proper answer, will have made real progress in this great controversy. This manual of truth, and this manual of seductive error, will at once exhibit the poison of the system in its true character; and all that the gloss

and contrivance of intentional dishonesty can accomplish towards making that poison palatable to common sense. The latter pamphlet is their ne plus ultra. It is a talented concentration of their deceits.

A SUNDAY

WHATEVER may be the impression of a stranger in Mexico as to the gaiety of the city during the week days-though comparison in this particular may be much in favour of many cities in Europe of equal sizeyet no one can doubt, that in extent and variety of diversions and dissipations, Mexico, on a Sunday, can more than compete with the most festive of them.

As soon as you awake, you are saluted with the sounds of military music, in which the Mexicans profess a decided excellence. Regiments of soldiers, assembled in the Plaza Mayor, are reviewed, and on this day they exhibit a neat and cleanly appearance, which is more than can be affirmed on any other. On this day the cathedral is crowded with the fashionable and wealthy of the city. By far the greater proportion of the visiters are the fair sex; and there is here presented a display of beauty and elegance which cannot fail to impress the most insensible.

The service over, you pass into the street, where ever and anon a religious procession crosses your path, accompanied with all the parade that rich dresses, gilded images, and gold and silver church furniture can afford. The houses, too, are decorated, the inhabitants exhibiting from the balconies their most costly ornaments and dresses. All is bustle and animation. At a corner of the great square are suspended huge placards, on which the nature of the day's amusements is depicted in every variety of colour. Here is a pictorial illustration of the most prominent attraction at the great theatre, which, in common with all the rest, is open

IN MEXICO.

twice on this day. A little further on, is a full length figure of Figaro, which draws your attention to the fascinating allurements of the opera, The bull fights next solicit your notice, announcing the most terrific particulars.

Nor are the minor theatres behindhand in presenting their attractions. Endless varieties of other exhibitions put forth their claims. A balloon ascension is advertised for the afternoon. One would suppose, too, that the Roman gladiatorial shows were revived, for at one spectacle is a contest between a man and a bear. Cockfights, dog-fights, and fandangos are announced in every quarter of the city. Horse-racing, the circus, jugglers, posture-masters, tumblers, fireeaters, concerts, coffee gardens, fencing - matches, pigeon-shooting, gymnastic exercises, country excursions, balls graduated to every pocket, form but a fraction of the entertainments to which this day is devoted. In the afternoon the public promenades are thronged, and the long array of equipages, with the rich and gay dresses of the senoras, is calculated to convey an impression of the wealth and luxury of the city. In the evening the theatre presents a spectacle, which probably few theatres in the world can parallel. The beauty, elegance, wealth, and luxury of Mexico, seem concentrated into one brilliant focus.

The finale of the day is generally wound up by a splendid display of fire-works; and thus concludes a Mexican Sunday-and in no other part of the world, probably, is a Sunday so spent-not even in Italy.

THE second Nicene Council declares that the veneration of images was a practice, which had always been in the Christian Church from the time of Christ and his apostles. Now we have authority for asserting that the Christians had no images in their churches in the time of the emperors Severus and Dioclesian. El Lamprid. vit. Severi, cap. 43. Baluz. Misc., Tom. ii. p. 374. The Carpocratian heretics were the persons who made, and privately worshipped, the images of Christ and St. Paul. Iren. ado. Hær., l. 1, c. 2; Aug. in Psal. 113; Damasc. de Hær. ap. Cotelr. Tom. 1, p. 287. The orthodox party gave no honour to images, for fear of complying with the vulgar, and making them think there was some kind of divinity in them."-Orig. in Celsum, lib. 7. They even went so far as to declare that there could be no religion where there was any image."-Lactant. Inst. l. 2, c. 19. And when Epiphanius found a painted veil with the picture of Christ or of some saint upon it in a Church, he tore it and forbade the use of such pictures. -Ep. ad Joan. Hier. Augustine said that "they deserved to err who sought for Christ and his apostles on painted walls, and not in their holy writings."-De Consens. Evang. lib. 1, cap. 10. Chrysostom writes, "that the Christians enjoyed the presence of the saints in their discourses, not having the images of their bodies but their souls, for their sayings are the images of their minds."-Cit. in Conc. Nic. 2, p. 655.

