Che Churchman's Portfolio.

DO WHAT GOOD YOU CAN.

Seest

Do not thou then, because thou canst not save the world, despise the few; nor through longing after the greater things, withdraw thyself from the lesser. If thou canst not an hundred, take thou charge of ten; if thou canst not ten, despise not even five; if thou canst not five, do not overlook one; and if thou canst not one, neither so despair, nor keep back what may be done by thee. thou not how, in matters of trade, they who are so employed make their profit not only with gold but with silver also? For if we are not come to slighting the little things we shall keep hold also of the great. But if we despise the small, neither shall we easily lay hand upon the other. Thus individuals grow rich, gathering both small and great. And so let us act; that in all things enriched we may obtain the kingdom of heaven, through the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom unto the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, power, honour, now and henceforth, and for evermore. Amen.-St. Chrysostom on the first Epistle to the Corinthians, Homily III. Translation by Rev. H. K. Cornish, and Rev. John (now Bishop) Medley.

Treasury.

SCRIPTURE THE RULE OF FAITH.

THE Conclusion, that the Pope is Antichrist, and that other, that the Scripture is the sole rule of christian faith, were the two great principles on which the Reformation was originally founded. How the first of these principles came to be disgraced among ourselves, I have shown in another discourse (Sermon viii.) It may now be worth while to observe, in one word, through what fatal mismanagement the latter principle was even generally disavowed and deserted. When the Reformers had thrown off all respect for the Papal chair, and were for regulating the faith of christians by the sacred Scriptures, it still remained a question, on what grounds those Scriptures should be interpreted. The voice of the Church, speaking by her schoolmen, and modern doctors, was universally, and without much ceremony, rejected. But the fathers of the Primitive Church were still in great repute among Protestants themselves, who dreaded nothing so much as the imputation of novelty, which they saw would be fastened on their opinions, and who, besides, thought it too presuming to trust entirely to the dictates of what was called the private spirit. The Church of Rome availed berself with dexterity of this prejudice, and

of the distress to which the Protestant party was reduced by it. The authority of these ancient and venerable interpreters was sounded high by the Catholic writers; and the elamour was so great and so popular, that the Protestants knew not how, consistently with their own principles, or even in mere decency, to decline the appeal which was thus confidently made to that tribunal. The Reformers, too, piqued themselves on their superior skill in ancient literature, and were ashamed to have it thought that their adversaries could have any advantage against them in a dispute which was to be carried on in that quarter. Other considerations had, perhaps, their weight with particular Churches; but for these reasons, chiefly, all of them forwardly closed in with the proposal of trying their cause at the bar of the ancient Church, and thus, shifting their ground, maintained henceforth, not that the Scriptures were the sole rule of faith, but the Scriptures as interpreted by the primitive fathers. When the state of the question was thus changed, it was easy to see what would be the issue of so much indiscretion. The dispute was not only carried on in a dark and remote scene, into which the people could not follow their learned champions, but was rendered infinitely tedious, and indeed interminable. For those early writings, now to be considered as of the highest authority, were voluminous in themselves; and, what was worse, were composed in so loose, so declamatory, and often in so hyperbolical a strain, that no certain sense could be affixed to their doctrines, and anything, or everything, might, with some plausibility, be proved from them. The inconvenience was sensibly felt by the Protestant world. And, after a prodigious waste of industry and erudition, a learned foreigner (M. Daillé,) at length showed the inutility and the folly of pursuing the contest any further. In a wellconsidered discourse, On the use of the Fathers, he clearly evinced that their authority was much less than was generally supposed, in all points of religious controversy; and that their judgment was especially incompetent in those points which were agitated by the two parties. He evinced this conclusion by a variety of unanswerable arguments, and chiefly by showing that the matters in debate were, for the most part, such as had never entered into the heads of those old writers, being indeed of much later growth, and having first sprung up in the barbarous ages. They could not, therefore, decide on questions which they had no occasion to consider, and had, in fact, never considered, however their careless or figurative expression might be made to look that way, by the dexterous management of the controversialists. This discovery had great effects. It opened the eyes of the more candid and intelligent inquirers; and our incomparable Chillingworth, with some others, took the advantage of it to set the controversy with the Church of Rome once more on its proper foot, and to establish for ever the old principle, THAT THE BIBLE, and that only (interpreted by our best reason,) IS THE RELIGION OF PROTESTANTS.-Bishop Hurd on the Prophecies, 1772, p. 420–425.

