teristic of the event prefigured, as some extraordinary, sudden, lightgiving, world-arousing intervention of the Lord Jesus for His own cause and Church, there is not an event, from St. John's time even to the present, that can be shewn to answer to it, but the Reformation; while, on the other hand, not only does the Reformation answer to the figure in this respect, but there is not a particular in the vision of all we have just noted, in respect of which it did not answer, even to exactness. Sudden, unexpected, most extraordinary,-the human instrumentality employed so inadequate, and the results of such surpassing importance,- if ever event had the character stamped upon it, above others, of some direct intervention of Divine Providence, this was the one. Its most prominent characteristic, as a religious revival, consisted in its being one in which the glory of the Lord Jesus, as the Light of the soul, the Sun of Righteousness, Jehovah our Justification, was pub It licly set forth, and by multitudes in different nations owned and felt. was one in which, through the voice of the Reformers, He rebuked His usurping enemies, even as the Lion of the tribe of Judah; and, both by it, and by the providential overthrow of the usurper's power in a tenth* of the Apostate City, did also assert His rights to this earth as His inheritance; and all in connexion with the opening of His own written word, that had been so long neglected and forgotten; the republication, if I may so say, of His Gospel. Finally, the auspicious result of this deliverance of His Church and His religion was not accomplished without fiery contentions, in the which the Divine power was manifested to discomfit the enemies of the truth, as it was said by Luther, in attending long afterwards to the effect of his protestation against indulgences, "This was to set the world on fire, and disturb the whole order of the universe.” I. SIMILITUDES. THERE is a beautiful opening amidst a gloomy sky. Retire, ye intrusive clouds! and let me see in its full splendour that azure plain of which you so jealously shew me only a part. They do not retire: but can I complain, when they have grown golden in the sun, and have exchanged their darkness for light? Neither let me complain of the sorrows of life, though they leave me only a partial glimpse of the serenity of heaven, while, though slow to retire, they themselves are gilded with the promise of future glory. II. Time has rent away huge fragments from the cliff: but nature has covered the wounds with mosses and flowers. Thus over the wounds of the heart can religion cause to arise the spiritual flowers of evangelical graces,resignation, peace, humility,-through which the character assumes a loveliness which it never possessed before. III. The blackthorn is early with its blossoms, but the fruit that it gives us is sour and harsh. Let us not put our confidence in the first gay notions that spring up in our minds: the blossoms of true wisdom may be more slow to appear, but they will bear rich fruit in their season. IV. The sea lies dark and heaving; and melancholy is the sound of its waves. But the sun looks out upon it; and its gloom brightens into azure, and its murmurs now seem a festal song. Thus, O Sun of Righteousness! when Thou shinest upon the troubled breast, its very sighs become songs of praise. V. Some minerals, which are soft and flexible in their native beds, become * In Lev. xxvii. 30, we read, "All the tithe of the land is the Lord's." It was the quit rent, if I may so say, in acknowledgment of His title to the whole. And thus, perhaps when a tenth was taken by Him of the city, the very propor tion may have indicated that it was an act asserting His right to all. rigid and hard when exposed to the open air. Thus, how does the youth, who seemed soft-hearted and amiable while sheltered in the privacy of home sometimes become hardened and self ish when exposed to the influences of the outward world! VI. How careful are we of our footing when walking on the edge of a precipice, and yet how heedless we frequently are of the moral dangers of life, where it becomes us to remember, we are going, "in the midst of snares, and walking upon the battlements of the city." (Eccles. ix. 13.) VII. How clear and bright looks the water in the rocky basin! Drop a pebble into it, and it becomes immediately clouded with the impurities arising from the bottom. Ah! thus, how does a sinful suggestion or a sudden temptation stir up the sediment of our corrupt nature still lurking within us! One blessed Being only could say, "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me." M. N. A PLEA FOR OPEN-AIR PREACHING. A Letter addressed to INCUMBENTS, BY THE REV. J. H. TITCOMB, M.A. [Continued from page 128.] IV.—Ministerial responsibility demands it. In taking up this branch of the question, it will become me to speak with very much diffidence; for the last wish I have, is to appear as public censor of my brethren. At the same time let us recollect that we are called to "provoke one another to love and good works," (Heb. x. 24.) I trust therefore that a word spoken in all humility, for this great object, will be received in brotherly kind ness. I shall commence with a remark which is too plain to be disputed, viz., that the chief burden of ministerial responsibility consists in bearing testimony for Christ before all those who are committed to our pastoral charge. Now where, as in the case of a dissenting minister, or the minister of a Church of England proprietary chapel, the pastoral charge is congregational, of course there can be no burden of responsibility beyond the narrow limits of that congregation. But where our pastoral charge is territorial, the case is widely different. There we are invested with the spiritual oversight of souls altogether independent of the congregational