by the eastern church. Up to the twelfth century they elected and consecrated their own bishops, and these exercised their jurisdiction in their respective dioceses without any reference whatever being had to Rome*. The same century, that introduced into Ireland the royal authority of England, established the jurisdiction of the popet. Before this, tithes were paid to the clergy, and ecclesiastics were richly endowed with lands. The church of Rome soon seized upon these possessions, and, during nearly three centuries of popish intrusion, her efforts were directed to transfer church property from the hands of the secular into those of the regular clergy, until the former was reduced to the lowest state of degradation. The history of this period is an important one, inasmuch as it affords an instructive commentary upon the general policy of the church of Rome, and manifests the natural tendency of her principles, wherever they are allowed to bear rule. The monasteries which sprang from the west, and those which sprang from the east, were strikingly different; the members of the latter were eminently superior to those of the former. Under the influence of Rome, the landwhich was previously the seat of the learned, whereunto men resorted from many other kingdoms of Europe, and from whence issued men to instruct and enlighten others—became a barren waste, swarming with idle monks and friars, whilst it groaned to be rescued from such an unworthy and oppressive burden. By ancient title, by civil and canonical law, the church of Ireland had a right to assert her independence, and to regain her possessions of which she had been deprived; nay, further, she had a right, and was bound by her allegiance to God, to shake off the imposed doctrines, rites, and ceremonies of the church of Rome. This was what was effected at the reformation. With Henry the eighth, or his conduct, we have nothing to do; although, under Providence, hewing out a way for the reformation, yet, as a witness for the truth against error, he was not a protestant. His reformation was little more than political, reaching to the vindication of the ancient rights and laws of the nation, in reference to the externals of the church. He renounced popery, yet lived and died a bigotted adherent to the doctrines of Romanism. The same fire that was kindled for the Roman catholic served to burn the protestant. Standing thus between two antagonist forces, he has been violently rejected by both. exception, that with the former our differences are on the most essential points of doctrine, whilst with many of the latter we are united on the great principles of truth, and only differ as to forms and church government. It would have been too much to expect that the church of Rome should calmly contemplate her jurisdiction and authority disregarded and rejected; so we find her putting in practice her usual plans for bringing back "the refractory Irisht." The following facts I take from the "History of the Church of Ireland, by the bishop of Down and Connor," chap. v., sec. ii., page 285. In 1567 the titular archbishop of Cashel wounded the true archbishop with a dagger, because he refused to surrender his province to him, and fled to Spain. In 1568 the titular bishops of Cashel and Emly were sent by the rebels as delegates to the pope and king of Spain, to implore aid against Elizabeth in favour of their religion. In 1590 the titular primate of Armagh joined with a proclaimed traitor in acts of rebellion. In 1599 the titular archbishop of Dublin came to another traitor and rebel, brought papal indulgences for all that would take arms against the English, a phoenix plume to O'Neal, and twenty-two thousand pieces of gold for distribution from the king of Spain. In the meantime pope Pius V. fulminated the bull of excommunication against the queen, and, as is remarked by a Roman catholic historian, "deservedly deprived her of her kingdom." It consequently followed that the authority of the queen and the jurisdiction and the religion of the church were both attacked, and the overthrow of both pursued with the most bigotted avidity. It is not to be wondered at that such conduct in this and the following reigns called forth from the British government many penal enactments, which have now been happily repealed, and which I sincerely trust may for ever remain blotted out from the statute-book. arising from the ecclesiastical courts, lord Alvanley himself admits, in page 16, has been removed, so that I am relieved from the necessity of dwelling upon it. The grievance of tithe, and lord Alvanley's remedy, demand a more lengthened investigation. That the Roman catholic relief bill has disappointed the expectations of many of its promoters, and fully realised the fears and predictions of its opponents, is now a matter of experience; in the eyes of lord Alvanley, the two great grievances which press heavily upon Roman catholics, and which have (as I read in p. 14 of his pamphlet) prevented that measure from producing the intended and desired effect, are the imposition and practice of the ecclesiastical courts, and the obligations on Roman catholics