the pony-chaise at the foot, the visitor climbed the hill in solemn thought. It was one of summer's warm and pleasant days; the poor man had stepped out, wrapped up, to shelter him from the gentle air, and he stood watching the threshers in the barn, close by his cottage door. He soon followed his guest into the house, and, taking off his hat, seated himself in his arm-chiar by the fire, which burnt on the bricks within the large chimney. Suffering and deep depression were all that could be read in his heavy and languid countenance. The visitor made a few inquiries into his state of health, his appetite, and rest; the poor man answered all mournfully, and with great difficulty of articulation. A portion of the Scriptures was read; I believe it was the third chapter of Zechariah; it was simply explained, and applied to his heart and conscience: he listened with such fixed attention, that his visitor felt encouraged, and asked him a few questions, hoping to awake him to a more vivid consciousness of his real state as a sinner before God; he replied by a monosyllable to one or two, and then said with evident distress, 'I can't speak, it hurts me so:' this came as another cloud over the prospect; no tracing of the truth received could be henceforth looked for through the confession of the lips; he, the poor sufferer, if he learnt at all, must learn in silence. Before leaving the cottage, a short prayer was offered up, for, and with the dying man, asking the grace and blessing of God, who is rich in mercy unto all who call upon him.' On taking leave, a voluntary promise was given of a second visit, and the emphatic I hope you will!' came like a ray of light from Nature's dark prison-house, a voice of promise that the poor captive might yet learn to know and love his great Deliverer's voice, and to follow Him. Little was it then imagined that even now the suffering sinner had looked into the perfect law of liberty to continue therein; to be not a forgetful hearer, but through the grace of God, a doer of the work of faith, and prayer, and love! But, as yet the words, I hope you will,' were all the earthly comfort the visitor bore away. The wife of the sick man accompanied her to the foot of the hill, dwelling on her husband's great depression and clinging to life; she did not dare to tell him there was no hope; his master had promised to take him to a skilful man, soon expected in the neighbourhood, and to this faint promise of relief he clung. It was impossible not to realize the awfulness of such a position. The very ground shifting from beneath the feet, and the future a dark abyss, unillumined by one gleam of comfort, only to know it is Eternity, and changeless. This was man's despairing view, and it had been real, but that One mighty to save' had delivered the lawful captive. Verily, verily I say unto you, the hour is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live!' The Word of God had reached the heart! It comes with the stronger application to our subject, because it was the first passage read, and from that message of truth and love heard and received, all was changed within, around, before the sufferer. I do not mean that he at once realized this change, but it was the first step in the way of peace, the first look lifted to his Saviour, the first moment of desire for salvation in and by him. It is evident that for this, the inward light of the blessed Spirit had met the outward word; and this leads me to suggest how well it is, in reading to the poor, to acknowledge this need, and to teach them to know it, by asking in the simplest words before reading, while sitting beside them, the Holy Spirit's teaching for the sake of Jesus Christ. Several visits were paid; and, from the New Testament, Jesus, as the way, the truth, and the life,' was read of again and again: Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.' The earnest attention with which the poor man listened, and the tears that sometimes filled his eyes, were felt to be substitutes for words; and a feeling of strong interest for the silent sufferer deepened within the heart of his visitor. One day, on her leaving the cottage, accompanied by his wife, the poor woman, as they descended the hill, spoke of the change she had perceived in her

