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and most of all those which are designed to tractarianise our sacred edifices.

densing all the subscriptions for church objects into one fund, to be collected in each parish, and to be reported at the visitation, and allotted by the bishop, archdeacon, and clergy, to such objects as may be agreed upon. The impracticability of carrying such a plan into effect has led him to withdraw the proposal.

We might quote the following passage for its eloquence, if we had not a much better reason in the momentous truth which it conveys: its well-timed allusion to the moral wants, the social disorders, and the heavy afflictions of the age; and the blessed adaptation of the Gospel of our Redeemer to supply those wants, to prevent those disorders, and to alleviate those afflictions.

The Archdeacon says that "Before any alteration whatever is made in a parish church, the concurrence of the Ordinary must be obtained." This is strongly expressed; and the popular books which clergymen and churchwardens are accustomed to refer to, limit the statement. Thus Williams, in his "Laws relating to the Clergy," says, referring for his authority to Johns. 163; and Ayl. Parerg. 484: "Where the increase of the inhabitants renders it necessary to erect more pews or galleries, if the incumbent, churchwardens, and parishioners, do unanimously agree as to their erection, it is not necessary to obtain the Ordinary's licence for the same." But we “Never, surely, was there a time believe the Archdeacon is right; when the hearty, earnest efforts of all and there is good reason for the re- who fear God and love their country ference to the Ordinary; for under were more loudly called for. The recent the pretext, or even with the laud- disturbances in one part of our land; the threatening aspect of society even able intention unskilfully carried now in others; the want of employout, of improving or enlarging the ment, the stagnation of trade; and yet accommodation for public worship, more by far, as indicating a deeper root much that is unseemly or inap-for the vilest purposes of gain, to poison of evil, the widely spread endeavours, propriate may be perpetrated. We the minds of the great mass of our may quote Bishop Gibson both as working population; the want of coheauthority and for the reason where rence, and affection, and trust, between he says: "If the churchwardens the various classes of society; our dismake any new additions in, or about, sent, our distrust, our internal variance in the deepest things which stir the the church, they must have the souls of men :-these are most alarming consent of the parish, otherwise symptoms of our social as well as moral they have no right to a rate. And state. Surely they do declare that God if it be within the church, the li- has a controversy with us; that He is cence of the Ordinary is also to be stirring us as a nation with these warnings of adversity, that we may repent obtained, lest some inconvenience and turn to Him before it be too late. should thereby arise, to render the church in any respect less fit for the performance of Divine service; of which the Ordinary is judge. And whatever is added by licence of the Ordinary, becomes from thenceforth a necessary part of the church, and is to be repaired at the charge of the parishioners." Codex. Tit. ix. c. 4.

We alluded, in our review of the Archdeacon's former Charge, to a plan which he proposed, of con

"It is, then, a time in which all who fear Him should be watching and laverend brethren, should we who keep bouring earnestly; but chiefly, my reGod's watch upon the battlements of our land, chiefly should we, at such a time, be earnestly awake. All things round us call us to be ready: great powers, for good or evil, are struggling around us, as in a confused uncertain birth, and upon our faithfulness the issue in great measure must depend. It is no escape from this truth to allege, that so it has ever seemed to each succeeding generation in its turn; that seen near at hand the features of each pre

sent danger have always worn the most appalling aspect; that the Now has always seemed uncertain, always been fading into the coming, always threatening the endurance of all things; that dangers have ever been around Christ's Church; that always it has seemed she must be swept away by the great earthflood, and that with her all social peace and order would be utterly obliterated. No doubt this is true, for such is the law of our being: The judge standeth behind the door.' Ever since He left this earth who ascended from the hill at Bethany, He has been returningsome glow has ever rested on the eastern skies. But it is no less true, that as the time of His sure coming draweth nigh, these signs of IIis approach wax clearer and more definite. The gleaming streaks of a coming morning mount up the skies; the voices which usher in its presence are multiplying round us; the hum, and the crowd, and the tread of an awakening world rise in full tide upon the watcher's ears; all things that are shaken, holding themselves in an eager readiness for the new order of the coming day. It is ours to prepare all things for this issue; whether He comes speedily, or yet delay his coming, to do as our forefathers in the faith have done before us; to heal society round us; to prepare it for the unknown path on which it must enter; for the changes through which it must pass.

