every disciple, in whom the love of Christ dwells, rejoices with transport to be assured, that he shall see him as his own friend and Saviour, when he shall come "to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe."

As I am unwilling to contract the observations I propose to offer, on the blessed effects which continuance in "looking to Jesus" cannot fail to ensure, I shall terminate my present communication, in the hope and purpose of forwarding my concluding remarks, at no distant period.

I am, &c.

W. W.

HYMN TO CHRIST, ATTRIBUTED TO CLEMENS OF

ALEXANDRIA.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE CONGREGATIONAL MAGAZINE.

SIR,-You have recently published one or two interesting papers on an interesting topic-The Worship of Christ. The insertion of the following may possibly gratify some of your readers as a sample of the early Christian hymns addressed to the Saviour. I take it from Potter's Clemens Alexandrinus, Oxford, 1715, and accompany it with a rough metrical version, neither so close, on the one hand, as I might easily have made it-nor so paraphrastic as I was tempted to make it-to reduce it to our modern taste. Each fourth line is intended simply as a rest for the voice, and usually has nothing to correspond with it in the original.

The style of the hymn marks clearly enough a declining age. The nervous simplicity of Scripture poetry is forsaken for multiplied epithet and incongruous metaphor. The piece, however, furnishes evidence of the prominent place given to the Lord Christ in the devotions of the second century.

I am, dear Sir, yours very respectfully,

Hymn to Christ, attributed to Clemens of Alexandria.

NOTES ON SOME PASSAGES IN MR. M'NEILE'S LECTURES ON THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.*

NATIONAL CHURCHES AND CHRISTIAN MISSIONS.

Ar the close of the last lecture, Mr. M'Neile speaks of "the connexion providentially established between England and the world, between England's church and the world's Christianity." This allusion to the connexion between England's church and the world's Christianity, is a particularly unfortunate one. It is a fact, which Mr. M'Neile cannot dispute, that nonconformists were engaged for years in furthering the world's

* Had not the whole of the notes on Mr. M'Neile's Lcetures, which have appeared in the Congregational Magazine, under the signature of Philalethes, been in the hands of the editor before Dr. Wardlaw's Letters were published, some of the later of these notes, and more particularly those in the concluding paper, would probably have been withheld. As it is, the writer cannot avoid expressing his gratification at finding (as will ever be found when argument is founded in truth) substantial agreement in principle, with whatever diversity of illustration. And although he has thus unconsciously been treading, haud pari passú, the same path with so illustrious a leader, his solicitude for the cause may justifiably overrule any scruples he may feel about handling the same subject with an author who is above all rivalry; and where, to use that author's own words, "Line upon line' is often necessary."

Christianity, before England's church thought herself called upon to take any steps for this purpose. It is a fact, which Mr. M'Neile cannot dispute that for years, dissenters were extending their Christian efforts, not only without countenance or assistance from the church or the state, but with the national rulers, both at home and abroad, for the most part opposed to them: while the church looked on without sympathy or acknowledgement. And it is a fact, which Mr. M'Neile cannot dispute—that even at this day, the amount of missionary labour projected and maintained by the different bodies of dissenters exceeds that of the church, although the wealth and other facilities possessed by the latter, as compared with the former, are immeasurably disproportioned. Mr. M'Neile has been most unhappy in his selection of an illustration of the comparative efficiency of established and voluntary churches with which to close his book; and taking their relative efficiency in this respect as the standard of their efficiency in others, no stronger argument need be required to nullify the whole train of reasoning pursued throughout these lectures, than is here supplied.

with

We rejoice to see our evangelical brethren of the church roused, though late, to a sense of their duties in this wide field of labour. There is no jealousy here. There can be no rivalry where the spirit of our common Master prevails. We would accord them all praise, and wish them a tenfold measure of success, provided they will carry them-justification by faith in the atoning merits of the blood of Christ, and sanctification by the Holy Spirit, as the sole means of acceptance with God, and of meetness for the inheritance of the saints in light; and will consent to leave baptismal regeneration, and their unhappy and benumbing notions of exclusiveness, at home behind them.

THE JEWISH ESTABLISHMENT A PRECEDENT FOR CHRISTIAN

ESTABLISHMENTS.

The founding of national religious establishments on the precedent of the Jewish establishment, is the favourite topic and principal stronghold of modern advocates of similar institutions. It is on this account, that a separate and closing notice, disentangled from the various other arguments of the lecturer, seems best adapted to give this part of the subject the prominence which it requires.

The total want of agreement in the two kinds of institutions, and the absolute impossibility of transferring the first essentials of similitude from the original to the copy, would hardly require to be shown to those who have taken any pains to understand the subject. An orator, however, who has a different side to take, may feel himself perfectly safe in reckoning on an audience to whom such pains are unknown; and who will cheer any argument which will confirm a prejudice or silence a scruple. Mr. M'Neile, like all his predecessors, from Hooker downwards, labours hard to rest the establishment of national churches,