husband. Such a change has come to him! O, he has taken to pray so! he seems always at prayer. If I do but go out of the house for a little, when I come back I am almost sure to find him down on his knees by the chair; and at night he gets out of his bed over and over again, and kneels down to pray, and he sheds so many tears! O, he is wonderfully changed since that first time you read to him! and he is so anxious about your coming.' Some there are who can understand the length and depth of this blessed comfort, though few can know what it was, for that tortured frame to rise again and again from its bed at night, to kneel and pray. On the next visit, still further evidence was given. The spirit beginning to realize its state, to see before it life and death, and to have a faint conception that there was One able and willing to deliver, grew too strong for the fetters of pain, and feebly articulated its fear, that its sins were too great to be forgiven. From that day the relief of utterance appeared so far to exceed the sense of bodily pain, that silence never again sealed the sufferer's lips; but nothing short of his actual words in their pointed relation to himself and the truth brought before him, could give an idea of the intense interest of all that passed. The poor man sometimes faintly realized that it was even so; with the view of Jesus, light and comfort broke in upon his soul; and he would not only speak, but smile. Few can conceive what that smile was, the gladness of heart it told it was impossible to see it without reflecting it; and it came like the sunbeam through the cloud, the brighter for the preceding and surrounding gloom. It was truly a spirit-smile, with power to overcome resistance and pain. It was possible to call it forth any moment by reading of the love of Jesus, while the tears would, at the same time, fill his eyes, the heart's deep sense of sin, and of its forgiveness, speaking in both. Many beautiful things may be forgotten, or in their vividness may pass away from remembrance, the smile of that dying and agonized sufferer, never! These bright moments were but gleams, answering to the simple setting forth of truth, and fading more or less in the absence of that setting forth; the heart faintly realized what the memory faintly retained; hope lived within, but comfort was often clouded; the light still struggled with the darkness, faith with unbelief; but 'blessed be God, who always causeth the believer in Jesus to triumph' ultimately. From his wife, most touching accounts were heard of his prayers and tears by night and day. Who ever perished, praying? The expected doctor visited the neighbouring town, and the poor man was taken for his opinion; the case was acknowledged hopeless. The visitor reached the cottage a few minutes after his return; he was resting in his arm-chair, still clothed in all the wrappers which had been necessary for his journey; his wife and neighbour were sitting by; he was perfectly calm, for Christ in us the hope of glory,' enables us to meet unmoved the death of earthly hope and expectation. He wished to hear the word of God; while reading to him, his countenance became pale and almost lifeless; the reader supposing him faint from fatigue, soon closed the book, and left the cottage."-(pp. 206-213.)

We cannot find room for the whole of this sketch; but any reader will lose an opportunity of refreshment, who does not speedily procure the book for his own perusal.

THE THREE REFORMATIONS:-LUTHERAN, ROMAN, ANGLICAN. By WALTER FARQUHAR HOOK, D.D. Vicar of Leeds. London: Murray. 1847.

ONE of the countervailing circumstances attending Tractarianism, in common with every other undermining system,-is, that ever and anon its success creates alarm, and a reaction; undoing, perhaps, even more than had been previously done. The real object of the more crafty leaders of the Romanizing movement, was, not to produce a number of isolated secessions from the Church, such as we have seen; but, gradually, imperceptibly, and without alarm, to work such a change in the tone of feeling and principle among Churchmen, that, on some convenient opportunity, there might be a general expression of sentiment, that the Thirty-Nine Articles were "Ultra-Protestant;" and that, with some little explanation and modification, the decisions of the Council of Trent might be accepted by "the Anglo-Catholic Church." This design, however, is every now and then frustrated by some over-zealous and overhonest member of the sect; who, unable to persist in a life of falsehood, resolves at once to declare himself what he really is; and whose secession betrays the real character of the conspiracy, and creates an alarm which renders fresh frauds and new protestations necessary.

Such has been the case within the last few weeks at Leeds. Dr. Hook has been, for years, preaching and practising a modified Popery in that town. His entire sympathy and concurrence with the Oxford conspiracy has been exhibited on every possible occasion. No movement has been made by Messrs. Newman, Pusey, and Co., for years past, in which Dr. Hook was not immediately found to have a part. So cordial was the feeling, between the Romanisers of Oxford and the Vicar of Leeds, that the latter town was especially selected, some four years back, by Dr. Pusey, as the fittest of all places in which to build an Anglo-Romish Church. The name of the church was taken from the lying legend of " the Holy Cross." It was commenced and completed, we believe, on Holy-Cross-day." Romish devices and inscriptions were placed on its walls and on its furniture, and Romish doctrine has been unceasingly preached from its pulpit. And never, up to the period of the publication of the present tract, has the public heard one syllable from Dr. Hook in disapproval, either of the sayings and doings in this new church. The Bishop of Ripon commanded its name to be changed, from "Holy Cross" to "St. Saviour's:"-the

Bishop of Ripon ordered the erasure of the inscription implying prayer for the dead, and the removal of the communion-plate on which a like sentiment appeared. But, although these things must all have been known to the Vicar of Leeds, long before they came to the ears of the Bishop, not a syllable dropped from Dr. Hook in reprehension of any of them.

A few months, however, have sufficed to produce some of the usual and natural results. The first growth of converts to Popery, consisting of four persons, has swarmed off from St. Saviour's, and been duly received by the Romish priest of Leeds. The alarm excited by this exhibition of the real character of the work going on, has called forth Dr. Hook. On former occasions we have seen, first Dr. Pusey, and then Mr. Newman, engage in a similar attempt-namely, to clear themselves of the blame of having thus disturbed and rent the Church. It is now Dr. Hook's turn; and accordingly he appears with a tract; professing a dislike to Popery, an attachment to Church-principles, and a horror and alarm at the secessions which have rendered his disclaimer necessary.

