the sea of death, its waters become of a the beautiful simile of the prophet; "he yellow hue. shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan," (Jer. xlix. 19.) "Jackals and gazelles," says Lord Nugent, "are the only wild animals now inhabiting these coverts, save a few wolves, which are rarely seen, but when forced out upon the plain by the swelling of the waters from the mountain torrents after the autumnal rains."-M'Leod's Geography The Jordan has two banks-an inner and an outer one; the inner one confining its ordinary current, and the other bounding it at the time of overflowing. Thickets line the inner bank of the Jordan, and afford shelter to various kinds of wild animals. These are driven out by the rising of the waters; hence of Palestine. A MISSIONARY'S APPEAL TO HIS BRITISH BRETHREN. BY THE REV. JOHN PARSONS. Monghir HASTE, haste to assist us, ye servants of God, The victims of dark superstition around Fall thick, and their blood cries for help from the ground. As storms o'er the mariner blindly secure, Or hair-balanced blade over banquets impure, So broods the just vengeance of God o'er the land: The heralds of peace why, so feeble a band? The proud shrines of Kasee, the Churruk'st vile throng, O privileged brethren, awake to the sight; While burdened Hindoos in obscurity grope : Your prayers and support to His messengers give; And, clothed in love's panoply, come to the field! Should Satan persuade to ignoble repose, *Kasee, another name for the city of Benares. + Churruk, the swinging festival. Byraggees, Hindoo faqirs, generally men of abandoned character. § Holee, a festival distinguished for obscenity. REVIEW S. From Oxford to Rome, and how it Fared | other. This system, however, whatever with some who lately made the Journey. The Oxford Protestant Magazine, from be its appropriate name, must not be regarded as occupying a position midway between the two; it so nearly approximates to the latter that there is but a step between them. With the Romish church it has strong sympathies, We have classed these two works with anything protestant it disclaims together as, though opposite in their all affinity, the very term is rejected aims and very different in their charac- as expressive of anything truly Christer, relating to the same subject. But tian and apostolic, and all that it dehow properly to designate this subject signates is by its zealous adherents is no easy matter. It is an ecclesiastical anathematized. Whatever points of system which, on account of its peculiar difference they may have with Romanfeatures, was at first called Church ism, they are as the small dust of the Principles. But this was soon found to balance compared with the protestant be, as a descriptive term, very defective heresy. They glory in their catholicity, and far too indefinite. It conveyed no while they protest against "the errorintimation of its characteristic doctrines; of mistaking Romanism for Catholicism." and, moreover, all religious commu--("From Oxford to Rome," page 109.) nities have their "church principles," however widely differing from each other. It has been called Tractarianism, on account of the manner in which it was brought before the public, till the memorable No. 90 closed the series of "Oxford Tracts." But this was a designation which its abettors neither claimed nor recognized; and by others it is but occasionally used to avoid a circumlocution, or the repetition of other terms equally deficient in appropriateness. Dr. Pusey was, though not among the first, an early and distinguished supporter of this innovation, or, what its friends would call it, this restoration of what had nearly died out in the church of England; it was, therefore, and still is, by many, called Puseyism. But to this honour, if honour it be, the Hebrew professor is not entitled, as he was neither its originator, nor its great leader. By its advocates it has been denominated Anglicism, but this is too restrictive; and Catholicism, but this is too extended. To avoid the inconvenience of either of these terms they have been combined, in order that each may modify the other, and AngloCatholicism, or Anglican Catholicism, has been by some deemed a more appropriate appellation. By this means it has been attempted to mark its distinction from protestantism on the one hand, and from popery or Romanism on the The catholicism of the English church, The outlines of the system of which we have been speaking may, we think, be stated in some such manner as this. There is and has been, ever since the apostolic age, a church of Christ on earth, as a visible and incorporated body, consisting of all who, either in infancy or at any subsequent period, have been duly received into this community, and who have not been excommunicated. Out of this church there is thus to deprive the delinquent of all hope in the divine mercy. The holy scriptures are indeed acknowledged as our guide to heaven, but only as their sense is given by the clergy, according to the interpretations of the fathers, the decisions of councils, and the traditions of the church. All the ancient and catholic usages, of which unhappily the church of England has been in a great measure deprived, are to be regarded with devout and holy reverence; such as monasticism, clerical celibacy, the use of images, and pictures, and ecclesiastical symbols, as means of devotion, the varied vestments of priests, the im no salvation; or, at farthest, all hope of any who die without its pale must be founded on "the uncovenanted mercies of God." This church, whose representatives and organs are the clergy, is the fountain of all grace, from which flow out to a sinful world the rich streams of pardoning mercy and spiritual life. This is the catholic, or universal church, because it comprises all who are entitled to the benefits of Christianity. Its chief governors are bishops, descended in official succession from the apostles of Jesus Christ, and, with the exception of miraculous gifts,* possessing the same powers, and privileges, and authority in the church; who exclusively are capa-portance of certain places, positions, and ble of ordaining other bishops, and of transferring to them the same high gifts, and who only can invest any with the sacred order of priesthood. Priests thus appointed, and only such, convey sacramental grace to their fellow | creatures. To the exercise of their high functions as the priesthood of God, when thus regularly inducted to office, neither intellectual nor moral qualifications are indispensable; at least, the absence of these does not invalidate their powers or diminish their authority as the appointed dispensers of God's grace to man. In this catholic church preaching and teaching are very subordinate means of edification, all the treasures of divine mercy being conveyed by means of the sacraments, baptism effecting a plenary remission of all sin, and imparting the Holy Ghost; and the Eucharist becoming in priestly hands, by "a mighty miracle," the actual body and blood of Christ, thus giving life to both body and soul. The clergy, who