the naturally noble impulse of our nature. The nomenclature of vice and virtue requires much revision: and, if truth could predominate, we might be put to say, 'Handy-dandy: which is the vice? which is the virtue?' The skeleton of virtue remains; but the flesh, and life, and soul, in many instances, are fled." Such is a faithful sample of the sophistry with which the soi-disant reformist press is teeming now-a-days. Admitting, for a moment, the existence in human nature of naturally noble impulses, what are those axioms, or rather paradoxes, which ought to be swept away? marriage? religion? faithfulness? If we are told that nobody thought of reforming anything else except poor-laws, financial regulations, and stock-jobbing, we ask what construction is to be put upon George Sand's works?

With this question, we beg leave to make our exit for the present. Hear the character given to the nineteenth century by the writer we have just been analyzing.

Au siècle dernier, Voltaire écrivait audessous de la statue de Cupidon ces vers fameux:

Qui que tu sois, voici ton maitre;

Il l'est, le fut, ou le doit être.

Aujourd'hui Voltaire inscrirait cet arrêt solennel sur le socle d'une autre allégorie: ce serait le Doute, et non plus l'Amour, que sa vieille main tremblante illustrerait de ce distique. Oui, le doute, le scepticisme modeste ou pédant, audacieux ou timide, triomphant ou désolé, criminel ou repentant, oppresseur ou opprimé, tyran ou victime; homme de nos jours,

Qui que tu sois, c'est-là ton maitre ;

Il l'est, le fut, ou le doit être. *

To an age, to a literature, infected with such ideas, what renovating principle shall we point out? Germany? Greece? Aristotle? Plato?—No, the Gospel alone can infuse fresh life through the diseased body, and substitute the vigour of health to the throes and convulsions of a feverish, of an over-excited, frame.

Totteridge-Green, Herts., March 1st.

A THUNDER-STORM IN THE CAUCASUS.

ABOUT five-and-twenty versts from Teflis, we passed a large village on the right of the road, said to form the site of the ancient Iberian capital, but of which no traces are visible at the present day, beyond a few mounds of earth and several large blocks of granite, scattered at intervals to a considerable extent. One object worthy of observation, however, is a church of an old and rudely-constructed make, and which tradition asserts to be one of the first erected in the country during the earliest epoch of Christianity. It was, as near as I could judge, about midnight; I had fallen fast asleep, when I was suddenly aroused by a crash, that at the moment I could have imagined heralded the end of the world's existence. I have heard the echo of upwards of a hundred pieces of ordnance in the field; I have felt my horse reel beneath the deafening explosion of a mine; but a parallel to such a peal as that which burst upon my now startled ear, and

*Lettres d'un Voyageur, préface.

VOL. III.-FOURTH SERIES.

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seemed to pierce the brain's most inward fibre, it has never been my lot to witness. Though momentarily stunned, I was in an instant completely awake; and then such a keen, dazzling, lambent sheet of flame burst around, it seemed as if the circuit of the whole country was one bright stream of fire, followed, too, by a roar, if possible, more awful than the first. Half blinded though I was, I yet had time to mark its effect: the horses stood firm and still, with mane erect, their eyes almost starting from their sockets, more like the frightful resemblance of an equal number of bronze statues, than a picture of living life. My companion, whose pale countenance must have reflected back the image of my own, crossed himself devoutly, while our domestics pressed their hands to their eyes to shut out the terrific spectacle, and the low, deep, yet fervent, prayers of both, alike the Christian and the Mussulman, were poured forth with a devotion that could not have been more deeply expressed had the last hour been at hand. Another flash,-another,—and another: the rain descended in torrents, as if threatening a second deluge; while the deep, hoarse murmur of the rushing wind, and the sounds of crashing and falling trees, imparted additional terror to the scene. What a sublime, what an awful, picture! I have been in many scenes of peril, both by sea and land; not merely in the area of a bloody and well-sustained conflict, where its maddening excitement banishes aught else from memory but the resolution to do or die; but in others, where, placed in the fullest and clearest point of view, and destitute of any absorbent passion to string and nerve the mind, it became necessary calmly and resolutely to gaze on the threatened danger no human means could avert; the more especially on one occasion, in the early part of 1832, when, embarked in what was as gallant a bark as ever rode or stemmed the seas, in one of the severest of the equinoctial gales witnessed during that tempestuous period, we rolled for some time a heavy, crippled, mis-shapen wreck: fearfully, however, as it then impressed me, it was as nothing when compared to the feelings of breathless awe which possessed me on this occasion. For upwards of an hour the storm raged, and then as suddenly ceased, giving place to the most intense stillness. A pale, glimmering light, at first but very faint, but which gradually increased in strength, now appeared amidst the dense and murky darkness; farther yet it extended its gladdening influence; a part of the blue vault of heaven, studded with bright and innumerable stars, now disclosed itself, smiling and serene, as if in contrast to the terrific scene which had but so recently passed away farther, and yet farther still, it increased the extension of its cheering rays; the last speck disappeared on the distant horizon; and there shone forth, in all its brilliancy and lustre, the serene, soft beauty of night in a southern clime. It was then we breathed freely, and, congratulating each other upon the fortunate result of what we had witnessed, once more resumed our journey. As daylight dawned, on every side we beheld traces of the havoc caused by the recent storm: massive trees torn up by the roots, others of a lighter frame snapped short asunder; whilst more than once the servants were obliged to alight and clear away the branches and fragments of rock and stone with which the road was frequently completely blocked up.-Personal Adventures and Excursions in Georgia, Circassia, and Russia. By G. P. Cameron, Esq.