to pay tithes and The reformation, properly speaking, began in Ire-church-rates to the protestant church. The grievance land, with Elizabeth. Now what do we find? Not the property transferred, as stated, from one set of ecclesiastics to another, but the same persons that were then in possession, except two of the bishops, remaining in possession; consenting to and effecting, in conjunction with the state, a reform in religion, and subscribing and conforming to the doctrines, rites, and ceremonies of the church, as it is to this day established. Two only of the bishops, namely, of Kildare and Meath, were deprived of their sees; and this for an act of rebellion against the queen, in refusing to acknowledge her as the supreme governor of the clergy as well as the laity . During a great part of Elizabeth's reign, the bishops complied with the alteration in the service, and, so far from the adherents of the church of Rome thinking conformity a grievance, they resorted to the service of the parish churches, convinced of its "edifying and instructive nature." It would thus appear that the established church is the church of Ireland, both de jure and de facto, and that the Roman catholics are justly considered in the same light as other dissenters, with this From what I have previously written, it is obvious that the established church is the direct and legitimate successor of the ancient church of Ireland. As well might the successors of the independents, who intruded themselves into the livings of the church of England during the period of the commonwealth, claim them now as theirs, as that the Romish church, because she had violently seized on the property of the Irish church for three centuries, should now lay claim to it, when the latter has been enabled by the state to vindicate her rights. "Nullum tempus contra ecclesiam,” is a maxim of the law founded in wisdom, and a century's possession does not, any more than a year's, make invalid an ancient law or title. As a mere pecuniary burden, especially as the law at present exists, tithe cannot press at all upon the Roman catholic farmers: it is really, as it always has been, a portion of that which otherwise would be available to the landlord. The landlords are the bonâ fide tithe-payers, and, if tithe were done away in reality as well as in name, they would alone be the gainers. The + Vide Leland, vol. ii., page 371, total amount of tithe payable to the clergy of the Irish Church amounts, in round numbers, to about 300,000l.; of this the landlords in fee, that are Roman catholics, pay only about 14,000l., so little grounds have they for asserting that the established church is supported in whole, or even chiefly, by the Roman catholics. Indeed, under the existing state of the law, the tithe is already scarcely noticed by the majority of tenants. In a short time, if left to themselves, the name of it will be almost forgotten, and, unless some strange revolution takes place, there cannot be any successful agitation in regard of it. Some such measure as that which lord Alvanley recommends is the most likely means of producing such an unfortunate result. "The first step that must be taken," says lord Alvanley, in page 25, to "obviate the evils arising from the exercise of the temporal and spiritual power of the priests," and to "lead to a peaceful and honourable arrangement of the differences which have so long agitated and divided the two countries," is "a measure for the payment of the Irish Roman catholic priests." By this measure his lordship seems to think that the grievance of tithe will be removed, in consequence of the Roman catholics being relieved from the burden of paying their own priests, and these also will be deprived of that power which, as "creditors over debtors, they wield with such pernicious effect." I am convinced that the proposed measure will effect none of the purposes lord Alvanley has in view. The payment of tithe is, according to Roman catholic principles, a religious duty enjoined upon Roman catholics by the council of Trent, and by the popular catechisms in which the people are instructed, with this addition, that the payment be made to the "lawful pastors"-[Vide Christian Doctrine]. The grievance of tithe is not the pecuniary amount, nor that in addition they have to pay their own pastors; but the fact that they are obliged to pay tithes at all to the ministers of an heretical sect. Whatever equivalent may be given to the Romish priesthood, still, so long as the tithe itself is withheld from them, the church of Rome will be dissatisfied with its appropriation. Lord Alvanley can be little aware of the state of Ireland when he speaks of a "debtor and creditor" account between the priest and his flock. There may be, and I doubt not there are occasionally, amiable men in the priesthood, lenient and considerate towards the poorer members of their flock, whose destitution may touch their feelings; but, in general, whatever else may remain unpaid, the annual dues and the occasional fees must be paid on the spot. A creditor, who has the power of casting his debtor into prison, may use it as a means to force him