close communicants of any description. Those whose minds are so made that they are obliged by fate to believe that God wills nobody to take the Lord's Supper as the sign of the communion of good souls except the people who are persuaded that they ought to be immersed in adult years, and in whatever climate, must be left to their own imaginations. If this be not materialism in religion of the grossest description, and contrary to the express directions of the Apostles in relation to matters of conscientious difference on external signs (Romans xiv., 1-14), we do not understand the first elements of interpretation, or the first elements of brotherly love.

On the whole, we may conclude that church union is possible only IN GOD. The lower the spiritual life, the feebler the yearning after the communion of saints. The lower our level, the greater is our contentment with sects and parties. The higher we rise towards God, the more earnestly we long for union with all good men in fellowship, worship and labour, irrespectively of secondary opinions. We do not anticipate union so much from the chaffering of church leaders, or through the parleys of devout and wealthy chapel-builders, as from increased power in the spiritual life, and increased disgust with the narrowness, the bitterness, the weakness, and the hollowness of an effete denominationalism. So long as this survives, its organs and its silversmiths will throw discredit on projects of unification, since they have their "trade" by making shrines for this many-breasted Diana of party interest. But let truth be abundantly uttered into the air, and in time, if it cannot convert, it may carry off, like a beneficent plague, the incurable devotees of idolatry.

66

But some man will say, Suppose we were all willing to unite, what can be done with the edifices in bricks and mortar which stand like middle walls of partition between us; what can be done with the trust-deeds by which our fathers have ordained that we shall be bound in these chains, or else be cast forth houseless to the winds of heaven?' Ah! those trust-deeds! and those pious departed sectarians who engrossed them! The first thing to be done, would be to ascertain exactly what they demand, how far the interpretation of a liberal chancery might succeed in opening the doors of the buildings which they guard, how far the spirit of the people would support an application to Parliament for a permissive bill of incorporation. It is not all dark ahead! Many things become possible to the men of faith and purpose. It is useless to sit down wringing our hands at the thought of being descended from men whose narrowness was the legacy of years of persecution and one-sided nurture. Let us, at all events, make the attempt to apply the petard to the gates of the old fortress of party. Of what use are the (6 Two Boards" if they cannot help us in this matter? Meanwhile, let no more trust-deeds be made, involving the disputed

opinion. Let each party agree to relax a little of their excessive zeal, and to take the question of baptism out of the pulpit, and to provide convenient arrangements for both modes of baptism in the same building. The conviction of any particular minister on the subject would then cease to be of importance. The union of the two bodies in one large ecclesia would probably enable them to sustain ministers of each persuasion. But above all, let each party learn new feelings on the whole subject of discussion. The difference and the separation does more harm than the right opinion can do good, when cut off from communion with the people who hold the wrong. Sirs, are ye not brethren? Are ye not, perhaps, both a little prone to exaggeration? Do ye not (we presume to add) both believe in the same great principles of Independency, pure communion, and, above all, of evangelical truth? Is not union strength? Is it not wholesome to live with folks who differ from us in secondaries? And will not your union form a nucleus, the only possible, the only desirable nucleus, for a wider communion of saints?-Now, then friendly and hopeful reader, the little fire is kindled: it remains only for you to bring your pail of cold water, and to say, "I think nothing will come of it."

THE BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG in December, appears to have been little else than a gigantic massacre of the Federal forces, who were driven by folly or by destiny up to the flaming mouths of hundreds of guns to be swiftly swept away in bloodshed and confusion. We seem to see the living parallelograms of men covering the plain in the morning in detached masses, all eyes as the fog lifted up, directed hopefully to the heights upon the hills in front, which were if possible, to be carried before nightfall. With heavy tread the ascent commences under a brilliant sun, till they come within range of powerful artillery. The shots at first fly screaming, whistling, roaring, over head, or plough up the ground in trenches, or fall harmless in open spaces among the troops. But instantly the range is found, and the Federals receive the command to rush at the double up the incline, so as to seize by a coup de main, and hand to hand conflict, the position of the artillery. And now begins the slaughter of the life-long memorable day. Volleys of round shot cleave asunder the dense files of the ascending columns and

open tremendous lanes through the struggling multitudes— heads, arms, legs, bodies, muskets-flying in all directions around, amidst showers of blood, and loud outcries of departing souls. The survivors close up their ranks, and direct fierce faces again in firm array to the entrenched enemy as they press forward to the goal under the shouts of their commanders; but again flashes above them the angry sheet of flame from a wide six-mile semicircle of batteries, and amidst the tremendous thunder of the dis

charge a shower of interwoven balls from right, left, and front, cuts in every direction through the wavering throngs, who reel and stagger under the blow, as they see hundreds of men at once frightfully torn to pieces before their eyes by the shot and shell, which have harrowed their bleeding ranks, and left vast gaps in the battalions to the very rear. Önce more the brave survivors close in under the smoke, now in thinner formation, and under nearer cover of the batteries, and they rush with desparate valour upon the crest of the hill, but in vain. Before they can reach the summit or scale the turfy citadel, a fresh discharge of roundshot and shell, mingled now with the fusillade of the Confederate infantryrattles down upon them, and upon the tens of thousands who have followed the storming parties-in one wild hurricane of fire and iron hail. All command is lost in the havoc that follows: the men have been shot by fifties and by hundreds, the columns have been broken to pieces, the officers are blown to atoms; they turnthe small remnant-and rush in wild despair down the decline towards Fredericksberg, fresh blows following them as they fly, amidst the thunder and the shouting of the Confederate artillery. These fearful scenes were repeated again and again on the 14th of December, until General Burnside was driven to recross the Rappannannock in the dead and darkness of night, and to convey the crushed and bleeding residue of the 200,000 men of the Grand Army of the Potomac away from the presence of their triumphant foes.

