government, can destroy the Church; it may die a natural death by the total abandonment of episcopacy on the part of the people; or it may be destroyed by an entire relinquishment of it by its clergy, events by no means likely to happen; but it can never be slain, except by a suicidal act of its own. It may bid defiance to King, Lords, and Commons, as long as it lives in the affections of its ministers and members; and to affirm that its separation from the State would terminate its existence, is, in my opinion, to pronounce its condemnation as a christian institute, by representing it as founded on human laws, instead of the word of God."-J. A. James.

BIGOTRY ILLUSTRATED.-The venerable William Jay, in one of his sermons at Surrey Chapel, a few years since, illustrated his views of bigotry among different branches of the "household of faith," by the following anecdote:-" Some time ago, a countryman said to me, 'I was exceedingly terrified, Sir, this morning: I was going down a lonely place, and I thought I saw at a distance a huge monster; it seemed in motion, but I could not discern the form of it. I did not like to turn back, yet my heart beat; and the more I looked, the more I feared; but as we approached each other, I saw it was only a man; and who do you think, Sir, it was?' 'I know not.' 'Oh, it was my brother John!' Ah!' said 1 to myself, passing away from him, as he added that it was early in the morning, and very foggy! ah,' said I, 'how often, in a lonely place, and in a foggy atmosphere, has brother John been taken for a foe! Only approach nearer each other, and see clearer, and you will find, in numberless instances, what you have dreaded as a monster was a brother,and your own brother.'"

·

FAITH COMPARED TO GOLD.-It is precious; all things of earth compared with it are as nothing; the precious gift of a Father's love (Eph. ii. 8); the precious fruit of a Saviour's righteousness (2 Pet. i. 1); the precious fruit of the Holy Ghost. It enriches those who have it. They who have it have God as their Father, Christ and his fulness as their treasure, the Holy Spirit as their Comforter and Sanctifier. It is the enriching grace; though it brings nothing in its hand, yet it has a goodly train,-love, joy, peace, yea, all precious fruits. It justifies, it sanctifies, it pacifies, it glorifies, for they who have it have eterpal life. It receives all from Christ, and does all for Christ. It bears burdens, gains

victories, groans, wrestles for him, and in his ways. It is nevertheless very different to gold in one thing,-few value it. It is a despised grace, preeminently so. Love has its admirers, even among the ungodly,courage, patience, self-denial; but faith is despised. Yet is it more precious than gold. Gold conveys perishable riches; faith everlasting ones. Gold, though durable, yet is in itself perishable; faith imperishable. "I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not." Gold often brings sorrow; faith always brings joy. Gold is from the earth; faith is from above. Gold often debases the mind; faith always elevates and purifies it. Again, gold is tried in order to prove it to be gold, and in order to be purified. Faith must also be tried. (Abraham, Moses, David, Peter, cur Lord.) Thus being tried, proved, purified, it shall, through grace, be found unto praise, honour, and glory; it shall have its blessing here; but most of all, when he shall appear in his own glory, whose it is, and from whom it came.-J. H. Evans.

SILENT LOVE.-"An illiterate female," said Dr. Chalmers, "in humble life, applied for admission to the sacrament; but, at the customary examination, could not frame one articulate reply to a single question that was put to her. It was in vain to ask her of the offices or mediation of Christ, or of the purpose of his death. Not one word could be drawn out of her; and yet there was a certain air of intelligent seriousness, and the manifestations of right and appropriate feelings,-a heart and a tenderness indicated, not by one syllable of utterance, but by the natural signs of emotion which fitly respond to the topics of the clergyman, whether she was spoken to of the sin that condemned her, or of the Saviour who atoned for her. Still, as she could make no distinct reply to any of his questions, he refused to enroll her as a communicant; when she, on retiring, called out in the fulness of her heart, I cannot speak for him, but I could die for him!' The minister, overpowered, handed to her a sacramental token; and with good reason, although not a reason fell in utterance from her."

PROGRESS OF RELIGION.-Religion, in its rise, interests us almost exclusively about ourselves; in its progress, it engages us about the welfare of our fellow-creatures; in its more advanced stages, it animates us to consult in all things, and to exalt to the utmost of our power, the honour of our God.-Simeon.

THE MONTH.

