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MR. EDITOR,-Your insertion of the following letter will not injure the Society for Propagating the Gospel, as it will be published elsewhere if it do not find a place in your Magazine. My wish is

* Without questioning the motives which dictated this letter, can it be justified that an anonymous writer should, without hesitation, cast a general and severe censure on all the managers of a society, the reasons and plans of whose conduct it does not appear that he has had any means whatever of judging? They have not done what he thinks they ought to have done, and therefore no censure can be too severe for them. The writer will excuse some animadversions on the rest of the letter. The great charge against the society is, that they do not appeal to the public by sufficiently amusing and interesting preachers; and, above all, that when they have their missionaries in this country, they do not send them to itinerate and preach, or rather, for that is the plain fact, to excite attention by the relation of moving accidents by fell and flood, and then receive the proper payment for the half-hour's amusement they have given by a large contribution at the church-door. Whereas the Church Missionary Society does take these means, and had three thousand of these amusing sermons preached on its behalf in the course of one year. The Satirist thought that he made a bitter remark when

he described men as saying

"Recte, si possis, si non, quocunque modo, rem;"

but he does not go so far as to describe those who, like us, think that quocunque modo is a synonyme for recte. This matter is, in truth, a most serious one. No reflection whatever on the Church Missionary Society is intended; that, and every other Society, will pursue such modes as their judgment and conscience dictate. But, without disrespect to them, a mode of proceeding, which they have adopted, may be discussed when others are blamed for not adopting it too. What one society does, other societies both may do and do. A copious enumeration of societies, indeed, could easily be made whose agents itinerate and preach these amusing sermons. Not three, but many, thousands of them must now be preached every year. And what must be the effect of this? What other effect can it have, when these exhibitions are so frequent, but that of indisposing the hearers to everything like calm and sober instruction, and of making them not only look (as we protestants already do) to the sermon as the chief thing, but turn away even from the sermon itself, unless it is amusing, stimulating, exciting? This is the very thing which, in fact, the letter writer recommends; for this power of amusing by relating incidents, is the only advantage which the itinerant or missionary has over the regular teacher. itinerant, or missionary, he is not a man of higher endowments or genius than that teacher; but he has been where the parish priest has not, and can make an amusing narration of things which he has actually seen, and of which he has been a great part. He becomes almost an actor, and the church a theatre, resorted to for the same purposes and with the same feelings. Again, amusing books, and amusing meetings ought to be held constantly. This fully explains the demand which, as it is stated, is so loudly made in all quarters for amusing and interesting books of religious instruction. How, in truth, can we expect men to read any others, when we are thus daily and weekly feeding a morbid appetite, nay, feeding it in that very place where so unwholesome a state of the moral frame should be checked and corrected? Can we justify this practice before God and man? Is it right to make the pulpit so constantly, not a place of instruction, but of obtaining money? Is it right to obtain that money, not by solemn, plain statements of duty, but by amusing and affecting stories?

Quâ

This last is, on every account, a very serious matter for reflection. It is, probably, very true that the society, which will not thus minister to the bad tastes and feelings of mankind, will not succeed in gaining so much money. But have we no belief in principles-no belief that it is our duty to rest everything upon them-no belief that they, and they alone, are the basis upon which ultimately everything can be safely rested? The heathen knew that nothing which was not real and sound, even in morals, could be lasting. Alas! for us, if we persevere in believing that what is unsound in religion can last—that we can safely pray for a blessing on it-that that

to benefit the society by exciting the committee to greater energy,, and to enlarge their board.

Yours,

A SUBSCRIBER TO THE S. P. G. F. P.

SIR,-The injustice of Government in withdrawing any part of the annual grant to the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts, has been most ably canvassed in your valuable Magazine. Now that an arrangement has been made to support the present missionaries during their lives, it becomes the society to use the respite given them before it be too late, and exert themselves to enlarge their funds, as well to increase the number of their missionaries as to provide for new ones as the present set die off. The Committee of the Society for Propagating the Gospel are, in my opinion, very likely to say, "Before our present missionaries die off, another administration may again sanction a continuance of the annual parliamentary grant to the society;" but such reasoning is unwise, if not idle and fallacious. I have a great personal respect for the committee of the society; but I hesitate not to affirm, from a most intimate knowledge of their proceedings, that they are not sufficiently active and alive to the feelings of the day. It is the committee I blame for the smallness of the society's funds. Its annual income might be easily doubled; but the society is not sufficiently known, and the committee do not take sufficient pains or go the right way to work to make it known. When their missionaries visit England, they make no use of them. It is not so with the Church Missionary and Wesleyan Societies; they know that a sermon preached by a missionary from foreign parts will attract much greater numbers than a parish priest can do, and thus their societies become known. It is impossible to travel through six towns in England without seeing sermons advertized for charitable societies; but who ever heard of sermons being preached for the Society for Propagating the Gospel, except from the king's letter? In the year 1832, three thousand sermons were preached in England alone for the Church Missionary Society; and they have delegates from the society continually travelling to increase their funds, and, at the same time, to interest persons in the proceedings of the society. But I speak within compass when I say that two-thirds-I believe nine-tenths of the people in England calling themselves churchmen, do not know of the existence of the Society for Propagating the Gospel; and the remaining third, or tenth, do not know what that society is doing. They cannot, for they put their candle under a bushel, and expect churchmen to find it out. Again, the Committee of the Society for Propagating the Gospel do not keep up a sufficiently frequent correspondence with their missionaries. They ought to publish

