Now to us there is something most painfully sad in seeing a man with the world-wide reputation of Alfred Tennyson, applying his powers and tuning his harp to such a subject as this. Life and immortality had not been brought to light by the Gospel to Lucretius; but they have to Tennyson. And when we see the first poet of this Christian land, as it were, only emulous to unbaptize his muse, and to put into majestic verse the benighted sentiments of a heathen philosopher pleading for self-destruction, we can only regret, which we do very sincerely, that his poetical talents had not been applied to a better purpose. The soliloquy of Cato, as given by another poet, though it led to the same sad result, is far less revolting than the language which is here put into the mouth of Lucretius; while in that of Hamlet, he who makes it is deterred from the dreadful crime of self-destruction, by the consideration of what may be after death. We are sure that Mr. Tennyson has no intention to set up the philosophy of Epicurus against the teaching of the Holy Scriptures; and there may be in these verses a hidden meaning and use which we are unable to discover. But however this may be, in these days of abounding iniquity, and multiform error, when so many are casting off the wholesome checks that are imposed upon them by what the Bible has revealed respecting the life of the world to come, we are extremely sorry, that anything which has the slightest tendency to cherish these delusions should emanate from the pen of the Poet Laureate.

He puts these words into the mouth of Lucretius:

"My golden work in which I told a truth
That stays the rolling Ixionian wheel,

And numbs the Fury's ringlet-snake, and plucks
The mortal soul from out immortal hell,

Shall stand ay, surely: then it fails at last,
And perishes as I must."

Such, it is almost certain, were the sentiments of the Roman
poet who calls Epicurus his master. But even the Stoics had
learnt from Zeno their master a system that approximates far
nearer to the truth than this. We know indeed that all which
the poets have written about "the wheel of Ixion," and "the
ringlet-snakes of the Fury," are idle tales, and mythological
fancies. We must take care, however, lest in sweeping away.
these childish fables and foolish fancies, we do not sweep away
with them the fundamental verities and unchangeable realities
from which they most likely had their origin-the immortality
of the soul, and a state of righteous retribution in the world to
come. Now, the error of the Stoics consisted neither in deny-
ing a supreme God nor overlooking His over-ruling providence;
but in confounding the former with the universe, and the latter

with inevitable fate or destiny. Yet, in the midst of this fatal confusion, they distinctly acknowledged moral excellency to be the chief good; and they openly professed to believe that virtue will be rewarded, and vice punished, in the world to come. Hence it is that Cato, who was a Stoic, and not, like Lucretius, an Epicurean, is made by Addison to give utterance to those noble and most elevating sentiments, beginning,

"It must be so! Plato, thou reasonest well!"

Here it is to be observed, that the dying Stoic, instead of departing with the mournful cry of the Epicure, "What matters? all is over!" in the moment of death, distinctly acknowleges a deathless principle within, which cannot be destroyed. If the sword, which he holds in one hand, can in a moment bring his mortal existence to an end, the treatise of Plato, which he holds in the other, as well as the secret whisper of his reasonable soul, assures him that he can never die. In addition to this, instead of glorying in the rash and wicked act, which is the deepest stain and the foulest blot upon his memory, he is represented by Addison as repenting of it with his dying breath.

"A beam of light breaks in

On my departing soul. Alas, I fear

I've been too hasty. O ye powers that search
The heart of man, and weigh his inmost thoughts,

If I have done amiss, impute it not."

True philosophy, like true poetry, must be baptized in the pure fountain of eternal truth, otherwise,

"It leads to bewilder, and dazzles to blind."

Its highest powers must be called forth, and its sweetest numbers must be employed, not to give dignity to the exploded fables of heathen mythology, or importance to science that is falsely so called, but to extol the glorious works, and to illustrate the incorruptible words, of Him who is emphatically the Truth. Then the chord which it touches, and the music which it produces, will be neither ephemeral in its continuance, nor injurions in its tendency; there will be nothing in it either to mislead the judgment or to wound the conscience; but it will be lasting as the immortality which it distinctly proclaims, constraining as the love which it clearly reveals, bright and beautiful as the heavenly bodies, and sweet and harmonious as the voices which are heard among them.

CORRESPONDENCE.

CHURCH MISSIONARY ANNIVERSARY.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer.

SIR, I have recently returned from our Church Missionary gathering. It has left on my own mind, and has enabled me to convey to friends at home, a cheering impression. Will you allow me to aim at transmitting, through the medium of your pages, a similar impression to some of your readers who may not have been privileged to witness our "great Church of England Festival"? Both as respects the high and Christian object which brought us together, and the sentiments which prevailed, there was much to gratify us.

The tone of the meeting was earnest and serious. If a smile occasionally enlivened our ranks, it passed off like a refreshing breeze. The Report, too, was encouraging. Our financial position is good. It is indeed much to be wished that every Christian would assign to religious purposes a generous and definite portion of the revenues with which God has blessed him. In this case our Society, coming in for its share, would be amply supported. Still, the sum of £8000 in advance of last year's income is an addition to be thankful for. We have also to be thankful for success of a higher order :-Northern India, with its occasional conversion of men of mark, Southern India, with its more general diffusion of light,— access gained to the wives and daughters of natives, and the general breaking down of prejudices,-are grand tokens for good, as respects the grandest of our Missionary fields. From other fields corresponding proofs were not wanting to show that our Missionary brethren "have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain." Several speakers controverted (as it appeared to me), with effect, the notion that our success has not been proportionate to our exertions. Spiritual progress has not, of course, been as rapid as the advance of material improvements. The changes wrought by the electric telegraph and the railroad may have made the conquests of the Gospel appear slow by comparison. Yet they have been both real and steady hitherto, and give firm hope for the future. This holds true especially with regard to a native Ministry. Our Committee could assure us that "experience had surpassed the expectation of its power:" and a distinguished officer could give us as the result of his observation, that we scarcely trusted it sufficiently.