to his terms; but a Roman catholic priest has not this power, nor does he require to use the authority which the relation as creditor might give him over his flock. His is a spiritual power, which requires no legal enforcement. Supposing that the priests receive a stipend in lieu of their customary dues, will the people be in the least relieved? I am firmly convinced they will not. No provision can be made for dispensations, and indulgences, and reserved cases. Cannot these be indefinitely multiplied, and with them corresponding pecuniary burdens? In Roman catholic countries, where the Romish church is established, this is the case, and the exactions consequent thereon enormous and oppressive. Monasticism is the perfection of the system of Romanism. It is the heart towards which the whole circulation tends, and from which it flows again to give life and energy to its extremities. The monastic orders have been justly called the "standing army of the pope;" they are regarded with peculiar favour by him, and have received from him peculiar encourage- | ment. Ready access to the highest offices in the church is given to such of the monks as distinguish themselves by talent and zeal. The pope gladly es | tablishes monasteries, and increases them wherever and whenever he has power so to do. Since the year 1814, under his patronage, they have rapidly increased in Ireland. The monks have been always regarded by the Roman catholic population with the most superstitious reverence, and the administration of the offices of the church in their hands esteemed peculiarly sacred and beneficial. Already a considerable traffic is carried on by the brethren in holy candles and beads and relics and gospels, and the only restraint to a greater extent of this traffic arises from the jealousies and fears of the secular priests, lest their own emoluments might thereby be in anywise diminished. Remove this check by paying the secular priest; the brothers will increase their traffic, and the choristers will extend the sphere of their services, and the burden of dues and fees will be ten, nay, a hundred-fold increased. This must necessarily follow from lord Alvanley's "first step." Perhaps the monks are to be paid too. Then search out the fairest, most fertile, most extensive tracts of land in this country, banish the owners, confiscate their property, and lay the title-deeds as an offering upon the monastic altars, and perhaps for a time the church of Rome may say, "enough." This may appear cxtravagant; it is nothing more than what we might justly expect. Walter Ennis, the organ for the time of the Romish hierarchy in Ireland, thus speaks in his "Survey of the Articles of the late Rejected Peace of 1646," page 91:-"In our declaration, printed in 1641, we declared it to be a means to reduce Ireland to peace and quietness, that the bishoprics, deaneries, and other spiritual promotions of the kingdom, and all friaries and nunneries, should be restored to the Roman catholic owners, and that the impropriation of tithes may be restored, and the sites, ambits, and precincts of religious houses of monks may be restored to them; but, as to the residue of their temporal possessions, it is not desired to be taken from the present proprietors, but to be left with them until God shall incline their own hearts." The same spirit and the same principles that dictated the above, I believe, animate at the present time the majority of the Roman catholic hierarchy in Ireland. It may be said restrictions might be placed upon the increase and functions of the monks, or the establishment of monasteries might be altogether prohibited. Attempt either of these, and then farewell to the dream of tranquillising Ireland by paying the secular priests. I have taken my stand upon low grounds, and have not alluded to the great principle involved in this question. I have only dealt with its justice and practicability, and I am confident that many even of the reflecting members of the Roman catholic persuasion will acknowledge that the measures proposed by lord Alvanley, whilst they remove no grievance, would entail others which would be first and most severely felt by themselves. If the obligation to pay tithes to the Irish church be the great grievance under which the Roman catholics are weighed down (which I deny), and if this be the only obstacle which stands in the way of restoring peace and tranquillity to Ireland, as lord Alvanley infers, a much cheaper and more effectual means of accomplishing its removal can be devised than the payment of the priests, recommended by his lordship. There are in Ireland, I believe, about 4,000 priests, who, on a moderate calculation, for confessions, marriages, burials, extreme unction, masses, month's minds, churchings of women, priests' coin, &c., receive about 600,000l., thus affording to each a salary of about 150l. per annum. In this sum salaries of bishops are not included. Take it, however, at G00,0001., and, large as it is, who is there that would. not be willing to sacrifice it, provided there were no surrender of principle involved therein, if by doing se peace and harmony would be secured to Ireland? much less sum, however, will be required, if the myself astonished to find such a wretched set of paupers grievance of tithe be all that is necessary to be re- -for by what other name can I designate them?