"For such changes are inevitable. All national life is ever drifting on in a mighty current, which the strongest hand cannot for an instant stay. Each succeeding generation sees round it a new scene of circumstance and being. We sweep past the roots of mighty mountains, of which the distant tops were but just visible to long-sighted men amongst our fathers. New interests spring up; new combinations arrange themselves, and gather into solid

strength. The whole face of society becomes altered round men unawares : they endeavour to act upon their old rules, and find, with surprise, from the unexpected issue, how mighty a transformation had passed upon all around them whilst they dreamed not of it. And it is one inevitable condition of all such changes, that they stamp more and more deeply upon every usage of society the brand and impress of selfishness, unless Christianity is ever present and ever active to redress the evil. And by redressing this, she becomes the great preserver of Christian nations, saving them from that destruction to which the mere natural upgrowth of institutions amongst fallen men inevitably tends. For that

selfishness, which is always intertwining its poisonous presence with all human institutions, is a stifling, a corrupting, and a disjointing thing; it debases all national character in a thousand ways, and dissolves the very inner spirit which pervaded and held together the outer framework of society; and it is the very attribute of Christianity to strive from the first against this selfishness. And hence is there ever in the Church of Christ the truest power of prophecy, whereby she still interprets to men the ambiguous letters of present things, which the fingers of a hand' still trace upon their walls, and which, when read out, are the surest presage of the coming future. Thus it is that by an heavenly instinct, proportioned exactly to her faith and purity, she has ever met, and ever prevented, throughout Christendom, the emergent wants of society, which, if they are not thus met, are sure to break forth in those fearful convulsions which suddenly upheave and desolate the whole surface of political and social life.

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"And this inner power it is ours, my reverend brethren, to call into action. Not by becoming politicians - God forbid that we should so quit our proper calling! but by cleaving closely to that calling; by walking more with Him whom the world seeth not;' by being men of a deeper piety, of more earnest prayer, of a keener insight into God's living word, and so into the hidden law of all things; by searching our own hearts, and thus knowing the hearts of our brethren; by being so dead to the world, that her sorceries cannot pass on us; and, therefore, that, seeing through her empty juggleries, we may proclaim to men where they may indeed find the great truths for which their thirsty spirits are vainly seeking amongst her delusions."

We do not know why the Archdeacon has altered the translation, or rather the reading, of James v. 9; "The judge standeth before the door;" to "behind the door." The Greek is unequivocal, nor are we aware of any various reading; and the sense also requires the ordinary text. A thief lurks, but a judge does not; and though both allusions are used in Scripture with reference to the day of judgment, they must not be blended, as each exhibits its own appropriate warning and instruction. A judge approaches from without; the trum

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pet announces his coming, and it may be so sudden and unsuspected that he "standeth before the door' before men are aware. The suddenness aud unexpectedness of the day of doom are also taught by the illustration of its coming thief in the night;" but its solemnity, its awfulness, and its judicial purpose, are represented by the approach of a judge to preside at a tribunal; and it destroys the whole force and propriety of the imagery to suppose the judge concealing himself "behind the door."

We have quoted and remarked somewhat largely upon the document before us; but we cannot refuse to add to our citations the following passage with which it closes. It is due to the writer, to give every publicity to his testimony touching the matters therein referred to.

