and their duties are determined. The preparative meetings which occur within the precincts of certain circuits, are so called because their duty is to prepare the business of the monthly meetings. They generally consist of two or three Friends of either sex appointed to be, as it were, overseers of the flock. They take cognizance of any improper conduct in the members, and endeavour to regulate disorders of any kind which may occur, and admonish the unruly. If necessary, they report any case of disorder which they cannot control, to the monthly meeting, which is next in authority above them. The monthly meetings are composed of all the congregations within a definite circuit : they judge of the fitness of new candidates for membership, supply certificates to those who desire to move from one district to another, choose fit persons as Elders to watch over the congregations, and upon the reports of the preparative meetings, pronounce sentence of expulsion upon unruly members. They also make provision for the poor, and for the education of children, and give their sanction to parties intending to marry.

Next in order to the monthly meeting, is the quarterly, which consists of a number of monthly meetings combined into one. To this the reports of previous meetings are referred for approval or confirmation. It is a sort of court of appeal from previous decisions, and if any member thinks himself aggrieved, here is his remedy. To this, succeeds the annual meeting, which is again as it were a court of final appeal. This includes the whole, and contains within it the sole legislative power, investigates the state of the whole body, and regulates all matters which are finally brought before it for adjudication. There are yearly meetings in London, attended by representatives from different parts of Great Britain and Ireland, 2 in New England; 3 in New York; 4 in Pennsylvania and New Jersey; 5 in Maryland; 6 in Virginia; 7 in the Carolinas; 8 in Ohio; 9 in Indiana. A brotherly correspondence between these general meetings is maintained by letters transmitted from one to the other. prevalence of the American names in the above list at once manifests the country wherein the Quakers prevail.

The

In addition to these ordinary meetings,

which are regulated by time, there is another of a very peculiar character called "The meeting of sufferings." It is composed of ministers, (if any can be so called), of elders, and members chosen at the quarterly meetings, and its object is to redress the injuries and grievances of those who may suffer in the maintenance of their principles. The refusal to pay tithes, and other taxes of a religious nature, and their refusal to take oaths in courts of justice, have always rendered the Quakers subject to harsh dealing on the part of those in authority. In former years their suffering in these matters was very great; it is to this, that the "Meeting of sufferings" evidently points. They grant relief, suggest ways of avoiding wrong, and otherwise advise in all cases of conscience.

These meetings are not confined either for discipline, or for government to the male sex, for it seems the great principle of the Quakers to admit their women into every state both of spiritual and temporal management. Accordingly the women have overseers of their own appointment to extend Christian care and advice to their own sex; they have likewise their preparative monthly, quarterly, and annual meetings, in which they transact such business as appertains to the good order of their members; but they take no part in the legislative proceedings of the Society; and in difficult cases, or those of more than ordinary importance, they obtain the judgment of the men's meetings.*

Such is their government-evidently at the first glance; of the same spirit as the times in which Quakerism first sprung into existence-republican. It cannot of

course be any otherwise; for, there being no authorized or commissioned ministry, no priesthood, no superiority of one over the other by human acquirements or ex external commission, all must be equal.t

*Evans' Sketch of all Religions: Williams' Dictionary.

In point of practise the Quakers do not agree with the system laid down for them in theory. The editor has been favoured with the following account from a clergyman engaged in the conversion of the younger branches of a Quaker family. It brings out in strong relief, the absurdity of the idea of the free gift of the Spirit, placed in conjunction with a ministration based upon human authority.

"The Quakers do not practically carry out their expressed belief. I was at one time somewhat intimate

Whether this is in accordance with the primitive model of ecclesiastical discipline, they must consider who would look to the Acts of the Apostles as any guide for Church government. There we find certainly not the people and the women holding council together, and deciding on points of order or of discipline, but the Apostles and Ministers of CHRIST and these alone. Consider these texts-" Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls." Heb. xiii, 17. It was the Minister of CHRIST, and certainly not the lay people assembling of their own authority, to whom the words of S. Paul are directed -"to take heed unto themselves, and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost had made them Overseers.” Acts xx., 28. The whole spirit of S. Paul's teaching in the figure of the body and the members, shews how it was of necessity that there should be inequality, and that the lower should submit to the higher. Sympathy indeed was to exist, and all the members were to rejoice or to suffer together, but government, the Ministers of God, as His own chosen servants, were to bear the rule" Are all apostles, are all prophets, are all teachers, are all workers of miracles." The meaning is plain: Each has his gift. And the gift of the Apostles, (continued to the Bishops their successors) was to rule.