Of course we are not left without a memento that the missionary field is one of conflict and occasional disappointment. Appeals continue to be made to our Universities, and invitations to posts of usefulness not to be found elsewhere; but the appeals and invitations have not been adequately responded to by graduates of piety, power, and literary distinction. The present state of New Zealand and Abeokuta contrasts sadly with the spiritual prosperity of their

earlier days. But we may be hopeful even respecting these. Our Society has carried their case to the throne of grace. When, on the previous evening, the congregation at St. Bride's (a congregation unrivalled, it may be, for every indication of deep devotion) were seeking a blessing on "all conditions of men," those two missions were named as the special subjects of our intercession. And they were prayed for earnestly. The Amen, with which that petition closed, sounded as the voice of a great multitude actuated by confidence in the promise, "Call upon me in the time of trouble, so will I hear thee, and thou shalt praise Me." On the whole, then, causes of thankfulness and hope abound. The Society has been blessed in the past year, and it is taking the best means to ensure a continued blessing. It is determined, in dependence on Divine strength, to act upon the exhortation zealously pressed upon us in the anniversary sermon, and to "hold fast the faithful word." This determination was expressed in its third resolution-a resolution which was carried by acclamation, a part of that crowded platform rising from their seats to confirm it. It ran thus:-" This Meeting desires to record their unshaken adherence to those Protestant and Evangelical principles, upon which the Society was originally founded; and their conviction that any departure from those principles, whether in the direction of a Rationalistic Theology, or the doctrines and practices which the Church of England rejected at the Reformation, will be fatal to the cause of Missions both at home and abroad, as substituting another Gospel' for the Gospel of the grace of God."

Such a resolution, so emphatically made our own, sufficiently attests the presence of another feeling simultaneously with Missionary zeal. To this feeling I will not allude without re-echoing the caution which you gave us in your last number. Most true it is that " we have to look well to our own spirit, that we display none of that asperity which is the disgrace of Christian polemics,' and yet one cannot fail to rejoice that our large assembly proved itself fully awake to the assaults now making upon Protestant truth. This was unmistakeably the case. Very early in the morning, long before the meeting had warmed to its full glow, allusion to the endangered state of the Irish branch of our Church sufficed to call forth a strong expression of sympathy. Throughout the day, the word "Protestant" was seldom heard without a genial welcome. There was one speaker whose address was the evident exponent of the sentiments which prevailed: since sentence after sentence was endorsed by those who sat around him. According to this manifesto, Christ will be first in our regard, and the Church second. Yet we feel strong in our position in the Church of England. Its doctrines are our own. Its rubrics are our guides. Its worship and services are endeared to us. We reject alike the Rationalism which emasculates Christianity, and the Ritualism which distorts it. We are Protestants ourselves, and can entertain a friendly regard for the Missionary efforts of other Protestant bodies; but the Church is the vessel of our choice-in it we intend to abide until by authority our Articles are changed, and our worship overlaid with the symbols of Rome.

If nearly forty years' acquaintance with the pages of the Christian Observer qualifies me to judge of the preferences of its readers, I may venture to predict that they will rejoice at the prevalence of such sentiments as these, as well as the general prosperity of our Society. In so doing they will share the gratification of, Yours obediently,

W. A.

[This letter arrived since our concluding article was written, and comes from a friend personally unknown to us, though not so to many of our readers. We insert it as an independent testimony to the correctness of our own impressions.-EDITOR.]

NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.

Present Danger and Present Duty. The Papers read at the Meeting of Clergymen at Islington, in January, 1868. With Introduction, by the Rev. Edward Auriol, M.A. London: Wm. Hunt & Co. 1868.— These papers have been overlooked, or should have had a much earlier notice. But few of the remedies proposed have yet been acted upon; or at least, if acted upon, have yet proved effective. In the absence of Mr. Wilson, Mr. Auriol spoke. Those whose recollections go with him will heartily concur with him in the following statement:" At first we met in Mr. Wilson's study, afterwards in the Church Missionary Institution (each of these rooms became crowded), and now we are meeting in larger numbers than ever in this Memorial Hall; and I may, I trust, state my conviction, that though we had amongst us in those days such men as John Cunningham, Edward Bickersteth, Charles Bridges, Haldane Stewart, Mr. Wilks, and others of that stamp, without in any way detracting from the honour due to them, the papers which have been read amongst us of late years have been in no way inferior to those which we used to listen to when they spoke to us, whilst the very circumstances of the Church in the present day appear to make the speaking out distinctively on the great truths of the Gospel more important than ever." "But with reference to the present subject," says Mr. Auriol-"the perilous position of the Church at the present time-I think we shall all be inclined to take a very serious view of it. The perils which threaten us, and which are to be the subject of our consideration to-day, have no reference to the political condition of our Church, or to its ecclesiastical standing, but to that which is of far greater importance-her position as a witness for God's truth in our land. I am sure that I shall carry with me all my brethren in this meeting, when I express my full persuasion that if our Church ceases to bear plain and distinct testimony to God's truth-still more, if, instead of preaching the plain 'truth as it is in Jesus,' she teaches unscriptural errors, there cannot be a greater peril for her, lest our holy and jealous God should be pro