—as moved. I have said that the amount of tithe pay- those whom I encountered in my own visit to Glasgow. able to the clergy of the established church, is about Their numbers were most appalling, and their craving 300,000l., half the sum necessary to be paid to the importunities most distressing. I believe that these Roman catholic priests, supposing they would be in a great measure arose from the cravings of absolute satisfied with it. Let lands be purchased by the want. A friend, on whose veracity I can fully rely, government at every opportunity, producing a yearly told me that a justiciary (an assize) trial in Glasgow amount equal to that of the tithes; and, according was the most affecting thing which he ever beheld; as the land is purchased, let the proceeds be applied the court-house was beset with a crowd of young to the use of the clergy in lieu of their tithes; the squalid persons, male and female, such as never proexpense will then come gradually off the state, with-bably had been witnessed at the Old Bailey. The out suddenly depreciating the value of money or in- then presiding judge, the lord justice clerk (now the creasing that of land; tithes will be extinguished in lord president of the court of session), left the court a few years in name and reality, and the presumed at the hour of twelve or one in the morning, accomgrievance, arising from obligation to pay them, will be panied by a lawless rabble, ready to insult those in completely and for ever removed. The reason for authority who were on foot. "The sight," he said, vesting the money in land must be obvious: it will was at once disgusting and heart-rending." give the property a character of security and permanence which it otherwise could not have, and will cause the income of the clergy to fluctuate according to the changes of the times. MY SCOTTISH TOUR. No. XVII. In my last paper on this interesting but depressing subject, I brought forward some illustrations of the spiritual state of the lower orders in Scotland, confining my remarks however chiefly to the metropolis. Since that paper was sent to press an important document has recently come under my notice, in "Chambers's Edinburgh Journal" for April 9th, for this year, under the designation-"The miserable classes;" which the editors of that widely extended work state was contained in a letter addressed to them by Mr. Greig, travelling secretary to the Society for the Protection of Young Females. Mr. Greig, it appears, has been lately visiting Glasgow, and has made it his business to investigate, in a variety of cases, the condition of the poorer classes in that daily increasing city, which has, during the present century, made astonishing advances in its extent and population; and no one who reads Mr. Greig's statement-the perfect accuracy of which I cannot for one moment doubt-can fail to be impressed with the sad demoralization and wretchedness of the poor of the community. The lower classes in Glasgow are placed under circumstances somewhat dissimilar to those in Edinburgh, from the extent of the manufactories. Investigations, most properly and humanely made some ten years ago, when cholera was working its destructive ravages, brought to light an immense mass of spiritual as well as temporal misery, the existence of which was little suspected. My own experience on this point with the parish with which I was then connected, opened my eyes to facts of which I was utterly ignorant. "The first miserable feature of the social condition of Glasgow that particularly drew my attention," says Mr. Grieg, "was the constant prowling about of boys and girls, from six or eight to fifteen or sixteen years of age, in small groups of from six to ten persons; who are to be met with in all parts of the city, morning, noon, and night, without any ostensible occupapation, not even begging, but dragging on a most miserable existence, living in the streets by day, and when completely wearied at night, resting upon the common stairs or in areas." Now I must confess I was ⚫ The expression a "common stair" can convey with it no definite notion to many a reader of this work; but it must be observed that in Scotland many tenements or buildings are let out in flats or floors, which contain the various requisites of a house, in some cases six or eight stories high, or even more. To the entrance of these there is necessarily one common stair, the door Referring to the persons alluded to, Mr. Greig goes on to say-"I conversed with some of these destitute younglings, and found that most of them were fatherless, some without both parents; that very few, if any, had been employed in factories, so that want of trade could not account for their being in that situation: in fact they appear, from all that I can learn, either from themselves or from the police, to be a constantly accumulating portion of the population of Glasgow, who live by begging when they can, and