in

But above all, we have the direct example and pattern in Church government,

with a Quaker family, who were my parishioners; the intimacy arising out of the desire of the younger members to join the Church, and the necessary instruction. In conversation with the parents one evening I asked what was to prevent me or any one else not a member of the society, intruding into their assembly in the guise of one of themselves, and taking advantage of the long silence which sometimes prevails, to address them. I was answered that that was impossible, or if attempted, would result in the intruder's being silenced, as only certain persons accredited by competent authority were allowed to speak; the authority if I remember rightly, being the quarterly meeting. I suggested, (being anxious to bring them to a perception of the incongruities of their system, that the approaching baptism of their daughters might not separate the family), that according to their principles, this was quenching the Spirit, but I found them impracticable-they said "it was a useful regulation”—and although the daughters were baptized, and I trust became true members of the Church, no impression seemed made on the parents."

in that first Synod or Church assembly, recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. The Apostles and Elders met at Jerusalem: the brethren of Antioch did not go up themselves, but they deputed S. Barnabas and S. Paul, and certain others to do so for them. There meeting together as Apostles and Elders, they in that capacity decided the affair. It was not a popular, but an Apostolic decision. And this principle has governed the Church throughout all ages.

Under the head of discipline will come. the subject of marriage, which is another point in which Quakers in opposition to Catholic teaching, hold most extraordinary opinions. It is said indeed by some, that the Quakers consider marriage to be "not a mere civil compact, but a Divine ordinance, and that it is the prerogative of GOD alone to join persons in that solemn covenant." This statement is very good in theory, but it certainly is very imperfectly borne out by the manner in which the idea of marriage is carried into effect practically. Those who intend to marry appear together, and state their intention to the monthly meeting, and they are either attended by their parents or guardians, or they produce a written certificate of their consent, signed in the presence of witnesses. The form of marriage then takes place in the following manner. At the conclusion of the meeting for public worship, the parties stand up, and taking each other by the

hand, declare in an audible manner to this effect: "Friends-I, A. B., take this my friend C. D., to be my wife, promising through Divine assistance, to be unto her a loving and faithful husband, until it shall please the LORD by death to separate us. And then the woman in like manner says: "Friends, I take this my friend A. B., to be my husband."

Now when we look at the very sacred character which is thrown over marriage in the Scriptures. When we consider that it has ever been held as a mystery, or sacrament (one of the lesser sacraments)-when we consider how S. Paul resembles it to the Church, as the spouse of CHRIST, when we consider how all along GOD's Holy Word, He has by His prophets ever illustrated, and our LORD in His parables, has ever likened God's Kingdom, the joys of it, the rewards and

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delights of it, to a marriage-a marriage supper-a marriage song a marriage feast-and then turn to this bald and meagre way of fulfilling that sacred compact, which Almighty God has directed for our comfort and happiness, and sealed with His heavenly Blessingit does seem indeed almost a desecration of holy things. "The Kingdom of Heaven. is likened unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son." Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning, and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their LORD, when he will return from the wedding." "Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened unto ten virgins which took their lamps and went forth to meet the Bridegroom." "He that hath the Bride is the Bridegroom, but the friend of the Bridegroom which standeth and heareth him rejoiceth greatly, because of the Bridegroom's voice." "And S. John saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." "He saith unto me, write blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb." Here are a few, a very few out of the constantly recurring allusions to a marriage. Is this the sort of thing which the Quakers make of that holy rite-no voice of prayer-no voice of joy or thanksgiving— no recognition of the presence of GODno Priest or holy man to bless or sanctify the sacred union? Is this the preparation of a bride adorned for her husband? Alas! what cold, and stiff, and formal, and unmoved hearts must those be, who when our Blessed LORD Himself worked His first miracle by turning water into wine at a marriage feast, thus make that holy rite-a mere form-" Friends, I take thee my friend C. D. to be my wife!"

