will not cease to take in our well-
doing. We shall feel, at all times, conjoined to
you in the love and faith of the Lord Jesus, and
rest our trust in him for wisdom, help, and
strength to maintain the warfare to which he has
called us.
We need your earnest prayers that it
may be given to us to contend manfully against
the present wide-spreading contagion of infidelity;
and we thank God who prevented us from joining
hands with the dissemblers, who profess Christ,
but have not, alas! had the grace of Christian
convictions and awakening vouchsafed to them.
It is daily becoming more evident that the move-
ment, begun in Silesia under the name of German-
catholicism, is not Christian in its character, and
has originated, not in a desire to embrace a pure
and light-giving faith, but in the diffusion among
its adherents of those principles of irreligion,
rationalism, and deism, which are gaining such
deplorable ascendancy in the present day. It is,
however, very gratifying to us to know that there
are numbers among those that have renounced the
Roman church, who, seeing how sadly infidel opi-
nions are spreading around them, begin to feel
alarmed for the eternal safety of their households
and children. And we have solid grounds for
believing that there are many, whose hearts beat
in unison with our own, who have hitherto re-
frained from throwing off the yoke of the Roman
church, chiefly because they dread, and justly-Bradford.
dread, to be alienated altogether from the revealed
religion of our blessed Lord. For these reasons,
we consider the position which we occupy between
the superstition and self-righteousness of the
papacy, and the infidelity and proud self-
sufficiency of German catholicism, to be anything
but hopeless or uncalled-for; on the contrary, we
conceive it to be in the highest degree important,
and to be one which the Lord himself has assigned
us in this day of lamentable enmity to Christ and
his church. We will joyfully tarry and labour in
this work of his, in the full faith that he will raise
the seed which his hand has here sown, to grow
up into a healthy plant in the vineyard of his
church; hedewing it with his grace, and tending
and maturing it with his love. We pray, there-
fore, that all, who are united with us in him, may
aid us with their supplications, counsels, conso-
lations, and help, and be moved not to leave and
forsake us utterly! .... Our blessed Lord has
afforded us a new pledge of his gracious dealing
towards us in recent days of heavy visitation and
sanguinary turmoil. There was not a single indi-
vidual in my congregation who took part in the
late insurrection; neither was one family a sufferer
directly or indirectly, in his person or property, on
the occasion. In the midst of the sad declension
from the love and fear of God, and the back-
sliding from the faith of Christ, which I regret to
say amounts to an almost general contempt for the
Lord Jesus, it pleases him to bless me with the
constant increase of my flock: numbers have
come forward, and among them several Roman-
ists, to be admitted members of it. On Easter
Sunday I hope to confirm two very promising
catechumens at divine service, and on Whitsunday
several other coverts to the faith of the gospel.
Among the latter is the rev. M. Baer, lately a
German-catholic preacher, who is to preach to my

Poetry.

SACRED SONNETS.

No. XVI.

(For the Church of England Magazine.)

"The Son of man is come to save that which was lost."

MATT. xviii. 11.

CHRIST is enough to banish sorrow's powert:

Christ is enough to fill the soul with joy;
To still the waves of woe, that would destroy
With their impetuous force each fleeting hour.

When o'er the veiled future shadows lower,

The mourner's breast feels in his love the peace
That calmeth woe, bidding all anguish cease.
Healing unto the heart, he came to pour ;
To save the lost, for whom he meekly wore

The crown of thorns upon his holy head;
And the sad anguish of the cross he bore,

Eternal mercy o'er the lost to shed.
His saving grace, his vast and boundless love,
To fallen man have op'd the gates above.

Llangynwyd Vicarage.

M. C. L.

Subscriptions in aid of the "Apostolical Christian Flocks" in Germany continue to be received at the banking houses of Messrs. Coutts and Co., Strand; and Messrs

Barnetts, Hoare, and Co., Lombard-street—S.
the sad heart happy).-OLD WELSH PROVERB.
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DEATH OF ABSALOM.

(The Death of Absalom.)

THERE are few narratives of scripture history more affecting than the rebellion and death of Absalom.

David was an indulgent parent, and probably did not exercise sufficient control over his numerous family; at least we have little or no evidence that any of his sons, with the exception of Solomon, evinced real piety. They appear to have been luxurious, lustful, and self-willed. They scrupled not to take advantage of their position to indulge their wayward desires, and depended, VOL. XXV.

it is likely, on their father's fondness to screen them from punishment.

David had in the afflictions of his family the righteous retribution of his own sins. It was a sharp chastisement; but doubtless he found it eventually good for him to have been so troubled. He was led to deeper humiliation, to more fervent repentance, to more devoted reliance upon God. And the mournful events which attended the death of Absalom taught him, though sad, yet salutary lessons which otherwise he would have been slow to learn.

