in "Spiritual Despotism ;" and the second part, in opposition to the opinion of John Search: "I regard the Church as likely to become one of God's most distinguished instruments of blessing mankind."* * It is due alike to John Search, our esteemed correspondent, and the reader, to state that in his recent pamphlet entitled " John Search's Last Words: he has formally "withdrawn" this opinion in the following eloquent passage addressed to the Bishop of London : : "This passage, my Lord, descriptive of my expectations from the Episcopal Church, I must now beg leave to modify or withdraw. Since it was first written, the state of the Church has rapidly changed; your Lordship, too, seems determined upon conduct, which, if it do not drive wise men mad,' will very much tend to make moderate men desperate. I much fear, my Lord, that I and others have been dreaming,-dreaming of days that can never dawn. If we go on dreaming however,-wherever the blame may have rested hitherto, it can rest henceforth only on ourselves. Your Lordship, at least, has delivered your soul. You are doing every thing you can to awaken us. A lover of peace, my Lord; an advocate for catholicity; attaching little importance to minor differences where the truth of the Gospel is maintained and loved; anxious to see the various bodies of Christians leaving to each other the quiet possession of their respective forms of ecclesiastical government, but amicably uniting in benevolent agency-religious, and even sacramental services; admiring many things in the episcopal community--reckoning much on the education and habits of its clergy as a body, and on the exemplary zeal, simple piety, and scriptural doctrine of not a few-I had hoped, my Lord, great things from the future influence of this community as a church, in spite of what is said, by some of its children, of the 'ruinous' results to the souls of men,' of the working through it, of the present Establishment. I had hoped, my Lord, that the Establishment might have been gradually mitigated, and the Church freed from her splendid vassalage to the state, and that then, competent to deliberate and decide for herself, as a purely spiritual and independent body, her episcopacy might have become less despotic-her canons and offices really purified from whatever, in either, is exclusive or intolerant-popish or unscriptural. I had dreamed of these things, cherishing the hope that pious men of all churches might come mutually to recognize their brotherhood, and ministry; might acquire and use the privilege of displaying it; and thus, as co-workers' in a common cause, meet together in heavenly places'-fight together the good fight'-and think far more of converting the world than of contending with each other! In such a state of things, my Lord, I could not but think, that to such a body as the Episcopal Church, a great and mighty influence would attach; and, that, instead of being the victim of a pernicious establishment-at once confined and corrupted by it-she would stand forth, fair and free,-absorb into herself, or lead in her wake, minor communities, and. from blessing her country, advance onwards throughout all the earth,-THE CHIEF MINISTER AND MISSIONARY OF MANKIND! "My Lord, I begin to doubt the propriety of such expectations. The Church, I fear, as distinct from the Establishment, has within her the elements of incalculable evil. Her mere apprehensions of the shaking of the Establishment, has led her to betray, that these very elements are just the things that she loves mostwhich she identifies with herself-and will die in defending, rather than relinquish. The rise and prevalence of the Oxford party-in many respects, the most consistent churchmen: the defection of many deemed evangelical, by their profession of recently revived errors; their diminution in numbers and influence as a body, and their extremely sore and sectarian spirit: the growing fashion among the younger clergy to dread what is denounced as Ultra-Protestant, and to advocate much that is all but Popish: your Lordship's public patronage of such men, in spite of your prudential silence as to the system; and, what is most recent, the direct attack which you have lately made on the benevolent co-operation I here contend, that "real episcopacy is necessarily exclusive and intolerant:" a conclusion at which that writer seems now to have arrived. The correspondent of "the Inquirer" pretends to a vast deal more than merely human knowledge. He judges my heart, and sees a "secret wish" in it, which the Searcher of hearts never saw. Of this I can offer no proof; but I can offer proof of the fallacy of another of his oracles. He calls my essay "an elaborate paper, evidently composed by a leading hand amongst the dissenting clergy," whilst he elsewhere insinuates that the paper was put forth by a select number of the London ministers. Now the fact is, as you, Mr. Editor, well know, that I am, and during the greater part of my life have been, the minister of a humble congregation in a secluded country village. As for ministering in London, I have preached there but twice during the last thirty years. I profess not to reciprocate the writer's assumed knowledge. "The Inquirer" was instituted by some seceders from the Society of Friends. The moral recklessness, and, perhaps, the literary tact of the writer on whom it has been my painful duty to animadvert, proclaim him to be no seceding Friend. Whoever he is, he is a reformer, but a reformer who has yet to learn, not only that consistency is an essential element of goodness, but that truth and honesty are essential elements of religion. When he has acquired these, he will obtain some credit for his professions of reform; but till he has acquired them, he will pollute any cause, which, unfortunately for its interests, his hands are extended to support. A PROPOSAL FOR SOCIAL MEETINGS OF THE