In this instance Providence was on the side of the ablest commanders. It is clear trom the Honourable Frank Lawley's letter to the Times, of a date preceding the battle, that General Lee had deliberately contrived and set the frightful man-trap into which Burnside and his battalions fell with their eyes open. The effect of the insulting near approach to Washington of the Confederate forces, as provoking both Burnside and the North to an immediate attack, the sham defence of Fredericksberg, and of the banks of its river as encouraging the Federals to advance towards the transpontine position of the enemy-the range and the effect of the Confederate artillery on troops ascending to assault it-and above all the fury and weariness and rashness of the entire North, as forcing their general to an engagement which should hold out some hope of success-all had been calculated beforehand by the fireside in the tents of Lee, "Stonewall" Jackson, and Stuart, in the fastnesses and under the leafless trees of the Virginian forests; and the general result foretold with the confidence of prophecy. And all came to pass according to the visions of the military seers. The most tremendous blow has fallen upon the forces of the Union, and the chances of Northern victory are indefinitiely diminished. But no man can see many steps forward into the darkness of the future. One thing only is inevitable. The North reeling under these disas

trous shocks will lower its language to the level of ordinary mortals. These "whippers of creation" have been beaten by a fraction of their own provinces, and henceforth the residuary States will probably advance to the subjugation of the universe with more modest warcries on their lips. It is impossible not to congratulate the world upon the prospect of having to do hereafter with Americans who will not envenom strife by their absurd braggadocio. They have proved themselves as brave and resolute as the bravest of the AngloSaxons. But they have suffered, and suffering generally brings men to their senses. They will learn to eschew contempt as the vice of school-boys, and they will think twice before they venture hereafter to discount victory by presumption. England will have nobler rivals, and if the habit of American boasting and insult falls into disuse the chief cause of international dissension between us will be taken away. The Yankees, like the Egyptians, are clearly "men, and not God; and their horses are flesh, and not spirit;" not even such good horse-flesh as that of the Confederate cavalry.

We await the next move of the ragged regiments of Secessia with no slight interest. These slave-owners are admirable fighters, and it looks as if the Heavens had given the decisive generalship to the enemies of freedom. How confounded does the mind become between the claims of the contending factions. Who can help in a manner admiring psalm-singing Jackson of the South, the cool clear head of General Lee, the chivalrous dash of Stuart. We kindle towards men who wish for independence, who have felt the sting of the Yankee tongue, who can fight in rags and tatters with rifles and guns which they have themselves taken from the enemy.-But then there is "old Abe," made of iron wire, and his war is for "great ideas," for the unity of the Continent, for the eternity of the constitution, for the freedom of mankind, under equal rights and laws. On the one side they are fighting, as Mr. Hall truly says, "for the right to regard a fellow human creature as a mere chattel,—to appropriate all the produce of his labours,-to deny him education, to punish any who tries to teach him-to buy and sell him-to separate husband and wife, parent and child-to deny the marriage relation altogether-to accept no evidence from a negro in a court of justice-to punish and torture him at will-to insult woman's honour without redress." On the other they are fighting for the overthrow of an oligarchy of slaveowners,-but now it finally appears by methods from which philanthropy should recoil revolted. The die has been cast. On the 2nd of January, Mr. Lincoln issued his threatened proclamation of immediate emancipation, and invites the slaves of the rebel states to "defend themselves against their masters." In our last number we welcomed the President's message, and offers of compensation and delay with a warmth which proved how gladly we seized the

opportunity of showing sympathy with the cause of the Union. This horrible proclamation, the last cruel weapon of a defeated party, obliges us to retract our good wishes, and to return to absolute neutrality. Mr. Lincoln's surrender of himself to the fanatical abolitionists will be the signal for atrocities as yet unheard of in the war. If the slaves listen to him, and act upon their alleged emancipation, nothing but ruthless massacre awaits them from their masters, and that will be a strange mode of bringing about their liberation. When "philanthropists" take the sword to accomplish their aims, the French Revolution shows us that there are no more sanguinary rulers of mankind. We protest to the last against the diabolical scheme of the President's advisers. It will exasperate beyond conciliation the Southern people, it will bring untold miseries upon the negro population, and it will write in bloody lines the closing pages of Mr. Lincoln's presidency. If it bring about the liberation of the slaves it will only be by sending them to another world, and by leaving their women and children to the tender mercies of their infuriated proprietors. Oh that even yet the voice ot Jefferson Davis might be heard in the character of the king of Sodom, saluting this modern Abraham returning from the slaughter of the Rappahannock-with "Give me the black persons-and take the goods for thyself," for we verily believe that the president himself would gladly surrender the negroes to their masters, if there by he could see his way clearly to the re-habilitation of the union or to peaceable separation; the poor slaves would in that surrender find an incomparably better chance of final liberation under the commercial and moral influences of the age and time; while the Northern states would by such a pacification find some refuge from a bankruptcy so vast and so destructive as to threaten, if the present expenditure continue long, a dissolution of commercial society, and probably a disruption between the East and the West.

AIDS TO REFLECTION.

I.

Moderation in the supply of fuel is essential to the prosperity of a fire, especially in its earlier stages. Perhaps there is no greater danger to individual thought in the present day than in the over-abundant assistance offered to us towards its advancement. All things conspire to hinder original study of truth; slothfulness from within counsels inactivity; the church proclaims aloud that thinking was finished ages ago, and that only faith is necessary now and the booksellers pour forth, like the dragon in the Revelations, a flood of printed matter which threatens to resolve all thought into reading. Blessed