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METHODISM IN FORMER DAYS.

No. XXIV.-ANIMADVERSIONS ON BISHOP LAVINGTON'S CHARGE TO THE CLERGY OF HIS DIOCESS.*

(To the Editor of the Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine.)

THE following Letter by a Clergyman seems worthy of being preserved entire, as it is the first † defence "of those principles of the Methodists" to which Bishop Lavington raised his objections, and directed his Charges. It was printed in 1748, when the Clergy were loud in their clamours, charging the Wesleys with delivering new doctrines, while they were strictly inculcating the old. Their appeal was to the Articles and Homilies. Hence, in 1748, (when Mr. John Wesley's second portrait was engraved by Faber,) he is represented with his hands resting on a book, on which is inscribed the word "Homilies;" thereby intimating, it was no new religion he taught, but the old religion of the Bible and the Reformers. "The book," he says himself,§" which, next to the holy Scriptures, was of the greatest use to us in settling our judgment as to the grand point of justification by faith, was the Book of Homilies. We never were clearly convinced that we are justified by faith alone, till we carefully consulted these, and compared them with the sacred writings, particularly St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans. No Minister of the Church of England," says he, can with any decency oppose these, seeing at his ordination he subscribed to them in subscribing the Thirty-sixth Article of the Church." The more importance may be attached to the following Letter, from the circumstance of the writer being personally unknown to the Wesleys, and they to him. His own words are, "The heads of this sect are wholly strangers to me, and very few of their followers have I any acquaintance with. It is true, I have some of their books, wherein I find so much of the spirit of primitive Christianity, and wherein I see the Holy Ghost so clearly manifested to the world; wherein I see that almost exploded doctrine of 'justification by faith' so strongly inculcated; and, in short, wherein I see so much of the mind that was in Christ Jesus;' that I must

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* "A Letter to the Right Rev. Father in God, George, Lord Bishop of Exeter : occasioned by His Lordship's late Charge to the Clergy of his Diocess; in Defence of those Principles of the Methodists, objected to in His Lordship's Charge. By a Clergyman of the Church of England. London: Printed for E. Withers, at the Seven Stars, opposite Chancery-Lane, Fleet-street. 1748."

† “ Remarks,” &c., by Vincent Perronet, is dated March 25th, 1749.

Prayer-books (till the present century) were generally published without the insertion of the Articles; and as to the Homilies, many had never so much as heard of them. "No Society existed at that time through which a copy of the Homilies could be obtained; yet these very Homilies were set forth by authority, and appointed to be read in churches diligently and devoutly,' and were recognised in the Articles as containing godly and wholesome doctrine.' When, therefore, these necessary bulwarks of the Church remained almost inaccessible, no wonder that the purity of her doctrine became ultimately corrupted, and the general tone of preaching was not salvation by faith, producing holiness of heart and life, but practical duties were held up as the sum and substance of true religion." (See Memoirs of Legh Richmond, tenth Edition, p. 136.)

§ See Wesley's Works, vol. vii., pp. 204, 206, third edition; also vol. viii., p. 31. In the list of books published by John and Charles Wesley, in 1765, No. 47 is, "The Doctrine of Salvation, &c., from the Homilies."

own, if this is Methodism, I have sometimes been tempted to wish every man a Methodist, in order to his being a Christian." (Pp. 19, 20.) City-Road, March, 1847. THOMAS MARRIOTT.

TO THE RIGHT REV. FATHER IN GOD, GEORGE, LORD BISHOP OF EXETER. MY LORD,—I am a Clergyman, and, I trust, a lover of the Lord Jesus Christ: no wonder, then, I am, as it were, constrained thus to address your Lordship, in a letter indeed of thanks and congratulation, for your late very excellent and Christian Charge to the Clergy of that diocess, over which the Holy Ghost has made your Lordship overseer. O, my Lord, what joy has it given me, and all Christian people, to see a Prelate, a person of your Lordship's high station in the Church, thus evidence the great love he has for his Master! What joy, I say, to read that glorious paragraph! My brethren, I must beg of you to rise up with me against moral preaching: with what success have we used it?" Alas! my Lord, with what success, indeed? unless this be called success, that we have preached those who were once the people of God, almost into a total forgetfulness of the Lord that bought them.