blessing will come-or that success is to be the only arbiter whether a scheme shall be resorted to or not.

The managers of the Society for Propagating the Gospel will hardly notice this letter. In as far as their want of equal success with other societies arises from their not resorting to means which are so objectionable they deserve not censure, but warm thanks. It would, on the whole, be a great good if there were no charity sermons but those publicly authorized, or those for parochial purposes. They seldom do more than amuse, and, by so doing, do real harm.-ED.

VOL. VII.-Jan. 1835.

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monthly reports, and circulate them gratuitously through every clergyman in the kingdom; they should encourage their district committees in holding public meetings. It is by such means the Bible Society has raised its immense funds. Persons must be interested in a society, they must know what a society is doing, before they will give their money for its support; and, in the present day, when there are so many societies, persons are right who will know what a society is doing before they contribute to its funds. Had the Society for Propagating the Gospel kept up a constant correspondence with all their missionaries, and published monthly reports of such correspondence, they need not have complained to the Bishop of Nova Scotia, "that whilst they were endeavouring to procure all possible assistance for the church in the colonies, they were impeded in their good work by malevolent reports, industriously circulated against their missionaries, representing them as inefficient, worldly, idle, unevangelical, and also stating them to be fully, if not overpaid for all their services." have correspondents in every part of British North America-I know that as soon as the Bishop of Nova Scotia sent round to his clergy a printed circular with the above slander, and begging them to refute it by sending his lordship extracts from their journals-I know that the flocks of each of the clergy sent in public addresses to their pastors, contradicted the vile and abominable slander which, though probably circulated by those who knew it to be false, could never have been believed in England had monthly reports of the labours of the missionaries been printed and circulated. It would be invidious to point out from these efficient, pious, hard-working, truly-evangelical men, the labours of any in particular, or I could name those who have lost their lives in the prosecution of their duty. I could name many whose lives are each winter in danger when travelling in snow storms, and I could name others whose health and strength are fast failing from their laborious exertions; and, in answer to their being overpaid, I can, I am sorry to say, speak to the sufferings of many under the late reductions. A deacon, his wife, and child, lived in a log hut last winter, which not a pauper in England would have inhabited; another priest, with six children, endured greater privations than any of the planters around him; and all, under their full salary, had to submit to privations which are unknown in England, and only because unknown, are unappreciated. It is remarked by all who read the reports of the society, that their intelligence is always two years old, and, consequently, uninteresting to those who have correspondents in the colonies. The committee neither does justice to their missionaries who are labouring so painfully abroad, nor to the feelings of churchmen at home, in occupying ground which they do not suf ficiently provide for. The committee must, by taking new and younger members on their board, infuse greater energy into their proceedings, or they will have an appeal made to the Church Missionary Society to enlarge their field of labour, and send missionaries where they are so anxiously desired in every part of British North America. That the Society for Propagating the Gospel may take these suggestions into their consideration is earnestly desired by an ÖLD SUBSCriber.

NOTICES AND REVIEWS.

Autobiography of a Dissenting Minister. London: Smith, Elder, and Co. 1834.

THIS work professes to be a simple narrative of the evils to which, under the voluntary system, the dissenting minister, especially in country places, is compelled to submit, and of the modes in which chapels are multiplied. The author speaks with feeling, but without bitterness, of the trials to which he has been subject; and, even if the work were not most valuable as a record in favour of the church system, the quiet humour and perfect accuracy with which the author depicts the common run of life in country towns, would entitle it to no mean place as a sketch of human nature.

P.S. The publishers have stated, in a letter to the Editor, that, notwithstanding all reports to the contrary, the work is actually by a dissenting minister, of whose name they are in possession.

A Course of Sermons for the Year. By the Rev. C. Girdlestone. In 2 vols. London: Rivingtons. 1834. 12mo.

