unwearied conformity to Christ will impart a foretaste of heaven, even while we are yet tabernacling in the flesh; and when flesh and heart faileth, our last words will be identical with his who said, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness"-but not a crown that I have earned or merited; no- 66 crown which the righteous Judge will GIVE me at that day: and not to me only, but to all them that love his appearing." -- a LITURGICAL HINTS.-No. LV. KING CHARLES THE MARTYR, 30th Jan. Those who are acquainted with the history of the period to which this commemorative service relates, will not require any observations to shew the suitableBess of the prayers to those events. We shall therefore only make a very few remarks, shewing how the hymns, psalms, and lessons, and epistle and gospel, apply to the occasion. "The HYMN, instead of the xcvth Psalm, was drawn up in the reign of King James II., when a review was taken and several alterations made in this office. And whoever looks into King Charles's book, must acknowledge the old byan not to be near so fine as the new one, which is as solemn a composure, and as pertinent to the occason, as can be imagined or contrived. The proper PSALMS appointed for the morning are Psalms ix., X., i. The viith was originally prefixed to them all, but that was afterwards discontinued. The first LESSON for the morning is 2 Sam. i. There is no parallel for tis inhuman and barbarous murder of a good and pious king by his own subjects, in all the Old TestaLent; and therefore the Church is content to read the history of David's justice and vengeance upon the Amalekite that accused himself of killing King Saul, Lough, at his own request, to ease him of his pain; and of David's own decent mourning for his sovereign, Lotwithstanding he had been always his mortal enemy, Lad apostatised from God, and was forsaken by Heaven. How much more reason, then, had our state to punish those impious rebels who murdered the best of kings only for adhering to the best of religions; and also to set apart a day of humiliation for fasting and prayer, and to draw up a mournful office for the ccasion, after the example of David in the lesson! As for the second LESSON, it is no other than that sppointed by the Church in the ordinary course to be red on the thirtieth of January, Matt. xxvii. to the end. For, by a signal providence, the bloody rebels Cause that day for murdering their king on which the history of our Saviour's sufferings was appointed to be read as a lesson for the day. The blessed martyr bad forgot that it came in the ordinary course; and therefore, when Bishop Juxon (who read the morning Lee immediately before his martyrdom) named this chapter, the good prince asked him if he had singled it out as fit for the occasion; and when he was informed it was the lesson for the day, could not, withat a sensible complacency and joy, admire how suitsly it concurred with his circumstances: betrayed by some, denied by others, and despised by the rest of us seeming friends, who left him to the implacable alice of his barbarous enemies; who treated him with the same contempt and ingratitude, outrage and ruelty, with which the Jews treated their King and Saviour; while he followed the steps of his great Master in meekness and patience, piety to God, and charity to men, and at last praying for his murderers. The EPISTLE, 1 Pet. ii. 13-23, shews the duty which Christians owe to magistrates; the GOSPEL, Matt. xxi. 33-42, severely and justly upbraids those unpa ralleled rebels who were the villanous projectors of this day's tragedy. The PSALMS for the evening service are different now from what they were when the office was composed: they were then Psalms xxxviii., lxiv., and exliii. Of the three Psalms now used, the lxxixth applies to our sad condition during the rebellion: the lxxxvth is appointed with respect to the happy change at the Restoration. There is a choice of two chapters for the first LESSON: one is Jeremiah's complaint to God of great mischiefs done in church and state by false prophets and tyrannical rulers, with God's reasons for permitting it, and threatening in due time to punish the authors of those mischiefs, and to deliver the righteous. The other is a prayer of Daniel on a day of solemn humiliation and fasting, which prevailed with God to restore to his people of old, as he did to us of this nation, their liberty and religion. The second LESSON sets before us the faith and patience of the holy martyrs, to whom our martyred king bore a resemblance. In the old Gallican Liturgy this was the proper lesson for the festival of any martyr." THE PURIFICATION OF SAINT MARY, 2d Feb. This day is kept in memory of our Lord's being presented in the temple. On this day it was