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Justification by faith, my Lord, is the Gospel of Jesus Christ; it is the doctrine of the pure Church of England; it is the doctrine of her Homilies and Articles; it is the doctrine which all her Clergy have subscribed to, yet too many of them disregard. It is this, and this only, we should preach up in our churches: the fall of Adam, and our loss in his fall; the power of working lost to us in him; and the righteousness of Jesus Christ imputed to us for our recovery; the free grace of God, who, knowing our incapacity, has clothed every true believer with the righteousness of his blessed Son, has changed the terms of our acceptance with him from, "Do this, and live," into that most comfortable sentence, "Believe, and thou shalt be saved." "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and goodness of God: how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! O, my Lord, what anguish has it many times given me, and indeed all sincere Christians, to see our pulpits filled with people really preaching up themselves rather than their Master! whose sermons were calculated to soothe the ears, instead of feeding the souls, of their flock; preaching for their own glory and advancement, and not for the salvation of those they had the care of; of whom it may indeed justly be said, "I have not sent these Prophets, yet they ran; I have not spoken unto them, yet they prophesied." (Jer. xxiii. 21.) Others again preaching to a worse end, building up the salvation of man upon his own works, and thus giving him to share with Jesus Christ in the great work of salvation. What are we flying back into, my Lord, if such doctrine is continued? Are we not flying back to that very yoke we fled from in the Reformation? What is Popery, but a religion established upon works, and selfrighteousness? And what are we going back into but Popery again, if we preach up works instead of faith in Jesus Christ?

Not that I am here, my Lord, contending against works: God forbid ! "Do we abolish the law by faith? yea, rather we establish it :" all I plead for-yet not I, but the Lord; not I, but the holy Scriptures; not I, but the Articles and Homilies of our Church-is this, that the fundamentals of our religion are faith in Christ Jesus. Who will dare deny it? Let that but once be fixed in the heart, and holiness and good works, will as necessarily flow from it, as the fruit from the tree we have planted.

Why, then, is not this inculcated? Why is not this, and indeed this only, strongly pressed upon the people? Why are not their hearts made to burn within them, to hear us preach the grace of God in Jesus Christ; since this, and this alone, can give them that peace of God which passes all understanding? It is in vain, my Lord, that we preach against swearing, it is in vain that we preach against drunkenness, it is in vain that we preach up the moral virtues, and decry the reigning vices of mankind. How long, as your Lordship well observes, have we tried this scheme without success! How long have your half-Christians given us a lifeless hearing, and the wicked and profane turned their backs and laughed at our cold doctrine! Nothing but Gospel has the promises of being watered from above; nothing but Gospel is "the power of God unto salvation." Let us preach upJesus Christ, the blood of the sprinkling, repentance, and remission of sins. Let us fix the great and glorious promises of the Gospel, the incorruptible crown of glory reserved for all those that love the appearing of the Lord Jesus; let us, I say, fix this in the hearts of our people; let us teach them to love God, for the great things he has done for us in Christ Jesus; let us thus lay the axe to the root, and, my soul to nothing, my Lord, all vice and iniquity, every sin, and every kind of transgression, nay, even the very inclination to it, will quickly vanish away.

Having thus far given your Lordship my hearty thanks and congratulations, for the great work reviving under your Lordship's influence, give me leave to cast my eyes a little lower in the Charge given to the Clergy of your Lordship's diocess: it is with respect to some few words levelled at a set of people called Methodists. To remove all prejudice from what I am about to say, I beg leave to assure the world, that if they hold any principles contrary to the spirit of true and solid Christianity, I know nothing of such their principles; and yet I humbly think I know them all. Give me leave to say further, and that upon the word of a Clergyman, that I neither know, nor am known by, Mr. Wesley or Mr. Whitefield, whom the world calls the broachers, but I, the revivers, of this old-new doctrine. But shall I not speak the truth? Shall a Minister of the God of truth dare himself to deny the truth? God forbid! How should I fear, if I did, lest the Lord Jesus, who is "the way and the truth," should turn his back upon my soul on the great day of his revelation!

All I have to say concerning this people will take up but little of your Lordship's time, since it is confined to a short paragraph or two in your Lordship's Charge; and therein I beg pardon, if I say, your Lordship seems to set out in an error, a mistake in the very portal. Your Lordship begins thus: "There are some who are gone out from among us." O, my Lord, with how much more propriety, (and, I may say, truth, as your Lordship seems only to have been wrong informed,) I say, with how much more propriety and truth might your Lordship have said, "There are some who have been driven out from among us!" I am very far, as I have before hinted, from thinking your Lordship has therein said one word, more or less, than you thought; but, my Lord, are people to be condemned unheard? "Does our law condemn a man before it hears him?" Has your Lordship ever read Mr. Wesley's Appeal? No! why, then your Lordship has condemned those whom you have never heard in their own defence. Give me leave, my Lord, to quote a few lines from that book, the truth of which is easily to be manifested : then see how ill the facts therein set down square with your Lordship's opinion of them.

“We preach inward salvation, now attainable by faith; and for