affected by it, such a harmleés speculation might be tolerated. But a hearty belief in this doctrine constitutes the difference between an evangelical Protestant and a superstitious Papist; between one who adheres to the canonical Scriptures simply, and one whose faith has several objects to which it must be directed, and all considered to be of equal importance; or, to use the language of the Bishop of Oxford, a hearty belief alike in the sacraments of the Church, her creeds, her orders, and her Bible.'”

We now give a sketch of the way in which Mr. Harris proceeds in discussing the questions at issue. He first produces proof in numerous quotations from the writings of the ringleaders of the Romeward movement in the Church of England, showing that the principles advocated by the most influential parties in that movement, and the ritualistic forms practised, are unequivocally Popish. He shows also, that one reason why perverts to the communion of the Popish community are less numerous than they have been, is, that they have now Popery, totheir hearts' content within the pale of the Church of England, or perhaps that the Jesuits see that they are more likely to have England subdued to the dominion of the Pope, by the increase of the friends of the Papacy within the English Church, than by secessions from it to the Romish communion.

Mr. Harris also examines the passages of Scripture on which the advocates of Apostolic succession put a false interpretation, and proves that the early fathers of the Christian Church gave them a very interpretation, and more in harmony with their true meaning.

As a specimen of his argument, we give the following :—

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"That Christ was sent by the Father to be the great Apostle, Bishop, and Pastor of the Church, is a most certain, and, to us, most blessed truth, and the Holy Scripture quoted on which it rests unquestionable, and which shall be here given in fullWherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.' But when Dr. Wordsworth affirms that Christ commissioned His Apostles to execute the SAME Apostolic, Episcopal, and Pastoral office with which He Himself had been entrusted by the Father in their own persons and that of their successors, he affirms what is not true, and profanes Holy Scripture in quoting it for such a purpose. If we take the Apostle Paul to be the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, then we have an Apostle, on the authority of Divine inspiration, 'in nothing behind the chiefest Apostles,' representing Christ, then glorified, as being an Apostle and High Priest of his profession, and teaching the Hebrews and others so to regard him. It did not enter into the mind of Paul that he was the successor to the Apostleship of Christ."

"Had Christ, or could He bave, any successor in this respect?" For instance, to ask a practical question founded on the teaching of Dr. Wordsworth and his brethren-Are the Bishop of Oxford and the Bishop of Natal-two cases where extremes nearly meet-by virtue of their consecration as. Bishops, successors to the Apostleship of Christ; or is any Bishop or any man, however orthodox or holy, that successor? The beloved disciple and Apostle who reclined on his Divine Master's bosom in the days of His humiliation, when he saw Him again, "fell," as well he might, "at his feet as one dead." (Rev. i. 17.) But many

of these Anglo-Catholics, who strain at a gnat and swallow a camel, will turn in worship towards the east because they say Christ came from the east (which is a profane misconception), and make obesiance to a table on which the elements are accustomed to be placed for the celebration of the Lord's Supper, while they arrogate to themselves prerogatives, some of which belong exclusively to the Lord Jesus Christ, and others as exclusively to His holy Apostles.

He shows also that the individuals to whom the Anglicans ascribe the title of Bishops or Apostles in the primitive Church were invested with no such office.

"We have no proof whatever," he says, "that Barnabas was an Apostle in any other sense than that he was sent by men, under the direction of the Holy Ghost, on a missionary tour."

But was Barnabas an Apostle as Paul was? No. Barnabas and Paul, as missionaries, were sent by men.

"But Paul himself affirms that he was not sent by men." "He also declared, ‘Am I not an Apostle? Have I not seen the Lord Jesus Christ?' In neither of these Benses was Barnabas an Apostle."

