far from making us enemies, is a proof that intimate bonds unite us in common to Lutheranism; for in all times, and on every subject, the closer our unity on essential principles, the greater our diversity on secondary and subordinate subjects. It was Luther, that great man of God, who was in advance of the church in all things, as early as the year 1527, when the Calvinists asked for the manifestation of brotherly love and Christian harmony, replied, "Cursed be, even to the most profound depths of hell, this charity, this unity." He related himself, to one of his friends, that at Marbourg, in the conference convened by the Landgrave of Hesse, to re-unite the Lutherans with the Calvinists, Zwingle being moved by deep motion, approached him with flowing tears, and said, "There are no men on the face of the whole earth, with whom I so much desire to be one, as with the Wittembergians ;" and that he (Luther) repulsed the reformer of Zurich, saying, "Your spirit is not our spirit," and refused to acknowledge Zwingle and the Swiss as his brethren! Since then the sectarian spirit has always been found in Lutheranism: when, in the year 1553, the unfortunate Calvinists were hunted out of London by the bloody Mary, they were cruelly repulsed, in the depth of winter, from the walls of Copenhagen, by the advice of the Lutheran theologians, as also from Rostock, Lubeck, and Hamburgh; where also they sought an asylum: "Rather," said they, to the people, "let us shelter a Papist than a Reformer-a Mahomedan than a Calvinist." And upon a house in Wittemberg, one may yet read, "The words and the writings of Luther are the poison of the pope and of Calvin." Even their cats and dogs were called by the name of Calvin. Books were published with titles like the following: "Proof that the Calvinists have 666 Errors in common with the Turks;" or like one published in 1721, with this title, "A Short Proof that the present attempt among the self-styled Calvinists or Reformers after union, is in direct Opposition to all the Ten Commandments, to all the Articles of the Apostles' Creed, to the Lord's Prayer, to the doctrine of Holy Baptism, to the power of the Keys, to the Lord's Supper, and to the whole of the Catechism." In a Lutheran catechism, published at the beginning of the seventeenth century, it is asked, "Dost thou fully believe that the Calvinists honour and adore the devil, instead of the living and true God?" And the neophyte replies, "I believe it from the bottom of my heart." A Lutheran divine, who yet lives, a man admirable for his piety and zeal, applied to the Calvinists the words of St. Paul, "Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers ;" and you know that the Lutheran missionary societies have lately broken away from that of Basle, although it approaches nearer to Lutheranism than any of the reformed churches. What shall we say to these excesses? We will say with St. Paul, "They have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge;" and we will add, with a smile, in the words of Jerome of Prague, when he saw

a peasant bring a faggot of wood, and place it at the stake at which he was about to be burned, "Sancta simplicitas!”

But, notwithstanding all this, we must repeat, that the Lutherans are our brothers, our well-beloved brothers still! Gentlemen, a spirit of conciliation, of union, and of brotherhood, has animated our church in all ages, and is perhaps its highest ornament. Zwingle, Ecolampadius, Calvin, Farel, never ceased to offer the right hand of fellowship to Luther and all his friends. Even Calvin himself did not hesitate to say that, in his judgment, Luther greatly excelled Zwingle: "Nam si inter se comparantur, scis ipse quanto intervallo Lutherus excedat," (for if they are compared, you yourself know how greatly Luther excels.) And he wrote to Bullinger, the 25th day of November, 1544: "I hear that Luther pours forth atrocious invectives against you and us all. I hardly dare to ask you to remain silent ; but I implore you at least to recollect what a great man Luther is,— what admirable qualities distinguish him, what courage, what constancy, what talent, what power of doctrine, he possesses, to put down the kingdom of Antichrist, and to extend the knowledge of salvation. I say, what I have often expressed, even when he has called me Satan, that I will not cease to render him honour, and to recognise him as an illustrious servant of God."

Gentlemen, mark these generous sentiments,-let Calvinists never forget them, for they are the words of Calvin, of the man who is represented as so irritable and so proud.

On several occasions proposals for peace and projects of union were made by the churches of the Reformation. The Swiss-French churches, above all, displayed untiring perseverance. At the time when the ultra-Lutherans, Westphal, Timann, Von Eitzen, and many others, had poured forth a volley of their heavy artillery against the reformed, Calvin and his friends appeared on the battle-field, amidst the volumes of smoke, with the olive-branch in his hand.

In the same year (1557) Theodore Beza and Farel travelled to all the towns of Switzerland, to excite public commiseration on behalf of the Vaudois, who were cruelly persecuted in the valley of Angrogne. These doctors of the Reformation, extending their charitable errand into Germany, presented there a confession of the faith of the Swiss and Savoyard churches, having for its object to unite the whole of the reformed, by showing to the Lutheran churches that they also were brothers in the faith, and companions in arms in the war against Antichrist. In 1631, the general synod of Charenton, near Paris, took the lead, and accomplished the union, by adopting a resolution which declared, That the churches of the confession of Augsburg, being in accordance with the other reformed churches, in all the essential articles of the true religion, the members of these churches are at liberty to present themselves at the Lord's table in the reformed

churches, without any previous renunciation. In our own times, all the propositions and efforts to re-establish a real union in the church of Christ, have come from members of the reformed churches. And why, gentlemen, this difference between Lutheranism and Calvinism? Without doubt it is occasioned, in a great measure, as far as Luther and the Lutherans are concerned, from the importance they attach to the doctrine of the presence of Christ in the sacrament; from their unconquerable attachment to what they believe to be the truth, an attachment which we sincerely respect; but it must be said, that it arises also from the difference we have previously pointed out.