So far then we have spoken in disparagement of the Quakers' system of religion; their doctrines equivocal; their worship destitute of real life, under the guise of spiritual perfection; their denial of Sacraments; which is no more than a denial of GOD's most Holy Word; their customs and minor tenets in most things childish and unmeaning, and their government and discipline as a body within themselves utterly adverse to Catholic teaching and the Holy Scriptures. But are they without any redeeming point? By no

means. It has been observed before, that there is no heresy which has not a partial foundation in truth; so there is no schism or sect, which in its wanderings from the fold of the Church, does not light upon some points of redeeming good. It is the grateful office then of charity to dwell upon these, and set them forth in this concluding history of the Quakers.

In the first place then, the principle of the Quakers that war is not a lawful thing for a Christian man issues in a great practical truth when it forbids them to pursue law-suits, and litigation of any kind, one with another. Their rule is that all disputes and controversies in temporal matters should be settled among themselves. Their quarterly meetings are their courts of law, and in this they rightly fulfill the spirit, without absurdly straining the letter of the precept of the Gospel"If any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also."

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Again in their method of dress, though perhaps in detail, it may seem to us sometimes an exaggeration; yet in principle, it is a fulfilling of that lowliness, and modesty,and freedom from ostentation, which we cannot say characterizes the great body of Christians in the common world. In conjunction with this, is their rule of abstinence from all those games, sports, plays, and theatrical amusements, into which the general world so recklessly plunges, without a thought whether the Apostolic precept is observed —“ All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient." The Quakers assert, and surely they cannot be wrong in so asserting, that "everything ought to be rejected that wastes our precious time, and diverts the heart from that evangelical spirit which is the which is the ornament of a Christian." What is it, that we as the members of the Church, declare in our baptism, but this very same and essential truth, that under the discipleship of CHRIST, we are bound to renounce not only the devil and all his works, but the pomps and vanities of this wicked world; and yet the unbaptized Quaker fulfills what the baptized Churchman, though so readily professing with his mouth, con tinually abandons and forgets. What vanities in dress, what pride and ostentation in establishments, in amusements,

We

and every kind of worldly folly, does the Churchman in the higher ranks of life continually set before the world. have only to glance at the advertisements of a daily newspaper, to be astounded at the costliness,and extravagance, and vanity of men and women professing godliness, in this miserable world. Women's whole time and thought wasted in personal decorations and studies of the toilette, and the ball-room- men's whole time and thought in the race-course or the huntingfield. The Quaker then, despised as he may be in his plain garb, homely language, and retired domestic simplicity of life, is a standing rebuke to those pomps and vanities of a "fashionable" world, which in baptism are foresworn, but in real life are cherished and followed with impunity. One more lesson, too, the Quaker may teach us. Real care and love for the poor. It is true that we have "charities" as they are called, in abundance. It is true that we see ever and anon long lists of subscribing names paraded in the columns of the newspapers; that we have hospitals, and asylums, and schools, and dispensaries; moreover that in addition to all this, as if to shew how utterly insignificant all these voluntary attempts are in comparison with the needs of the multitude; the law steps in and rears up throughout the land vast buildings of unions, and workhouses, under forced systems of parish relief, and to our shame, compels the larger number of the richer inhabitants of the land by a forced contribution, or tax, to support their own poor. Now it is never known that a Quaker applies for reception into the parish union, or receives any relief at the hands of the parish overseer. In addition to their payment of the poor rate for the supply of the general body of the poor, they have such regard for their own more immediate members of the flock, that they always supply among themselves all that is needed for them. This fact most certainly is an incontrovertible testimony, one way or another. It either shews that the great body of the Quakers as to its lower members, is free from that general habit of recklessness and debauchery, improvidence and drunkenness, which demoralizes so large a portion of the rest of the community; or it proves beyond question, that the richer portion of them

though they have erred in over-straining and exaggerating other portions of the Sermon in the Mount; have not studied in vain that precept which tells them, "When thou doest thine alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth."

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These surely are points for our meditation; they are subjects which ought to make us think; they are reflections upon the general tone, habits, and ways of life in which so many of us indulge, living as we do, in most cases, beyond our means in selfish luxury, and so not having wherewithal to comfort and support those poor who, we have God's Word for it, shall never cease out of the land." While we appeal then to the great body of those truly zealous, although as I have shewn, mistaken men; to set aside those peculiarities which unnecessarily distinguish them; while we are convinced that they have added by their heresies in doctrine, and by their schism in separation, one more of those fatal drawbacks to the unity of the Church, which JESUS Our LORD desired to see, and died to produce; and therefore while we pray for them that ere long with other schismatic bodies, they may rejoin the standard of the Brotherhood, which they have deserted; still with all this, we concede to them, that in these latter points now set forth, they are infinitely nearer that mode of life, which the primitive Church enjoined in company with CHRIST and His Apostles, than we are; infinitely nearer in self-denial, lowliness of spirit, simplicity of manners, and alms giving for the poor, that early discipleship which, under the Apostles, and the immediate gifts of the HOLY GHOST, our LORD sent forth to preach the Gospel to "every creature;" and which went about from "house to house in singleness of heart, fearing GOD."

