death would soon cut off their earthly hope respecting this dear and beloved child.

At her own request she was prayed for that day in the congregation of the Episcopal Jews' Chapel. When her father went to the service, she charged him to bring her home" all the honey" (as were her own words) from the sermon; and on his return, she said, " I hope you have brought me a bee-hive." A brief account was given her of the sermon, which did not happen to contain much that was suited to her own case, as it was a sermon on the subject of Church extension in the parish. She, however, endeavoured to make it profitable, saying, "What a blessing that the people will have more churches in which to worship God," &c.

After the morning service, she was agreeably surprised and delighted with a visit from the Rev. T. F., an aged and beloved minister of God, who was much interested in her conversation; and his kindly offering up a prayer proved quite a cordial to her. She was also much delighted with the visit of another dear Christian friend, who came to see her in the course of the afternoon. She felt particularly thankful to the kind friends who either called or sent to inquire after her, and once she said to her parent," If I recover, you must take me to all the kind friends to thank them for their kind inquiries; if not, you must do it for me." The firm and cheerful tone and manner of her conversation throughout her illness astonished every one, and led to the hope that it was not of so dangerous a description, whilst it strikingly marked the sincerity and solidity of her hope. She every now and then said, "I am so happy!" exclaiming, "My precious Saviour! He is so near me." occasion, when suffering from acute pain and difficulty of breathing, she suddenly repeated—showing what was going on in her mind,—

God's purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;

The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.

THE PRIEST AND THE MINISTER.
An Historical Sketch, translated from the French.
Continued from page 378.

DOCTRINES OF THE REFORMATION AND ITS RESULTS.

On one

If the main principle of the reformation, as well as its motive, is raised so far above your attacks, its doctrines and their results are not less honourable, both in the sight of God and before men.

You have indeed mocked at them, and spoken calumnies respecting them; from your statements it might be supposed that among Protestants there never were souls regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and who have put on the likeness of Christ; nor any souls, who by their good works manifested their death unto sin, and their progress towards everlasting life.

pure.

You have spoken thus, and have believed that your own way is "All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes," saith the Scripture, "but it is the Lord that weigheth the spirits," Prov. xvi. 2; and the truth which cometh from God is about to weigh your spirit.

C

To begin with these doctrines of the reformation, you asserted that they were foolish and wicked. There is a Bible, you said, open upon a table, from whence proceeds, for all who come to read it, as many opinions as there are different minds. Each may understand it as he pleases. Each interprets it as he thinks fit. There is no unity, no agreement; there are as many sects as families. Protestantism is a Babel, where every one speaks his own language, but no one understands another.

Stop here, I beseech you; do not utter blasphemies. The Holy Spirit is God, and the Bible is His voice. Stop; be silent; for history reproves you, again it accuses you of ignorance and unbelief.

First, of ignorance, both as relates to your own Church and as to the Bible. A few words will suffice.

You tell us that the disciples of Rome are counted by millions, and it is one faith alone, you emphatically say, that unites them, and subjects them to one head, by whom they are governed.

It is by more millions, history replies, the Church of the Bible is enumerated; one and the same belief alone characterizes it; it is in one and the same life believers are united; it is one and the same Lord who blesses them, and rules over them.

"Walk around this city of God, count her gates and mark well her towers," Ps. xlviii. 12, 13. See the ancient churches I have already named united to those of the reformation. They cover a vastly wider expanse than the Church of Rome ever occupied; they include larger multitudes by far than Rome ever could count. Open their annals; listen to what they tell concerning the early centuries; hear what they say of the middle ages; hear what they tell of the present day; are you not surprised? Inquire why their narratives agree; why their doctrine is the same. Ask why it is that in the primitive churches of Ethiopia, of Abyssinia, of Egypt, of Palestine, of Armenia, Persia, and Syria, and in the far distant India ;-ask why it is that in other churches not less ancient, those in Cilicia, Cappadocia, Poland, Hungary, the vast expanse of Russia, in Sweden and Denmark;-ask why it is that in others not less apostolical and accordant with the primitive church, in Transylvania, Bohemia, the north of Italy, and even in the centre of France; ask why it is that in all these churches, of every age and every land, there are the same creeds, and confessions of faith in accordance and harmony with each other, on the same fundamental truths. Ask how it is that these creeds, and these confessions, are the same as those which the reformation brought forward and proclaimed from the first, through all the nations of Europe, and subsequently beyond the ocean in the vast regions of America, and through the innumerable islands of the South Seas; seek and inquire how it is that this tree so ancient, yet still covered with verdure, has every where shot forth the same roots and spread abroad the same branches, and in every land, at every period, has furnished daily supplies of the same fruits, and afforded the same salutary shade.

