not half understand the term she uses, you must remember, and she quotes Byron, and is careless about custom, and makes Battelbringer rave by letting him go buttonless and stringless, as far as his under-garments are concerned, and by cruelly letting his socks drop into holes, "for want of a halfpenny-worth of mending cotton, and three minutes of her time!" But how can a genius, a being all soul, an unacknowledged belle esprit, be expected to mend stockings, and sow on buttons, and attend to gloves, like ordinary women--such as Minnie Rattenbury? Yet Minnie has the better bargain of the two, we think!

As for Mr. Battelbringer, he is a veritable Yankee in appearance, with the real hatchet-face, and a sublime disregard of conventionalities. Nature might be supposed to have moulded him haphazard, all in a hurry as it were, or in contrary mood, and to have fitted him with odd legs and arms, since all his limbs seem sprawling and ungainly, and each one antagonistic to the other.

Then there is Miss Crumple, a stiff spinster of fifty, who is said to be "a character!" She has a great objection to everything modern, and thinks Church and State are endangered by the electric telegraph and the projected pneumatic dispatch. She lives by rule, and persists in tormenting Mrs. Matthews for tansy pudding every Easter Sunday, and would certainly give notice if the orthodox pancakes and salt fish were not on the table on Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, and Good Friday. Lastly, she knits anti-macassars without end for certain married nieces and nephews, whose history she likes to give you in full detail, though no member of Mrs. Matthews' "family" has ever seen one of them.

Finally comes that gushing, enthusiastic young thing, Adeline Grundison, who affects not to remember anything that happened later than fifteen years ago. has been to Paris, and whenever she has a spite against “Angey dear,"

She

she indulges in reminiscences of the Tweelerees and the Louve, and the Faubourg St. Honory, to all of which poor Angelina is an utter stranger. She comes down to dinner, Cyril thinks, shockingly décolletée, she imagines, in the style of the best society, in which she moved, she tells you, when her dear papa and mamma were living; and every evening she performs upon that horrible instrument of oral torture called the pianoforte, sometimes playing scrambling fantasias, and wondrous variations on well-known airs, and sometimes crashing through duets with Angelina, till the illconstitutioned piano throbs again, and the rest of the "family" begin to fear for their tympana! Or worst of all, she accompanies herself while she sings "Ever of Thee," with a visible reference to Cyril, who begins to wish the composer of that popular song had never been born, or had a taste for music.

Such was the circle gathered in the drawing-room one April afternoon, waiting the regular summons to the dinner-table, and they were all discussing Mr. Denham, who had been looking sadly pale, and, as Adeline averred, distraite for several weeks.

He is not happy, love," said Adeline, in an audible sotto roce to Angey. I read his sorrow in every change of his expressive countenance. He is not ill; oh no!-it is the heart, the heart bowed down,' you know. I should say he loves secretly, and as he fancies, unrequitedly!"

Angelina turned scarlet. "Why doesn't he say so then? I am sure the young lady, whoever she is, would be proud to have him! But I think he is poorly; I made the loveliest trifle yesterday, and the whip was splendid, and I went out and bought a bunch of flowers on purpose to stick about it, as you say they have it in the best society, and he wouldn't touch it. Ah! the heart bowed down doesn't care for creature comforts!"

"I think Mr. Denham is bilious," struck in Miss Crumple; "I dare say the roast veal on Sunday dis

agreed with him, and Angey dear, the rhubarb tart was not done, and he ate a great piece. Depend upon

it it's that."

Miss Matthews and Miss Grundison exchanged glances of sympathy; even when they were at mortal feud, as Gregory called their petty squabbles and incessant miffs, they could band together against that odious, ignorant Miss Crumple, who thought "Ever of Thee" unfeminine and improper, and "The heart bowed down," impious, &c.

"He's very bad company," interjected Mr. Battelbringer; "my dear! don't you think so?"

But Mrs. Battelbringer takes the same view of the case as the younger ladies, and shakes her head and says plaintively, "Ah! a mind like his must writhe like the sybil on the tripod! "A classical allusion which no one understands, but Angey thinks it very fine, and lays it up for private use on some future day, and Adeline providently does the same.