When the Fathers reproved the heathens for adoring images, and they made the same excuse which Roman Catholics now make, viz., that it was not the image but the thing represented which they worshipped, it was rejected as an excuse without a foundation. It is quite clear, then, that they did not, by the images, adore the things represented.-Lactant. Instit. l. 2, c. 2.; Arnob. adv. Gent. lib. 6; Orig. in Cels., l. 7; August. in Psal. 113. Conc. 2. Eusebius speaks of some new converts who had images of Peter, Paul, and Christ, but adds, that it was after the Pagan fashion. Hist., lib. 7, c. 8. And it was only some of the ignorant multitude who began to worship images in Augustine's time.-Aug. de morib. Eccles. Cathol., l. 1. Afterwards when some zealous bishops defaced and broke such images and pictures as the vulgar adored, Pope Gregory declared

that "they might retain the images, but must teach the people not to adore them." -Greg. Mag., lib. 7. Ep. 109. The second council of Nice contradicted the received doctrine of the Church in decreeing expressly that images should be adored.-Conc. Nic. 2. Act. 5 and 7. And the Roman Catechism contradicts Pope Gregory, and says that "they are set in churches that they may be worshipped."-Cat. Rom., p. 415. The decrees of the assembly at Nice were soon after condemned in the East, (Platin. vit. Adrian, p. 121,) and rejected_by the Council of Frankfort, and the Emperor Charles in the West.-Aventin. Annal, 7. 4. In the 12th century the monks of Sempringham, in England, decreed that "they would have no superfluous carving or painting in their monasteries or churches, for by minding those things, the profit of divine meditation, and the seriousness of religious discipline, is often neglected."-Monast. Aug. Tom. 2, p. 725. An. Dom. 1148. How, then, can this be either an ancient or Catholic doctrine, which was not believed at all old, and never was generally received by all churches?

BABYLON-ROME.

Dr. Delahogue, a professor at Maynooth College, in his Tractatus de Ecclesia, thus expresses himself: "Cæterum nedum affirmari possit, Scripturas prorsus silere de sede Petri Romæ collocata; longè probabilius est illius facti mentionem fieri in his quibus Petrus primam suam Epistolam absolvit, Salutat vos Ecclesia, quæ est in Babylone coelecta: Id enim si conferatur cum iis, quæ Apocal. ch. xvii. vers. 5 et 9, leguntur de Babylone magnâ, quæ habet septem montes, quæque ex vers. 18, est civitas magna, quæ habet super reges terræ, non obscure percipitur per Babylonem Petrum indicare Romam ipsam, ut exposuit Tertul. Euseb. S. Hieron, S. August, Orosius et alii. Babylonis autem nomine designata fuit Roma, propter omnes omnium gentium superstitiones et errores, quos tunc adaptaverat. Нӕс expositio iterum confirmatur eo quod nullibi, nec in Scripturis, nec apud Ecclesiasticos Scriptores legatur, Petrum Evangelium praedicavisse aut Babylone in Egypto, aut Babylone in Chaldæa.". Page 347.

ANON.

THE MAY MEETINGS.-The full details of our religious anniversaries come so largely before the public in other ways, that it is superfluous for us to enter into them; otherwise there is no ground that we could possibly occupy with greater satisfaction, convinced as we are that our religious institutions are amongst the most important of our national bulwarks, and not the least those which recognise the responsible duty we have to perform in regarding as our neighbours even the inhabitants of the remotest corners of the universe.