stealing when they do not beg, and who have no other prospect before them but a life of crime, or an early death from destitution." It would far exceed the limits of this paper to give a lengthened extract from Mr. Greig's remarks as to what he was compelled to witness in the Night Asylum. His accounts of the transactions of a morning at the police-office, cast into the shade those of a morning at Bow-street or Guildhall. "To give myself still more proof of the startling facts," says he, "which had already unsettled my enthusiastic notions of the unequalled moral condition of the Scottish people, I attended at seven o'clock one morning at the police buildings, and there counted one hundred and three unfortunates who had been picked up the previous night by the police from the streets and common stairs, having no other home or abiding place; more than three-fourths of these were girls." Through regions of filth, of disease, of unblushing vice, of squalid misery, Mr. Greig wended his melancholy way: he found of which being left open affords to the houseless wanderer a shelter from the blast. A stranger in Scotland will be somewhat astonished to find, on visiting a family whose mansion carries with it the appearance of grandeur, that only the ground floor and that beneath is in the occupation of the family. The stories above, in fact, are occupied by different families, who have access to them by a common stair. Referring to the old common stairs of Edinburgh I have just met with the following remarks:-" Those unacquainted with the social and domestic statistics of ancient Edinburgh, would, when looking at the buildings which are still crowded together in many parts of the Old Town, be apt to conclude that their inhabitants could have enjoyed but little of either health or comfort in such dark and dingy domiciles. One, however, who knew a little better, and who looked more closely, would see much to induce him to form a very different opinion. He would find that those old houses were constructed in every particular with a strict regard to comfort; he would find in many portions of them specimens of art not excelled in the present age; he would stumble often, in some of the darkest and closest alleys, on door lintels sarmounted with ducal coronets and crests finely carved in stone, indicating that the buildings which they adorned had once been the residence of nobility; he would observe, after ascending the flight of shelved and broken steps, remnants of fine old mahogany balustrades and hand-rails; he would find in apartments, now perhaps the abodes of extreme poverty, richly carved mantel-pieces, and beautifully ornamented hand-modelled plaster ceilings; and, when he began to contrast the character of the present inmates of these houses with that of their ancient occupants, and to reflect on the changes which must have attended their transition from the one to the other extreme, he would have no difficulty in believing that those ruinous dens, now the squalid abodes of want and wretchedness, might, under the magic influences of wealth, have been at once elegant, and, in the language of the Gaberlunzie, 'couthie dwellings."""" all barren where all probably he expected to find luxuriant. Every one knows the astonishment of the country lad who found black mud in London when he artlessly thought all the streets were paved with gold. Mr. Greig was not improbably little less disappointed. A specimen of the squalid wretchedness of some of the lower orders may be conceived from the following statement :-"We first visited a small court, leading from the New Vennel, and there are several rooms not exceeding ten feet by eight; I counted as many as seven persons of both sexes, in many instances without either protection or covering from the cold ground, except the miserable rags upon their backs. In some places the inmates were lying upon stones, and a piece of sacking or other covering appeared a luxury. The herding together of both sexes must act with fearfully demoralising effect, and was evidenced in a number of cases. The effluvium from these places was most oppressive; and it was not a little increased by the means which seem to be employed throughout all these miserable districts for carrying away their slops, &c. &c., from their rooms, namely, an open trough at each window, down which is poured all sorts of filth. As little pains are taken either to pour down the whole of the filth, or to cleanse the trough after it has been used, there gradually accumulates at each window a heap of the most disgusting nuisances; and, while this exists within doors, the want of drainage without, and the constant recurrence of open receptacles into which all the troughs empty themselves, with the utter impossibility for a current of fresh air to pass through these crowded lairs, make the atmosphere almost without a figure thick with pestilence." "In the dark places in Havannah-street, I found cases of equal destitution and want, rendered the more striking from their being in the immediate vicinity of the college, the residents in which cannot open a window without inhaling the dreadful atmosphere arising from these last harbourages of misery. In one room in this neighbourhood, we found a poor girl lying upon the floor, who told us she had been there for thirteen months with a sore leg, which almost prevented her from moving; and she had thus been subsisting upon the charity of the other occupants of the same dwelling, who, though scarcely less miserable than herself, could not see a fellow-creature die before their eyes, without sharing their poor pittance with her. We asked this wretched creature whether she had been visited in that time by any minister? She answered, 'No.' By any elder?' 