the custom of the ancient Christians to use a great number of "lights both in their churches and processions, in remembrance (as it is supposed) of our blessed Saviour being this day declared by old Simeon to be a light to lighten the Gentiles,' &c.; (which portion of Scripture is, for that reason, appointed for the gospel of the day): a practice continued with us in England till the second year of King Edward VI., when Bishop Cranmer forbad it by order of the privy council." From this custom, probably, it was that this day first took the name of Candlemas-day. can The COLLECT is found in Gregory's Sacramentary, and the following is the translation of it: "Almighty, everlasting God, we humbly beseech thy Majesty, that as thy only begotten Son was this day presented in the temple with the substance of our flesh, so thou wouldest grant that we may be presented unto thee with purified minds." "When we pray for spiritual purity in ourselves, the collect reminds us that none 'present us with pure and clean hearts before God, except the same Jesus Christ our Lord.' But though the blood of his sacrifice alone cleanseth and puritieth the heart, we must comply with the conditions upon which an interest in the sacrifice is offered to us; we must take the means of grace supplied to us. If He who knew no sin, and in whose mouth was found no guile-if He who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, and was therefore free from the touch of human frailty-if He who was the beloved Son of God,-would not omit one of the prescribed ordinances of religion; it were folly and wickedness in us to suppose that we, born in sin, and even when regenerate requiring daily to be renewed by the Holy Spirit, can continue either stedfast to the duties of our new birth, or safe in the enjoyment of its privileges, unless we diligently apply ourselves to the several means of grace now appointed for us. If Jesus Christ, though he were a son, yet learned obedience,' that thereby he might be made perfect,' he is the wise Christian who does likewise-who trusts for salvation only to Christ, yet follows the commandments of God with a steady and cheerful obedience. A compliance with the outward institutions of religion can never forward our salvation one iota, upon the ground of any merit that such compliance would possess; but the obedient servant of Christ • Wheatly. + Ib. will walk not only in all the commandments,' but in all the ordinances also of the Lord, blameless."" The EPISTLE is not strictly such, but is " a portion of Scripture appointed for, or instead of the epistle," from the prophet Malachi. It is a prediction of the coming of the Messiah, and of his forerunner: and the errand upon which he comes is particularly described both the comfort which his coming brings to his Church and people, and the terror which it will bring to the wicked. The passage is selected for this occasion with a particular reference to those words: "The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple." The mind is directed also to that second coming of Christ, when he shall sit in judgment upon all impenitent sinners. The GOSPEL is the history of the circumstances that attended the presentation of our Lord in the Temple. This rite was performed with an eye to the law, and at the time appointed by the law, when he was forty days old. The law required that every first-born son should be thus presented to God. Christ was the "first-born among many brethren," and was called "holy to the Lord," in a sense in which no other ever was; yet was he presented to the Lord as others were. And the mother brought her offering. Her Son was himself to be the great offering; but she does not on this account excuse herself from making her offering. Her poverty did not enable her to offer a "lamb for a burnt-offering," and a "dove for a sin-offering;" and therefore she brings two doves, one for a burnt-offering, and the other for a sin-offering. Christ was not conceived and born in sin, as others are; from sin "he was clearly void, both in his flesh and spirit;" so that there was in his case no occasion for such an offering; yet because he was made under the law, he com plied with it. "Thus it became him to fulfil all righteousness." In the latter part of this gospel we have the "song of Simeon," which he spake as he held in his arms the infant Saviour, and which is adopted into the evening service of our Church. Then follow the testimonies of Simeon and Anna concerning the future character of the child; and an account of his progress, both in growth of body and spiritual strength. The Cabinet. RELIGION, AND NOT HONOUR, THE GUIDE OF LIFE. -The religion of the Bible, cordially embraced and sincerely acted on, is the only sure and stedfast anchor