Christians in their individual conduct are more practically and daily conversant with its exercises, will they know the full privilege and consistency of godly life; and never till the professing Church of Christ, collectively, is brought more largely under its influence, will the glory of the Saviour throughout the earth, and the best interests of our common humanity, be duly and adequately promoted. With the march of intellect, and the rapid growth of religious knowledge on all sides, we want more of the genuine spirit of Christian self-denial.

But then every thing is valuable only in its proper place; and while self-denial may take any thing but a wise and intelligent course in its detail, it may be so represented as to appear that for which we merit heaven, rather than as the appointed way for the redeemed to walk in to that heaven which Christ alone has purchased, and which Christ gives out of his own sovereign grace and mercy. Now, we fear that Mr. Russell's statement of self-denial is calculated to mislead. Self-denial is necessary, he states, because we cannot go to heaven unless we have denied ourselves on earth. (Page 39.) Then, again, page 46, if you wish the gift to be acceptable in God's sight, it must have exercised some little self-denial in bestowing it. And to illustrate this, the little folks are told that they did wrong not to take a begging paper from a poor man who came up to them, and convey it to their papa at the hall. "It was so dirty," said one of the little party. That, according to Mr. Russell, was the very reason why it should have been taken. We must do something "disagreeable," says Mr. Russell, in order to do an act of proper self-denial! Suitable training, indeed, for Popish acts of penance. But what prudent parent would wish a child to take a dirty paper out of the hands of a tramp, and especially of one professing to have just come out of a hospital! And who that knows any thing of the perplexing and discouraging history of beggars, would, for a moment, have deemed it prudent to act upon the man's ipse dixit, that the rector had sent him to the squire! But here we think we discover a serious defect in this school. Charity forms, indeed, a prominent feature, but it is not conducted on such careful, intelligent principles as shall best secure the greatest amount of good to others: it seems rather to be regarded as a beneficial act to the dispenser, in the way of penance, or self-denial, and must we not conclude, merit? and, therefore, however indiscriminate, and injudicious, and abortive the charity, to the objects of it, it matters not. But the young party are to be initiated into Mr. Russell's system of self-denial, and they are to begin that very day, as the most suitable day that could present itself, "being Friday," and "Friday has always been set apart by Christians, from the days of the apostles, for a little more self-denial than usual, for prayer and fasting." (Page 53.) Yes, and we know something of this system of Friday fasting. We know the young Puseyite curates, who will rigidly fast till six in the evening of Friday, and then hasten into the gayest and most worldly dinner parties in the town. "Is this the fast that I have chosen?" We condemn not the habit of fasting, but where can be the benefit of such a system as this?

But Mr. Russell's divinity is all of a piece. Christ is left out of his system altogether. "There is no royal road to heaven, (he tells us ;) the prince and the beggar must alike tread the path of penitence and good works." How strangely is Christ's own assertion kept

out of sight! "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me." And in the system of selfdenial which Mr. Russell enforces, and on which he would put the interesting children, there is not a word of reference to the Holy Spirit, as alone able to strengthen them for duty; not a word of the constraining influence of the love of Christ; but as the Israelites were to make their bricks without straw, so these little ones are to be called forth to arduous and difficult duty without the succour which God abundantly provides, but his professing servants withhold.

But, throughout the whole work, there is not a single reference to any of the grand fundamental doctrines of Gospel truth: not a word is said on the subject of man's fallen state, as a wretched, guilty, ruined sinner: not a word of that blood which cleanseth us from all sin: not even the slightest recognition of the offices of the Holy Spirit, as the Teacher, and Guide, and Comforter of the faithful. Is it to be endured, that when the God of mercy has fixed the sun of Gospel light and knowledge high up in the firmament for the good of all, and commanded the Gospel to be preached to every creature, his professing servants shall do what in them lies to hide that sun, and prevent its healing rays shining into the souls of men! But we have not yet done.

There is a strange and suspicious reference to angels. "Oh! yes, (says Fitzmaur, page 246,) he will tell an angel to come and help us, if we ask him." Then, at page 249, "Pitying angels wafted the sound of their cry, and the man heard them, and hastened to the spot." But a worse passage appears at page 112. "Could his eyes have been opened, he would have beheld blessed beings near him, waiting to carry his prayer to the throne of grace. No one ever yet knelt down to say a prayer, and was alone."

Then again, (page 108,)" I believe, (answered Mr. Russell,) that if you are really sorry for your fault, and prove your sorrow by acts of penitence, God, for his Son's sake, will receive and bless you, and you will be an object of rejoicing to his good angels.' And again, at page 309, "I dare say their quarrels appear as foolish and worthless to the angels and holy saints (such as the gentle lady) as ours do to them, and the birds to us.

