"A Presbyter" asks, "has any mischief ensued from the practice of exclusively, or almost exclusively, worshipping the Father?" Decidedly, in the writer's opinion, would be the reply. I cannot but conceive this a cause remote or proximate of that almost universal lapse into Arianism or Unitarianism of the old Presbyterian congregations in this country, which were in doctrine identical, and in discipline, and order of worship, all but identical, with the Independents. I venture to affirm, this could not have happened, had the practice generally prevailed, to which attention is now solicited. Had Christ been worshipped habitually as the hearer of prayer, any minister who deviated from the usual custom, would have been marked, and detected at once as heterodox, and removed. On the first part of this passage, it is obvious to ask, why if the practice of exclusively, or almost exclusively, worshipping the Father, brought Arianism or Unitarianism amongst the Presbyterians, it did not also bring them amongst the Independents, who, according to "A Presbyter's" own showing, adopted, and still do adopt, the same mode of worship. With regard to the latter part of this passage, I am quite sure, that " A Presbyter" could not have reflected on the implications it contains. It implies not only the right of ejecting a pastor for what has always been the general practice of the church; but it also implies the right of a church to eject its pastor for a non-essential difference of opinion; a difference on a point, of which he who possesses a pastor's qualifications must be incomparably fitter to judge, than the generality, and, perhaps, than the whole of his flock. I refer to the passage because the arbitrary ejection pastors, a practice happily of the rarest occurrence, ought to be frowned down, rather than encouraged; and because the lapsus, as I apprehend it to be, seems to indicate that "A Presbyter's" sentiments on religious liberty, require revision, before he can be a consistent Nonconformist. I intended to offer some remarks on the latter part of "A Presbyter's" letter, but I have already occupied too many of your pages. It may, however, be observed, that if, in the church of England, direct prayers to the Redeemer are heard more frequently, than amongst the dissenters, the sanctuaries of the episcopalians less frequently than ours, resound with hymns to His honour: a mode of worshipping Jesus Christ, which is, perhaps, better suited than any other to the social services of religion. Few of your readers will, it is presumed, sympathise with "A Presbyter," in his admiration of the unintelligible petitions of the former part of the Litany, nor in the "vain repetions" of its close. In conclusion, allow me, Dear Sir, to say that I have a great horror of a "Christless Christianity;" but I have a horror equally as great of a Christianity, which terminates in our blessed Redeemer, and undeifies the Father. Yours, ANOTHER PRESBYTER. THE VISION OF THE DISCIPLES. I. "The fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering." 'And his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light." "And he was transfigured before them; and his raiment became WHAT saw they 'mid the shadowy night-Peter, and James, and John? He who had ranged in lowliness, with His companions three, Or Abraham, of the Lord belov'd, gave up his first-born son— E'er man in Eden's happy bowers before his Maker stood, Thrice bless'd, amid its fruits and flowers, for God pronounced him good Or e'er were earth's foundations laid, and stars had decked the sky, He was, who in Judea's land, had wandered thrice ten years, The rulers saw His mean array, and spurn'd Him in their pride, Though to the boisterous wind and wave, He spake and they were calm, Yet on He passed through street and town, the lowly Nazarene, II. 46 And behold there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias, who appeared in glory." WHAT Saw they 'mid the shadowy night-Peter, and James, and John? Twin spirits from the world of light, and bright with light they shone. He whom a trembling mother's arm, bore to the river side, When Pharaoh, in his wild alarm, God's providence defied: The babe left 'mid the foaming brine, while woman watch'd around, Oh! woman's love, no love like thine—so tried, yet faithful found! He who in manhood's years became, head of the Hebrew band, And spread the fear of their scorn'd name, through Egypt's guilty land; The rivers turned to streams of blood, the first-born fell in death, The Red sea's waves obedient stood, divided by a breath, When, mission'd for his people's gain, that rescued child arose, Osiris in his temple quailed, and Isis at her shrine! Freed from their long-mourned toil and shame, march'd forth the ransom'd tribe, A cloud by day, by night a flame, their visitor and guide. Onwards through deserts drear they went, the burning sands they trod, His frame dissolv'd, by time unbent, by sickness unassail'd, And laughed to scorn their madden'd tone, and saw their hopes expire, The toil-worn church, the church at rest, unite at Jesus' feet. SUGGESTIONS RELATING TO HOME MISSIONARY AND KINDRED OPERATIONS. THERE is a strong disposition among Christians to sacrifice the future to the present-permanent, to immediate results. No one intimately acquainted with the proceedings of religious societies, or the state of the Christian mind, can fail to know this. Far more might be done than is done, with the same amount of property and zeal expended differently-expended with a view to generations yet to come, as much * Deut. xxxiv. 5, "So Moses died, according to the word of the Lord." Literally, "al pi Yehovah, at the mouth of Jehovah." as, or rather more than, to the generation now on earth. We do not say that the church has done or given enough. God forbid! But we do say, that the same degree of exertion and of property might have effected much more. There has been too much anxiety to see the fruit of its services. Had it possessed more readiness to wait for results, those results would have been of greater worth and splendour. It has not been near enough to the errors into which some politicians have fallen, and which Burke rebuked so pungently, too pungently for our liking, of sacrificing the claims of the passing hour to the problematic interests of the future. Christian truth and wisdom suggest that we should exercise a large fore-thought, that we should employ and thus improve our power of anticipating effects, and that we should form and execute our plans with a steadfast regard to, and a firm faith in, ultimate success. Many Christians know and care nothing about all this. They want cases-definite and palpable cases-of what they call success, which is only form of many: they are sceptics, believing nothing which they do not see. Give them instances of conversion, and they are abundantly ready to help you; but with no other tale can you get at their hearts. The simple fact is, they have no faith in God or man; they live in doubt of providence, humanity, and Christianity. Had they faith, they would not so "make haste." It is useless to tell them that other generations are coming-that the men composing them will have souls just as valuable as the souls of living men-and that the plans you are adopting, though not attended with very striking immediate results, are gradually preparing for a success infinitely greater than will be yielded by the plans which they approve of and support. This has no point or force to them: they either cannot see that the salvation of two people twenty years hence must be a more important thing than is the salvation of one now, or else they do not believe that the two people will be converted. Every large and liberal scheme every scheme which contemplates the gradual developement of a grand result-which approximates to the spirit and procedure of God, who sees the end from the beginning, and prepares and employs his instrumentality with a calm and certain confidence in the final, though distant issue, every such scheme is neglected or denounced by the weak in mind and faith, its authors considered mere foolish, though amiable speculatists, by "practical men," though none more truly practical than they; while the mass and multitude of saints still cry out for conversions, and comparatively waste their means, rejoicing in the fact which they at least do not doubt, that wisdom lives, and is very likely to die, with them. This contractedness of mind, and want of patient faith, is seen displaying itself in diverse ways and instances. It leads to the employment of insufficient and unqualified men, in preference to able and well-furnished ones-to the hiding of unpalatable |