not estates on which chaplains and instructors were necessary, but they saw and pitied the case of the perishing heathen. They were not wealthy men who could individually support a clergyman, but they combined their efforts, and united their subcriptions. They sought for clergymen, and when clergymen could not be found, they looked out for promising young men, provided for their education, presented them for ordination to the Bishops, who had especial jurisdiction in such cases, and sent them forth to the work for which they were ordained. Thus far, at least, I cannot see a single vulnerable point in the Society's proceedings. Whether after their ordination the missionaries sent out ought to have been rendered more independant of the committee, or more dependant on the colonial Bishops, are distinct questions, which though assumed in many quarters as self-evident, are yet encumbered with very great and perplexing difficulties: difficulties which, after thirty or forty years' experience, are perhaps more painfully felt than at the very first commencement of the Society's operations. At that period indeed the precedents for placing missionaries under episcopal control, were not the most favourable. The missionaries of the Christian Knowledge Society being Danish or German Protestants, and not of our church, were in great measure independent, yet their labours were eminently useful, and have been the theme of admiration of each succeeding Indian prelate; while the missions of the Propagation Society, though nominally under the control of the prelates of our church were then, and for many subsequent years in a very unsatisfactory state. The management indeed of the Propagation Society was really only nominally in the hands of our prelates; they were governors by charter, but the

actual superintendance necessarily fell into other hands; and it is only by the appointment and multiplication of colonial Bishops that effectual episcopal control can be secured for missionaries.

But such control can at present only be exercised over those missionaries who are employed in our own colonial possessions, nor is it easy to conceive how any of our Bishops can exercise authority over these clergy who are employed among the heathen or Mahommedan subjects of foreign powers; that is, as I have before said, among half the people of the world. The Bishop of London indeed exerts a species of rule in different parts of the continent, and is understood to have a commissary at Paris, and to superintend the chaplains at Rome, Florence, &c. and the Bishop of Australia lately visited New Zealand, but his authority seems rather to have been that of a friend than an ecclesiastical ruler.

As individuals indeed, our diocesans are under the common and universal obligation which requires all Christians to use their influence for the extension of Christ's kingdom in the world; but as Bishops, their care is limited very much to their own sees. The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London have a certain colonial jurisdiction; but the Bishops of Lincoln, Chester, Exeter, &c. have no more authority out of this realm, than what their personal talents, and virtues, and the respect paid to their stations command ; except so far as arises from their connexion with charitable institutions, or their position in the House of Lords. This seems indeed in former periods to have been felt too strongly it can scarcely be conceived that the spiritual interests of our colonies would have been so grievously neglected as they are, had any thing like the same energy been shown on their behalf in the

reign of George the Third as at present; and unfavourable as the times now are, there is yet ground of hope that some provision may still be made for the spiritual benefit of our vast colonial empire.

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Should such provision be made, it may be hoped that our ecclesiastical rulers may be led to form some plan for the evangelizing of the heathen in general. We have immense advantages from the commanding positions which we colonially occupy, and the vast territories to which we have commercial access. China alone deserves the provision of a Propaganda-a large and extensive seminary of evangelists who may go forth to introduce the gospel into that benighted land. But alas! our church has never yet appeared as a missionary church. No provision has yet been thoritatively made for sending out evangelists. Scarcely an idea is entertained beyond the parochial system; and few seem at all to consider the preliminary and preparatory measures which must precede the introduction of that system. This very much arises from the limited education, shall I say the non-education of the larger part of our clergy. Of a very considerable proportion of the young men who pass through our Universities it must be said, that however regularly accustomed to attend on her worship, they are ignorant of her constitution, know nothing whatever of ecclesiastical law, are very superficially acquainted with the history of the church, or of the reformation, and entertain very confused and erroneous ideas of the power sponsibility of the episcopal office. They have therefore much learn; and when ordained and employed in large and extensive parishes, they have so little time for study, and are so much pressed by providing sermons and other unavoidable engagements, as to

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have little leisure for acquiring that information in which they are deficient; hence it will often be found that a degree of ignorance on all points connected with missions prevails, of which few have any idea; and when individuals thus situated are removed by any circumstances, to places where they are called upon to decide on questions connected with the propagation of the gospel in heathen lands, they too often commit themselves unadvisedly. This I cannot but think has recently been the case with some very estimable individuals, who, had they been better informed, would scarcely have adopted their present language concerning the Church Missionary or other voluntary societies, or concerning the expediency of such efforts originating with our Bishops, and being invariably under their controul.

But it is time that I bring this long communication to a close. The present result of my inquiries is, a full conviction, that it is the duty of laymen to exert themselves in the promotion of religious education, in the circulation of the Holy Scriptures, the formularies of our church, and religious publications generally, and in the sending forth of missions to the heathen; and that laymen are not exempted or precluded from these services by any obligations under which the clergy are placed, or the deference which is on various points due to those who occupy the highest stations in our church.