ALUMNI OF OUR THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTIONS DURING THE ANNIVERSARIES IN MAY. (To the Editor.) DEAR SIR,-I hope that I shall not be deemed guilty of presumption in directing the attention of my ministerial brethren to the following subject. I have often regretted when in London at the May anniversaries of different sects in one of the least exceptionable of all possible modes of attempting to do good; nay, your forbidding' your clergy not only to speak to men that they might be saved,' in company with Dissenters, but forbidding' them, in such company, to speak EVEN UNTO GOD TO SAVE THEM! these things, my Lord, so painful in themselves, so opposite to whatever is Christian and catholic, yet so consistent, I fear, with the genuine spirit, the canonical commands, and assumptions of the Church-these things, compel me to abandon my expectations respecting it, and to recall the hopes which I once expressed. Until God not only send down the healthful spirit of his grace,' more generally and copiously than it has yet descended, on all our clergy, bishops, and curates; but, until he take away the deadly SPIRIT of the MAN OF SIN,' which, it is now obvious, pervades and animates the Anglican system, I much fear, that the Church, as such, would become to the country, in comparison with the Establishment, what Rehoboam was as the successor of Solomon."-pp. 12—15. that there is so little opportunity for old friends to associate together, even for an hour or two, undisturbed by the bustle and excitement of public meetings. We do sometimes recognise each other on the platform, but if we speak on such occasions, it is a hurried enquiry after each other's welfare-the warm squeeze of the hand and the hasty farewell-till we meet again-to go through the same formal and rapid movements. May not this defect in our intercourse be remedied to a certain extent by some such plan as the following? Let the alumni of each of our Theological Institutions agree to meet separately at such time and place as would be most convenient to themselves, during the meetings in May. If this was done, the opportunity referred to would be given; and as we provincial ministers go to town to be excited and refreshed, and to have our best affections drawn out-that we may be better fitted for doing more good when we return to our ordinary pastoral duties, may we not hope that such a meeting would be useful in promoting such an object. It may be that such meetings are held by those who have been educated at Homerton, &c.-but I know that no such assemblage has been convened of those who have studied at Hoxton and Highbury. It is possible that a few fellow students belonging to the same class may have done so-but not all the generations of students who were in London at the same time which is the thing now suggested. My proposal respectfully submitted to those who have been educated at Hoxton and at Highbury is this-that arrangements be made for meeting together in some suitable place-say, after the annual meeting of the London Missionary Society-when the afternoon and evening might be spent in such a way as would be most likely to secure not merely social, but individual brotherly inter course. At no meetings in the United States did I see more real enjoyment, than, when the alumni of Yale College, of Andover and other Institutions met at the yearly commencements:-brought together from very distant parts of America, not merely by love to their Alma Mater-but also by the strong desire to see beloved brethren once united with them in the most intimate bonds of christian friendship but separated for years by distance and by providential arrangements. Might we not expect to see the same pure affection drawn into exercise, and the same mingled emotions produced by the recollections of all that had befallen us during the years that had passed away since we had met before, that are experienced by our transatlantic brethren? The annual examinations of our Theological Institutions do not accomplish the object proposed. Our May meetings necessarily draw more ministers to London-so that without interfering with the other duty and without additional expence, it appears a fair opportunity of securing an additional meeting, that is likely to render the others more useful and pleasant. It is not improbable also that it would increase our interest in the prosperity of the Theological Institutions to which we severally belong. I write thus early to give the brethren an opportunity of suggest ing any other plan by which the same object can be secured-I do not think that I should have ventured to trouble you at this time, if While we cordially sympathize with the feeling which has dictated this proposal, we can scarcely realize its practicability under existing arrangements. Let us recite the prospective engagements of the second week in May. Most of our brethren cannot arrive in town until the afternoon of Monday, the 6th of May. When they will find at the Congregational Library an open meeting of the committee of "The Union" at 4 o'clock, P.M., at which all delegates from the country are invited. At 7 o'clock the monthly missionary prayer meetings will be held in various parts of the metropolis. Tuesday morning at 8 o'clock, members of the Union will convene at the Library to breakfast; 9 o'clock the Annual Assembly will meet, which will continue in deliberations till 3 o'clock, P.M. Give an hour for dinner, and at 4 o'clock the directors of the London Missionary Society hold an open meeting, which will continue till the Irish Evangelical Society's annual meeting commences at 6 o'clock. There is not an hour of leisure on Tuesday. Wednesday is devoted to two anniversary services of the Missionary Society, and we believe it is intended that some social meeting of its directors and friends shall be held between the services. A break fast meeting