We do not overlook the Scripture testimony regarding angels as ministering spirits; but where is the scriptural authority for such statements as these? Is it right or necessary to append any created channel to the throne of grace, or to supersede the rule of Scripture? "Through Him, we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father;" or the command to come boldly to the throne of grace, not because angels are waiting to carry our prayers there, but because we have a great High Priest, Jesus, the Son of God, our almighty and all-prevailing Intercessor. How unlike the language of the Bible is all this wretched, new-fangled divinity!

And Fitzmaur, forsooth, must think more of the approval of angels than of his heavenly Father and his Saviour! But it is all in character with picture devotion, and the banishment of the Bible from Alice's table; and what, we would confidently ask, is more easy and natural than to step from such views and sentiments to the Popish invocation of saints and angels?

But we must hasten to the grand object of the drama. All the

characters and scenes which, as yet, have been brought forward, are only as the scaffolding for the rearing of an important edifice; and, in point of excellence, all is as nothing, compared with what has yet to come upon the stage.

Mention has been made of the "Gentle Lady:" it is early stated that the picture of this mysterious personage hung in the hall, and the young ones were taught to regard it with the greatest reverence and respect. And now, having been gently and cautiously tutored in a course which has so evidently a Popish tendency, the time is come when their young inquiring minds may be considered as duly prepared for the exhibition of that harlot of abominations, under her blandest and most inviting aspect. For this purpose, Mr. Russell undertakes to give the history of Margaret De Courcy, the subject of the picture, who lived in the days of William the Conqueror; and who, to make her example more tempting for their imitation, is spoken of as an ancestor of the family at the hall.

The scene is admirably laid. St. Anselm, the Archbishop of Canterbury, is brought prominently forward in connexion with the romantic and touching history of the Lady Margaret, and suffice it to say that the saint is exhibited as every thing that is excellent and perfect in Christian character, while Margaret ends a chequered and memorable life in a convent. "In the calm retreat she had selected, Margaret passed year after year unmoved by the sundry changes and chances of this mortal life. The waters which deluged the world only caused the ark of her repose to rise higher and higher towards heaven." (Page 220.) And who can estimate the benefit of a life so spent?"

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Most beautiful! most inviting! and most assuredly, Mr. Russell, it will not be your fault if the Lady Mary, and Augusta, and your own thoughtful Alice, are not bewitched into the veil and a convent life by your alluring representations! Your well-contrived plot is a master-piece; and let us see the effect produced: "Well, now, my little historians, (asks Mr. Russell,) what do you think of St. Anselm ?"

"All the Children.-Oh! we quite love him."

"Fitzmaur.-How is it possible not to love so holy and kind a man. But how is it that any one can examine the case, and yet find fault with him? Surely every one must think it right to obey the laws."

"Mr. Russell.-It is that people do not examine the case: they think, because they, in these modern days-(degenerated days, perhaps, Mr. Russell would have wished to say!)-look upon it as unnecessary to obey the Pope, that therefore it must have been always wrong, forgetting, that then to be a Christian even nominally, a man must at least profess to obey the ruler of the Church, and must be in communion with the see of Rome."

So much for Mr. Russell! What an ungodly, unchristian heretic must Mr. Russell consider poor Luther!

But what a hold has the story got on the youthful hearers! Says Mary, "If obeying the Pope, made people so holy as St. Anselm and Maude, I do not see that it could be so very bad to do so!" Oh! no, of course not! Shall we not consider that Mr. Russell's silence gives consent?

"From what I have heard, (says Fitzmaur,) I think people must have added things afterwards to their religion, which were not sq

good. But, at all events, you see Alice was right to say one should be careful how one spoke of any one who is called a saint. Oh! yes, to be sure, if that saint is discovered in the person of some monk in a monastery, or nun in a convent; but would the same rule be applied to a saint of God, if presented in the form of some honest Protestant evangelical character in the present day? We believe not; and we have good grounds, from some parts of this history, for saying so.

"Then, Alice, I think at least we should not find fault with them, (the saints,) till we are sure we are quite as holy. Do you think, father, there are any people in the world now as good as St. Anselm?" But enough.

The serious-minded Alice observes afterwards, (page 232,) "I had rather be Margaret, when she had retired from all the noise in the world, and was spending her time in praying for others, and in helping the poor. Do you think, father, that people can lead lives like Margaret now?"

"Mr. Russell.-Yes, if they give themselves up to the service of God. They may lead a life of prayer and faith not only in a convent, but wherever God may cast their lot in life."