'No.' 'By the town's surgeon?' 'Alas! he had come to visit another inmate of that dwelling, but, having no orders to visit her, left her to suffer from her festering sores." Now I have no wish to investigate the point in what parish Havannah-street is located, though I can shrewdly guess it; nor have I any wish to record the name of the parochial minister, or to discover those of the elders, and mark the name of the medical man, whose conduct requires no comment; but I do think it shews that they were all most grossly inattentive to their duty. But they are worn out with ecclesiastical divisions; perpetual broils in sessions and presbyteries and synods leave no time for parochial visitation. An active, energetic curate would have found out this case, if a lazy rector had cared little about it; but then a curate's name would sound grating on a presbyterian ear. It would call to mind that fearful race who sought, in covenanting days, to establish the kingdom of Satan; and a rector would be thought of as necessarily a proud and bloated and selfish individual, who cared for nothing parochial barring the tithes. The deficiency of the means of providing for religious instruction in large towns, such as Glasgow, will be considered hereafter; but such gross neglect ought not to be concealed even if it was a solitary instance, which there is too great reason to fear is not the case. And, after all, what were the voluntaries about? Probably attacking the establishment, while the establishment was rent with its own schisms: meanwhile the poor and the wretched were neglected. The duties of a Scottish elder are of a religious character, quite different from that of a churchwarden or overseer in England: perhaps I have made the remark before. "An elder," says Dr. Burns, from whose work on the Scottish poor I have already quoted, "must consider himself as the guardian of the pooras an established office-bearer in the church of Christ. He is required, by the very terms of his appointment, to watch over the interests of the poor, to attend to their character and circumstances, and to use such means as Providence furnishes for alleviating and supplying their necessities. It is peculiarly agreeable to the genius of Christianity to attend to the poor of the spiritual flock of the Redeemer. To them the gospel is preached; for them its ample treasures are disclosed; and among them the graces of the Christian character have not unfrequently been seen to flourish in all their vigour and in all their loveliness. The indigent members of the flock of Christ, then, are objects of peculiar interest to their appointed superintendents. Whatever may be the form or external character of the society with which he is connected, the person invested with the office of deacon in the church is constituted the guardian and protector the indigent and dependant.. ... Viewed in th relation, the man who holds such an office ought 1, cherish in his heart the principles of Christian benevo lence and social sympathy. Under their control, h will undertake and discharge his duties with cheerfulness; and, whether he receives the gratitude of the poor or not, he has the satisfaction to think that he has discharged his duty." As to the inevitable results of the divisions already referred to, and the wretched influence it must have on the spiritual and temporal welfare of the poor, no reasonable man can be ignorant. The following most judicious remarks on the subject are from a pamphlet very recently published, which I most readily quote as entirely illustrating the truth of what I advanced. They have this moment reached meafter the former part of this paper was ready for the press. "The direct result of the contentions now proceeding in the church of Scotland is to split that church into parties, opposed to each other with a violence for which the popular form of her constitution affords a ready outlet, and amid whose turbulent outbursts the sentiment of Christian charity has well nigh perished. The clergy of Scotland, in place of taking sweet counsel together for the welfare of the Christian heritage, stand towards each other in the position of angry enemies, showering down mutual revilings and reciprocal aspersions. In place of quiet and faithful labourers in their appointed work, many of them have made themselves little better than public gladiators, devoting their time and energies to the exhibitions of a popular arena. The madness of party spirit has gone the length of nearly equally blinding to consequences both sets of