"Suffer me, my reverend brethren, to add, that if united action be indeed a thing of moment, it becomes us especially to guard against the introduction of new causes of disunion, which may add fearful bitterness to those which, alas, before existed, and widen breaches which we fondly hoped were closing up. Of these, there must be always danger proportioned to the vigorous acting of religious feeling. For, unless the individual will, so quickened, is at the same time softened and restrained by a deep humility, it will ever be breaking forth into some peculiarity of tenet or some eccentricity of conduct; and these will soon become, even in the best men, new causes of ruinous disunion in the Church. That such dangers now beset us, I am sadly and unwillingly convinced. Surely it must be so, if there has been amongst us a tendency to introduce into our sacred offices peculiar customs, uncommanded in our rubrics, unsanctioned by our fathers, unpractised by our brethren in the Church. Such conduct must, of necessity, put unity in peril.

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For if they be points of moment, then, with no commission to warrant our so doing, we gravely censure others if they be trifles, then, for the sake of trifles, we wantonly disturb the Church's peace, and provoke a mischievous reaction. And if, at the same moment, there is seen an inclination to depreciate all that is peculiarly Anglican; to exalt what, to say the least, borders upon those impurities of faith and practice, which, through God's grace, and in the strength of their manly Saxon hearts, our forefathers cast off, then is our danger greater still. But it is greatest, my reverend brethren, if there be growing upon any side a hankering after those corruptions of the faith which issued of old in the papacy itself; a longing for a visible personal centre of union as the condition of the unity of Christendom; a shrinking from the simple boldness of statement, which marks the declaration of the gospel of God's grace throughout the inspired epistles; a tendency to confound that faith, which alone justifies, with the crowning grace of charity, in the burning brightness of which faith should issue; if there be a studious inculcation of that which, in this most mistaken sense, some unhappily have learned to speak of as 'the great doctrine of justification by works;' if there be, lastly, a disproportioned care for the outer parts of our religion, combined with any inclination to depreciate its individual spiritual life in every heart in which it dwells;-surely, if there be but a suspicion of these things,-there is ground for watchful caution upon our parts a caution which should act, not in leading us to reject what we suppose are the peculiar views of others; (for all mere negative religion is a poor thing at the best;) still less in making us willing to suspect, with party readiness, those who differ from us, or to impute to them lightly, with party bitterness, such fearful errors; but in leading us to embrace for ourselves, with a more earnest hold, and to exhibit to others, in a sharper outline, that positive and substantial form and body of Christian truth which will be our safeguard from errors on each side, and which, of God's mercy, is so well set forth in our own Articles and Liturgy."

VIEW OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS.

In comparing the ushering in of the year 1843, with that of the year which has just expired, there is much cause for rejoicing and thankfulness to God. Her Majesty, the Queen, in her Address

to Parliament last February, hoped that our differences with China "would be brought to an early termination, and our commercial relations with that country placed upon a satisfactory basis." These

hopes have been realized in a manner beyond the most sanguine expectations; and we would fervently trust that our new relations with that mighty empire will, by God's blessing, not only largely promote honourable and useful commerce, instead of the poison-trade in opium; but be the means of extending to its much-injured people the blessings of the Gospel of peace and salvation. The disasters in the West of the Indus, which her Majesty lamented in proroguing Parliament, have been repaired, and India, it may be augured, by the merciful providence of God, is entering upon a new era of tranquillity and prosperity, highly favourable for the happiness of the natives, and the propagation of the Gospel throughout the East. The alarming permanent deficiency in the public revenue which her Majesty adverted to, is in a course of supply by the not very pleasant remedy of the property tax; but which was imposed, and has been submitted to, with far less of agitation or discontent than could have been expected. Only 133 petitions, not containing altogether ten thousand names, were presented against it. Her Majesty further recommended Parliament "to consider the state of the laws which affect the import of corn, and other articles the produce of foreign countries;" and the measures adopted in consequence have worked well, and seem to be very generally approved of, notwithstanding the hopes or fears of contending interests. Her Majesty deeply regretted "the continued distress in the manufacturing districts;" but commended "the exemplary patience and fortitude with which the people had borne their sufferings." We would hope the distress

