uniformity in the order of worship would be at an end; and all the means of imposing a salutary check upon ministers and congregations would be completely destroyed.

We have no hesitancy in stating it as our conviction, that the practice of reading sermons in the pulpit, is as great an innovation as would be the reading of prayers, the use of instrumental music in the service of the sanctuary, or the dispensing of the Lord's Supper in the manner alluded to; and that it would be as wide and dangerous a departure from the example of the primitive church. Now, if, as we believe would be the case, Synodical authority would be interposed to prevent or put down any one of the three last-mentioned innovations, why should it not be interposed to put down the first? Its right to do so is beyond all dispute; and the spiritual interests of the people under its inspection, demand, not merely that it should lift up its voice against the evil, but that it should put forth its hand at once, and without delay, to arrest its progress. How strange and how ominous is it, that at the very time when the ministers of the Established and Free Churches--the one party with a view to regain the ground they have lost, the other to secure their hold of the peopleare feeling the absolute necessity of abandoning the practice, it should be becoming so general in the United Presbyterian Church! This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation.

*

* *

A. C.

[Another correspondent (not clerical), under the cant signature of "Go-ahead," takes a somewhat different view of the subject. His communication is too rambling to be inserted entire; but we give what is relevant to the matter in hand.-ED.] MR EDITOR,I suppose, sir, that, by this time of day, there is scarcely a fraction of our good and worthy people who harbour that most contemptible whim, that a clergyman cannot find use for all his time. Assuredly, when one takes an enlightened view of the matter, a clergyman has his hands full. Not only so; the main point for contrast here is and I am sure my intelligent brethren, and sisters too, must view it thusthat in such a trade there is absolutely no limit whatever, except a man's strength of constitution, to the demands upon his time. Why, what is it that a clergyman can afford to be ignorant of? What branch of knowledge is it that he may not turn to essential account in his profession? Now, most manifestly his lectures will be all the more instructive and confirming-his sermons all the more searching and stirring, the more he has to make them with, and the less he

has to do but to make them. Clearly, then, the wasting the double of the time on the mere committing of a lecture that is required, or rather allowed I should say, for the getting of it up, is a serious consideration indeed. And what countervailing advantage is there to set against this grievous loss? I should feel ashamed of my church if I believed excitement to be the principal thing enjoyed and sought after by our people in hearing lectures. If so, a lecture will be a nonentity, all except the name, and its high and momentous objects-solid systematic instruction and confirmation in the faith-lost sight of. When

I go to hear that grand venerable thing a lecture, it is not at all to get excitement— it is to get some point cleared, some topic amplified, some truth confirmed. I feel it to be exactly not worth listening to unless it be such as to demand a calm, steady, continuous exercise of intellect and judg

ment.

If I get these, and have to exercise myself thus, there will be no lack of excitement, and that, too, of the only proper kind-when, that is to say, I afterwards sit down and think over the matter. Excitement, so far as the design of lectures is concerned, is for the time being out of the question. And thus it amounts to demonstration, that the "paper" is, after all, rather the better way of the two, inasmuch as, for distinctness in delivery, and the absence of causes of disturbance both to speaker and to hearers, the advantages are altogether on the side of the paper. The lecture proper, then, should be read, its application should be spoken.

These remarks, however, lead irresistibly to the conclusion, that all sermons should be spoken. I need not be going into this indeed there is nothing to be said about it; for the grand distinction between the sermon and the lecture is, that the object of the one is instruction, whilst that of the other, directly and immediately, is excitement and that, of course, is best gained by speaking, and, if I am not far mistaken, by extempore speaking best of all-a point this latter which I think our clergy would do well to take into serious consideration; but how, I ask, can they, so long as they commit their lectures? The thing is impossible-they have not time. "The Sabbath bell rings the knell of scientific commentary," says a brilliant reviewer.* It rings the knell, too, of extempore speaking-that grandest of human