We shall content ourselves with making some general remarks on the May Meetings. And, in the first place, we cannot but express our thankfulness for the improved tone of the meetings from year to year. There is manifestly less of man and more of God; less of flattery and idolatry of the creature; less appearance of reliance on the sufficiency of human agency and human patronage and countenance, and more simple ascription of glory and praise to Him to whom alone they are due. We trust we may see the day when all noisy acclamation will vanish, and all manifestations of favouritism and individual preference will be absent: for it is the cause which should produce one continuous and hearty feeling of exultation and interest, and not an idolatrous attachment to the peculiar individual who advocates it. But this evil is diminishing, and our meetings are more and more characterized as the meetings of a chastened and holy solemnity.

It is manifest that there is no abatement of public interest in the meetings. The attendance was, if any thing, much larger than usual, especially at the meeting of the British and Foreign Bible Society, which was much fuller than it has been for some years. That of the Church Missionary Society was SO excessively crowded, that it was impossible JUNE-1848.

to get a seat a few minutes after the chair was taken, or even standingroom where there was any possibility of hearing.

There was another important feature characterizing the meetings generally, and that was the announcement, on the one hand, of largely increasing openings for promising usefulness, and on the other hand, of diminished resources. We trust that this critical state of things will be duly and speedily reflected upon by God's faithful servants. It is a position which cannot be stationary: nor can the world's wants languish and cease because of our failure to supply them. The promises of God forbid this. "When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them." word of promise shall be fulfilled, but the question is, by what agency? If we in England fail to rise to the calls of a needy world, may we not expect that a faithful God will find out other labourers for his vineyard, and transfer from us to them the glory and privilege of working out his designs of grace and mercy? We have a strong conviction that our present position is most critical. Never was there a time when the cry was so general and so urgent-"Come over and help us." Never should there have been a period when the means were more commensurate with the demand.

This

Now, the great thing wanted is for Christians to awake to the due consideration of what God has a right to expect from them as his almoners. The times are peculiar, and especially require a full and impartial apportionment of our talents. We are persuaded that it is not to the middle classes or the lower that we must look for enlarged supplies. It is the period of perplexity and distress of nations, and few persons have any

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conception of the straits and difficulties prevailing in lower life. We are certain that the faithful followers of Christ there are giving to their power, yea, and beyond their power. No; the loudest and most palpable call of the times is for those who are in easy and independent circumstances, who are making money prosperously and laying by for all the strange uncertainties of the future, who never know what it is to deny themselves a gratification which they greatly wish for— the call is for them to begin to throw into the Lord's treasury, not only in a way more proportioned to their means, and the importance of the objects proposed to them, but under the conviction that they have to give for others also; for others who would give but cannot, who would be willing and happy helpers of the Lord, but who are now called from the exercise of active to passive duties. Is there anything unreasonable and unchristian in a man's thus reason

ing?" 'The Lord's work must be done; the moral, and spiritual, and temporal wants of mankind must be supplied. The pressure of the times is most severely felt by the mass of the community: the poor are out of work, and can scarcely obtain the necessaries of life: the shopkeepers of necessity feel the consequences: many must be living on their capitals. I witness the wreck of merchants and manufacturers on all sides of me. Through the mercy of God I stand; and I prosper in the world; I lay by my hundreds, perhaps thousands, in the year. I have saved what may be deemed abundantly enough for my children, and certainly as much as is safe for them. (But how many men of wealth are there who have no children to provide for!) Now I must begin to act on new principles, I must supply the lack of others. Sovereign subscriptions will not suffice; I must give my hundreds, aye, my thousands and all little enough to give to Him who gave his dear Son for me, and with Him also freely gives me all things." Is there anything unscriptural in this mode of reasoning? No; the apostle in his Epistle to the Corinthians shews

plainly what the Scripture rule is; and that if the supplies in one section of the Church of Christ fail, another should supply the lack; not that one part should be unnecessarily eased and another wantonly burdened, but that there may be equality; "That your abundance may be a supply for their want, that there may be equality; as it is written, He that had gathered much had nothing over; and he that had gathered little had no lack!" (2 Cor. viii.)

