among her sons, who, professing to be conservatives of her estate, are yet wanting its substance. Had she not accumulated wealth in flourishing societies and thousands of professed followers, there would be no object for which to contend. Were there no care for the hundreds who swerve from the school of the prophets, the teachers of these schools would not be at odds. Were there no missionaries abroad, no societies organized for their maintenance and no funds annually collected, there would be graver questions discussed, than whether the Assembly Board or that at Boston, were the more honest and trust-worthy agent. The very facts, therefore, that there is power and place and reputation for which to contend, shows that there is beneath this ruffled surface a deep subtratum of high religious interest and strongly moving religious activity. If there are indeed so many of the servants of the church who can be suffered to cease their appropriate work, that they may prosecute and exscind one another, and so many more who do little but shake the head and sound the note of alarm and frame resolutions and establish newspapers and magazines under the fair names of Conservatives, it is quite sure, that the church is not entirely given over, nor has she altogether ceased to exist. Would that this kingdom of God could be rid of her ecclesiastical politics!

In the days of her weakness and of her struggles with the foe, when her friends are few in number and feeble in strength, they are then all in the field and their business is with the enemy. But when this enemy begins to retreat and her own host gains by thousands, then the battle begins to pause a little, and the victors allow themselves a breathing time. You will then observe the leaders in her cause begin to exchange suspicious looks. Perhaps they cross their weapons in a contest designed to be friendly and even to prepare them the better for their attacks upon the common enemy. A wound is inflicted, not altogether of design, and not entirely by accident, but it is not deep, and in the ardor of engagement with the opposite party it would hardly have been noticed. In an instant, the host, the host of God's elect, is at war within itself. You can hear the tumult, you can mark the commotion of the multitude. The cry is no longer the foe! the foe! but the church! the church! Her bulwarks are betrayed! her weapons are faithless! her friends are but secret enemies!

Such is the scene that now presents itself. Numbers there are who sound to the onset, but though they cry loud and long and brandish their weapons with a fierce display, yet their onsets make but little impression, from their hot blood and their ill-regulated zeal. There are numbers more, whose weapons

are suffered to rust, or who brighten them only in intestine conflict. They call themselves conservatives.

But these are not all. Were it so, hope would sink, for we should look to see the spirit which animates and guides the church taking its upward flight, and leaving the sons of the church to put off their garlands of victory and to give place to a new and successful inroad of error and of sin.

These are not all. There are those whom we regard as the true conservatives of the church. And who are they? They are men who, with enlightened views of the scriptures and in the exercise of sound sense in regard to the great questions of the day, vigorously prosecute the great work of propagating the gospel, and with a catholic spirit aim to arouse the public mind to a higher tone of religious feeling and a nobler spirit of religious activity.

If,

The gospel of Christ is the grand conservative influence, for it is opposed to every influence that is destructive, whether it be pride, worldliness, a furiousness and unteachable fanaticism, or an uncharitable and slothful attachment to a self-styled orthodoxy. Where the spirit of Christ is, there is a healthful spirit, for if the heart be right in the main, it will work itself free from the mistakes and excesses, that are incident to the successive periods of the development of its inward principle. in its earlier and unchastened zeal, it calls down fire from heaven, or denounces its opposers with an indecent and unmeasured freedom, the Master is near, and gently whispers, "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of." If it regards with an averted and misjudging eye, the high cultivation of the intellectual man and the more refined graces of cultivated society, it by and by learns to esteem both as the fair flowers, that crown and beautify the perfected christian character, and seeks to possess itself of these its most becoming ornaments. In short, if it does wrong, it is willing to repent, and as it waits before God in the simple spirit of christian docility, it unlearns its errors, and adds to its stores of truth. As a matter of fact, some of the most valuable conservatives whom the church at this day possesses, were made such by their own experience of the destructive tendencies of their own misjudging zeal.

The motto of our conservatism is expressed in the following words of Baxter, who lived in an age when the need of a true conservative was quite as pressing as at present, and when pretended conservatives did, as now, more harm than healing. "As for all the sects and heresies that are creeping in daily and troubling us, I doubt not but the free gospel, managed by an able, selfdenying ministry, will effectually disperse and shame them all."

among her sons, who, professing to be conservatives of her estate, are yet wanting its substance. Had she not accumula ted wealth in flourishing societies and thousands of professed followers, there would be no object for which to contend. Were there no care for the hundreds who swerve from the school of the prophets, the teachers of these schools would not be at odds Were there no missionaries abroad, no societies organized for their maintenance and no funds annually collected, there would be graver questions discussed, than whether the Assembly Board or that at Boston, were the more honest and trust-worthy agent. The very facts, therefore, that there is power and place and reputation for which to contend, shows that there is beneath this ruffled surface a deep subtratum of high religious interest and strongly moving religious activity. If there are indeed so many of the servants of the church who can be suffered to cease their appropriate work, that they may prosecute and exscind one another, and so many more who do little but shake the head and sound the note of alarm and frame resolutions and establish newspapers and magazines under the fair names of Conservatives, it is quite sure, that the church is not entirely given over, nor has she altogether ceased to exist. Would that this kingdom of God could be rid of her ecclesiastical politics!