might be held on Wednesday morning, could the seats at Surrey Chapel, appropriated for ministers, be really reserved till 10 o'clock; but when we recollect who is to be the preacher, we fear that there is little hope of a comfortable social breakfast on Wednesday morning. Thursday morning is devoted to the annual meeting of the London Missionary Society, and there might, perhaps, be a breakfast at Exeter Hall on that morning, as we believe there is on the morning of the meeting of the Bible Society at the same place. But then it must be on the understanding that the platform is not to be packed to the exclusion of those active friends and able advocates of the Society, who might be engaged at such a meeting. A plain dinner, at some contiguous hotel, immediately after the meeting on Thursday, might bring together many brethren to occupy the time which intervenes between the close of the public meeting, and the hour appointed for the Church service on behalf of the London Missionary Society. For while that Society can find an evangelical episcopalian minister, willing, though at much sacrifice of feeling from the temper of too many of his brethren, to advocate its claims, we hold that it is not becoming in any of its members to appoint another meeting at the same hour. We are persuaded that this did not occur to our kind correspondent. On Friday, at 9 o'clock, the brethren will attend the adjourned meeting of "the Union." At 11 o'clock the Colonial Mission will hold its anniversary; at 3 o'clock the delegates and committee of the Union will dine together in the library, and at 6 o'clock the various Sacramental services will close the anniversaries of another year. It is our deliberate conviction that the directors of the Missionary Society should make extensive changes in their anniversary arrangements. Forty years ago there were no anniversary services but those of the London Missionary Society, and good sermons were then far more rare than happily they are in the present day. The Lord's day preceding, or that following the anniversary meeting should be appropriated to collections in every chapel in London, connected with the Society. This is done not only by our Baptist and Wesleyan brethren in the metropolis for their missions, but we believe also by all the great auxiliaries to the London Missionary Society in the country. One, or at the most two sermons would be sufficient during the week. The directors and friends of the London Missionary Society must learn that as its support is now thrown almost entirely upon the Congregational churches, so they must allow their pastors and more active members opportunities to deliberate on the best means . of promoting the prosperity of that denomination, which, under God, will be the means of promoting the welfare of the Missionary Society. Although we have thrown out these remarks we shall be happy to concur in any arrangement that may be practicable for securing the gratification which the accomplishment of Dr. Matheson's suggestion would afford. EDITOR. A WALK TO THE SOUTH METROPOLITAN CEMETERY, Mr. EDITOR-When I inform you that I have been for many years devoted in more than an ordinary degree to the secluded labours of the study, you will not wonder that my medical adviser should have recently insisted on the necessity of my taking a moderate portion of pedestrian exercise daily, in order to avert, if possible, the threatening symptoms which have spoken, of late, too clearly to allow of any misconstruction, of the penalties connected with a violation of the laws of nature. As I have been thus constrained to walk in pursuit of bodily health, I have endeavoured that the sphere of my perambulation should be such as might tend at the same time to give a healthful impetus to the mind, and thus combine the two objects which my past life had most preposterously severed. The grounds named at the head of this article are in the immediate vicinity of my residence, and on a fine morning in the past week I carried this principle into operation, by bending my course in that direction. "It is right," I said to myself as I proceeded, "nay, it is absolutely necessary that we should become acquainted with that country to which we are so soon to journey, and where we are so long to reside. It is but common policy to habituate one's self to its atmosphere, to study its laws and the principles of its internal polity, lest when the time of departure come, the sudden disruption of all our familiar habits, and the entrance into a scene of unimagined relations should be felt as too painful. I will try, if possible, to smooth the precipitous descent, and render the steps which lead down to the dark empire less abrupt, by familiarizing myself to their appearance." During the course of this soliloquy I had insensibly approached the cemetery, and was disturbed from my reveries by a sudden glance at the beauties of the opening scene. They who know the neighbourhood of Norwood will acknowledge with me that this is the loveliest little pendant of our richly-fringed metropolis, the home of scenic beauty and of health to those who know not its happy seclusion it would be difficult to realize the fact, that within six miles of the marketplace of the world's productions there exists so placid, so rural, so calm a nook, where art has not yet effaced one line of nature's loveliness, nor macadamized one of her freaks of untutored gracefulness to the tame regularity of urbane precision. As ancient Rome had her Tibur, and Antioch her Daphnis, so our modern Babel has this sequestered village, whither her business-worn citizens may retire to repair their shattered frames with the breezes of health. The graceful undulations of the ever-varying surface of the earth, the tufts of forest trees which skirt the surrounding hills, and give promise even in this season of the year of that umbrageous |
