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Because other communities increase, the Church of England does not on that account lose ground. It is ours, in the simplicity of faith to sow the seed; to the Lord our God we must leave the increase; and we may rest assured that the Church of England, though she may lose all by the lukewarmness and inactivity of her ministers, can never be injured in her best interests by their humble zeal and persevering. activity.

to newness of life. The heart and ness.
affections are now expanded, and all
bigotry against religious persons, as
such, is removed. They now love all
those who love the Lord Jesus; they
seek their society, and find it delight-
ful to them. In this state of mind,
for want of that communion of saints
which, though recognised in our
creed, is too little thought of in our
practice; for want, further, of that
godly discipline and mutual watch-
ing of the faithful over each other,
which are unhappily obsolete within
our pale; and from the neglect, also,
of that affectionate intercourse which
should subsist between the spiritual
pastor and his flock, and by which
the most timid might be encouraged
to apply to him in all their doubts
and difficulties; they are perhaps
led to form a connexion with the
Methodists, or some other religious
community.

The best remedy for the Church of England, under such discouragements, I conceive to be the adoption of a well-arranged system of layagency, as recommended by the Bishop of Chester, and in other judicious and influential quarters, and often urged in your own pages; particularly by B. C., in your Number for last November. E. S. L. mentions only "the piety and pastoral activity of the clergyman," and omits" the organized system of lay-agency." His remark, therefore, will only strengthen the advice of B. C., who recommends the use of the latter in addition to the former, to counteract the effect of which he complains.

Yet, after all, even supposing that the zeal of a clergyman does for a while tend indirectly to increase the number of Dissenters; is it not better that a man should be a pious Dissenter than an ignorant, worldly, Churchman? If out of twenty persons, awakened from a state of spiritual lethargy by means of a pious and active clergyman, nineteen were to become Dissenters; the Church would have more reason to rejoice in the one that remains, than in the whole twenty in their former state of dark

F. F.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer.

I fear that your correspondent E. S. L. is too correct in his conjecture that the accession of a pious and zealous clergyman to a parish may indirectly, and for a time, increase the opponent ranks of Dissent; especially where the parish had been pre-occupied by a very different kind of pastor, or where a very different kind of pastor succeeds after his departure. But I doubt whether yourself or your readers, especially your clerical and episcopal readers, would venture to explore with me the real origin of the evil. That origin I must honestly assert to be, the corruptions and secularization of our whole practice-I do not say our system, for the Church encourages no such system. A Dissenting Congregation chooses for its pastor. one whom the members believe to be a man of God, anxious to save himself and those that hear him. This plan has many attendant evils, and I do not wish to see it generally in operation in our own church; for if private patronage is a bad thing, popular elections are usually a worse. But the Dissenting plan at least secures, generally speaking, what the flock to be ministered to consider a true basis of piety, and a fair measure of ministerial competency. But in our Church, thousands of boys are educated for the priest's office for a morsel of bread. All our grammarschools, scholarships, fellowships; the sale, purchase, and pecuniary value of presentations and advowsons; the permission of pluralities; the bait of

too large livings and splendid dignities; all tend to force into the Church a majority-I say advisedly a majority of clergymen not supremely attached to the office. They may be persons highly respectable in character and attainments, and act up to the average standard of clerical performance; but they are not men who, at years of discretion, if all other things had been equal-if there had been no bonus upon the Church; if they had not been trained for it; and if they could have attained as respectable and influential a station in society, and rather superior ease or emolument, without assuming the sacred office would have been impelled to it by the whole current of their affections; have taken to it as West did to painting, or Professor Lee to languages. There are not a few men in the land who would do so, but the door is not open to them; and many of them in consequence become Dissenting ministers. Now, while the majority is constituted as above alluded to, the inevitable consequence will be, that the spirituallyminded minority will incidentally generate dissent; and this in the exact proportion in which they create wants which their brethren do not addict themselves to supply-in fact, do not understand, and never made any part of their studies.

The remedy for all this is obvious; but it is, I fear, too sweeping, too "revolutionary," too much opposed to the whole existing corrupt system of patronage, private interest, academical prejudice, secular partizanship, and churchmongering, to allow any hope of its speedy adoption. But we live in wonderful days; and the time may therefore possibly arrive, when an arch-prelate shall stand up in the House of Lords, and state that himself and his brethren have deliberately planned, and determined to carry into effect, or to be crushed in the effort, a measure for the effectual regulation of the whole church: for giving to every parish a resident, fairly-remunerated clergyman; for abolishing sinecures and pluralities;

for throwing overboard all the partial splendid baits that attract ambition and avarice; for making the Church a really spiritual and supremely beneficial institution; and for giving to the public, without fear or favour or affection, without preference to this or that school or party or college, the most pious and zealous ministers they can procure,-sound divines, attached friends of the Church, and men anxious for the immortal interests of the people. The difficulties in accomplishing such an object would be formidable; but they would be nothing, compared with those which were arrayed against the Catholic Question, or the new Reform Bill. Those who have lived upon the corruptions of the Church; those who look to the perpetuation of them, for the emolument of themselves, and their families, and children's children