Mary thinks that Margaret might be more useful in the castle than the Convent. "I am not sure of that," says Alice, "For," &c.: "Yes," replies Mr Russell, "we are all rather apt to forget, in these days, the actual benefit of prayer. And now, my children, I must leave you. I hope you will not forget the story of the gentle lady; and that in whatever position you may be placed, you will do your duty like her." And if Mr. Russell, though a clergyman of the Church of England, does not then leave his daughter Alice, and the lady Mary, and her cousin Augusta, to take the veil themselves, it is certainly not his fault. He has done all that in him lies, by jesuitical cunning, to effect such an issue. Could an honest, sound Protestant, use such equivocal, temporizing language, as Mr. Russell adopts? With all charitable admission, in favour of the possibility of individuals leading a life of prayer and holiness in a convent, is it to be endured, that a young and interesting group of girls, of warm and ardent temperament, are not to be warned against the horrors and abominations of the convent system? Every thing in Mr. Russell's reply to the children looks towards Rome, and no one can for a moment doubt, but that the very design of the writer of the "Birthday," is to entangle the young reader in the snare of Popery. And yet the work emanates from the bosom of our beloved Church, and is circulated at the hands of a professedly Protestant Bookseller! Oh! we have far more to fear from these jesuitical workings of traitors in their own Zion, than from all that the man of sin, in his true and honest colours, can bring against us.

There are other points on which we must say a single word. It is easy to see the animus which introduces Mrs. Dawson with her bundle of Tracts from the Religious Tract Society, and holds her up to contempt and ridicule upon every possible occasion. We defend not the inconsistences which Mrs. D. is made to exhibit; but we are at a loss for words to express our reprobation of the wicked falsity of the representation of a tract given to a boy in the school, who had been lying. We should not have said a word on the subject, if it had not been clearly stated that the tract in question was

from the Religious Tract Society. Our readers shall form their own judgment. It was a tract of 78 pages long; and it is stated that the best part of it, and the only antidote to its poison was, that nobody understood it. The little urchin is represented as saying, after the reading was over, "I would rather have had the flogging by half, it would have been over so much quicker.' And now for the syllabus of the tract: "The drift of which was, 1, The dreadful punishment annexed to telling falsehoods; 2, the utter incapability in children, even baptized children, to speak the truth, and the consequent hopeless condition of all, whether baptized or not, unless they felt a certain assurance of salvation; in which case they were safe. 3, That all, whether they told the truth or lies, were equally sinners in the sight of God; and that heinous as was the sin of falsehood, those who committed it were not in such danger as those who thought to win God's favour by speaking the truth, or any other righteous act."

Now, be it remembered, that this is not a fancy tract, but a tract issued by the Religious Tract Society. We challenge the author to point out such sentiments, either together or dispersed, in any publication whatsoever, issuing from that venerable Society. And if they are not in existence, where is the common fairness, to say nothing of the Christian principle, of this unhappy deluded writer! But it well comports with this Popish movement, to vilify, and slander, and misrepresent a society which now, for nearly half a century, has circulated tracts throughout the world, of no doubtful or delusive theology: tracts which, with a wonderful uniformity and consistency, have ever maintained and carried out the fundamental principles of the Institution, and have never failed in their prominent character, to humble the sinner and exalt the Saviour. Ah, what thoughts rush into the mind, when casting forward one glance into futurity ! But the day is soon coming, when the works of this honoured Society shall stand the fiery ordeal; and all the miserable, misty, deluding nonsense, like that before us, shall be found to be the wood, hay, straw, and stubble, which the fire of the last day shall destroy. With the same bigoted and unchristian feeling, a begging letter for the Irish School is introduced.

But ah, how much more imposing and dangerous would this system of religion be, if it really produced the fruits of a holy and heavenly-minded life-if it really carried forward the young members of our Church to the fulfilment of their baptismal vow; but if public dancing be not amongst the pomps and vanities of this wicked world, to be renounced, we know not what it is; yet more than once are they spoken of as a thing of course; and Mr. Russell, the parish Clergyman, is present at the one at the Hall. And if it be not obligatory upon Christians to obey the ten commandments in their spirit as well as letter, we know not what is so; and yet a direct breach of the third commandment occurs again and again, in common light conversation, without rebuke. Bless your young heart," exclaims nurse Roberts, p. 17. And again, La, well declare," &c., p. 154.

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We shall be called puritanical, no doubt: but we are not ashamed of the good old path of faith, working by love; nor do we ever wish to forget, that the grace of God which really bringeth salvation, appears to all men under one common aspect, and teaches them that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, they should live soberly,