amongst the storms and temptations of society. Unlike the principles of worldly honour, it is addressed to men of all classes and conditions, "high and low, rich and poor, one with another;" it teaches us to consider ourselves as members of one family, and as children of one Parent. Unlike these false and fallacious principles, it does not invite us to rush into scenes of peril and difficulty; it encourages no prodigality or needless expenditure; it commands us to owe no man any thing, but to love one another." Unlike these transient and uncertain motives, it teaches to regard the sentiments of man as at best dubious and variable; not to place our highest affections even on reputation or character when most deserved, but to remember that we should still appeal to a higher and better standard and tribunal, even to Him 46 who seeth in secret, and who shall reward us openly." Such is the principle which is alone fit to be deemed a rule of human life, because it comes to us invested with proper authority, and fortified with proper sanctions. It is adequate for time, because it is commensurate with eternity; and it can support us upon earth, for it comes to us from heaven. The man who has drawn his principles from the motives of worldly honour may hope, by cunning and duplicity, still to retain the good opinion of the world, and to avoid detection; but he ⚫ James on the Collects. who cares more for realities than appearances cannot be satisfied even with the strongest hopes of such an escape. He looks forward to the period when that which is secret shall be made manifest, when every thought of his heart shall be brought into judgment; and whilst his faith enables him to support his present trials or losses with patience, it guards him from many of those difficulties and temptations which must always encircle the votary of fashion. The inference we draw is this, and we think that it is demonstrably accurate, namely, that the value of honour, considered as a rule of life, is in exact inverse proportion to that of religion; and consequently we ought never to be surprised if men who are without religion, and who are actuated only by the principles of honour, should yield to any great and trying temptations. Honour appeals to time; religion looks to eternity. Honour originates with the caprices of man; religion is founded on the attributes of God. Honour is partial in its dictates, referring only to the rich and the fashionable; religion is universal, and has no respect of persons. Honour is capricious and impure, sanctioning many vices, and deriding many virtues; religion is altogether amiable and consistent-she recommends whatever is good, and she restrains us from all appearance of evil. Honour defeats its own intentions, by allowing and encouraging its votary to rush into every kind of luxury and dissipation; religion at once secures its present duties and realises its future prospects by withdrawing us as much as possible from the temptations of the world, and by proclaiming the necessity of continually mortifying our corrupt affections and desires. Rev. W. Grinfield. NECESSITY OF CLERICAL ENERGY.-There never was a time in the history of our own or of any Church, when the imitation of Christ's faithfulness challenged more irresistibly the attention of the clergy. We are fallen upon days when it behoves the Church to entrust her cause to none but those who profess themselves willing to take up the divine panoply, and buckle on the whole armour of God, and cry aloud unceasingly, Who is on the Lord's side? who? The Church cannot now engage in her service the blind, and the halt, and the lame; her servants must be unblemished - able ministers of the New Testament-ready to give an answer to every man that asketh of them the reason of the hope that is in themapt to teach-content to take patiently the spoiling of their goods for the truth's sake. This is no time for folding the hands in slumber, or for acquiescing in any low and cold standard of decent inoffensiveness. Let it be remembered that the Spirit of God bears testimony that the characteristic of a fallen Church is lukewarmness. These are not days when ordained members of our own Church can afford to be neither cold nor hot. That Church expects them now, if ever, to be much in prayer; to seek fresh supplies of grace daily; to ask and expect abundant ministrations of the Holy Spirit; to be much among the members of their charge, the whole as well as the sick, but especially among the sick and dying, whether in a literal or spiritual sense; to fear no face of man; to dare all for the sake of Jesus and his Gospel. But this is not all. The Church holds them responsible for their doctrine. She is built upon the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone. She