The Catholics, the Canadians, the Episcopalians, and the Jews, have all been before Parliament during the past month, and so far have been pretty fairly treated. A large majority in the House of Commons has

again affirmed that political liberties ought to be extended to our Jewish fellow-subjects equally with others; and we trust that rumour is correct in predicting a safe passage for the bill for this purpose through the House of Lords itself. The Commons have

several times done their duty by their Jewish fellow-subjects; but Hereditary combined with Ecclesiastical bigotry in the Upper House has constantly spurned Jewish rights. The Catholics were attacked by Mr. Spooner through Maynooth, but escaped by a majority of thirty, composed of the most diversified elements. We certainly think it nothing less than persecution to single out the Act which endows Catholics, and leave other similar Acts which endow Presbyterians or Episcopalians untouched. Mr. Scholefield, accordingly, moved an amendment for the repeal of all Acts by which any religious body is endowed. The debate did excellent service to the voluntary principle. Not less than sixty-eight members supported Mr. Scholefield's motion! Then, again, on the Canadian Clergy Reserves Bill, the House, by a majority of eighty-three, has decided on intrusting the Reserves to the Canadian Legislature to deal with as it pleases, though the grace of the act has been sadly spoiled at the last hour, by the omission of one of the clauses, the effect of which omission is to guarantee the Canadian clergy against loss from the secularization of the Reserves, to the amount of nearly £10,000. Those vilest of judicial nuisances, the Ecclesiastical Courts, too, must be on the verge of extinction. The Government, its law officers especially, have openly declared that reform of them is out of the question, and that nothing will do now but the knife, and have announced their intention of proposing a Government measure on the subject. Church Rates, too, have been declared by the SolicitorGeneral only fit to be dealt with by abolition. We have mentioned these facts because they shew that the Anti-State-Church Association has in truth already borne splendid fruit; indeed, similar progress for less than another quarter of a century would see that grand national blight and sin-our Church Establishment-prostrate in the dust. Were Dissenters but alive to their high and holy mission, would they but arouse themselves to discuss the subject of Establishments, and diffuse knowledge everywhere, on the plan of the Anti-CornLaw League, leaving it to Providence to bring about an "Ecclesiastical potato-rot," we should be confident that ten years would be the limit of this hoary antichristian abuse in England. The Colonial StateChurches are breached,-the Irish Church is abjured by all reasonable politicians,the Scotch Free Church and Dissenters are a vast majority, and the forthcoming census will shew, we are told, that England and Wales has a large majority of voluntary worshipers, as well as places of worship. If the aristocracy have in one way an interest in upholding the Church, yet, on the other hand, a vast number of them would be glad of the money which compensation

for their advowsons* would put into their hands. Were it adequately and vigorously pressed upon the country and Parliament, that our preposterous State-Churches are the churches of but a wealthy minority well able to maintain them, it were impossible that they could bear exposure. The relief to our Exchequer, and also, to Government action, would be so vast. But we forbear to enlarge. The incalculable religious advantage is the chief one in our eyes, one, however, which cannot be secured without a political struggle.

Though not immediately within our province, we must press upon the attention of our christian electors the sad revelations of the Election Committees of the House of Commons. It is become a serious moral and almost religious question, how to put down a state of things so disgraceful to the nation. It turns out, that scarcely such a thing as a pure election is known; that almost any member could be unseated on a petition properly worked; that treating, bribery in some form, intimidation, and corruption, are all but universal; and that, in many of the boroughs, the profligate means resorted to almost beggar description. The proper remedy is, of course, to elevate the moral character of the constituencies; meantime, prevention and punishment of these vices will save the rising generation from the corrupting influence of unchecked example. First and foremost, with any honest man, stands the ballot, guaranteeing the honest voter that no man can be tyrant over his vote, and preventing the purchaseable voter from giving a receipt for the bribe he has taken. Next, the most stringent punishment for bribery. That should any member or his agent be detected in bribing in the "head money fashion, every briber should be disfranchised for life, and a commission should investigate the whole constituency where an offence was proved. And, thirdly, the vile pocket boroughs should be all immediately abolished, and large constituencies formed in their places. The immense importance of the subject to the political morality of the kingdom must be our apology for dwelling thus much upon it. could with pleasure enter more into details; but that must be left to honest newspapers, such as the Nonconformist especially, which we beg again to commend to the attention of our readers.

We

In America, returns obtained by Government shew an ample supply of places of worship for the people, all erected on the Voluntary principle: they amount to 36,000, or one for every 666 of the population. The average accommodation in each is 384; hence nearly two millions more than half of the population can worship at the same time. If only half can do so, it is reckoned to be fully sufficient provision for public

worship. The value of the property applied to religious uses is estimated at £17,283,327, and the amount raised annually for ministerial salaries and religious purposes at more than £3,000,000. When we reflect that half the worship of England, and much more than half in Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, is sustained on the Voluntary principle, and that our Colonies are successively resorting to it, it is difficult to believe that the common sense of Englishmen will long bear the intolerable nuisance of an over-gorged State Establishment.