"We must try to cheer him up this evening, dear!" says the latter young lady to Miss Matthews;

we

will play the Norma duet for him; that last part, the Yes! we together will live, will die!" is thrillingly beautiful; it would cheer me under any circumstances. I know it would-"

"Create a soul under the ribs of Death!" suddenly interposes Mrs. Battelbringer. Ah! music! heavenly maid!"

"I think that young Denham is a regular spoony!" is Mr. Gregory's comment. He is dreadfully jealous just now of the "ladies' pet," as he slightingly calls him, and enjoys hitting Cyril whenever opportunity presents.

Angey and Adeline turn away contemptuously, and telegraph to each that the unfortunate Gregory is beneath their notice! However, he goes on savagely-" a mere milksop; knows nothing of life, never goes out for a spree, and can't take in a joke!"

But Mrs. Matthews interferes"Indeed, Mr. Gregory, I can't allow this! my family must dwell together in peace and harmony; and such

one

rash observations are calculated to excite angry feelings in the breast, and feelings find their vent in words, and words end in deeds, sometimes dreadful wicked deeds that bring their own reward! It is one of our rules, you know, that no member of the family shall publicly say anything to the disparagement of another member, and really I must remark that Mr. Denham is a very charming young man, and quite the aristocrat, and I am proud to have him at my humble board; and he pays regular, Mr. Gregory, which every body don't, you know! and I feel like a mother to him."

Mr. Gregory subsides under this matronly reproof and the pecuniary allusion, and takes shelter under the wing of Miss Crumple, whose favourite he is, and Angelina continues-" And I have practised 'Juanita' well, and I can go through it now. I'll sing it to-night if you'll sing 'By the sad sea-waves,' dear?" And "dear," alias Adeline Grundison, promises to do her part, and the talk is still about Cyril, when he enters the room, and there is a significant silence, and looks are interchanged. But Mrs. Matthews creates a happy diversion by saying, "Now let us go down to dinner, dear friends! Mr. Denham, I will take your arm, and Mr. M. will take Mrs. Battelbringer, &c., &c. ;" and on the stairs Angelina whispers to Miss Grundison: "I did so want to have a fowl to-day-on his account of course-but ma wouldn't hear of it; she said the cold beef and the curried rabbit, and a roly-poly pudding was quite enough. And he hates rabbit, and never touches rolypoly, and I must say the beef isn't over-tender; but there! you can't move ma when once she has decided."

Angelina's regard, you perceive, was meritoriously substantial, though she was a little romantic, and liked staring at the moon among the chimney-pots. Far better than Mrs. Battelbringer's, that would have exhaled itself in sighs and snatches of Byronic verse while you fainted of hunger at her feet.

Dinner began and proceeded till

the last piece of the roly-poly pudding was consumed, though not by Cyril, and the usual dessert, consisting of oranges, the most uncompromising of Brazil nuts, the stickiest of dates, and the cheapest of cheap fancy biscuits, was placed upon the table; and once again Miss Grundison and Angey began to discuss the performances of the evening. But

it was written in the Book of Fate, as Mrs. Battelbringer would have said, that musical performances there would be none that evening. The ill-used, much put-upon pianoforte was to have a holiday for once; no strains of Juanita would float on the air; there would be no Deh! con te crash of chords, and Adeline would not "awake in her grave, by

the sad sea-waves," for that night at least.

Dessert was nearly over, and Mrs. Matthews was just going to give the ladies' signal, when the door was thrown open, and a servant entered and said " Visitors for Mr. Denham in the drawing-room: Sir John and Lady Ashburner;" and Cyril, deathfully pale, rose and left the room like one walking in a dream. An hour afterwards every one knew that Cyril had gone away with his two friends, and was not coming back to sleep; also it was announced that the baronet and his lady had brought Mr. Denham bad news; for on hearing what they came to tell him, he had fainted away, "or very near it!"