from the higher class of claimants, who would think it a gross injustice if they could not always command a mitre and a few splendid pluralities and sinecures for their connexions and dependants, to the lowest grasper for corporation preferment, and the sordid trader in advowsons-would stand aghast at such a second reformation: and oh what predictions would there be of ruin to church and state! what complaints of robbery, spoliation, and sacrilege! what contention for vested wrongs! what horror of mind, that a man of zeal and learning and ability and piety, without a friend, might chance to be provided for, and probably would be provided for; while an ecclesiastical lounger, with a host of patrons at his back, could not get beyond a family living! But all this would soon blow away, and the good would remain to future ages. The great mass of the British public-all that is sound, honest, intelligent, and religious among us-would rise up as a man in defence of the measure. bishops would be more popular, with a good, a virtuous, and not ephemeral popularity, than their seven predecessors of former days: the outcry against tithes and offerings

The

would be silenced, or would lead to such regulations in favour of the Church as would rejoice the hearts of all her faithful children; the best welfare of the people, the real dignity and honour of the Church, and the happiness and respectability of the clergy, be greatly enhanced; and, above all, the glory of God, and the eternal interests of the souls of men, be abundantly promoted. And is not this a consummation to be wished? Is there no man who will devote himself to secure it? One single prelate, dedicating his life to the object, in a manner worthy of its moment, might live to see it accomplished.

A REAL FRIEND TO THE CHURCH.

ON THE SIMPLICITY OF THE GOSPEL

NARRATIVES.

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To the Editor of the Christian Observer. IN your Number for September last I laid before your readers some instances of the simplicity with which the Evangelists record the objections of our Lord's enemies, and then leave them to their own merits, without any attempt at reply or explanation. The same characteristic appears in a passage of St. John's sixth chapter. The Jews are, in ver. 42, represented as murmuring because Christ had declared himself "the Bread which came down from heaven :" Is not this," they ask, "Jesus the Son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it, then, that he saith, I came down from heaven?" Not the slightest confutation of this attack is attempted, either by the Saviour or his biographer. He enters immediately upon an awful declaration of the nature of that unbelief to which his opponents were enslaved; leaving his hearers to draw the inference, that no arguments, however clear, could have overcome the perverseness of their will. Without any further notice of their cavil, he then again" takes up his parable" of the living Bread," expressing in

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stronger and clearer terms the very doctrine which had been so offensive to his Jewish hearers.

To the same purpose may be cited John vii. 27, 28. Some persons present at the Feast of Tabernacles make the following remark upon the pretensions of Christ: "We know this man whence he is; but when Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence he is." This opinion may have arisen from the words of Isaiah (ix. 6); "Unto us a Child is born... and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor;" or from a fixed expectation that some appearances of mystery must attend the advent of one so illustrious. But however this be, they were not prepared for a Christ sprung (as was commonly reputed) from mean parents in a disreputable village of Galilee. Now, had these Jews, instead of listening to their prepossessions, inquired into the real circumstances of the case, they would have learned that Christ was not, as they supposed, a native of Nazareth, and that his birth was truly attended with circumstances the most mysterious and supernatural. Now, had our Saviour been an ordinary teacher, he must have perceived that the safety of his cause was at stake, and would doubtless have taken care to provide a full, clear, and elaborate answer to this cavil of his enemies; or, at least, if St. John had been an ordinary writer, he would not have failed to have put such an answer into the lips of his Master. It is difficult, on that supposition, to discover for what reason he could have introduced this remark; but, when inserted, to leave it unanswered, would be a proof of extreme carelessness, if not of infatuation. It is true, a careful and candid reader of the four Gospels might readily extract from them a refutation of the quibble; but all, especially in those times of struggle and difficulty, were not such readers. It was admitted, on all hands, that Christ was the reputed son of a carpenter of Nazareth. St. John himself had given no relation of his wonderful conception,