How is it? All these churches, through every century of their existence, give you a reply. For a very plain reason. It is because there

are not two Bibles; the truth is one and agrees with itself; the book of God, under the power of the same Spirit, holds but one and the same language, every where, and to every heart. It is, that to be taught by the Holy Spirit, is to be made partakers of the grace of the same God and Father, of the same calling, of the same hope, through the love of the same Saviour, by one faith, and one baptism, Eph. iv. 4, 5, 6. It is because the Spirit of light directs all to the same Scriptures, in which we do not find the pope or his decretals, nor the host, nor the mass, nor images, nor prayers to the virgin and the saints, nor absolution, nor purgatory, nor any other errors of the Church of Rome.

All this shows, priest of Rome, that history and geography, if you will believe them, teach that the Church of the Bible, is far more ancient, and that its members are more numerous than that of the pope, and that it is far more consistent in the main foundation and chief superstructure of its faith. If some diversities in rites or discipline, or some slight difference in deductions from the same principles, here and there give an air of irregularity to the edifice, yet these variations, about which you make so much noise, but which in fact are as nothing when compared with the variations of Rome,a these variations do not preclude real protestantism; that is to say, the Church of the Bible in every nation, period, and place, from having one and the same doctrine only. And that doctrine is always opposed to the Church of Rome, and unfavourable to its views. The doctrine is this, (mark me,) it is this, Man is justified freely, through faith, and not by works.

This is protestantism; this is the reformation; this is the unvarying protest, never ceasing and always the same, which the Bible everywhere opposes to the Church of Rome and its worship. This doctrine, which you abhor and declare to be evil, proceeds from the Holy Bible, as light and heat emanate from the sun. The book of God causes this Divine evidence concerning God to be heard, and though it giyes no answer to the questions of a buffoon, and although the ears of a scorner cannot hear its voice, yet it is not the less victorious, and it is not the less triumphant over the Romish fables of the merits of works, priestly absolution, indulgences, and the foolish dreams concerning the legends of saints, and the intercession of the Virgin Mary. This is the heavenly religion of the Bible. That book, its leaves, its pages, its verses, every word it contains, is a never failing source from whence issue the waters of life; those floods will ere long inundate even this church, and soon nothing but the four walls will be left, its present contents will be swept away, but it will be the effect of truth! Would that as you said in mockery, but you spoke the truth though in scorn,-would that you would place the Bible by itself upon a table, and then, freeing this poor people from the deadly bondage in which you have bound their souls, you would allow them to read its pages. Sad that there is need that one sinner should be able to refuse such permission to others, sinners like himself! you would give them leave to read the Bible, and to learn from its pages what it really declares, and the promises it sets forth, what it

If

a See Edgar's Variations of Popery.

commands, and all that it contains for our good, then, by Divine grace, these poor souls would speedily be enlightened and set free.

Then they would wonder they had been so long kept in ignorance; they would soon learn what is meant by that blessed word, "the Saviour." and then they would say to you, What need have we to plead our own merits and those of the saints, we are made partakers of the Divine merits.b What would you have us seek in the mass and its empty idol? The perfect sacrifice of Christ has redeemed us for ever.c Why should we wait upon the mother of the Lord Jesus, the holy apostles, or other men now no longer upon the earth? They are dead, the mother of Jesus is dead; they have no more a portion in anything that is done under the sun, Eccles. ix. 5, 6. What good can our souls receive from your priestly absolution? We have forgiveness from the Lord.d Or from your penances? Christ has made satisfaction for us.e Or from that cross of wood? The cross of Jesus is a spiritual cross, and its power is felt in our hearts.f What good can we obtain from your holy water, consecrated candles, blessed bread, or your processions, your altars, your images, and your pictures? Jesus is the food of our souls; Jesus is our living light; His blood purifies us; His image is in our hearts; His altar is there; His all powerful resurrection has for ever delivered us from the sting of death, from hell and all its terrors.g Yes, Christ has saved us; we are bought with a price, and we belong to Him. Thus we are influenced by love, and not by fear ;i and therefore, throwing off a religion of slavery, with all its system of terrors,k we give up our hearts to Him who has saved us by His own blood ;/ and it is in the peace of His grace, and the assurance that we are His for evermore,m that we henceforward seek to serve Him, as His wellbeloved, safely kept by Him, and already, in hope, citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem.n

A RAILWAY CONTROVERSY.