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somewhat abated, and will be greatly diminished by a large accession of national prosperity. The extensive riots in the manufacturing districts, did not materially derogate from the Queen's just eulogy upon the "patience and fortitude" with which large classes of her subjects have borne up under weighty sufferings; for the disturbances were at worst only partial; they were excited by wicked men for selfish and factious purposes; the majority of the well-disposed virtuous poor stood aloof from them, and of those who engaged in them many were carried along by the force of the torrent, being hastily persuaded that the result would be beneficial. But the successful quelling of these outbreaks, and the peace which has since been maintained, are among the great national blessings of the expiring year. Further, her Majesty's anticipation of a bountiful harvest was abundantly fulfilled; and the benefit has been incalculably great. To these national mercies during the past year, we might add Lord Ashburton's treaty with the United States of America; and many other circumstances; especially those connected with the extension of the kingdom of Christ both in our own country and abroad. But we need not recapitulate what we have already written on these important topics. Her Majesty's Cabinet deserves much gratitude for its successful endeavours to adjust the affairs of the nation; and we trust they will find themselves sufficiently strong in Parliament, and supported by the people, to enable them to carry out various other important measures for the public weal-especially those connected with the stability and extension of the national church.

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

T.; J. B.; J. L. K.; C. C.; A CONSTANT READER; A. B.; P.; W. V.; are under consideration.

Erratum.-In one of the extracts from Dean Milner (p. 746 of our Number for Dec. 1842), a line was inadvertently left out in the printing, the omission of which reverses the sense. The Dean's words are "You are not to infer from anything which I now say, that I think the Liturgy of no use in the controversy before us."

The Bible Society Extracts, this month, are particularly interesting; and appended to them is a list of the Society's English Bibles and Testaments, in a great variety of types and sizes. The extraordinary cheapness of Bibles, taking into consideration the care taken to render them accurate, and the excellent quality of the paper, printing, and binding, is among the greatest wonders and blessings of modern times. Weighty indeed is the debt of gratitude due to the officers of the Bible Society in this important matter, as well as in its general proceedings, foreign and domestic.

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ON JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH, AND DECLENSION FROM THAT GREAT DOCTRINE OF SCRIPTURE.

For the Christian Observer.

WHEN your correspondent T. K., in your Number for October last, observed that he "should like to see a paper, in the Christian Observer, stating clearly the doctrine of justification by faith, and then shewing, by a series of statements, the different steps by which, through a gradual corruption, it becomes justification by the works of the law," he suggested a task of no inconsiderable difficulty. This difficulty arises, not only from the amplitude of the subject, and from the Scriptural and theological attainments (to say nothing of historical lights) necessary to its complete development; but also from the familiarity of your readers with certain able disquisitions already given to the public. So that "justification by faith "has at least a "hundred gates" by which it has made its appearance in the religious world. On this account, it may be objected that we have had enough of this in Visitation Sermons and Charges; we have read Hooker; we continually meet with controversial treatises on justification; and we are truly satiated with what we have seen and heard on this interminable subject.

Nevertheless this "articulus stantis vel cadentis ecclesia" may not improperly receive a further consideration; not indeed for the purpose of informing us what it really is, but in order to awaken us, in this day of doctrinal declension, to a deeper sense of its importance. For this end I shall attempt, in dependence on no human power, to meet the wishes of your correspondent.

That the doctrine of "justification by faith only" essentially involves others of very great moment, will be easily conceded. Who, indeed, can apprehend its true meaning, without first acquainting himself with those attributes of our Creator, which demand our adoration and love, and which should excite a constant endeavour to glorify His holy name? Here I allude to that wisdom which nothing can deceive, that omnipotence which nothing can withstand, and that goodness which no created intellect is able fully to comprehend. When these characteristics of Deity are solemnly reviewed in the secrecy and silence of the soul, we perceive, by the force of contrast, that man, considered in his natural CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 62.

K

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