WE make ourselves more injuries than are offered us; they many times pass for wrongs in our thoughts, that were never meant so by the heart of him that speaketh. The apprehension of wrong hurts more than the sharpest part of the wrong done. So by falsely making ourselves patients of wrong, we become the true and first actors.

WORDS do sometimes fly from the tongue that the heart did neither hatch nor harbour. While we think to revenge an injury, we many times begin one; and after that repent our misconceptions.-Feltham.

THE PRAYER-BOOK.

John Dobson had not been remiss in searching for information on the subject which now seemed to fill his thoughts. He had continually been to the Vicarage with his Prayer-Book in his hand, questioning here and there, as difficulties seemed to strike him; but the greater subject of the Liturgy had not been dealt with. The work of Lent and Easter had prevented any discussion on that more intricate portion of the Church Services.

Now at last it came: for John though still frequenting his conventicle, took great pleasure in being present occasionally, not only at the Matins and Evensong, but also at the service of the Holy Communion. He had asked permission so to do, and I thought that it was quite consonant with Church Rules to allow him to be present, even though not in Communion; for I secretly cherished a hope, that even the sight of so holy a service, might bring somewhat of a blessing on my good friend, and help towards the light which was evidently breaking on his inquisitive mind. But the great and elementary obstacle, was an obstinate refusal on John's part, to entertain the notion that there could be any difference whatever, between one time of Divine Service and another, or between one way of praying or another. Why was not the Morning Service and the Evening Service sufficient? Why have this additional way of worshipping GOD, coupled with so many forms and ceremonies, which to him had no meaning.

John. It is this Sir that I do not understand. The going into a different place, standing in a different manner, and reading the Scriptures out of a different book. What is the reason of all this ? Vicar. Why: the very primary notion of the thing that is done, would lead you to see the reason of it. Pray tell me John, do you not in your own place of worship, ever celebrate what you esteem to be, The LORD's Supper? I believe you call it, "The Ordinance." Be that as it may; by whatever name you call itdo you not all, among the various kinds of dissenters, at least agree in this, that The LORD's Supper, is a holy rite imperative upon Christians?

John. Certainly we do. Some of the dissenters practise it by going up to a table; and standing up, they eat and drink bread and wine in memory of their LORD'S Death; others sit round a table which is placed in the midst of the worshippers, and while the minister is preaching about the LORD's Ordinance, they partake of bread and wine, as the LORD commanded.

Vicar. Very well. If you have a table of any kind in your place of worship, either brought in for the time being, or fixed there permanently, at which a certain service is performed at one time, which is not performed at another time; no matter what that service is, you at once recognize by that very fact, that there is a difference at different times in your prayers, or your preaching, or in some way your devotional exercises. Now John, speak truly. There is something more important in your mind in "The Ordinance,' "than in common prayer. Is there not ?

John. I suppose there be. But you in the Church don't have a mere table, (such as the dissenters have) placed in the midst of you; but you have an Altar, a High Altar as you call it, with candlesticks and crosses and such like, for all the world like the papists.

Vicar. Now you know John, we had a long discussion about these matters with your friend Robert Orlando Moss the Schoolmaster long ago: we need not talk of it again. The Cross is now a recognized part of our church furniture, as I told your friend it would be sure sooner or later to be. (See Old Church Porch, vol. ii., p. 28, 52, &c.) So that we need not recur to those questions, which are now settled and decided among us all. John. Not among us. We dissenters have nothing to do with your diocesan courts, and courts of Arches, and your privy councils, and such like "things of Cæsary" Cæsar" Praise be to GOD for it. They can't turn us into papists, at any rate. We mind only the "things of GOD.

Vicar. Certainly. I cannot but allow that in these respects you are happier in being free of an odious incumbrance, which ever hangs upon the Church, and weighs her down to the dust. I would indeed, that we could breathe an atmosphere freer from the taint of state corrup tion then we do; but, alas John, we have