But our space and our time prohibit us from enlarging much further on the matter and merits of this volume as a treasury of information as to the sentiments and views of the fathers of the primitive Church. It is necessary to remark, that the copious extracts given from the writings of these fathers are not adduced by our author in the way of approving of the sentiments held by them, but as containing clear evidence that they did not hold the doctrine of Apostolic succession through the diocesan bishops, as now advocated by certain Romanising parties in the Church of England; and of this abundant proof is furnished in their writings, in which presbyters are again and again spoken of as the successors of the Apostles and of the bishops in the position given them as having no Divine sanction, but a human device and the result of custom. The words of Jerome, one of the ablest and best of the fathers, are "Therefore, as we have shown among the ancients, presbyters were the same as bishops; but by degrees, that the plants of descension might be rooted out (under this plea), all responsibility was transferred to one person. Therefore, as the presbyters know that it is by custom that they are subject to him who is placed over them, so let the bishops know that they are above the presbyters rather by custom than by Divine appointment, and ought to rule the Church in common." So far is the consent of the fathers, as found in their writings, from being a standard of any value for the guidance of the Church as a rule of faith and practice, that they are a mass of confusion. Such are the sentiments found in the writings of the earliest fathers, that it is difficult to believe that any so near the Apostolic age could have so far departed from the simplicity and spirit of Apostolic teaching; that there is strong

presumptive evidence that the things ascribed to them are interpolations by transcribers of their works after Popery was fully developed, in order that these fathers might be made to furnish their sanction to their errors and superstitions.

Without entering on the consideration of the "catena" of the English Reformers, and their sentiments as to the office of bishop and presbyter or elder, in whose writings, as well as those of the primitive fathers, there are doubtful things on other points, we conclude this notice with the following extract, as a specimen of the spirit and power with which our author conducts his arguments. It is as follows:

"The most complete account of bishops aud presbyters, as they existed in the fourth century, is found in Jerome's Commentary on the Epistle to Titus. Timothy is expressly called an evangelist, and exhorted to fulfil the office of the same. Titus, however, is not so called; and if any person could in any full sense hold the place of an Apostle, or succeed to the power and authority of Apostleship, that person was Titus. Yet he is represented by Jerome as standing in the same relation to the Apostle Paul as an ordinary workman to a master builder. Surely this was the occasion for Jerome to have given some hint of the inflated notions of these Angli cans, if in any respect he had entertained them; and it would seem as if Dr. Wordsworth thought he had, at least he has so manipulated this part of his writings as to make it appear that he taught that Titus had Apostolic power and was in the place of the Apostle Paul, and that from that time he became the local and permanent Bishop of Crete. But all this is directly contrary to what Jerome has taught in his Commentary on the Epistle to Titus." "After pointing out

the sad abuses respecting the promotion of the clergy which had then crept into the Church, he (Jerome) distinctly affirins, that in the New Testament a presbyter is the same as a bishop, that a Church was governed by a Common Council of presbyters; but in consequence of dissensions arising in the Church, and Presbyters claiming those whom they baptized as their own, the common expedient of having one person placed over the rest, and to whom all the care of the Church should belong, became the general practise of the Church. He enters into an elaborate argument, based entirely on the evidence of Holy Scripture, that originally, and in the time of the Apostles, there was no difference between a presbyter and a bishop."

As a book of reference in these times, when such questions are likely to become, extensively, subjects of discussion, this work of Mr. Harris' will prove an acquisition of no ordinary value. While the extracts show that the doctrine of Apostolic succession through the line of diocesan bishops, and the office itself in this aspect of it, or as above that of presbyter, have no countenance from antiquity-they also demonstrate what a miserable guide the teaching of the most of these fathers are in ecclesiastical affairs, either as to doctrine or practise. In all respects, except the prestige of antiquity, the writings of the fathers of the Reformation, in the latter part of the 16th and the first part of the 17th centuries, far excel those of the fathers of the primitive Church.

Images on the Windows of Churches; Protest against them. THIS tractate consists of letters by an influential layman in his parish to the Bishop of Oxford, protesting against images painted or figures de

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picted on the windows after its repair. They are able and faithful, and the answers of the Bishop are little better than evasions. How sad is it that, instead of standing side by side with the orthodox and faithful in the Church of England in opposition to the Romanisers in that Church, by the begun introduction of painted windows into Presbyterian Churches in Scotland, we are taking the side of the papistical party in their Romeward movement. The correspondence is concluded by Mr Clarke in these judicious words :—

"Looking round on the Greek and Roman Churches, and calling to mind what has once been, and even now is in this land, reflect whether it is not wisest, with drawing fine and perplexing distinctions to listen quietly to the homily (that of the English Church against peril of idolatry and superfluous decking of churches'), and turn out of our churches all imagery, however indifferent in itself, no matter whether in windows or on walls, and as 'corbel heads' are to be used as an argument for images in churches (the Bishop had done so), by all means let them disappear-they are often ridiculous and always superfluous.''