A MAN may buy anything too dear, but Christ, grace, his own soul, and the Gospel.

FAITH acts in a most kingly way, when it hangs upon a killing God.

T. RAGG, PRINTER, 90, HIGH STREET, BIRMINGHAM.

THIS Church, dedicated to St. Stephen, the Martyr, was the fourth of those erected by the Birmingham Church Building Society. The site was given by the Governors of King Edward's School; the first stone laid by the Lord Bishop of Worcester, in October, 1842; and the Building consecrated by his Lordship for Divine Service, on the 23rd of July, 1844.

The Church, which is in the Early English style of architecture, is considered as very correct of its class. It is cruciform in shape, consisting of nave, transepts, and chancel. At the junction of the nave and transepts it

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is supported by four lofty arches, with groined roof. The engraving represents the Church as intended to be, when complete; but it yet wants the tower and steeple, which, when finished, will be 170 feet high. The whole roof of the building is supported by returned arches built into the solid wall, so as not to be apparent, but to allow of the Church being enlarged by additional aisles. It now contains 1000 sittings, half of which are free. It has a parish assigned to it, containing 2,200 houses, with a population of about 11,000, chiefly pcor, and long in a neglected and spiritually destitute condition. Among these the first Incumbent, the Rev. E. Garbett, is labouring hard, and we are happy to say not ineffectually, to spread the sound of that Gospel which, though dwelling in a christian land, vast numbers of them had never previously heard.

SPRING FLOWERS.

"Ye come, though the heavens lour

In darkness, though your bed be ice and sleet!"

H. F.

YES, you come, fair Flowers, though the darkened sky

Foretells the coming storms;

Though coldly and roughly the wind sweeps by,

Bending your fragile forms.

But your spotless blossoms are ever seen,

The young Year's earliest flowers;

And you shed a light on the wintry scene,

Like Hope on Life's dark hours!

And the Primrose pale seems to whisper low
That brighter hours are nigh;

That the clouds of care, and the tears of woe,

Will with the winter fly.

And the Crocus, too, with its golden cup,

Is as an emblem given

Of the trusting spirit that still looks up

In earnest faith, to heaven!

In the shady valley the Violet dwells,

By Love and Friendship sought;

For 'tis linked with a thousand hallowed spells,
By Hope and MEMORY wrought.

Oh! thoughts of the Past awake as we gaze
Where the sweet Violet bends,-

The remembrance of our early days,
And unforgotten Friends!

I bid you welcome, fair Flowers of Spring!

The Poet holds you dear;

For bright dreams and gladdening thoughts you bring,
Such as sustain and cheer.

For our GOD, who hath bade the flowrets bloom,

And Winter's clouds depart,

Can dispel with a word Life's deepest gloom,

And bless the trusting heart!

Deddington, March 10, 1847.

GEORGIANA BENNET.

Village Dialogues.

NO. XIX.-ON THE PRAYER BOOK.

"I HAVE often thought," said Jane Thomas, a farmer's daughter, to Mary Davies, a servant of her father's, "that we do not use our Prayer Books as we ought to do." Mary replied, "What! I am sure I do, for I can turn to all the places in the Service as quick as Mr. F—, the Curate himself. I am never behind-hand with any of the responses."

J. T. I do not mean that, Mary; I know that you know how to turn to any part of the Service, and that you never neglect doing so. You have been well taught at the National School to understand all these things.

I

M. D. Please Miss Thomas to explain yourself, that may learn better.

J. T. You know, Mary, that there are certain doctrines in the Bible which we are to believe; that there are certain duties which we are to practise; and that there are certain blessings which we are to expect and receive from God. The Prayer draws all these out of the Bible, and puts them into our mouth and into our heart in the Services of the Church.

M. D. O yes, madam, to be sure, it is so; I think I know something about it, because I was catechised on these things in the School, and in the Church.

J. T. Well, Mary, if you please, we will talk about these things for a few minutes, as we have done our work. It will do us both good.

M. D. You will then be so kind as to begin, and I will hear and speak when I ought to speak.

J. T. The first point of doctrine which concerns us all