many reasons to allege, which will probably satisfy themselves, though it will be hard for them to disprove the allegations brought against them. But my statements are intended for those persons, in every class of life, whose minds are perplexed by the present state of the Church, and who are anxiously in search of truth. There are thousands of excellent persons who, more or less, have joined in the forward movement made by the Church, who have been led recently to think seriously on the true nature of the Church, and her sacraments and ordinances, and have begun to taste the blessings and privileges which, through them, God offers to the faithful,-persons who, without entering deeply into theological controversy, have yet been convinced in their minds, and moved in their best feelings, by the great truths presented for their acceptance. To them it is that I address myself. They have been staggered, it may be, and checked in their advance, by the calumnious outcry which has been raised; they have been taught to look on the extravagances of a few unstable persons, or the too refined speculations of others, as the characteristics of that earnest, devoted body, to which, from conviction as well as feeling, they had felt well disposed; and so have been deterred for the present from that cordial cooperation with the Church's best friends, to which they had been before inclined. To these persons I address the words of common sense. I do not so much appeal to controversial arguments as to palp able facts. I bid them look into their Prayer-books, and read the Baptismal Service, together with the Church Catechism and the Confirmation Service; and ask themselves whether the doctrine of baptismal regeneration is not as plainly stated as words can state it, and whether it is not made the basis and starting-point of the Church's scheme ;-and then I bid them reflect what must be the extreme error of that party which denies or explains away this fundamental doctrine, and even mutilates the formularies to suit their purpose! I request them also to see whether a regular series of fasts and festivals is not enjoined by the Church; and then I bid them admire the effrontery of those men who, while they neglect these injunctions, accuse their brethren who obey them of introducing novelties. It is for the body of Churchmen to decide which portion of their clergy they will trust in as their spiritual guides: those who are using their zealous endeavours to restore the Church to the state in which the reformers placed her; or those who advocate an unfaithful concession to the lax practice of a corrupt age: those who bid them receive their children pure and regenerate from the baptismal font, and exhort them to cherish the divine spark of grace, and train them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; or those who practically lose this vantageground-who deny, or explain away and suppress, the most gracious gift which, for His Son's sake and through the influence of His atonement, God has given to man, and look for safety to the forlorn hope of conversion. There can be no doubt that a great crisis in the Church has arrived. The two systems are, in a manner, on their trial before the nation; and it rests on each individual member to decide whether he will aid the good work which has begun, or be found amongst those who vainly set themselves against it, and endeavour, by unworthy means, to check the efforts which the Church is making to restore herself to her true position. For, in spite of all opposition, appearances plainly indicate that a spirit has spread through the land which no force or power can curb— a spirit which, if it may at times break forth with indiscreet zeal, yet it is too deep and true to be coerced. While human nature remains imperfect as it is, the best principles will be carried out to excess, human motives will intrude into the holiest cause; nay, the best and ablest will sometimes act, and speak, and write unadvisedly. Where is the heart or intellect that is without its failings? Still, in spite of the weakness of human advocacy, the cause of Christ and of His Church appears to those who think most deeply, more near arriving at a great and wide-spreading influence than it has been for many generations. The alternative is, to remain as we are, or rather gradually to grow worse; for neither churches nor nations long remain stationary. Evangelicalism has had its sway for the last half century; and we see what have been its accompani ments. Schism arrived at such a height as never was before known in the Church; infidelity scarcely less formidable-the mass of the people knowing absolutely nothing of the relation in which, as baptised Christians, they stand to God, and not believing if you tell them; one or two, it may be, here and there, brought to repentance, but the masses lost in worldliness and sensuality. Such is the state-I do not say to which Evangelicalism has brought us, but from which it is utterly powerless to raise us. And never until this defective system is set aside, and the true system of the Christian Church established in its place · never until the exclusive preaching of the doctrine of conversion be discontinued, and our children are taught from their infancy the relation in which they stand to God as His adopted sons, and the duties they owe Him, and are trained from their youth up in His faith and fear by the holy system which the Church prescribes-never until then will the Church attain her rightful influence as the guardian of the souls of men, and lead them, through the quiet paths of godliness in this world, to the inheritance prepared for those who seek the Lord. NOTE ON PAGE 70. A writer in the Christian Remembrancer suggests, that we pray generally to be delivered from temptation and persecu D D |