This is what the times loudly call for. There is abundance of wealth in this land still in existence for all the Lord's work throughout the world; abundance that might be thrown into the Lord's treasury without injury to any relative claim or interest. There is many an individual even, who might easily, without the least injury to himself or his family, make up all the deficiencies in the past year of our great religious institutions. A sum of one hundred thousand pounds would probably put all their incomes up to the mark of the preceding year. Another similar sum might probably suffice to enable them to meet new claims immediately before them. There is many a wealthy banker, and merchant, and manufacturer, and many a one withdrawn from business altogether, who, if he did but rightly understand the object of wealth, and duly appreciated the luxury of its ministration, could as easily give his cheque for a sum of this magnitude, as the mass of the community are imparting their scanty subscriptions. We have got upon singularly revolutionary times. ready the God of heaven gives us signs of that moral and spiritual order which he can bring out of the chaos of the world's confusion and perplexity. And we are not without hope that the very peculiar visitations of the mercantile world, the failure of the strongest and largest houses, the pressure chiefly on those whose mountain seemed so strong that they never should be moved, the singular rapidity and caprice with which wealth takes wings and departs, will open men's eyes to the right use of riches, and lead them to make the only safe

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and rational investments, making to themselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when they fail they may be received into everlasting habitations.

We have referred to the unprecedented openings for usefulness. Of this the meetings afforded abundant evidence. As it respects the parts of the Continent in which anarchy and revolution have so largely prevailed. It was well, and we believe truly, stated, that barriers have been broken down which stood in the way of the free course of the Gospel. The ground is ploughed up, however roughly, for the reception of the seed of the kingdom; and it was represented by foreigners as well as others, that never perhaps was there a period when the husbandman might go forth and sow his seed with greater proImise of an abundant harvest. The

Rev. Mr. Arthur gave a most remarkable description of what he had witnessed in Paris. He had mixed himself with the people as far as he could with safety, during the insurrectionary movement, for the express purpose of ascertaining, as largely as possible, the principles on which men were acting, and the expectations they had in view. He stated that it was truly wonderful to discover the consternation and awe which universally prevailed. All were completely at a loss to account on any given principles for what had occurred. There seemed to be one strong and generally prevailing idea that a higher power than that of man was at work, and that the God of heaven was overruling all in his mysterious wisdom.

Oh that we may all, then, be led to come forth to the help of the Lord against the mighty! Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing!

The Church Missionary Meeting was rendered specially interesting by the reference which was made to its jubilee position, it being in its 50th year from the commencement. It is contemplated to mark this event in some substantial manner, and to make it the ground of appeal to its supporters for enlarged efforts to meet its demands. We trust that this

will not be in vain. We need not say what a sunshine was spread over both the Church Missionary and Bible meetings by the presence of the Primate, and his hearty and efficient participation in the proceedings of each day; in the former as chairman, and in the latter as the mover of the first resolution. Not many more lovely pictures have been exhibited than that of the venerable Lord Bexley led to the chair of the Bible meeting, for the last time, by the archbishop. It was a glorious exit from his presidency of the Bible Society, one that he could never have contemplated: and who can pretend to estimate all the ramifications of healthy spiritual influence which this happy appointment to the primacy is calculated to effect! Long, long may Archbishop Sumner be spared to throw the oil of Christian charity over the troubled waters of our poor distracted Church. He takes the helm in times of no ordinary difficulty and perplexity; but the humility, and simplicity, and experience, and, above all, the prayerfulness with which he takes it, give the best security for the efficient discharge of his varied and important duties. It is a gratifying fact that even the Church of Scotland returned public thanks for his appointment. We trust that prayer will not be wanting on his behalf for an abundant supply of those gifts and graces which are so essentially necessary for this high office.

THE NEWSPAPERS-PROPHECY. -It is curious to observe how even the newspapers of the day in the provinces as well as the metropolis are constrained by passing events to make reference to the subject of prophecy. We scarcely wonder at it; for that mind must be strangely constituted which can witness passing events, apart from the testimony of the divine word, touching the latter days, and what we may expect to be coming on the earth. But newspaper editors have to cater for the public taste, and, therefore, the subjects they take up may be fairly regarded as forming the information which the public relish. May we