expects them, therefore, to be faithful to their trust in this matter. She requires them not to depart from the simplicity of apostolical truth. She bids them preach the word, and nothing but the word. She would have them set forth and magnify Christ the Lord, and frame all their doctrines in the spirit and determination of the apostle, "not to know any thing among their people, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." She calls upon them to promulgate distinctly, and vindicate from misconception, the grounds on which she rests her pretensions to the title of a true Church. Now our Church refers explicitly for her doctrines to holy writ, and expounds the sense in which she understands it in her liturgy and articles. She desires to be tried by that standard, and admits of no other. She will hear of no human additionno traditional rubric-no collective wisdom of councils. Her appeal is to the law and to the testimony; and by that criterion she is prepared to stand or fall.-Bishop C. R. Sumner. THE BIBLE.-The Bible indeed is no ordinary book, and must be studied with no common diligence, no slight reverence, and no trivial assistance; but when so studied, it opens a field alike rich and inexhaustible. It comprises the largest variety of materials, with the closest unity of design, and the most majestic harmony of proportion. All tends to one purpose, all centres in one object, the glory of God, in the salvation, the sanctification, the perfection of his intelligent creatates; or, to speak all in one comprehensive phrase, the final union of all things in Christ, and under Christ, as Head over all things to the Church. And bit observed, that throughout the announcement of svast design, no capacity, or taste, or disposition of is left without its proper food, its just excitement, and as full employment. But holy Scripture is not yor chiefly the instruction of our souls-it is also in a, though limited sense, the very life of our souls. The words that I speak unto you," said our divine Redeemer," they are spirit, and they are life." It is by this truth that we are to have our hearts purified. It is by this incorruptible seed that we are to be born new. It is by this heavenly nutriment that we are spiritually to increase in wisdom, and stature, and fivour with God and man. Happy are they who have acquired a relish for this food of angels! Happy they who drink of this pure water of life, which proceedeth from the throne of God and of the Lamb; and which, while it softly floweth, maketh their wilderness as Eden, their desert as the garden of the Lord! To them the sacred Scriptures are indeed a refuge from the heat, a shelter from the storm, a covert in a waste and weary land; affording that green pasture, those still waters of comfort, beside which we may be also led by our ever-present and ever-watchful Shepherd. -Bishop Jebb. FEMALE CHARACTERS OF SCRIPTURE.-The manner which woman is noticed in the practical parts of Scripture accords with the place she is allowed to hold In the Christian economy. The precepts which are to regulate female conduct are equally precise with those which apply to the other sex, and the examples equally instructive. We cannot, indeed, but be pecuhry struck with the natural and appropriate, as well is beautiful delineation of female character in Scriptre. No point is overcharged-no virtue exaggerated. The portrait is the more affecting because it $ so like. It is the gentle, tender, and feeling woman whom we meet with in real life; and though the sublime situations in which she is placed, as well as the language and imagery of Scripture, invest the aeroine of the Bible with a peculiar charm, she is not so highly raised above ordinary circumstances as not to provoke our sympathy and invite our imitation. Ou this account the illustrations of the sacred volume are of the highest value. The female Christian who is alliar with them needs few other models. Besides chasteness and simplicity which characterise these amples, there is a detail about them which is not ly graphically true, but practically instructive. It s not merely by their prophetic visions or inspired wugs that we are made acquainted with the female writes of the ancient Church; we converse with Sem in their homes-we see them in the discharge family and social functions; and we find in general, that those who were the most highly honoured by Divine Lour were the most blameless and amiable, accord ing to our ideas of female excellence. The Bible might therefore be recommended, were it only for its moral illustrations; and those who think lightly of its mysteries are often not without appreciation of its value in this point of view. But mutilation, whilst it robs the Christian system of its beauty, spoils its effect. There is no part independent of another; take it in its perfect gradation, the harmony is complete; but the abstraction of a single principle cannot be without prejudice to the whole.