combatants; for, ultimately, the minority have displayed a recklessness too like that of the majority, and have pursued what, to an impartial observer, appears a course singularly similar, acting on a principle of insubordination to the church, just as hazardous to all constituted authority as that of insubordination to the state; and, whilst accusing their adversaries of submitting their cause to the judgment of the supreme tribunal, and forthwith disobeying that judgment, strangely failing to perceive that they did exactly the Churches." By William Penney, esq, advocate. Edinburgh: "A Tract for the Times, adapted to the position of both Laing and Forbes. same when, joining in the vote of the ecclesiastical | epistle we find him arguing thus: "If, when court, they broke the implied contract which every such vote involves, and raised a resistance to that sentence, to which the very act of giving a voice on the question promised beforehand obedience. Beneath the heat of these contentions, every general scheme of Christian philanthropy languishes. The ministrations of the pulpit fail to produce their right effect on minds which are either revolted by the supposed errors of the preacher, or hurried away by a dangerous sympathy into feelings very different from the calm benevolence of the gospel. The spiritual character proper to every Christian minister, is dimmed and deteriorated, amid noisy debates and unbrotherly hostilities, and rival schemes of, too often, mere carnal policy. The very power of imparting Christian consolation is lost, or lessened, by the whirl of an engrossing agitation, interfering with the attentions and marring the delicacy of Christian sympathy, and turning the beautiful office of comforter into a heartless task, hastily slurred over, and ineffectively performed. "It is not, however, the direct effect produced on the character of the clergy which is alone prejudicial: there is a reflex influence on the character of the laity, deeply to be deplored. None can carefully consider the signs of the times without perceiving, in Scotland, a melancholy illustration of the check given to religion, the impetus given to infidelity, by the errors or follies of religious men. False as is the process of reasoning, it is a too natural inference of the corrupted heart, which attributes to religion itself the errors of religious professors, and ascribes to hypocrisy what is but human infirmity. Numbers are now openly sceptical as to the reality of piety, seeing it in combination with such adverse elements. The scoffers, to whom the ministers of religion afford such scope, turn, by a ready association, their jeers on the religion these possess. Many are deserting religious ordinances, from distaste created by the conduct of those presiding over them; and, as ever happens, are filling up the blank with idle or licentious pursuits. These and such-like symptoms of a decay of religion in the public mind, as yet perhaps not very prominent, but the seeds of growing evils, are visible to every calm observer of the face of society. The respect for religion, and the reverence for the ministers of religion, which latterly had become such pleasing features of the age, are wearing away into their opposites; and, unless divine grace prevent it, there is great risk of that too well known reaction, under which a season of religious profession and general morality is succeeded by a season of general infidelity, and wide-spread, open profligacy." we were enemies, we were reconciled to God nay, of The apostle mentions, first of all, the gift which God has bestowed upon mankind"He spared not his own Son"-and from thence infers that we have a sure warrant for expecting that with him he will freely give us all things. I. The free gift of God to the world is thus described by our blessed Lord himself, in the third chapter of the gospel of St. John"God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." And again in the first epistle of St. John-" Herein is love, not that we loved THE LOVE OF GOD IN GIVING HIS SON TO God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son DEATH: A Sermon, BY THE REV. EDWARD DUKE, JUN., B.A., Curate of St. Edmund's, Salisbury. "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him THE mode of reasoning employed by the apostle in our text is one which he has used on other occasions, and it is a form of argument especially adapted to carry conviction to the mind. In the fifth chapter of this same to be the propitiation for our sins." These passages seem to speak of the love of God in sending his Son to die for us as something singular and unprecedented-a love before unheard of in the annals of disinterested compassion. "Herein is love," says the apostle John, as though in the comparison nothing else deserved the name of love. But in what respects is this love so singularly great and admirable? Several particulars might be mentioned, but all must fail to express it fully. It is seen partly when We consider the character of those for whom God sent his Son to die they are described in scripture as the ungodly, the rebellious, persons utterly undeserving of such |