The Faithful Minister a “Burning and Shining Light." A Discourse, preached in the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Loanhead, on Sabbath, July 8, 1866, on the occasion of the death of Rev. William Anderson, A.M. By Thomas Houston, D.D. Knockbraken. Published by request.

THIS, as might be expected from the character of the preacher, is an able and faithful sermon. It was meet that one of a kindred spirit should address Mr. Anderson's congregation after his departure, and to Dr. Houston this belonged in an eminent degree. We would rather see the statement regarding Mr. Anderson, however just, appended to than made a head of the sermon. This has become common, but it is liable to great abuses. This remark is made with diffidence regarding the doing of a witness so distinguished as Dr. Houston. But justice to our sentiments demands it.

Australia as it is; or Facts and Features, Sketches and Incidents of Australia and Australian Life. With Notices of New Zealand. By a Clergyman, 13 years resident in the interior of New South Wales. London: Longmans, Green, & Co. 1867. THE title of this book is a very fair concise description of its character. The author has an extensive knowledge of a great variety of subjects and kinds of employment, which enables him to give a highly interesting record of the great variety of things which came under his own immediate notice during his sojourn in the Colony of New South Wales, and other places.

The descriptions given of the scenery in different parts of the country seem so many photographs. He gives also an interesting account of the different kinds of animals, birds, and reptiles, which is full of interest. But the power with which he details experiences of individuals in varied circumstances, the difficulties with which they had to grapple, chiefly as falling under his own notice, is one of the leading things which arrest

attention in reading the book. His eyes were about him everywhere, and his note-book seems to have been at hand to record what he saw, and the reliable information that reached his ear. His account of the aborigines and their rapid decay is sometimes appalling, in spite of the kindness which, it is pleasing to know, is often shown them by the colonists. There is much in the book calculated to be of great use to emigrants on their arrival in Australia.

We think, if in any case State aid in support of religion is more reasonably supplied than another, it must be where the inhabitants, as they are in New South Wales, are widely and sparcely spread over a great extent of country. Hence the degree in which the Sustentation Fund enables the Free Church to meet the wants of the Highlands. In these our views differ from those of the author. But the system of indiscriminate endowments practised there, as well as at home, is a kind of semi-infidelity.

The records which Mr. Morison gives of the effects of misgovernment in the colony, which he ascribes so far to universal suffrage, is lamentable. This is confirmed by an appeal to the native effect of certain enactments, and the incapacity of men raised to influential governmental positions. Though there may be some exaggeration-and the positions of our author have been controverted-facts and the natural operation of certain laws passed tend to show that there is too much, if not full ground for the statements, taken in connection with the demorialised state of so many of the inhabitants and undeniable maladministration. Did space permit, we might have given interesting extracts. Of the aborigines he says:

They are fast melting away, and continue to disappear rapidly before British settlers. The blankets supplied them, by the Colonial Governments, with the sugar, flour, meat, and clothing which they occasionally receive from settlers in payment of such service as stripping bark from trees, carrying water and firewood, would seem to act as so many distinctive agencies by enervating and debilitating their constitutions, and hastening their decline."

Of the New Zealanders, a very different race, he says:

"Their susceptibility to religious impressions, and their attachment to the outward observance of religion, are very remarkable. More strict observance of the Sabbath could not have been found anywhere than at a pah (a native village) at which I was present on a Sabbath. One native declined to speak to me, pointing with his finger towards the sky and saying it was Sabbath. In acting thus, he was following the injunctions understood to be given by the Missionaries to avoid intercourse with Europeans on the Sabbath."

Such, alas, is the example set by nominal Christians to the heathen over the world! How much is this calculated to counteract the influence of the teaching of missionaries. Sabbath desecration is a leading curse of lands called Christian. It is becoming the curse of Scotland to a mournful extent. This is utterly inconsistent with a life of faith, or of walking with God.