Elements of biblical criticism and interpretation.

The study of our best commentaries on separate books of the sacred Scripture, or on the entire Bible.

The evidences of revealed truth, with more especial reference to the line of opposition taken by infidels of the present times.

Selections from the writings of the Reformers, Puritans, Nonconformists, Scottish and American divines. These to be thoroughly studied; abstracts and abridgments of them to be made, and essays written on the different subjects treated of.

Homiletics, to be illustrated by specimens taken from the best pubblished sermons in the language.

The principles of church polity as laid down and illustrated in the New Testament.

Church history.

As already stated, where there are evident taste and talent for the acquisition, the Hebrew Bible, the Greek version of the Seventy, and the New Testament.

In addition to the above general outline, and with a view to improve the student's taste, as well as a relaxation from severer studies, occasional lectures might be given on some of our best poets and writers in the department of the belles lettres.

Such is the course of training we would lay down for the institution in question, and which, if steadily and vigorously carried out, would, we are decidedly of opinion, form an order of preachers whose ministry would prove mighty through God to the pulling down of strong-holds.

In so important a light did the necessity for an institution of the kind we have been describing appear to the mind of the present Bishop of London, that, in his primary charge to the clergy of his diocese, delivered in the year 1830, he makes use of the following language :"For my own part, I entertain a very strong opinion, as to the necessity of one or more theological seminaries, in which, besides going through a prescribed course of study for one or two years, the candidates for holy orders might be exercised in reading the Liturgy of our Church, and in the composition and delivery of sermons. The establishment of these need not interfere with the accustomed course of academical study."-Charge, p. 34.

The establishment of such an institution would no doubt require much consideration and forethought; but of the practicability of such an undertaking we entertain no doubts whatever. Let the experiment be fairly made; let a suitable locality be fixed upon; the proper man or men to work it be chosen, men who will give their whole time, study, and souls to the work; let a sufficient apparatus be found for them to work with; let the right sort of candidates for admission be taken up; and we venture to predict that such an institution would prove a blessing of untold magnitude to the country.

Neither have we any reason to fear that such an institution would be the least in public esteem. Only let it send forth into the country a band of holy men, whose hearts God has touched; whose ministrations of the Gospel are characterised by intelligence, unction, and power; whose tact and ability as pastors are felt and confided in by the churches; and we are persuaded it will meet, not only with public esteem, but with liberal and continued public support.

To conclude these imperfect hints on a subject of such confessed importance, whatever modifications we may see it desirable and practicable to introduce into our system of academical instruction, we feel assured that this Conference is prepared fully to admit the truth and propriety of the following sentences, penned by the venerable writer of the Cardiphonia :-" None but He who made the world can make a minister of the Gospel. If a young man has capacity, culture and application may make him a scholar, a philosopher, or an orator; but a true minister must have certain principles, motives, feelings, and aims, which no industry or endeavours of man can either acquire or communicate. They must be given from above, or they cannot

be received."

A CATHOLIC EULOGIUM ON PROTESTANT MISSIONS.

THE Count de Montalembert is one of the most eloquent and able of the young noblemen of France. He has distinguished himself on several occasions in the Chamber of Peers, by his courage and rhetoric, his zeal and earnestness in defence of the Roman Catholic church. Speaking of himself, he says, "I am not a doctor, nor a minister of the church I am only her soldier, faithful though unworthy."

In February, 1844, he addressed a letter from Funchal, island of Madeira, to a reverend member of the Cambridge Camden Society, "on the architectural, artistical, and archæological investigations of the Puseyites," in which he shows, that "one thing quite certain is, that individuals or churches cannot be both Catholic and Protestant: they must choose between one and the other." This uncompromising son of the church, is not likely to look with a partial eye on Protestant missions. But the man is better than his creed, for whilst he says, "my faith OBLIGES ME to regard them (i. e. Methodist, Baptist, and Independent missionaries) as HERETICS, as strangers to, or REBELS AGAINST, THE TRUTH, yet it does not blind me to the immense service which they have rendered to humanity and to freedom."

But before we introduce the whole passage, we must inform our readers, that it forms part of a speech delivered by the Count, in the Chamber of Peers, on Monday, April 7th, in a debate on the French law of slavery. We transcribe it from The Anti-Slavery Reporter, July 9th.