*North British Review, No. XVIII. By the way, Mr Editor, you must set about getting up a "people's edition" of Dr Brown's "Petrine Commentary." It will not do to tantalize us with scraps in a review, and give us nothing more, else the conclusion will be that we are a little aristocratical after all. I suppose, however, the hint is all that is needed.

exhibitions, when properly done, As a matter of course, then, it diminishes the effect of sermons even does it not? We are not a little in hazard of becoming the slaves of mere excitement, and then it is hard to say what we may be pleased with or may condescend to. That "knowledge is the food of the mind" is a maxim in every body's mouth, and which every body seems proud of. The question is, does this maxim reign supreme in the soul of us? 1 fear not. I fear, too, that if things are to go on as they have been doing, there is little chance of such supremacy being restored, so far as theology is concerned. The na ture and object of sermons demand that they should be spoken-that if possible they should be spoken extempore, this being unquestionably by much the more effective way, The object of a lecture again, admits of, or rather warrants its being read. To confound the distinction betwixt the two argues a total misapprehension of the entire end of preaching it does violence to the very nature of things. May a conscientious clergy, then, be left to attend to this distinction? May they be entrusted with its practical embodiment? I think they may. Yours, &c.

Dundee, Sept. 12, 1849.

*་

MR EDITOR,—Can you do anything to make lecturing more common in our churches? I mean exposition and commentary, after reading a portion of Scripture. I am a member of one church whose case is far from uncommon in this respect, and yet I feel it particularly hard sometimes for myself. Whenever a stranger comes, we may calculate on his preaching both forenoon and afternoon, then a third sermon is delivered in the evening by him or some one else. When the sacrament of the Supper is announced, a humiliation day and other frequent observances follow, during any part of which expounding of God's word seems as it were to be strictly prohibited. In the course of our late meetings here, from Thursday morning to Monday included, six sermons were preached in our church, and not a single lecture. Thirst as we may for a renewal of the refreshing and able expositions of our ordinary Sabbath forenoons, all we get is a treatise on some one point; and, as strangers are of all degrees of attainment, we are not unfrequently obliged to hear an inferior sermon upon the very same subject that our own minister has recently discussed.

I object to this mode of instruction. I believe a besetting deficiency is ignorance of God's word; and I know many sit for livelong years listening to preachers, and

yet remain ignorant of its meaning, I be lieve expounding to be more attractive and improving, and see no reason in the world for abandoning the practice of it, whatever be the occasion of public worship. In the days of dull moderatism in the establishment, reading of the word and comment upon it, as well as lecturing, were superseded by sermons often elegantly composed and well read, but scarcely evangelical in doctrine. I hope these hints may meet the eyes of some in authority in our churches, and that they may be induced to examine into the subject, and report whether or not a change might easily be introduced for the better. Your constant reader,

14th April 1848.

A PERTH MAN.

DEAR SIRS,-As you have noticed, in your Retrospect for this month, the very strange decision of the Vice-Chancellor in the Hewley cause, on the 7th of June last, I hope you will not object to publish, in your Number, for November, some important particulars in the history of that transac tion, which are not generally known to your readers.

On the 16th of March 1836, Lord Chaneellor Cottenham ordered, "that the orthodox Presbyterians in the north of England should be at liberty to go in before the Master under the decree, and watch the proceedings under the same; and to propose persons as trustees, sub-trustees, and managers, it appearing from a statement to the court, on the occasion of this order being applied for, that all the persons proposed by the relators were Independents."