HAMBURG AND

HAMBURG, the Liverpool of the north of Europe, is situated about seventy miles from the mouth of the Elbe, a river navigable for more than 400 miles inland, and forming, together with its canals, the only channel of communication with the sea for the whole of Saxony, a great part of Prussia, Bohemia, and other German States. The present population of the State and territory of Hamburg is 222,000. The population of the city alone is about 170,000, of whom 100,000 are Lutherans, 20,000 Jews, and the remainder Roman Catholics, Moravians, and Reformed Churches of different names. The territory of the State is very inconsiderable, being less than the county of Middlesex; the prosperity, therefore, which Hamburg has enjoyed is to be attributed to the advantages of its position, the energy of its people, and the freedom of its trade.

There are many circumstances which invest Hamburg with an interest,to Englishmen especially,greater than that of most European towns. Our direct trade with it, as the chief port of Germany, is greater than with any other part of the world, the United States alone excepted. Its commercial system is liberal. Its form of government is complicated,

MR. ONCKEN. but republican. The government is democratic, and the executive power is vested in a senate, composed of four burgomasters and twenty-four councillors, aided by a "Committee of Sixty" and a Committee of Ancients." The policy of this government has enabled Hamburg to maintain an independent existence in the midst of powerful despotic States. The centre of a network of railways and telegraphs, the last twenty-five years have witnessed a wonderful extension of its commerce and population since its resurrection from the Great Fire of 1842. In that awful conflagration, the flames were seen by night from the opposite bank of the Elbe as far as Stada, a distance of twenty-five miles, devastating a portion of the city nearly as large as that part of London which suffered from the fire of 1666. The value of the property destroyed was estimated at more than six millions sterling. But the enterprise and wealth of the inhabitants have long since obliterated all traces of the calamity, and the city has risen from its ruins under a noble destiny from the hand of a beneficent Providence. Another fire has been kindled in Hamburg, destructive, indeed, to the dry and rotten wood of formalism

and unbelief, but at the same time salutary and creative-the fire of that truth which CHRIST came to "send on earth;" and it cannot be doubted that this free, populous, and energetic city has been raised up partly in order that it might be an instrument in God's hand for the diffusion of spiritual Christianity, and afford a basis of operations for storming the strongholds of error and superstition in the adjacent territories.

It has often been observed that when Heaven has designed to execute some merciful purpose towards cities and kingdoms, the chief portion of the necessary labour has been devolved especially upon a single person, who is endued with the requisite qualifications for the discharge of his mission, and who is then immortal till his work is done. In the present instance, the labour, the sorrow, and the triumph of the regeneration and liberation of religion in Hamburg have fallen to the lot of Mr. ONCKEN, a name which we would gladly render familiar in every devout household of this kingdom, and in every mission station beyond the seas where these pages are honoured with attention. The work which has been accomplished by this servant of God is one which would be usually designated "sectarian;" and, so far as it is characterized by any speciality of faith or practice, we propose nothing further than a narration necessary to make the story intelligible, adding neither censure nor assent. But Mr. Öncken's work is also rich in the elements of catholic evangelical piety; and it is under this aspect that we venture to commend it to general regard. Those who are not, like Mr. Oncken, "strict Baptists," will know how to yield a brotherly sympathy to an heroic history, and a life-long struggle for the greater truths which belong to the soul's peace with its Maker.

It was in the year 1824 that his labours commenced. At that time, Germany was sunk in scepticism and indifference; and it was only here and there that a faithful testimony was given from the pulpits of

VOL. I.

com

the land to the verities of the " mon salvation." With such a state of things among the clergy, it may well be imagined that the religious condition of the people was deplorable in the extreme. Lutheranism, the popular religion of Hamburg, contains truth enough, when handled by spiritual men, to bring mankind to the knowledge of CHRIST as the Saviour of the world. It also contains error enough in its sacramental services, when these become the exclusive objects of clerical concern, to cover a population with the darkest shadows of formalism and superstition. It was, in fact, like so many systems of faith established at the Reformation, a compromise between the Old and the New Worlds-between the Word of God and the traditions of the medieval theology -and, accordingly, may be brought to operate on a parish either as the power of God unto salvation, or as a finished instrument of the Enemy for deceiving the people into reliance upon church-mechanism and priestly prerogatives. A few extracts from Luther's "Lesser Catechism" will serve to show the kind of instruction provided by the Doctor of Wittemberg for the catechumens of Germany. In the preface, addressed to pastors and teachers, he says:

Teach the people first, and most especially, the Ten Commandments, the Belief, the Lord's Prayer, &c., according to the text, word for word, that they may learn it so as to repeat it by heart. To those who will not learn them, say that they deny Christ and are no Christians, that they shall not be admitted to the sacraments, shall not stand sponsors for any child, and shall not enjoy one iota of Christian liberty, but shall straightway be given over to the Pope, the civil officers, and the devil himself. Besides this, their parents or governors shall refuse them food or drink, and give them to understand that the prince will drive such uncivilised people out of the land.

"Q. What is baptism? 4. Baptism is not mere common water, but it is the water contained in God's command and united with God's

D D

word. Q. What then giveth or profiteth baptism? A. It worketh forgiveness of sins, redeems from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe it, as the words of the promise of God say; without God's word the water is only common water and not baptism, but with the word of God it is a baptism that is a gracious water of life and a bath of the new birth in the Holy Spirit. This is certainly true. Q. What is confession? A. Confession consists of two parts: first, that one shall confess one's sins; second, that one shall receive absolution or forgiveness from the confessor as from God himself, and by no means doubt it, but firmly believe that by this the sins are forgiven before God in heaven.

"A master or mistress shall con

fess thus, Especially I confess before you that I have not faithfully trained my wife, children, and servants to the honour of God. I have cursed, have given a bad example with unchaste words and works, have done injury to my neighbours, spoken ill of them, sold my goods too dear, given false measure and bad goods,' and whatever else he may have done against the commandment of God in his worldly position."

"Q. Do you believe that my forgiveness is God's forgiveness? A. Yes, dear sir.' Then let him say,

Be it unto thee according to thy faith. On the command of Christ, I forgive thee all thy sins in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen. Go in peace.'"

From these specimens, it will appear that, however evangelical and apostolical the articles of Lutheranism on justification may be, Christianity is practically presented to the people in such a form that it may be worked so as to produce a parochial religion of mere sacramental superstition, "alienated from the life of God" through the ignorance that is in it. And throughout Germany, from the time of the Reformation, it has been thus wrought to a lamentable extent. It is this circumstance, which has its parallel nearer home,

that gives especial value to those forms of Christian belief and organic life which have wholly cast off the dogma of the opus operatum in the sacraments, and taught the people to regard a spiritual conversion as necessary to salvation.

Hamburg was sunk in the torpor. and unbelief, produced by ages of merely sacramental teaching, when Mr. Oncken commenced his labours. A native of the city, and a gentleman by birth and training, he was sent to England to complete his education. Here God met with him, and in early life he devoted himself to His service in the gospel of His Son. He was employed at first in Hamburg as a missionary of the Continental Society.

His first meeting, held at the close of 1823, consisted of only ten persons; but the number of his hearers increased so rapidly, that the existence of these "conventi cles" came to the knowledge of the Lutheran clergy, who instigated the authorities to put them down. Then commenced a system-to be continued for many years-of persecution, of threats, of constant citations before the magistrates, of distraints, imprisonments, and banishments. Mr. Oncken's labours, both publicly and from house to house, were nevertheless unceasingly prosecuted; for, although no longer able to hold meetings in one place, he succeeded, by the active co-operation of converts, in gradually obtaining about forty places, by which means the vigilance of the police was successfully eluded, and numbers were awakened to the spiritual life. In the progress of his inquiries into the doctrine of the sacred Scriptures, he was led to modify his views on the nature of Church constitution and on the sacrament of baptism. Acting on the convictions to which he had been led (rightly or wrongly we cannot now stay to discuss), he instructed his converts in the duty of professing their faith according to this rule, and, on the 22nd of April, 1834, Mr. Oncken and six converts, after waiting for five years, were baptized in the shallows of the Elbe by an American missionary. But