The Biblical tendency of Calvinism ought to dispose every member of the reformed churches to attach little importance to ecclesiastical differences, but much to scriptural truth; and consequently to constrain him to give the right hand of fellowship to every church, to every individual who has the truth of the Bible. It is thus that beneficial results proceed from sound principles.

Gentlemen, let us be faithful to this spirit of true catholicity. Do not let us cease to remember ourselves, or to remind all our brethren of these words of the apostle, "One God, one Lord, one Spirit, one body." Such is the special duty of the reformed.

(To be continued.)

THE ANNUNCIATION TO THE SHEPHERDS.

'Tis night-a night in mildness; shepherds lie
On the green sward; beneath an eastern sky,--
Where twinkling stars the softest twilight shed,
Round the rude tenting-raised to shield the head;
From the calm air, refreshing dews distil,
With sap and bloom each herb and flower to fill,
What time again the sun's reviving ray

Shall cast fresh lustre on the face of day.

Their flocks around are watched with anxious care,
Lest prowling beast should rush from out his lair;
For though in silence nature seeks repose,
Still does the curse of sin, full fraught with woes,

Rest on the whole creation, unrepealed;
No Great Deliverer standing yet revealed
To mortal eye; though on the storied page
Of many a prophet, mercy did engage,
God, with his rebel creature man, at one
To make; nor man with fellow-man alone

To reconcile; but, through creation's space,

To leave to enmity no resting place:

All things in one in Christ shall gathered be,
In heaven above, and 'neath its canopy!

The twilight ceases, long before the morn

Glowed from the east, or chanticleer's shrill horn
Had roused a slumberer; brightness spreads around;
Each shepherd wakes his fellow; and the sound
Of faintest symphony is heard on high—
As though some joyous triumphing were nigh:
Th' effulgence waxeth; till within the sight
Of the astonished shepherds, clad in light,
An angel of the Lord-his brilliant sheen
More splendid than of earth they aught had seen,
Stands in such glory, as to be confessed,
By each spectator, more than mortal guest.
The shock of awe, whene'er a spirit stands
Before the eye, unnerves the stoutest bands;
He, who could dare the lion from the fold,
Or pluck the slaughtered lambkin from his hold,
Sorely afraid, looks on this holy one,

Who comes commissioned from th' eternal throne
Of sovereign love and mercy, to declare

Th' abundant blessings David's Root shall bear ;
But kindliness, such as in angels lives,
The trembling shepherds reassurance gives;
"Fear not," he speaks, in accents few and mild,
"To you, to-day, is born, that promised Child,
In Bethlehem, of whom the sacred word
Announcement gave; a Saviour-Christ, the Lord!
Glad news I bring; the spring of joy to all
The Gentile nations, and to Israel."

Scarcely this tale the listening shepherds hear,
When with the angel suddenly appear,

Of heaven's bright host, a multitude-who sing
Triumphantly, till night's still regions ring
With "Glory in the highest unto God!"—
With "Peace!" now visiting the drear abode

Of man's sojourning,-with "Good-will!"-for heaven,
The means of life and happiness has given :
Then rapid-as the lightning-flame is gone,
They re-ascend; leaving the men alone,
To museful meditation on the theme-
That seems the tracing of an airy dream.

B.

REVIEWS.

The Sacraments. An Inquiry into the Nature of the Symbolic Institutions of the Christian Religion, usually called The Sacraments. By Robert Halley, D.D. Part I. Baptism. London: Jackson and Walford. [Congregational Lecture: Tenth Series.]

THE value we attach to these lectures must not be estimated according to the space which we afford them. Prevented for three successive months by pressing duties from preparing a notice of them, we are under even stronger inducements now to delay doing so; but our feeling of what is due to the lectures, will not permit it. We must, however, characterise them very briefly; and are therefore much gratified, that the extraordinary degree of attention which they have excited, and the many notices of them which have already appeared, will probably have preserved our own circle of readers from ignorance of a work so rich in learning, and so distinguished for argumentative power, as that now before us.

Of the seven lectures which constitute the present volume, two are devoted to the "sacraments" generally, and the remaining five to baptism. The author proposes, "in continuation, to furnish one more lecture on baptism; one on the connexion of Jewish and Christian sacraments; about four on the Lord's supper; and one on the theory of salvation by sacraments." With such a scheme in his mind, even in embryo, we must confess our surprise, that he should not have forseen the "many controversies" in which his subject would involve him. But, however unexpectedly he may be embroiled, he breaks a lance in turn with all parties; and in the mêlée deals a sturdy rap at times upon the casques even of some who fight under the same colours with himself. If it was his object to avoid controversy, which, indeed, he does not exactly say, he clearly made a most inconsiderate choice. But he is equipped like a stout East Indiaman, tam Marti quam Mercurio; and once at sea, it seems a matter of indifference to him, whether he is victualling off some fair island, or going before the wind with his precious freight, or beating off a pirate with his heavy metal, or clearing his deck for close action with some equal enemy. He is not for war when others are for peace; but he is "in utrumque paratus."

We shall notice first the two general lectures; next that on. "baptismal regeneration;" afterwards those on the "Jewish baptism of