—Mrs. John Sandford. Poetry. PEACE. Oн, let their peace who love Thy law be mine, REV. I. EAST. THE BONDAGE OF CORRUPTION. Heb. ii. 15. Is yet no temple fit for thee: Oh, surely whilst I wear this chain, Blest be thy word, it is not so- Then, e'en if with our thoughts of heaven M. A. S. BARBER. THE HOLLY-TREE. O READER! hast thou ever stood to see The holly-tree? The eye that contemplates it well perceives Order'd by an intelligence so wise Below, a circling fence, its leaves are seen Wrinkled and keen; No grazing cattle, through their prickly round, But as they grow where nothing is to fear, I love to view these things with curious eyes, And in this wisdom of the holly-tree Can emblems see Wherewith, perchance, to make a pleasant rhyme, One which may profit in the after-time. Thus, though abroad perchance I might appear To those who on my leisure would intrude, Gentle at home amid my friends I'd be, And should my youth, as youth is apt, I know, All vain asperities I day by day Would wear away; Till the smooth temper of my age should be Like the high leaves upon the holly-tree. And as, when all the summer-trees are seen So bright and green, The holly-leaves their fadeless hues display Less bright than they; But when the bare and wintry woods we see, What then so cheerful as the holly-tree? So serious should my youth appear among The thoughtless throng; So would I seem ainid the young and gay That in my age as cheerful I might be Miscellaneous. SOUTHEY. BERNE. Of the population of Berne, which amounts to about fifteen thousand, nearly one-half are Roman Catholics; but the days are now passed away when that religion was established here in all its pomp and authority, and its temples and their shrines glittered with the gorgeous mammon of this world. Of the riches which this cathedral once boasted, some notion may be formed from the circumstance that when it was stripped of them by the reformers, among the articles were, a gold image of the Virgin, weighing three hundred ounces; one of our Saviour, of the same metal, weighing thirty-one pounds; numerous effigies of the apostles, angels, and saints; bags filled with gold, and chests with silver, lamps and vessels adorned with precious stones, &c. The whole is reported to have required fifteen vehicles to convey it away, and to have been worth at least 130,000l. sterling an immense sum for such a country, and such an age. The present denuded state of this fine cathedral presents a striking contrast to the assemblage of splendid objects it offered during its high and palmy days, when it was the scene of pompous rites and gorgeous pageantry. It was, however, but a poor compliment paid to the Reformation, or the strength of the moral and religious convictions upon which it was founded, to consider as necessary for its safety the total destruction of the fascinating edifices in which had been performed that stately and imposing ritual by which the hierarchy of Rome had superseded the devotion of the heart and understanding. The array of solemnity is not reprehensible in itself; it only ceases to be praiseworthy when, instead of being the means to devotion, it is rendered the main object, and an importance is attached to it calculated to mislead.-Notes 1broad, by W. Rae Wilson, Esq. LOVE OF COUNTRY.-The affections which bind a man to the place of his birth are essential in his nature, and follow the same law as that which governs every innate feeling. They are implanted in his bosom along with life, and are modified by every circumstance which he encounters from the beginning to the end of his existence. The sentiment which, in the breast of any one man, is an instinctive fondness for the spot where he drew his early breath, becomes, by the progress of mankind and the formation of society, a more enlarged feeling, and expands into the noble passion of patriotism. The love of country, the love of the village where we were born, of the field which we first pressed with our tender footsteps, of the hillock which we first climbed, are the same affection: only the latter belongs to each of us separately; the first can be known but by men united into masses. It is founded upon every advantage which a nation is supposed to possess, and is increased by every improvement which it is supposed to receive.-Chenevix. STUDY OF THE ANCIENT CLASSICS.