"It must be maintained that in a social and moral view emancipation had been signally successful. 800,000 persons had passed from slavery to liberty without any disorder, with less disturbance than had been exhibited by any political revolution in Europe. Notwithstanding the natural inactivity of the negroes, they had voluntarily given to labour three-quarters of the time forced from them in slavery. There had been less crime among them than in the mother country. Three moral and social results of the highest importance has thus been obtained. First, the possibility of immediate emancipation without disorder had been ascertained. Secondly, the emancipated negroes, far from relapsing into barbarism, had shown themselves eager after the rights and pleasures of civilisation. Thirdly, this race, which it had been said could be governed only by the whip, had proved themselves docile and readily obedient to proper authorities. These results had been confirmed by the solemn testimony of Lord Stanley and Sir Robert Peel, whose language the Prince of Moskwa ought not to have forgotten. The Whig party in England united in the same testimony. It ought to be recollected, however, how these results had been obtained. It must be confessed," said the Count, "and it ought to be loudly proclaimed, they sprang from the all-powerful and beneficent influence of the Protestant missionaries. It was this which rendered the enfranchised negro so docile, and (allow me the expression) so fit for society. The power of the planters had antecedently been threatened by the Protestant missionaries; and when it fell, that of the missionaries supplied its place with great advantage in all respects. It was these missionaries, who have been the objects of so much persecution and so many denunciations, who had preserved so long the lives, the properties, and the safety of the planters. In the great insurrection of 1830, which immediately preceded and urged on emancipation, the Protestant missionaries did all they could to maintain the peace and to calm the free population; and Mr. Hill, who was at the head of the special magistracy in Jamaica, declared that the colony owed more to their influence than to force of arms. Subsequently to emancipation also, they prevented the violation of the laws, and maintained that wonderful order and tranquillity which have constantly prevailed in the English colonies since emancipation. I am perfectly impartial, gentlemen, on this point. You know that these missionaries are of all sorts, Methodists, Baptists, Independents, &c., and my faith obliges me to regard them as heretics, as strangers to, or rebels against, the truth which I profess; but it does not make me blind to the immense service which they have rendered to humanity and to freedom. I feel pleasure, on the contrary, in declaring that the labours of the English missionaries in the West Indies constitute one of the noblest spectacles ever exhibited to mankind. The influence of these missionaries has been spoken of as a reproach to them. Gentlemen, what was the origin and the nature of that influence? They reigned over the negroes, it is said. I admit it readily: but by what better title is it possible to reign over men? Why, they found these poor blacks, men and women, naked, and taught them to clothe themselves; they found them in brute-like concubinage, and united them in marriage; they found them in ignorance, and introduced them to knowledge; they found them in barbarous superstitions, and threw on them the light of the Gospel: in a word, they found them in slavery, and conducted them to freedom. And after this they are reproached with the influence which they exercised! It is the most legitimate and felicitous influence which can possibly be exercised by man over man. Yes! I do not hesitate to affirm it, the word of the missionary. substituted for the whip of the slave-driver in the government of the black race, is the most delightful spectacle, the most blessed revolution, which the nineteenth century has yet presented to the world. My admiration of this spectacle is connected with a feeling of pain when I recollect that it has been effected under a flag not French, and by a clergy not Catholic."

AN EVENING HYMN.

BY DR. T. BROWN.

THE night is come, like to the day;
Depart not thou, great God! away.
Let not my sins, black as the night,
Eclipse the lustre of thy light.
Keep still my hor'zon; for to me
The Sun makes not the day, but Thee.
Thou whose nature cannot sleep,

On my temples sentry keep:
Guard me 'gainst those watchful foes,
Whose eyes are open, while mine close.
Let no dreams my head infest,
But such as Jacob's temples blest.
While I do rest, my soul advance ;
Make my sleep an holy trance:
That I may, my rest being wrought,
Awake into some holy thought:

And with as active vigour run
My course, as doth the nimble sun.

Sleep is a death; O make me try,
By sleeping, what it is to die :
And down as gently lay my head
On my grave, as now my bed.
Howe'er I rest, great God, let me
Awake again at last with Thee.
And thus assured, behold I lie
Securely, or to wake, or die.

These are my drowsy days; in vain
I do now wake to sleep again :
O come that hour, when I shall never
Sleep again, but wake for ever.

CONTEMPT OF THE WORLD.

"Stet quicunque volet potens
Aulæ culmine lubrico:

Me dulcis saturet quies,

Obscuro positus loco," &c.-SENECA.

BY SIR MATTHEW HALE.

LET him that will, ascend the tottering seat
Of courtly grandeur, and become as great
As are his mountain wishes; as for me,
Let sweet repose and rest my portion be;
Give me some mean obscure recess, a sphere
Out of the road of business, or the fear
Of falling lower, where I sweetly may
Myself, and dear retirement still enjoy.
Let not my life, or name, be known unto
The grandees of the times, toss'd to and fro
By censure or applause; but let my age
Slide gently by, not overthwart the stage
Of public int'rest; unheard, unseen,
And unconcern'd as if I ne'er had been.
And thus while I shall pass my silent days
In shady privacy, free from the noise
And bustles of the world, then shall I
A good old innocent plebeian die.
Death is a mere surprise, a very,snare

To him that makes it his life's greatest care

To be a public pageant, known to all,
But unacquainted with himself doth fall.

REVIEWS.

The Doctrine of Original Sin; or, The Native State and Character of Man Unfolded. By George Payne, LL.D. 8vo. Jackson and Walford. 1845.

8vo. London :

THIS is the eleventh course of Lectures delivered at the Congregational Library, under the auspices of its Committee. The series, as was to be expected, has met with varied success; but, as a whole, its reception by the body for whose service it was intended has not been very flattering, nor indicative of its concern to foster and promote its own literature. Perhaps the respectable and rather expensive form in which the Lectures have been published, may be assigned as one reason for the limited circulation they have attained. The fashion, or the wise economy of cheapening literature, has certainly not been consulted by the Committee of the Congregational Lecture; and it may deserve consideration whether the respectability or dignity of the portly octavo shall not yield to the claims of cheapness and popularity. Obvious it is, that while these Lectures maintain their size and price, they are doomed to see many a series of vastly inferior treatises supersede them on the shelves of members of the denomination. Mere trash is bought by inquirers and novices simply because they are better judges of bulk, than of talent and learning. Certainly, if these Lectures had been found among the works of our old divines, they would have been republished in a form that would have secured for them a circulation incomparably beyond what they have yet obtained. And there can be little doubt, that when the copyright shall cease, they will find their way into much cheaper editions. It is to be hoped that the Committee will yet be encouraged by such an increasing demand for the whole series of volumes, as shall justify the effort to bring them out in a form and at a price adapted to place them among the cheap and popular theology of the age.

The scope of The decisions

The subject of Dr. Payne's volume is of solemn and universal interest. The grave questions involved in it touch the moral character of the Deity and the destinies of the human race. the whole inquiry is strictly awful or even tremendous. men come to upon it will affect alike their views of the Christian dispensation and their own character. In an age when speculation is rife, and novelties are sought after, when our young divines are