doubt not, ere many years pass away that it will produce another and a greater still the Reformation from Popery was a noble achievement; the Reformation from Protestant Popery, and the entire severance of all our churches from the mother of harlots, will be the consummation of our religious freedom, and will accelerate, if not introduce, the millennium of knowledge, holiness, and love. Controversy, even when it has been most abused, has ended in the clearer manifestation and ultimate triumph of right principles. In the beautiful language of Bishop Horne, 'all objections when considered and answered, turn out to the 'advantage of the gospel, which resembles a fine country in the 'spring season, when the very hedges are in bloom, and every thorn produces a flower.'

In reviewing the controversy on Church Establishments so far as it has yet proceeded, with Dr. Chalmers leading the van on the one side, and Dr. Wardlaw on the other, we cannot help exclaiming surely there is no enchantment' against the Voluntaries, there is no divination' against the churches that receive Christ as their sole sovereign and head. The Christian Influence Society may well reproach the mighty wizard they brought not from the mountains of the east,' but from the far north, with having altogether defeated their intention in sending for him, and may address him in the language of Balak to Balaam, 'what hast thou done unto me, I took thee to curse mine enemies, and 'behold thou hast blessed them altogether.' It is even so: the redoubtable champion of worldly incorporations of religion called Established and National churches, has failed in his defence of them while he has strengthened and confirmed the principles of

their opponents. To his high church patrons and supporters

these Lectures of Dr. Chalmers must be as wormwood and gall. However the rhetorician's sophistry and the orator's finesse might have imposed on them as his audience, now that they can sit down in their individual capacity as his readers, they must feel that their cause has been damaged, if not betrayed, and that in provoking discussion they have only prepared the way for defeat.

In taking a retrospect of the manner in which this controversy was introduced by his patrons, and conducted on the part of Dr. Chalmers, at the Hanover Rooms, and the contrast in all respects exhibited on the part of Dr. Wardlaw and his friends at the Freemason's Hall; we are struck with certain peculiarities which mark conscious weakness on the one side, and a calm persuasion of victory on the other. It was a spectacle for the Voluntaries to gaze upon with equal surprise and satisfaction, when a Christian Influence Society, composed of Episcopalians of the Anglican, and in their own view, the only truly Apostolic Church upon earth, sat listening to the minister of another

had and still have of human credulity on this point, we can believe that there have been fools weak enough to be imposed upon even by such absurdities. At all events, it is excellent satire on the knavery and impudence of Quacks,' and the ignorance and gullibility of their victims.

'Some time since a soi-disant quack doctor sold water of the pool of Bethesda, which was to cure all complaints, if taken at the time when the angel visited the parent spring, on which occasion the doctor's bottled water manifested, he said, its sympathy with the fount, by being thrown into a state of perturbation. Hundreds of fools were induced to purchase the Bethesda water, and watched for the commotion and the consequence, with the result to be expected. At last one, less patient than the rest, went to the quack, and complained that though he had kept his eye constantly on the water for a whole year, he had never yet discovered any thing like the signs of an angel in his bottle.

"That's extremely strange,' exclaimed the doctor, 'what sized bottle did you buy, Sir?'

'Patient. A half-guinea one, doctor.' 'Doctor. Oh, that accounts for it. The half-guinea bottles contain so small a quantity of the invaluable Bethesda water, that the agitation is scarcely perceptible; but if you buy a five guinea bottle, and watch it well, you will in due time, see the commotion quite plainly, sympathizing with that of the pool when visited by the angel.' The patient bought the five guinea bottle as advised, and kept a sharp look out for the angel until the day of his death.”’

-Vol. i. pp. 327, 328.

Upon the whole, it will be seen that we are very far from being able to approve of these volumes, and that we cannot altogether condemn them. There is much in them to amuse, but little to instruct. They may be taken up to while away an idle hour, but this is the best that can be said of them.

Art. III. 1. The Voluntary System, a Prize Essay, in reply to the Lectures of Dr. Chalmers on Church Establishments, By JOSEPH ANGUS, M.A. London: Jackson and Walford.

2. National Establishments of Religion, considered in connexion with Justice, Christianity, and Human Nature. By JOHN TAYLOR. London: Smallfield and Son.

WE

E confess that we have no sympathy with those weak-hearted well-meaning christians who deprecate controversy. We are indebted to it for our first and greatest reformation; and we

:

doubt not, ere many years pass away that it will produce another and a greater still the Reformation from Popery was a noble achievement; the Reformation from Protestant Popery, and the entire severance of all our churches from the mother of harlots, will be the consummation of our religious freedom, and will accelerate, if not introduce, the millennium of knowledge, holiness, and love. Controversy, even when it has been most abused, has ended in the clearer manifestation and ultimate triumph of right principles. In the beautiful language of Bishop Horne, 'all objections when considered and answered, turn out to the advantage of the gospel, which resembles a fine country in the 'spring season, when the very hedges are in bloom, and every 'thorn produces a flower.'

In reviewing the controversy on Church Establishments so far as it has yet proceeded, with Dr. Chalmers leading the van on the one side, and Dr. Wardlaw on the other, we cannot help exclaiming surely there is no enchantment' against the Voluntaries, there is no divination' against the churches that receive Christ as their sole sovereign and head. The Christian Influence Society may well reproach the mighty wizard they brought not from the mountains of the east,' but from the far north, with having altogether defeated their intention in sending for him, and may address him in the language of Balak to Balaam, 'what 'hast thou done unto me, I took thee to curse mine enemies, and behold thou hast blessed them altogether.' It is even so: the redoubtable champion of worldly incorporations of religion called Established and National churches, has failed in his defence of them while he has strengthened and confirmed the principles of their opponents. To his high church patrons and supporters these Lectures of Dr. Chalmers must be as wormwood and gall. However the rhetorician's sophistry and the orator's finesse might have imposed on them as his audience, now that they can sit down in their individual capacity as his readers, they must feel that their cause has been damaged, if not betrayed, and that in provoking discussion they have only prepared the way for defeat.