It is always pleasant to meet Mr. Girdlestone on the ground which he occupies with great advantage to the people and with the most credit to himselfthat of a parish minister. In the present case he has made a very acceptable addition to the sermons which he has before given to the world. His preface contains some very sensible and judicious directions to the parish preacher, and he especially points out one matter of no small importance-viz., how completely, in the teaching of our Lord and the apostles, doctrine and practical exhortation are combined. The two volumes contain a sermon for each Sunday in the year on some subject prescribed by the services of the day, a practice which Mr. G. strongly and rightly recommends, and by which successively all the great points of Christian faith and practice will be regularly brought forward.

The plain and earnest manner of pressing home great truths (although there is a little sameness in it) makes his book excellent as a guide to young preachers, and most useful as a book for reading in families.

The Life of the Rev. D. Brainerd, Missionary to the North American Indians, (abridged from President Edwards's Life). By the Rev. J. Pratt. London: Seeley and Burnside. (CHRISTIAN'S FAMILY LIBRARY, Vol. VIII.) No one can doubt Brainerd's sincerity and zeal, nor can any one doubt that his was a very peculiar and melancholy mind. His views were almost ultraCalvinistic, and Mr. Bickersteth feels himself compelled, in the preface, to warn the reader against a good deal in Brainerd's views, his constitutional melancholy, and his endeavour altogether to separate God's glory and his own personal interest. Was it quite desirable to reprint, for general instruction, the life of one of such peculiar views and circumstances?

Russia; or, Miscellaneous Observations on the Past and Present State of that Country and its Inhabitants. By R. Pinkerton, D.D. London: Seeleys, and Hatchards. 1834. Royal 8vo. pp. 486. THIS very handsome and interesting volume comes from Dr. Pinkerton, who has long been employed as a travelling agent to the Bible Society. As that Society has received great encouragement in Russia, Dr. P. has enjoyed proportional advantages for seeing the country and gaining information. Of these opportunities he has made great use, and has given us a very interesting and useful volume. The information as to statistics is valuable, and that as to

the present state and views of the Greek Russian church, their opinions, education, and learning, is of very high interest, which is increased by Dr. Pinkerton's giving us a translation of several Russian sermons. All that he says contributes to give one a very favourable notion of the advanced and advancing state of the Russian clergy. Perhaps the book would have been more interesting if there had been one general statement as to the Bible Society in the different towns, and if the matter had not been so constantly referred to as to become tiresome. Dr. Pinkerton, too, might have spared his untrue reflexion on the wealth of the English clergy when speaking of the poverty of the Russian church.

Lectures in Defence of the Church of England, a National and Spiritual Institution. By S. J. Allen, M.A., Perpetual Curate of Salesbury, near Blackburn. London: Rivingtons. 8vo. pp. 438.

MR. ALLEN preached several of these lectures at St. Peter's, Blackburn, in consequence of the persevering attacks on the church in that neighbourhood, and under the just conviction that the subject ought occasionally to be noticed in the pulpit in order to explain to many who are ignorant, why they ought to adhere to the church. Mr. Allen continued the subject before the University of Cambridge, as Select Preacher.

The first four lectures are on the consistency of a national establishment with scripture and reason, its advantages, the testimony to its excellence from the case of the Jewish church, and from the general principles of scripture. The questions of the king's supremacy, endowments, and patronage are then considered. After this, the spiritual character of the church union, authority, officers, and services are considered. Mr. Allen's line of argument is thisFirst, he shows that national establishments are lawful, and then that there is nothing in our church which should make that unlawful, in this particular case, which is lawful in general. He assumes that the doctrines are such as are common to very many bodies of Christians, and thinks that the only points requiring argument are those touched on. It is only justice to him to state that he writes clearly and argues well. His volume is adapted for educated readers, and may do much service both in retaining churchmen and convincing aliens.

The Spiritual Life. By the Rev. T. Griffith, M.A., Minister of Ram's Chapel, Homerton. London: T. Cadell. 1834. 12mo. pp. 295.

MR. GRIFFITH is no ordinary writer nor thinker, and his book contains many truths, stated with no ordinary power. Without professing to agree with a good many of his views, (especially his notion that the steps by which men pass from carelessness and sin to piety and holiness, are the same in all men, because all have the same condition by nature, which seems illogical and unphilosophical,) the reviewer would be very glad to see so much philosophical thought often exerted on religious matters, instead of the great quantities of thoughtless effusions which are poured out, week after week, on the unfortunate public, of which the only thing that can be said is, that, as they never could cost the writer a week's thought, the time of their duration will not be longer than that of their production.

A Scriptural Commentary on the 1st Epistle of St. Peter. By the Rev. J. E. Riddle, M.A., Curate of All Souls', Marylebone. London: Murray. 8vo. pp. 299.

THIS is strictly a scriptural commmentary, being almost wholly in the words of scripture. Mr. Riddle thinks that, for practical purposes, no commentary is good if not in accordance with the sense of scripture, and that, if it is in that sense, it may be found in the words of scripture. (This latter point does

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