A general of any experience always keeps an eye to the rear; and endeavours to have, within reach, some strong-hold into which he may fly in the event of any reverses. The Duke of Wellington is said to have been asked, What he would have done, at Waterloo, if the promised Prussian aid had not come up?-and to have answered, "We had the forest behind us, and we could have retreated into that." Dr. Hook has his forest to retreat into, -the forest of Primitive Tradition or Antiquity as a necessary interpreter of Scripture. Not to lose the field altogether, he betakes himself to this interminable thicket; and of course insists on it that he is asserting " Church principles."

Dr. Hook's pamphlet, however, is a very palpable fraud. We use the word advisedly, but not in the worst sense. Dr. Hook writes in haste, and with warmth, and we are quite ready to concede, that when he penned this tract on "the Three Reforma tions," he may have believed what he wrote. We do not charge him with a calm and deliberate intention to deceive. But we cannot describe the work itself as any thing less than a gross deception, from the beginning to the end.

The propositions to maintain which the present pamphlet is written, are briefly these: That the Church of Rome in the sixteenth century grievously needed a Reformation: That the Lutherans attempted and effected such a Reformation, in Germany, on false and unsound principles: That the Romanists themselves attempted another, at Trent, also on false and unsound principles: and that the English Church effected a third, on sound and im

pregnable principles; distinct, and almost equally distant from, both the other two.

Now this distinction, attempted to be drawn, between the principles of the German Reformation, and those of the English, is a mere fiction. It has no foundation whatever in fact. And surely we need hardly say, that to invent or to promulgate a fiction like this, in so grave a matter as Church history must ever be, is an utterly indefensible and highly criminal proceeding.

The statements of Dr. Hook shall be given in his own words. 1. Of the Lutheran Churches:

"Luther knew that truth is one; that there cannot be two opposing interpretations of Scripture, both of them correct. He said, 'Here is the Bible, and here is the right interpretation of the Bible, or scriptural doctrines drawn up systematically by learned men, who, emancipated from Romish prejudices, have been able impartially to investigate the subject. "—(p. 29.)

They said to their followers, Here is the Bible, and the Bible only, for our guide; but you must receive the Bible as we interpret it. Why? Because we are learned men. Thus they saved themselves from the perplexities in which they would have been involved if they had conceded to all others the right they claimed for themselves: they silenced the multitude by reminding them that a few only could be learned, and that to the decisions of the learned they ought to defer. This was the principle upon which the Protestant confessions of faith were grounded-the Bible, and the opinion of learned Protestants.'-(p. 32.)

2. Of the Romish Reformation, at the Council of Trent :

"A reformation of discipline was there effected; but as to doctrine, the simple question was, not what ought to be, but what is, the doctrine received in the Church. The Trentine doctors only attempted to reduce to form the doctrines then current, and either assisted or assented to the Roman pontiff and councils convened by him in the middle ages. They were obliged, in their principles, to such a course. They confounded the Church of Rome with the Church Catholic, and so predicated of Rome infallibility. They could not correct, therefore, the medieval theology either by primitive doctrine or by Scripture; for, though they regarded the primitive Church as infallible, they regarded the medieval Church as equally infallible: the doctrine of the primitive Church was therefore to be explained away, in order that it might be rendered conformable with medieval theology; because, of course, the later revelation throws light on the earlier. They did not say, The faith was once, and once for all, delivered to the saints; and therefore those who lived nearest to the apostolic age must have known the mind of the Spirit, on disputable points, better than later theologians: but they held that Christianity is a continuous revelation to the Catholic, that is, in their sense, to the Roman Church. They commenced their proceedings with a declaration of this fundamental error: they declared that the Christian faith is contained partly in Holy Scripture, partly in the traditions of the Church; while existing usages were classed under the head of traditions, which latter word is thus used by them in an ambiguous sense."-(pp. 37, 38.)

"The Church of Rome, therefore is the representative, not of scriptural and primitive Christianity, but of medieval corruptions; and on the Bible and medieval tradition her doctors based their reformation."-(p. 40.)

3. Of the English Reformation:

With Luther they took the Bible, and the Bible only, for their founda