In taking a retrospect of the manner in which this controversy was introduced by his patrons, and conducted on the part of Dr. Chalmers, at the Hanover Rooms, and the contrast in all respects exhibited on the part of Dr. Wardlaw and his friends at the Freemason's Hall; we are struck with certain peculiarities which mark conscious weakness on the one side, and a calm persuasion of victory on the other. It was a spectacle for the Voluntaries to gaze upon with equal surprise and satisfaction, when a Christian Influence Society, composed of Episcopalians of the Anglican, and in their own view, the only truly Apostolic Church upon earth, sat listening to the minister of another

church merely as an unaccredited Layman, and that minister even more than virtually pledged to support Presbyterianism in opposition to black prelacy joining in their Liturgy, and making common cause with them against the principles and the progress of Religious Liberty. The Voluntaries of the north and south, in this anomalous coalition, this mutual degradation, saw only a concession made to necessity, and while they lamented the voluntary humiliation of the new Salmasius, they could not but exult in it as surely indicating the triumph of their cause,—that both parties must have been in dismal straits before the one could have condescended to ask, and the other to have rendered assistance, on terms which the fathers of the Scottish Presbytery would have disdained to accept; applauded by Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, but excluded from their pulpits as officially unqualified to minister at their altars. The situation of Dr. Chalmers, in the feelings of his friends at least, was any thing but enviable. But even this, degrading as it may appear, was as nothing when compared with the prostitution of his fine talents to the low arts and shifts of the mere professional advocate, and his total forgetfulness of the courtesies and decencies which ought never to be conspicuously violated, especially in controversies which christians of different communions may be called upon to maintain with each other. On this occasion, as it appeared to us, Dr. Chalmers exhibited more of the sophist than the saint, a character totally at variance with the simplicity which ought to adorn every follower of Him who knew no sin, and in whose mouth there was no guile.

Dr. Chalmers's method of conducting his cause was another indication of its final discomfiture. When he described the Voluntaries as men of drivelling and unintelligent piety, fanatical and presumptuous, disdaining all human means in accomplishing their objects, and yet employing 'sledge hammers' to break down the existing machinery of establishments; charging them with being 'frame 'breakers,' one moment laughing them to scorn as little better than idiots, and the next, denouncing them as Revolutionists, aiming at nothing less than the destruction of Church and State: he must not wonder that the persons he treats so uncourteously should regard his writings as further symptoms of their approaching triumph. We well remember while bearing the whole onslaught of the orator's abuse, picturing to ourselves the huge pillars that supported the temple of Dagon, and the stricken prophet in his blindness between them putting forth his last energy, and perishing in the mighty ruin. But if the lectures of Dr. Chalmers animated us with the assurance of victory, Dr. Wardlaw's more than realized our highest expectation. His eight lectures thoroughly sift the question of National Church Establishments; and when Dr. Chalmers's flimsy sophistry, bold

invective, or utopian speculations come in his way, he blows them into thin air, and this without the least apparent effort. Indeed throughout the discussion of the general question, and in establishing great principles, Dr. Wardlaw discovers a perfect knowledge and mastery of his subject; he perceives too in a moment the strong and weak points in the reasonings of his opponent, he detects and crushes a fallacy with the same ease that he would brush a fly from his ample forehead; so patient is he in investigation that he is absolutely above prejudice, and so calm in his progress, and farsighted in his views, that nothing can betray him into precipitancy. Every step he takes is in advance. He is rather a convincing than an eloquent writer. Yet he carries you along with him by his evident and earnest sincerity. You never once think of him as an advocate or declaimer. He is the propounder and exemplar of a divine philosophy, and grant to him his demand to derive all that is authoritative in the science from the Bible as the word of God, and you feel as he addresses you, that you are listening rather to an oracle than an orator. Chalmers appears the opposite of Dr. Wardlaw in all things. Talent he has of a high order; he may sometimes ascend to the elevation, but he cannot be said to dwell in the region of pure intellect. There is no man as a writer and speaker who is a greater stranger to simplicity than Dr. Chalmers. His style is a fair sample of his mind and tastes. He is for the gorgeous in every thing. He would have been a Laud in pomp, if he had not been born and bred a Presbyterian. When he ought to construct an argument, he paints a picture. He lays his premises in a fancy, and his most elaborate reasoning is but a castle in the air. Instead of a syllogism he gives you a metaphor; and for a definition you must be satisfied with an illustration. He understands the Petitio principii, and is always assuming what he ought to prove, and which is often contradicted by all the facts of the case. In his most felicitous moods he is a fine aurora borealis-we gaze, and are dazzled-we look again, and the splendid pageant has vanished. If imagination could have done it, instead of failing he would have triumphed over the enemies of establishments.

Having already and at some length noticed the works which have called forth these further passing observations, we must introduce to our readers two other performances which have not only assisted to keep the subject alive before the public, but which are of a superior order, and in point of talent may be placed beside the volumes of Gladstone and Maurice, while in fair, manly, and conclusive argument, they are immeasurably above them. They are both Prize Essays; Mr. Angus gaining the first prize offered by the Protestant Society for the Protection of Religious Liberty, for the best refutation of the pernicious