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or birth at Bethlehem all informa- when considered abstractedly, seem tion on this point must be gleaned of little moment; but which unlearned from the writings of his brethren; writers, who feel a vivid interest in and a reference to these was a cir- . their subject, would be likely to recumstance upon which the Evangelist cord. We are apt to attach a minute could scarcely venture to calculate. and familiar interest to things we Would it not, then, appear altogether have ourselves witnessed; we relate incumbent upon him to remove the them in the simple order in which difficulty he had started, if we sup- they occur to our minds, without pose he trusted to any thing but the comment, often without connexion, miraculous evidence of his cause? or even apparent object. A writer Let us see, then, whether the answer who has any sinister design is differof Christ undertakes to confute this ently circumstanced. He will be Rabbinical cavil: "Ye both know anxious that every thing should conme, and ye know whence I am.' tribute to his main design; that These words, as they are here re- nothing should be lost; that there corded, appear ambiguous. It is true, should be no appearence of omission, the manner in which they were ut- inadvertency, or incoherence; that tered might have made them suffi- he should not be charged with an ciently intelligible to the Jews; but impertinent or needless remark. Let this was a circumstance which the this test be applied to a passage in Evangelist, in committing them to the xvth chapter of St. Mark. It writing, could scarcely have had in was the ordinary Roman custom for view. Commentators are rather di- criminals to bear their own crosses vided respecting the proper mode of to the place of execution. Furcifer explaining their import: Beza and became a term of the most extreme Camerarius suppose them ironical: ignominy. As the Redeemer was to Doddridge would throw the phrase drink to the very dregs the cup into an interrogative form: while which his Father had given him, and Whitby and Macknight seem to un- as he makes a remarkable and inderstand it literally. But there apstructive allusion to "taking up the pears, in some degree, an intentional cross," it would appear most proambiguity in the words: it was bable that his biographers should doubtless one of those occasions on represent him in that degraded siwhich our Saviour did not choose to tuation. Nevertheless, without assign"cast his pearls before swine," by ing any reason, St. Mark, in the affording his enemies that light which, 21st verse of the chapter just cited without dispelling their prejudices, (in which point he is also confirmed would aggravate their unbelief. But by Matthew and Luke), devolves this the point upon which I would more office upon another: not upon one of particularly insist is, that his reply the soldiers, not upon any prisoner, displays no solicitude to take off the nor inhabitant even, of Jerusalem, edge of the preceding objection. The but upon "one Simon, a Cyrenian, question between Christ and his who passed by, coming out of the enemies is fearlessly left to its own country." Nor is it mentioned in merits. In short, if we consider the order to lend verisimilitude to the Evangelist as any thing but an in- story that he was known or suspected spired recorder of the truth, the to be a disciple of Christ. One parremark of the Jews becomes at once ticular, indeed, is added by St. Mark, unnecessary and inconvenient, the which, while calculated to draw the answer vague and unsatisfactory: attention of his readers to this peran untaught writer would never have son, seems yet nothing at all to his thought of either, an artful writer main purpose: this Simon, he tells would never have risked them. us, was "the father of Alexander and Rufus." Had he related that he was the son of such a one, there

There are many circumstances in the lives of eminent individuals which,

would have been nothing surprising; for this phrase is extremely common in the Eastern languages, and also in Greek; but why add the names of his children? Either they were persons well known among the ancient Christians, or otherwise. If they were well known, it must also have been known whether Simon himself was really treated in the manner here described: there is a tacit appeal to the knowledge which he and his family possessed of the death of Christ, and of the prodigies by which it was accompanied and followed. From whence, then, could this proceed, but from the boldness of conscious truth? But if Alexander and Rufus were unknown, why introduce their names? Such an allusion must then not only have appeared vain and impertinent, but must naturally have led to the question, among contemporary persons, who are these individuals spoken of as familiarly known in the church? never heard of them. Hence would have arisen a suspicion little creditable to the Christian history. Upon the whole, I cannot think that a writer anxious to produce rather things probable than things true, would have entangled himself with an allusion so apparently superfluous and inconvenient.

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The following passages appear characterized by marks no less decisive of ingenuousness and plaindealing.

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John i. 37, 38.-From the picture which John the Baptist had drawn of the Saviour, it is far from surprising that the disciples here mentioned should be inclined to follow him; but when Jesus turns round with the sudden question, What seek ye?" we seem to expect that a more important answer will be returned than, "Rabbi, where dwellest thou?" As these individuals are hereafter to occupy a prominent place in the history, most writers would have been glad to put in their mouth some confession of faith, some avowal of their spiritual wants, or at least of a desire to witness the glory of the

long-expected Messiah. But, if I mistake not, the insignificance of their question, though perhaps less dignified, was more natural. They were simple fishermen, unpractised in courtly phrase, or learned inquireis; the appearance of Christ had heightened that impression of awe with which John's portrait had inspired them; something more than curiosity induced them to follow his steps, timidly, at some distance. When, therefore, our Saviour unexpectedly turned round and questioned them, they were probably disconcerted, and, suppressing their real feelings, contented themselves with simply asking, Where dwellest thou?” Yet, in part from this incident, apparently so trivial, resulted (as we frequently experience in real life) consequences the most extensive and momentous.

John xx. 2.—It would have reflected more credit upon the first disciples of Christ, if Mary Magdalen, who was remarkable for her faith and affection, had at this juncture discovered some suspicion of the truth of the resurrection; but if we examine further into the feelings of the human breast, we shall find it natural that a powerful prejudice (especially one which interests the passions and imagination) should take such possession of ignorant minds as to sweep away or smother the suggestions of reason and common-sense. Such a feeling becomes a partial madness, and imparts its colour to every object which is presented to the understanding. Prepossessed with the idea that Christ was about to assume his kingdom, and that he could not possibly submit to death, they were thrown into dismay and perplexity by his actual crucifixion. The discourse of two of their number on the road to Emmaus, may express the state of their minds upon this interesting subject. Their affection, indeed, for their Master's person still subsisted, but they entertained no hope of his reappearance upon earth, and were inclined to shut up their ears and un

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