Before the Master (Lord Henley) the Presbyterians contended, that, as Lady Hewley was a Presbyterian, and had left her property in the hands of Presbyterian trustees, Independents had no claim, in law or in equity, to be entrusted with her property. But, in courtesy, they did not object to admit Independents to participate in the trust; and they proposed that the Presbyterians should have the nomination of four grand trustees and four sub-trustees, and that the Independents should have the nomination of three grand trustees and three sub-trustees. Lord Henley, the Master in Chancery to whom the case was referred, was so fully satisfied of the justice of the claims of the Presbyterians, and of their moderation in being willing to make this concession to the Independents, that he acceded to the proposal of the Presbyte rians, and gave the decision accordingly. And he is understood to have said, at the same time, that he believed, if Lady Hewley had

2 A

But the Independent relators would not be satisfied unless they should have the superiority in the trust, if they could not obtain the exclusive management, and they appealed to the Vice-Chancellor. Leitung

After a long delay the appeal was heard before the Vice-Chancellor in February 1843. Counsel was heard on both sides for several days; and, at the close of the pleadings, his honour the Vice-Chancellor confirmed the decision of Lord Henley in favour of the Presbyterians.

Even to this decree of the court the Independent relators refused to submit; and, notwithstanding the great expense already incurred, they determined to have more litigation, By some point of law they excepted to the decree; and, after five years' preparation, again brought the matter before the Vice-Chancellor in May and June last. Through their obstinacy, the purposes of the benevolent foundress of the charity were defeated during all that time. The case was again argued before the ViceChancellor; and at the close of the pleadings, on the 7th of June, that functionary, to the astonishment of every body (even of the relators themselves), removed all the Presbyterian trustees, and transferred the whole Presbyterian property to Independents and Baptists, upon the ground that the orthodox Presbyterian congregations in the north of England had connected themselves either with the Church of Scotland or with the Secession Church.

In this decree of the Vice-Chancellor he stultified himself, by reversing his own decree of 1843, and by removing the Presbyterian trustees whom he had himself appointed, gentlemen against whom no objection had been brought; who maintained the principles of the old English Presby terians, with whom Lady Hewley was connected; and whom, in existing circumstances, Lady Hewley herself would have approved.

J

He has cut off from all participation in the trust, or benefit from it, a number of orthodox old English Presbyterian congre gations, which can trace their history to Lady Hewley's time; which are believed to have participated in her bounty from the time of its first distribution; and which have maintained the principles of the old Presbyterians, both in doctrine and church government, till the present time. These are alleged to have forfeited their character and rights as English orthodox Presbyterian dissenters; because that, in order to obtain ministers of Lady Hewley's principles, they have connected themselves wi h the Secession Church, or with the Church

and become Independents or Baptists, they would, by this strange decree, be now entitled to Lady Hewley's property; but because they have continued faithful to her principles, they are cut off from all claim to her property1999b

He has transferred this valuable property to parties who give no security for the orthodoxy of either trustees or recipients. Lord Lyndhurst's decree, by which he re moved the Unitarian trustees, declared, that none could be trustees of this charity, or recipients from it, who were not sound in the faith of the doctrines of the Trinity, the Divinity and Atonement of Christ, and Original Sin, as stated in the Articles of the Church of England and in the Westminster Confession. But in the Declaration of Faith, published by the Congregational Union in 1833, it is said in the fourth preliminary note, "It is not intended that the following statement should be put forth with any authority, or as a standard to which assent should be required." And in the fifth preliminary note, we have the following article of the Independent creed" Disallowing the utility of creeds and articles of religion as a bond of union, and protesting against subscription to any human formularies as a term of communion, Congrega tionalists are yet willing to declare, for general information, what is commonly be lieved amongst them, reserving to every one the most perfect liberty of conscience. alorio

It is quite obvious, that such a declara tion affords no security for the orthodoxy of Independent trustees or recipients; and the Presbyterians in their affidavits fully showed, that the Declaration of Faith itself is exceedingly vague and unsatisfactory UP on the most important articles, and such as Arians or Sabellians may conscientiously sign-such as Owen and the old Indepen dents would have rejected with indignation, Upon this Dr Redford of Worcester came forward with an affidavit, declaring that the paper was drawn up by him; and that he had omitted the words Trinity, Person, Come substantial, and Original Sin," with the hope of being able to express the same doctrines to young persons in the simple words of the Holy Scriptures, without having recourse to scholastic phraseology. In this affidavit he styles himself the Rev. George Redford, D.D. and LL.D., minister of the Old Pres byterian or Independent congregation Angel Street, in the city of Worcester, This affidavit of Dr Redford was severely handled and exposed, in a subsequent affi davit, by the Presbyterians boo8lq asy o