principle. It is not a question with us then, as to who may rent a pew, or who may occupy free sitting in the church. We ask one of far more comprehensive a cha a If racter,-How many persons live within Will these things bring us any nearer to the people? No! In vain shall we think our ministerial responsibility discharged, unless we go farther than this. Every evil may still be rampant, in spite of this seeming improvement. The Sabbath-breaker and blasphemer may blazon defiance to the Gospel in the very sight of this newly-built church. The gin-shop and infidel soiree may be crowded by the very side of this lately-erected school-room. Now in relation to these wretched outcasts from society, the clergyman of the parish is a perfect cipher. Who that is placed in such a position can lay his hand upon his heart, and say that he is faithfully bearing testimony for Christ among them? Perhaps he comforts himself by the distribution of tracts. But let him think in the first place, now many are unable to read them; and then, in the next place, how many more refuse to read them. Perhaps he rests satisfied with the labours of some active layassistant. But who can discover the numbers among that wretched population, whom even the most active lay-assistant must pass by? Experience tells us that there is a large class of persons who cannot be reached either by tracts, District Visitors, or Scripture Readers. What, then, is such a parochial minister to do? Is he to throw down his energies as exhausted, and say that he has done his utmost? Impossible! He has not done his utmost. Hitherto he has only been attempting to carry the Gospel to these poor outcasts by deputy; he has only been throwing down a few scattered crumbs of the bread of life through another man's fingers. He has not, like his blessed Master, left his ease and home, and gone forth to face the host in person. Until he does this, how can he feel that he has boldly and honestly confessed Christ, or borne testimony for God before them? This is a startling question, dear brethren. sonally responsible for having left no effort untried, in order to evangelize all within our parishes. If so, how can any of us be fully and wholly satisfying our consciences in the systematic omission of this one effort at their evangelization? When we have to stand at the last great day of judgment, to give an account of our stewardship,-how shall we meet these lost and everlastingly outcast sinners? Shall we be able to plead then that every means was taken for their conversion? No, brethren, on the contrary, they may perhaps be found to say, You did not seek after our souls as you might the message of salvation was not carried to us in the only way likely to attract our attention? It is true you adopted many means to win us; but one was wanting. Had you brought out the Gospel into the streets or fields, we might have listened and lived? but now it is hid from our eyes. Let us be up, then, and doing, before it be indeed too late. If souls are precious, if the love of Christ be constraining, if the burden of our parochial responsibility be pressing,let us away with false notions of our own dignity, and arise to the full measure of ministerial energy demanded by interests so great and overwhelming. Nothing will repay us so much on a dying bed, as the power to look back over the flock from which we are parting, and to be able to reflect, that however unworthily and unfaithfully we may have served our Redeemer, even in our best duties, yet we have left behind us a sweet savour of His name, not only in the pulpits of our churches, and among the households of our people, but also in the very highways and hedges of our parishes, where the infidel and the harlot could alone be expected to receive it. Then shall we depart in peace. Not for one moment as trusting to the merit of our labours, but as feeling that in Christ Jesus we have delivered our own souls,—and that we are "free from the blood of all men." "I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say," (1 Cor. x. 15.) [To be continued.] Let us not dismiss it impatiently. Let us ask ourselves whether we truly realize the parochial principle of our beloved Church, so as to hold ourselves per PRINCIPLES OF CHURCH REFORM ILLUSTRATED. THE position of the clergy is simply sciences of those who feel themselves subject to a rigid conformity with the rubric? The enforcement of conformity having been tried, and failed, it would be useless, as I believe it would be retrograding from the work of the Reformation, to attempt anything of the kind. There remains, then, another way in which the object desired may be accomplished, and that is by relaxing the strictness and severity of the present subscription to the Book of Common Prayer, so that the clergy not being in conscience bound to a rigid conformity to the rubrics, but only to a general uniformity of religious worship, they should be relieved from that which presses upon them, and the laity at the same time protected in the enjoyment of such liberty as usage has ensured to them. When a proposition of this kind is made, which will be regarded by some as startling, by others as tending to unsteadiness and variation in our ecclesiastical system, it will justly be demanded of the proposer that he shall be able to show whether such a proposal can be carried into effect with safety to the faith and the Church we are bound to conserve. This is what I am well satisfied can be done, and in proceeding to expound the principles upon which the proposed relaxation may safely be effected, I shall in so doing set forth the great and powerful principles upon which our Church is founded, and may therefore be reformed. Let it be observed, then, in the first place, that it is most necessary to distinguish and separate between the essentials and the non-essentials