-To our youthful pupils, I may perhaps be allowed to point out another advantage to be derived from the studies to which they are devoted; an advantage drawn from the defects and errors of the authers whose language they are learning to understand. Certain it is, that in the best writers of Greece and Rome will be found statements revolting to our reason, and impurities which will disgust our better feelings. But as the bee can extract honey from a poisonous flower, so may well-instructed Christians learn wisdom even from the faults of heathen authors. When they see how little the boasted intellect of the ancient philosophers enabled them to discover the nature of God, and the present duties and future destinies of man, they will be grateful for the light of revelation, and the hopes and consolations of the Christian faith. And when they read in the graphic pages of the Grecian dramatist, or the satirists of Rome, the details of impurity and guilt which defiled the most civilised nations of the heathen world; or search in vain in the ethics of their greatest moralists for unerring rules, or efficient sanctions of life and conduct, they will rejoice that it has been their happy lot to live at a season, and in a nation, when the wisdom hidden from ages and generations has become the birthright of the poorest member of the Christian Church; when the rules of moral practice are built upon the_doctrines of religious truth; and the knowledge of "Jesus Christ, and him crucified," is the inheritance of all, from the least to the greatest. - Sermon for the King's School, Canterbury, by the Rev. J. H. Spry, D.D. LONDON:-Published by JAMES BURNS, 17 Portman Street, Portman Square; W. EDWARDS, 12 Ave-Maria Lane, St. Paul's; and to be procured, by order, of all Booksellers in Town and Country. PRINTED BY ROBSON, LEVEY, AND FRANKLYN, 46 ST. MARTIN'S LANE. CHRIST'S VISIBLE CHURCH A MIXTURE Camberwell. COMMUNION with Christ is unquestionably held by none but those who exercise towards him a personal and living faith; but communion with Christ's earthly church may be held by those who fall short of such a faith. For as, in the human constitution, defectiveness in any one member does not destroy its claim to be considered a member, nor even the diseased state of many members cause the body to be any thing else but a true body; so, in the church, which is the "body of Christ," neither does the corruptness of any individual of the communion cancel his connexion therewith, nor does the presence of many such unworthy persons (even though their number should outweigh the worthy) at all detract from the reality of that communion, as Christ's own visible church in the world. The beggar whom Peter and John met at the entrance of the temple, who had been lame from his mother's womb, is called "a certain man;" and no intimation is given that that word was applied to him in any other than its full meaning. Paul met with an apostolical church in Corinth, which was full of sores;" yet was it the body of Christ; for Paul addresses it as a true church of God-and the God of truth admits neither of falsehood nor reservation. 66 In giving a reply to the question, Who are true members of any church? we answer, in the words of Scripture, they are such as are "called to be saints" (1 Cor. i. 2). VOL. IV. NO. LXXXIX. PRICE 1d. But if this be considered a true, rather than a sufficient reply, we then add, that all are saints by calling who acknowledge Christ's truth. Profession of God's truth constitutes true membership with his church; and whoever is so far "instructed unto the kingdom of heaven" as to have been admitted to baptism, whether his knowledge have been by covenant or actual, such an one, in the eye of man, and, as far as he can be tested by any tribunal of men, has "put on Christ" (Gal. iii. 27). There are two sorts of character that must always compose the elements of the earthly churchthose who are consecrated to God by baptismal profession, and those who are sanctified by the effectual operations of his Spirit. The first may be "branches in Christ bearing no fruit" (John, xv. 2); the latter are, as St. Paul was, "chosen vessels." The former will be justly rejected, as "workers of iniquity;" the latter eternally saved: but both are members of the congregation of Christ's people; and this in no fictitious or modified sense, but in the full and true import of the words. Holiness is the high calling of all Christian people. To lose sight of this end, or to allow any lower standard than the measure of the "stature of the fulness of Christ," is clearly unlawful. But when holiness is spoken of as a condition of church-membership, it is not perfect holiness, but only that which is attainable by human nature in its present enfeebled state. The "holy Catholic church" is not confined to those who are completely "renewed in the spirit of their mind," and who have, therefore, actual communion with Christ by personal and saving grace; but it F |