In the days of her weakness and of her struggles with the foe, when her friends are few in number and feeble in strength, they are then all in the field and their business is with the ene my. But when this enemy begins to retreat and her own host gains by thousands, then the battle begins to pause a little, and the victors allow themselves a breathing time. You will then observe the leaders in her cause begin to exchange suspicious looks. Perhaps they cross their weapons in a contest designed to be friendly and even to prepare them the better for their attacks upon the common enemy. A wound is inflicted, not altogether of design, and not entirely by accident, but it is not deep, and in the ardor of engagement with the opposite party it would hardly have been noticed. In an instant, the host, the host of God's elect, is at war within itself. You can hear the tumult, you can mark the commotion of the multitude. The cry is no longer the foe! the foe! but the church! the church! Her bulwarks are betrayed! her weapons are faithless! her friends are but secret enemies!

Such is the scene that now presents itself. Numbers there are who sound to the onset, but though they cry loud and long and brandish their weapons with a fierce display, yet their onsets make but little impression, from their hot blood and their ill-regulated zeal. There are numbers more, whose weapons

re

festing to leone stufered to rus, or who brighten them only in intestine convisive E Fot. They call themselves conservatives.

at But these are not all. Were it so. hope would sink. for we What should lock to see the spint which animates and guides the Shawn church taking its upward flight, and leaving the sons of the beyour church to put of their garlands of victory and to give place to indana new and successtil infoad of error and of sin.

handle These are bot all There are those whom we regard as the «Ma vie true conservatives of the church. And who are they? They le yakow, are men who with enlightened views of the scriptures and in try the exercise of scand sense in regard to the great questions of algown the day, vinsky prosecute the great work of propagating the Muddy gospel, and with a catholte spirit aim to arouse the public mind top Fax to a higher tone of religious feeling and a nobler spirit of relieta gions activity.

P

The gospel of Christ is the grand conservative influence, for se it is opposed to every induence that is destructive, whether it be web pride, workiness, a furiousness and unteachable fanaticism, or kan uncharitable and slothful attachment to a self-styled orthothe doxy. Where the spirit of Christ is, there is a healthful spirit, for if the heart be right in the main, it will work itself free from the mistakes and excesses, that are incident to the successive periods of the development of its inward principle. If, in its earlier and unchastened zeal, it calls down fire from heaven, or denounces its opposers with an indecent and unmeasured freedom, the Master is near, and gently whispers. - Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of." If it regards with an averted and misjudging eye, the high cultivation of the intellectual man and the more refined graces of cultivated society, it by and by learns to esteem both as the fair flowers, that crown and beautify the perfected christian character, and seeks to possess itself of these its most becoming ornaments. In short, if it does wrong, it is willing to repent, and as it waits before God in the simple spirit of christian docility, it unlearns its errors, and adds to its stores of truth. As a matter of fact, some of the most valuable conservatives whom the church at this day possesses, were made such by their own experience of the destructive tendencies of their own misjudging zeal.

The motto of our conservatism is expressed in the following words of Baxter, who lived in an age when the need of a true conservative was quite as pressing as at present, and when pretended conservatives did, as now, more harm than healing. As for all the sects and heresies that are creeping in daily and troub ling us, I doubt not but the free gospel, managed by an abie, selfdenying ministry, will effectually disperse and shame them all”

But to accomplish this end, the gospel must be preached with an apostolic spirit and with apostolic expectations of success. It must be preached in its freedom, and with all the large invitations of its beseeching mercy and the earnest entreaties of a God reconciling the world unto himself. It must be preached in simplicity, as it always has been proclaimed, by those whose labors God has abundantly blessed, and with the adaptation which it carries with itself to win and overcome the heart of man. Above all it must be preached by men of a catholic spirit, a spirit that hopeth the best rather than one which is irritated and alarmed at the slightest tidings of constructive heresy. "We may talk of peace as long as we live, but we shall never obtain it till we return to the apostolical simplicity. We must abhor the arrogance of them that frame new engines to rack and tear the church of God, under pretence of obviating errors and maintaining the truth." This is the great lesson which Christ is teaching his church in these days, and those who learn it soonest and learn it best will exert in the church the most of a conservative influence.

It must be preached by men of sense, by men who, whether they call themselves conservatives or not, will exert a really conservative influence, making it to appear, that true religion is not raving, nor senseless declamation, nor a trick of excitement; that it commends itself to the conscience of the reasoning man, and enters gracefully into every apartment of the inmost soul; that it summons its active energies to the highest and holiest enterprises and imbues it with a loftier and more heavenly spirit. It must also be shown, that it is not straitened to creeds constructed after the exactest model and amplified into the network of manifold technicalities, and that of all things it is most abhorrent of a slothful inactivity, and a caution against error so timid, that it will not act boldly for the truth; but that its great law is, to inculcate the truth with all the might, and it will certainly be blessed of God to the displacing and the putting to shame of every error.

They, then, are the True Conservatives, who have strong confidence in the healthful influence of the gospel, and are firmly convinced of its adaptation to the highest well-being of man and the only perfect development of his powers. Such have not renounced the faith in its onward progress, that they may spend their energies in looking out for the evils of the times, and detecting, in their embryo, incipient tendencies to heresy.

We have hope for our own country and hope for the church, for we believe, that there are thousands and tens of thousands