in such cases are called the church, are to determine, to the exclusion of all private judgment or individual conviction, what is, or is not, to be believed; to them confession of sin should be made, to them it belongs to pronounce the sinner absolved, to certify him of his salvation, or, if the case appears to require it, to withhold the saving grace of the sacraments, or even to cut off by excommunication, and *And even these, in the opinion of some, are still latent in the church. "That was a beautiful thought L-expressed the other day, that perhaps it was rather in compassion to the weakness of men's faith than because she had lost the power, that the church refrained in these times from working miracles as of old, her miraculous gifts' being considered as veiled and reserved from the irreverence of the ge"-Page 2. attitudes, in the several parts of divine worship, the decoration of altars, the observance of regular fasts, the infliction of penances, the repetition, as acts of penance or means of obtaining some special favour, of specified numbers of prayers and litanies, prayer for the departed, reverence paid to the relics of saints, and the strict observance of all the prescribed fasts and festivals of the church. This, we believe, is a brief, and if an imperfect not an unfaithful outline of the system which the disciples of Mr. Newman and his associates designate Anglican catholicism. Of course, in this new development, all do not go to the same extent; some make a nearer approach to Romanism than is indicated by the above sketch, and some recede further from it. as With this church system, variously modified by times and circumstances, by which the simplicity of the religion of Christ has been corrupted, and the truth of God "made of no effect" by the traditions of men, spiritual Christianity has been in conflict from nearly its first appearance. By it many thousands of the true followers of Christ have been branded as heretics, and to its exclusive and persecuting spirit when in possession of power, the property, the liberty, and even the lives of multitudes have been sacrificed. From the time of Constantine to the Reformation it was dominant. Then a considerable portion of what was called Christendom threw off the yoke, and its power seemed broken; but it again rallied and recovered strength. In protestant and partially-reformed England, many of its forms and services were retained, and in these the spirit of the old system entrenched itself, and came out with more or less of boldness and activity, according as circumstances favoured it. Under the Stuart dynasty great were its efforts to regain its former ascendancy, and, at some times especially, its hopes of succeeding. From the expulsion of James II., who lost his crown in his unsuccessful attempt to catholicise protestant England, the genius of the system took the form of high churchism, the turbulence of which it was often necessary to check. Under the influence of that great revival of religion consequent on the labours of Whitefield and Wesley, which extended largely throughout the establishment, catholicism appeared becoming quite effete, and another and a better kind of catholicity seemed gradually to prevail, exhibiting itself in the fraternal regards of all evangelical Christians within and without the English church, which was greatly promoted by the frequent meeting of the followers of Christ of all denominations on common ground. When, most unexpectedly, and in a most singular manner, the old system was revived at the very time when it seemed on the point of extinction; and it is now the most active, and determined, and zealous of all the existing forms of Christianity, if we except Romanism, which is its cognate. From an early period of this movement its tendencies towards Rome were seen and denounced, while by those engaged in it they were as strongly denied. In a short time, however, Anglo-catholicism brought forth its fruit. Many, with more straightforward honesty than their leaders, preceded them in the profession of Romanism. The publication of Tract 90 by Mr. Newman, with Mr. Ward's work on "the Ideal of a Christian Church," brought on a crisis, which was followed by many declared converts to the Roman church from among both clergy and laity. The anonymous author of "From Oxford to Rome," it appears, was one of these; and the object of the writer is to warn others not to follow his example. The book is certainly a most singular production. Its publication has excited no small inquiry as to who, or what, is the author,-whether lay or clerical, male or female. We have heard it assigned to several, and various opinions have been expressed as to the sex of the writer; but still the veil has not been drawn aside, and it is of little consequence to balance the probabilities by which the several guesses are supported. It is written by a person evidently and deeply in earnest on the great subject of religion, but whose judgment does not appear to be an adequate balance to the impulses of feeling and the liveliness of imagination. The author appears to be a sincere enthusiast, with strong susceptibilities of the beautiful, the ideal, and the romantic; the subject of a longing, a restless panting after something indefinite, which the simplicity of gospel truth and scriptural Christianity does not satisfy; into whose superstitions, and they are manifold, the fervour of piety seems deeply to enter, and whose bigotry, if the tenacity with which an amiable spirit clings to mistaken and exclusive notions may be called such, seems incapable of bitterness, and disinclined to invective. In early life our author was a protestant; from infancy accustomed to hear holy Daniel's prophecies, and St. John's divine maledictions, applied unqualifiedly to 'popery ;"" but whether belonging to the established church, or to some other denomination, is not apparent. From several passages there is reason to think that he had been familiarized with evangelical dissenters, if not identified with them. Though taught to view popery with abhorrence,his religious education must have been very defective, or he must, at the time to which he refers, have already gone pretty deeply into catholicism, since at twenty years of age he knew but one thing objectionable in the church of Rome. 66 "Once, somewhere about twenty years had passed over our head, and our mind had very lately received the enlightenment that Romanism was not actual heathenism,—we were ostentatiously displaying our new-born knowledge in expressions of charity and even esteem, for the faith of a thousand Fathers; qualified, however, by all righteous indignation against errors and deceits. A respected clergyman, who was talking with us, suffered us to exhaust our zeal, and then, instead of commending so wide an exten sion of benevolent feeling, in his calm way inquired, What do you object to in the church of Rome?' We were taken by surprise-we hesitated; after so much eulogy we did not like to say 'every thing,'-we had no refuge in generalities, it was a pressing moment.. ... If |