Absalom was a young man of great personal

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beauty: his hair was very long and ornamental; and he seems to have cherished it with particular care. He was attentive to the outward adorning of the body he cared little for the inward beauty of the spirit. After his base revenge taken upon his wicked brother Amnon, he had been pardoned by his father, David; and it might have been thought that his parent's mercy would have bound him to devoted love to him. But Absalom had other designs: he aspired to the crown: he stole away the hearts of the people of Israel. He so far prevailed that David found it necessary to quit Jerusalem, and to concentrate his forces on the other side of the Jordan. Thither Absalom pursued; and a battle soon became inevitable. The king seems to have been fully assured that victory would be his; and he gave his generals charge in the hour of triumph to spare his rebellious child. All would have obeyed but Joab. Joab was as self-willed as Absa lom: he resolved, if he fell into his power, to put him to death. In this he was fulfilling the just purposes of God, but not with any right motive. And we see how the Lord makes use of wicked instruments to effect his righteous designs. They act according to the dictates of their own ungodly passions; but he overrules their sin to let punish ment fall where punishment is due.

The rebel army is defeated, and Absalom flies. His path lies through a thick wood; and the overhanging boughs intercept his course. His hair, before his pride, is now his ruin: it becomes entangled in the branch of a tree: the mule on which he rides hurries on, and Absalom is left suspended helplessly between heaven and earth. There he is found by Joab, who pierces him to the heart, and slays him.

David's grief, when he 1 arned the catastrophe, must have been infinitely ag gravated by the recollection that his son was destroyed in the midst of fearful sin of his eternal state he could have no comfortable hope,

Let the lessons which th s melancholy history teaches be deeply engraven (n every heart. We see to what pride and vanity nd self-will will lead. Let our prayer then ever be: "From all blindness of heart, from pride, vain-glory, and hypocrisy, from envy, hatred, and malice, and all uncharitableness, good Lord, deliver us!"

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to the meeting-house, which I had been accustomed to attend ten or twelve years ago.

J. D.-I had hoped, Edward, that you had seen the duty and privilege of attending those means of grace which God has provided for you in your parish church. What can be your reason for pursuing this irregular and unsettled course? A man who is supplied with wholesome food at home cannot surely be acting either wisely or justifiably when he wanders to other places in quest of nourishment.

E. W.-I don't know any particular reason. I took it into my head to visit the old meetinghouse again, and was so pleased with what I heard that I have regularly attended during the last six or seven Sundays.

J. D. You had been so very regular at church during some years past, that I concluded your views on religious matters had become clear, and your principles more settled. I hoped that you had made up your mind to endeavour to be a consistent member of the church of England.

E. W.-Why, James, you must allow that we ought to go where we think we can get most good to our souls. I went to church, as you just now said, very regularly for a long time; but, at last, I grew tired of hearing the same prayers over and over again, and therefore I went elsewhere for a change.

J.D.-If you went to church, Edward, merely to hear the prayers, I do not wonder that you became tired. Excellent as they are, they cannot be who do not use them properly. They are not expected to benefit, and therefore to satisfy, those only to be heard, but to be prayed. Although they are for the use of the congregation generally, yet own prayers. Owing to this dislike of hearing the they are also to be adopted by each individual as his same things repeated, you were also probably wearied because the scriptures were so often read at church. You did not consider that it is necessary not merely to hear, but to "mark, learn, and inwardly to digest" the word of God, in order to derive spiritual nourishment from it. Neither the prayers nor the scriptures will afford you any the great truths which they are constantly bringpleasure or profit, unless you feel an interest in ing before you. It is your wish to go, you say, where you can get most good to your soul. If that be your object, surely a church which supplies you so abundantly with instructions from God's word must be best adapted to your wants. Where do you find so much honour and value put upon the holy scriptures as in the church of England? They are used in every part of the service. The liturgy is composed almost entirely of scriptural passages. In attending, then, the service of our church, you are hearing, for the most part, not the words of man, but the declarations of the Lord our God. If God's word be "profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness;" if the holy scriptures are "able to make thee wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Jesus Christ;" if "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (2 Tim. iii. 14, 15; Rom. x. 17), then assuredly have you far more opportunites of getting good to soul in your parish church than in any meeting-house whatever.

your

E. W.-The church would be well enough, I allow, if all the clergy really preached as it directs; but many of them do not. I do not believe there is one in a hundred of them that preaches the pure gospel.

tion for her members; but suppose I am placed in a parish where an unfaithful clergyman preaches, can I be wrong in such a case to separate from the church, and unite myself with some dissenting body.