THE following account of a conversation was supplied me through the medium of a mutual friend, by an eminent Dissenting Minister, who was himself the advocate of truth in the discussion, which he recapitulates as follows:

के

Some months ago I was going to Birmingham, on the Grand Junction Railway, and got involved in rather a more interesting discussion, than one usually can elicit in such a very transient acquaintance as that of a public conveyance. But it so happened that on getting into one of the Company's carriages at Newton, I found three b Cor. i. 30, 31; Rom. v. 1, 2. e Heb. i. 3; ix. 12, 14, 25, 28. d Eph. ii. 1-10; John vi. 47; 1 John v. 1, 12, 13. e Heb. x. 12—14. f Gal. ii. 20. g John v. 33, 35; viii. 12; 1 John i. 7; Eph. iii. 16—19; Heb. xii. 28; 1 Cor. xv; Rom. viii. 1, 30-38. h 1 Cor. vi. 20; 1 Pet. i. 18, 21.

i 1 John iv. 17-19.

k Rom. viii. 15; Heb. ii. 15; 1 John xv. 10.

m John xiv. 27; v. 24; xx. 30; 1 John v. 13.

n 2 Cor. v. 14, 15; 1 John iii. 1-3; 1 Pet. i. 5, 6; Col. iii. 1—4. Phil. iii.

13, 14.

to me.

of the seats occupied by gentlemen, two of whom were entire strangers The other gentleman, indeed, I knew to be an eminent attorney, of liberal principles, in one of our chief manufacturing cities of the North. And I was now induced to ensconce myself in the farthest angle of the coach. From the opportunities I already had of acquiring, I found that his breath and temper were of almost equal sweetness. My fellow travellers all proved to be staunch liberals, and as that is very much my own line of opinion, except on questions rather religious than political, we steamed on, very much, I believe, to our mutual satisfaction. But after passing the Whitmore station, in the course of a rather long pause, the nicest looking gentleman opposite to me, who seemed from his taste in waistcoats and extent of newspaper information, to assume the character of at once the beau and wit of the party, and who rejoiced, I found, in the name of Trotter-turned round to the coarse looking young man, who was conning over the anti-corn-law journal at his left hand, and said "Lees, did you hear Th― (naming an eminent Socinian preacher) when he was down at Liverpool. "No," said his friend, as the narcotic publication dropped from his hand, and he moved himself to pick it up. "Well then, you must get his sermons, they will be published in a six shillings volume." is too much to give for sermons," said the attorney. "Not if the paper is worth it," said the coarse young man.

"That

"The real value will depend," suggested his more intelligent friend, "on the soundness of the argument and the elegance of the language." "Does he lash the Parsons and the Tories well? inquired the dyspeptic attorney.

"Does he give it the Lords and Squires, as starve the people," added the friend to foreign agriculture.

66

No, Lees-no, Mr. Thatmoor," was the reply," he goes on quite another tack-he has been doing the devil."

"Doing the devil!" we all exclaimed together. "What do you mean? How would he do that?

"Why," said Mr. Trotter in explanation," he has been preaching a course of sermons, to prove there is no such being as the Devil- that it is quite a fiction of priestcraft-a notion that sprung up in the dark ages, contrary alike to reason and Scripture, and an idle and absurd superstition, that no one possessed of common sense could entertain for a moment.'

66

Well," said I, "this is a new idea to me. In how many sermons did he establish these opinions?"

"Oh," replied Mr. Trotter," he preached but four times; in the three first he did the Devil, and in the fourth, he completely knocked up future punishments."

But," I again observed, "what did he say about the Devil? He must have owned there was such a being alluded to in the Scriptures." "O yes," said Mr. Trotter, "it is spoken of more than once, I believe, in the Bible, but not in the sense that people in general take it in. And I would have you understand, Sir," he added, that I receive the Bible myself-I am not a Deist, but an Unitarian."