These affidavits were the ground of the Vice-Chancellor's decree, in 1843, in favour of the Presbyterians; and it does appea very strange, t that, in his late decree of une

fast, he seems to have altogether forgotten both them and his s own d decree

far as I have seen he does not matso

the

the hardihood to accuse them of hard swearg ing. agbuboxe 9vait binow she tani jer dænd To

With regard to the long article in flie

in the Patriot newspaper, it is said that these expo exposures were treated in the court as indecent attacks upon such men as Dr Redford, &c. Indecent attacks! Just as the Roman Catholics say, that the exposure of their errors is disreto their priests and their church. of the fa 5 facts stated in the affidayits of the Presbyterian parties has been disproved; yet the editor of the Patriot has

-umet menGlasgow: George Gallie. Turs little book is chiefly meant for eyes that have been dimmed with weeping, and that shall not be very keen in marking faults. The editor has addressed it to a circle of sorrowing friends; modestly judg ing that their interest in the subject shall secure their favour for his work. But it is Hikely, we think, to outrun his expectation. It will bear very keen clear-eyed criticism. It deserves to find its way into the hands of strangers, as well as to the hearts of friends. 25 George Jerment Mackenzie (Memoir, pp. 10, &c.) was a native, not of this country, but of India. Born in some remote region of that land of the sun," where his father's factories worked busily on weekdays, and stood "one day in seven," in "the stillness of the Scottish Sabbath." The family had gone out from this country, and, unlike many British settlers in India, had remained true to the religion of their fathers. Among their ancestors, more than one seem to have been distinguished minis! ters of of the Secession, and it was natural should be

that

principled attack. There are several mis statements in it; and almost every charge against the Presbyterians is stated in such a partial manner, as is fitted to produce a false impression upon the reader. But it is designed for their own more ignorant ad herents, who will no doubt receive it implicitly.-I am, dear Sirs, very truly yours, HENRY THOMSON.

his character was formed. His devotement to the ministry, however it might be indicated by the desires of his friends, was, upon his own part, not at all the forced accepting of a destiny which had been allotted to him to work out, but the spontaneous act of his own mind, which knew no necessity save that of the love of Christ constraining him to live, not unto himself, but unto him who died for us, and rose to a...le of des 9,1j oj again,"

1

Passing with honour through the preparatory course of study, he was licensed to preach by the United Associate Presby“ tery of Edinburgh. Soon after he was called by the congregation at Nairn. This call he declined. Some time after he was called to Carnoustie on the Frith of Tay. This call he accepted. We make a brief extract from a letter belonging to this period, written to the session of the congregation at Carnoustie after accepting their invitation. It reveals a state of mind in the view of entering on the ministry, which it is most delightful to contemplate. Referring to the former call to Nairn, That invitation I declined, I did so, solely in consequence of the numerous difficulties which obstructed my path. I did so, because I thought, that, after a longer trial of the work of a probationer, I might, if Provi--dence gave me a call from another church, find these difficulties either lessened or entirely removed. When, however, your invitation appeared, these difficulties recurred to me in all their

and

similar honour onour for their son the mantles of those Elijahs might seem to have been on their child's cradle. The name of one of them is retained in his. Brought across, in early childhood, to the fatherland, he was placed under the charge of relatives in Edinburgh. In this city, amid the educational advantages it affords, and under the faithful care of pious friends, and a much loved pastor, his youth grew up, and

matured, I hope I have been enabled, while feeling my former fears in all their force, to trust in divine and suitable promises; while surrounded by darkness to rejoice in the contemplation of divine light; and to say, amid great discouragement, originating with, and centred in myself, "My heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord; my heart is established. I shall not be moved 911

"My brethren, I hope this is the right spirit in which I ought to come amongst you. I know such is the spirit which es pecially requires, and I hope, in this case, it will certainly secure a kindly, and sympathising, and prayerful welcome from you as a church,.