J. D.-Even this would not justify your sepa

J. D.-If such is your belief, Edward, it is plain that you are ready to believe any thing, how-ration. The unity of the church ought not to deever ridiculous or monstrous, which your new associates choose to tell you. Not one in a hundred of the established clergy preaches the pure gospel! Think, for a moment, Edward; and you will surely feel ashamed at having uttered so rash, and uncharitable, and slanderous an accusation. Consider what it would be necessary for you to do, before you could with any show of justice or reason use such language as this. You must have heard all the ministers of our church preach: you must be fully competent to decide what is and what is not agreeable to God's word: you must be infallibly certain that your opinion is right, and that ninety-nine out of every hundred clergymen are wrong; that is, that out of twelve thousand, or more, well-educated men, who have solemnly devoted their time and talents to the service of their God, and have bound themselves by the most awful sanctions, to preach nothing but what is agreeable to the gospel of Christ, only one hundred and twenty are faithful to their pledges! All the rest are either too ignorant to understand, or too wicked to preach, the doctrines of the gospel!

E. W.-Why, really, James, I allow I went too far in what I said just now; though it is no more than I have heard some of the people, with whom I have lately associated, say over and over again. But don't you think there may be some clergymen who do not preach the gospel?

pend on the worthiness, or to be broken by the unfitness of individual ministers. The bond which connects its members together is their belief that the things which our church has stated to be necessary to salvation have the warrant of holy scripture. These essential things cannot be changed by the want of faithfulness in some of her ministers, but are continually proclaimed as the principles which her members should embrace and ever hold fast, although false teachers, or even an an angel from heaven, should teach any other doctrine. Believing, then, that there is nothing in the prayer-book, the articles, and homilies of the church of England, which is contrary to the word of God, and that her rites and ceremonies not only promote decency and order, but also conduce to spiritual edification, by stirring up "the dull mind of man to the remembrance of his duty to God," her consistent members regard it no less a duty than a privilege to continue in her bosom. No institution, however excellent, could long endure, if it were to be judged, not according to its own intrinsic value, but according to the conduct of a few of its servants. In the common affairs of life you would pursue a very different course from the one which you are now following. For instance: you are a member of a club, or benefit-society, from which you receive, during sickness, a certain weekly allowance. JD.-Very possibly. As there was a Judas Now, suppose the manager of the affairs of the among the apostles of our blessed Saviour, we society should be found very unfit for his office, need not be surprised if some unfaithful persons would you think that a sufficient reason for creep into the portals of our holy and apostolic withdrawing from so useful an institution? church. But this affords no ground for separation Would you and the other members separate from, from the church. Her doctrines are still pure and and thus dissolve, a confessedly beneficial soscriptural, although some of her unworthy ininis-ciety, because you found an individual, or even ters may strive to conceal or to pervert them. And, several individuals, not trustworthy? whatever such faithless servants may preach in the E. W. No, indeed; that would be very foolpulpit, they are not able to adulterate the evan-ish. We should turn the unfit person out of his gelical purity of the liturgy, or to alter the lan- office, and procure a suitable one in his place. guage of the scriptures, which are publicly read in J. D.-Then why not act in the same way all our churches. So that, even under the unwith respect to the church? The church is a sohappy circumstances which you have imagined, ciety of professing Christians. If in that society the members of our church have still a faithful any persons be found whose conduct is very reguide in the bible, and also in the liturgy, to prehensible, would it not be far better to seek the direct them into the way of salvation. This is an reformation, or, if that were unattainable, the readvantage which you cannot have at the meeting-moval of such unfit persons from the office which house. If a dissenting teacher be ignorant, or unscriptural in his religious views, he may go on for years teaching false doctrines, and can read just as much or as little of the bible as may suit his purpose. He may thus lead his followers, as too many have done, to "deny the Lord that bought them"*.

E. W.-It would be unfair not to allow that the church of England provides the very best instruc

* It is a well-established fact, that more than two hundred meeting-houses, which were founded by persons who firmly believed in the divinity of Christ, and held the doctrine of the atonement by his blood as the only ground of salvation, are now in the possession of Socinians or unitarians, as they call themselves. See the "Eelectic Review," Feb., 1832.

they held in the society, than that you, by withdrawing from communion and fellowship with the other members, should deprive yourself of the benefits and privileges of this venerable institution? Now you will find, on looking at the twenty-sixth article of our church, that provision is made for suspending or removing wicked ministers: "It appertaineth to the discipline of the church that inquiry be made of evil ministers, and that they be accused by those who have knowledge of their offences, and finally, being found guilty by just judgment, be deposed."

E. W.-That may be done in very bad cases. But there are some ministers who are not indeed immoral characters, and yet their lives are alto

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