of religion. The Archbishop has done so everywhere throughout his letter, and in one passage of it has the following admirable sentiment in reference to this particular:-"The matters in controversy, considered in themselves, are not of vital importance; the service in our churches has in general been conducted in conformity to the Apostolic direction, with order and decency; and, whether performed with exact regard to the letter of the rubric, or with the variations established by general usage, will still be decent and orderly.' Certainly no sentiment was ever more truly Scriptural and Apostolic than this; none ever more truly conceived in accordance with the spirit that quickeneth, in opposition to the letter that killeth. The Church has to be most thankful for the faithful expression of it by the Archbishop at such a moment of peril. It shews that the mere externals of religion are comparatively insignificant, while it draws forth to their due prominence and power, "the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith;" Matt. xxiii. 23; teaches us the application of that great truth, "I will have mercy, and not sacrifice." Matt. ix. 13. and Since, then, there is the main distinction to be observed between the essentials and the non-cssentials of religion; and since the first are to be maintained at any sacrifice on our part, and the second are to be sacrificed, if necessary, for the conservation of the first; it behoves us to consider how in our ecclesiastical system, the essentials are guarded, and can still be preserved intact, and at the same time such a relaxation be allowed respecting the non-essentials, as that they shall be retained in subservience to the due and faithful exhibition of the essentials. The first principle we have to expound in this matter is one not sufficiently regarded, and that is, that our Book of Articles is the governing formulary in our Church system. This is evident, not only from its own nature, but from well authenticated facts in ecclesiastical history. In its own nature it is the most precise and formal exposition of the christian faith possessed by our Church, and it may be safely affirmed to be one of the most admirable human expositions of the christian faith that mankind has ever been favoured with. But further, history informs us, that the Homilies were first put forth to instruct men in the faith; that the Liturgy was then prepared, to supply them with a decent and orderly form of approaching God in prayer; and that last of all the Book of Articles was edited with great care, as being a concise summary and confession of the faith, already taught to the people by the homilies and liturgy, but prepared and expressed with the greatest care and deliberation. The words of Bp. Burnet, in his history, are too remarkable to be omitted. "So now (1551) the Bishops being generally addicted to the purity of religion, most of this year was spent in preparing Articles, which should contain the doctrine of the Church of England. Many thought they should have begun first of all with these. But Cranmer, upon good reasons, was of another mind, though much pressed by Bucer about it.. It seemed advisable to open and ventilate matters in public disputations and books, written about them for some years, before they should go too hastily to determine them; lest, if they went too fast in that affair, it would not be so decent to make alterations afterwards." These important historical facts, then, as well as the nature of the Articles themselves, concur in stamping upon them that chief and ruling authority amongst our formularies, for which they are by their precision and excellence so eminently qualified. We may then with the most perfect security commit the ... keeping of our christian faith to these Articles, bearing in mind at the same time what the royal declaration prefixed to them requires, "that all disputes be shut up in God's promises, as they be generally set forth to us in the Holy Scriptures, and the general meaning of the Articles of the Church of England according to them." Consequently the Articles understood and interpreted according to "God's promises, as they be generally set forth to us in the Holy Scriptures," are the secure bulwark and strength of our pure and Apostolical faith. Our second principle is one that has not as yet been admitted into our ecclesiastical system, but which cannot fail to recommend itself, and carry conviction of its correctness to every unprejudiced mind. In the Church of England the clergy are charged with the Ministry of the Word; they have authority to preach the Gospel, and they are entrusted with full liberty of speech therein, according to the doctrine set forth in the Thirtynine Articles of religion. Within the wide and safe bounds of that most admirable symbol of the faith, the clergy are free, nay rather are bound, freely to preach that gospel of salvation which they have freely received. But if they are worthy to preach the Gospel, how is it that they are not trusted to pray with equal freedom to that God who gave the Gospel? Certainly the same man who can be entrusted with preaching can also be entrusted with praying. No man will venture to affirm, that the minister of the Church of England, who is worthy and able to preach God's truth, is not worthy to pray to God in sincerity and truth. And yet, so it is, that while the clergy have full liberty in preaching they have not the same liberty in praying, but certain forms of prayer are supplied to them,—which forms, and those only, they have liberty to use. Here then is the PRINCIPLE, the great principle, upon which I take my stand, that they, who are worthy of being trusted to preach the Gospel, are worthy also to be trusted with liberty of prayer to God. And bearing this principle in mind, I am to shew in what manner subscription |