66

Yes, brethren, in all my difficulties in all my discouragements-in all my fears give me but the assurance that I do not pray alone that I do not go as an isolated individual to the throne of grace-that I do not resort thither as your destined minister in holy things, with no voice to re-echo similar prayers-with no heart breathing the same petitions. Give me the assurance, that, when looking forward to my settlement amongst you, I pray for God's strength to be imparted to me, you, as individuals, as families, as a congregation, are praying with and for me. Give me the assurance of these things, and then I know that God will make darkness light before me, and crooked things straight, and rough places plain. Brethren, pray for us, was Paul's language. For us! the first and best preachers of the cross. For us! the primitive, the privileged, the successful apostles of christianity. If such was his language, what other can be mine? If the apostles needed the prayers of the church, to what else am I to look? If this was the duty of the primitive church, what else can be the duty of the present and passing churches of God on earth?

"Brethren, tell the church I promise to pray for you, I hope I may employ no other than the language of Paul, 'I make mention of you in my prayers, making request (if by any means now, at length, I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God) to come unto you; for I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established; that is, that I may be com, forted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.'

"My dear friends, pray then for me; for I assure you I come amongst you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling."

On a chill winter day the ordination took place. There was nothing chilling in the warm welcome given from many hundred loving hearts. This was the 24th November 1846. The date is well remembered, -all the better, that exactly, as it would seem, on that day twelvemonth was the funeral. On the Sabbath after the ordination, Dr Ritchie introduced his young friend to the congregation; and on the same Sabbath of the following year, the Doctor was again in that pulpit preaching from the text, "He was not, for God took

him."

Of this brief ministry we have here the

remains in six discourses. These are chosen from perhaps about a hundred. A hundred such discourses "fully written and elaborately prepared" in one short year! May not the heavy labour have hastened the early death? The subjects of those six discourses are, The Minister's Embassy

The hidings of God's countenance +The pilgrimage to Canaan Children coming to Jesus The knowledge of Christ and The Spiritual Life. They are altogether such as a young minister, dying, might wish to leave behind him. Composed, as they were, amid the toils and anxieties of a first year's ministry,-cast aside probably to be for gotten, to be replaced by something better, the early death of the writer has saved them for us. Never thinking, as he wrote them in the little town of Carnoustie, of any thing beyond the benefit of his own flock, he has been unconsciously preparing for himself a monument, and a noble one

built of "breathing thoughts and burning words," and giving full "proof" of an earnest "ministry."

The discourses discover no ordinary powers of thought and expression; but the main element in them is a strong manly earnestness, uttering itself from great depths of the heart, and issuing in a rapid, rushing, torrent-like style.

Mr Mackenzie has been a gifted preacher, and of the various gifts for argument, for illustration, and for appeal, exemplified in these discourses, we do not know which most to admire; but what is most to be admired is the great earnestness of this young minister, who preaches as if he knew that his grave was open-as if he would throw in haste strong arms of love round every hearer, and bring him by all means, to Christ.

The framework of each discourse is simple and strong, well fitted to support the ever-interesting, and sometimes broad and massive, forms of truth built up upon it The talent for spreading out an illustration is remarkable. We quote, for instance, from the sermon (No. II.) on the hidings of God's countenance, the first passage. on which our eye fell in opening the volume:

"Our Father in heaven never changes. If there be estrangement, the reason is not in God. If there be the absence of divine influence, the cause can never be traced to him. Just as the sun from day to day arises in all his glorious energies, as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoices as a strong man to run a races so does the Father of lights ever look down unchangeable in his favour towards his church and people. But many a cloud may intervene to shut out from use the of the rising sun; and just so may a cloud genial warmth and gladdening influences