While we write, the telegraph announces that the Madiais are released from their cruel bondage, the decision of the Duke of Tuscany to liberate them having been hastened, no doubt, by Lord John Russell's noble and manly letter. May it be found that the mind of Francesco has not been weakened by the confinement in his state of health. The Duke, it is said, has not thought it consistent with his dignity to yield to the pressing representations of all Protestant Europe, hence he has deferred their liberation till now. The disciples of Jesus must lie in dungeons to uphold the dignity of bigoted despotism! It is somehow evident that everywhere Popery is standing again on the offensive,-it is aiming at absolute domination by every art. The dungeon, the police, the censor of the press, the laws against unauthorized religious meetings, and the like, on the Continent, and hierarchical assumptions, combined with Parliamentary plotting and priestly prohibition of the Bible in England, are the chief means employed. We have no fear, however, that their efforts will be even temporarily to any great extent successful. In this very Tuscany, to quote a writer in a late number of the North British Review, "it is notorious that the principles of Protestantism, or of the Bible, have spread almost in every town. An attempt was made to crush the rising spirit of enquiry; but the very effort to prevent enquiry, had, as usual, the effect of adding all the zest of prohibition to a subject that had already excited so strong an interest on its own account. The circulation of the Bible was declared illegal; but it spread more widely than before. A few Bible readers were imprisoned, and a few others banished, and the interest increased; and now there can scarcely be less than two thousand people in Florence who adhere to the word of God alone as their rule of faith." Still persecution is being used to an extent of which perhaps we have little idea. The Madiais are far from being the only sufferers. Malta, in Piedmont, in the Swiss valleys, there are banished men of Tuscany, who have been driven there for the sake of God's own word, 'to taste the savour of other people's bread.' In the prisons of Lucca and Volterra-we have the law documents before us-there are cells of the condemned' and sufferers, against whom no other charge has been brought than this-that they read and believed, or taught the Bible. And

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much more that these documents have not brought to light we might disclose, of the measures that have been taken to gratify the resentment of a priestly party, who feel that their power is departing from them."

BIRKENHEAD, CHESHIRE.

The Rev. John Metcalfe has resigned the pastoral charge of the Baptist church, Birkenhead, and is now open to invitation. Obituary.

PETER HAINSWORTH, ESQ.

In

It is with deep regret that we record the death of Peter Hainsworth, Esq., of Farsley, near Leeds, which event took place on the 11th of March. Our departed friend had just completed his forty-third year. 1836, he became a member of the Baptist church, Farsley. The general respectability of his character, and his conspicuous talents for usefulness, soon raised him to the office of deacon, which he sustained with that meekness of wisdom, moderation, and kindness, which has maintained the union, and greatly promoted the prosperity, of the church. That he had failings, no one sooner than himself would allow; but, considering his character as a whole, it presented no ordinary assemblage of excellencies. He was ardently attached to the volume of inspiration, and opposed every opinion that tended to reduce its importance. He was regular in his attendance on the means of grace on the week-day, as well as on the Sabbath. He was distinguished for zeal and tact in the Sunday school, and for his liberal support and enlightened advocacy of whatever was calculated to subserve the interests of his fellow-men. He took the lead in the formation and maintaining of two week-day schools in connexion with the church and congregation. His temper was mild, his mind humble,-his feelings tender, his manners inoffensive and conciliating. To enquirers he was an affectionate guide, and to the weak believer a son of consolation. On the platform, he was a ready and effective speaker, and had great self-possession. He was endowed with a sound judgment, largeness of heart, and catholicity of spirit. In his own family, in the church, and in the world, he exhibited the character of a real christian, and shewed, out of a good conversation, his works in meekness and wisdom. He obtained a high degree of respectability, both in the church and in the world, and, also, a great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus. For several months before the close of his life, he suffered long and severely from cancer; yet throughout he diyplayed the greatest calmness and fortitude, mingled with full resignation, and occasionally an uncommon degree of holy joy, in the anticipation of future glory. In short, as his understanding had been enriched, his heart purified, and his life governed, so his dying hours were consoled, by the truth as it is in Jesus. He has left behind him a widow and seven children, to mourn their irreparable loss.