My Saviour is the beloved of the Father and of his people. By this affectionate appellation he was spoken of by Jehovah, or by the prophet in his name, when the sad (6 song " of the unfruitful vineyard was set to Isaiah's harp.

"Now

will I sing to my well-beloved, a song of my beloved, touching his vineyard. My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill; and he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it; and also made a wine-press therein and he looked that it should bring forth grapes; and it brought forth wild grapes."

My Saviour, is my soul a part of such a vineyard to thee? Does thy hand, instead of receiving with a gracious smile the sweet fruits of thine own culture, have to reject the sour and unwelcome produce of my negligence and sin? Pardon, Lord, thy ungrateful servant, and take my soul wholly under thy management; lest, deprived of its safeguard and its cultivation, like ancient Israel, it should lie "waste," unfruitful, unblessed, and desolate.

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Did ever Jordan's banks, or Judea's wilderness, echo to so delightful a sound as when, at my Saviour's baptism, mingled with the gentle murmur of the descending Holy Dove, there came voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased?" That voice was not sent more to comfort and animate the incarnate Son of God, in the arduous work on which he was entering, than to cheer and encourage his people to live "to the praise and glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved." In this view,

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every term of love employed by the Father towards the Son, is fraught with joyful considerations to the believer. Accepted in the Beloved!" How rich, full, and unchangeable, then, must my acceptance be! I thereby become a partaker of a divine nature, am invested with a divine righteousness, and share in the divine love. I am beloved in the Beloved.

David was an eminent type of Christ, both in his history and his name, which signifies "Beloved." The prophetic Scriptures announced the Son of David, under his illustrious forefather's name. This name is dear to the Jewish people; and it will be still dearer to them, when, on their conversion to Christ, Hosea's words shall be fulfilled:

chiefest among ten thousand; yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem. Friendship leans upon its fondest object, and looks there for comfort, support, and sympathy, amidst the inevitable griefs of life. "Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?" Who, but the church? who, but the soul, resting in full confidence upon the love, strength, and sympathy of the Lord Jesus Christ?

If the Redeemer stands thus related to me, I may find a neverfailing treasury of joy in this title that he bears. He is then, the beloved of my soul; and I may exclaim again and again, in all the ecstacy of self-appropriating affection," My beloved is mine, and I am his." His love to me is the source of mine to him; and my love to him is an evidence and seal of his to me. That he is mine, by my deliberate, and renewed, and fixed choice, assures me that I am his, and his unalienably and forever. All he is and all he has is mine also; for the heavenly bridegroom makes over himself and his all to his church. And dare I, can I, would I, withhold anything from him? Forbid it, O my Saviour, and bring me to make as unreserved surrender of myself to thee, as thou hast made of thyself to me. "For I am my Beloved's, and his

It was

desire his towards me." the "desire" to save me, and to glorify himself by my love to him above all other objects, that refreshed his soul in death. Yet a little while, and his gracious benevolence shall be fully gratified in my complete salvation; and when, admitted into his presence, I shall lose sight of all besides in the vision of his glory, then will he never have to complain of my lukewarmness, nor I have to lament the sensible withdrawment of his favour, through unbelief and sin. I may well, therefore, earnestly long for the arrival of his appointed time, when he shall come to take me home to himself, and vent the desires of my heart in the language of the Church, both under the Old and New Testament dispensations. While I continue here, may I thus express the sincere and ardent desires of my heart for the influences of the Holy Spirit: "Awake, O north wind, and come, thou south; blow upon my garden," the garden of my soul,"that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my Beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits." And in the anticipation of eternity, may this be my daily prayer: "Make haste, my Beloved" Saviour. Thou sayest to thy Church, "Surely I come quickly. Amen." My soul replies, Even "Even so, come, Lord

Jesus."

EAST.

WE rejoice at once more meeting with one of our earliest friends, and most valuable contributors. For the last time,' says Mr. Jones, I venture to appear before the public. Little can be expected from a man of EIGHTY-SEVEN, when the faculties both of body and mind, especially the eyes and memory are fast declining.' But though speaking thus humbly of himself, and feeling sensibly his increasing infirmities, our author is still strong in faith, and expresses a cheerful hope that this work may, like its predecessors, be blessed of God to win many a wandering sinner to the Saviour, and assist and comfort believers in their way home to heaven.

For these purposes the present publication is well calculated. It consists of an introduction, and eight chapters, each of which contains much that is highly instructive and valuable. We take the following extract from the fifth chapter, entitled the Privileges of all in Christ,' as conveying at once a fair specimen of the work, and supplying suitable topics for instruction and meditation.

All in Christ are in a pardoned state. What an inestimable privilege is this! It belongs to all the saints, and to none else. They are in a pardoned state, reconciled to God, brought into his family and made his children. No sooner is the sinner one with Christ than his sins are all forgiven. The moment your faith apprehends the Saviour, in that very moment all your sins are blotted out of God's book of remembrance. So delighted is the Lord Jehovah with the sinner that embraceth the Saviour and accepteth his salvation, that he cries from the throne to that penitent, "I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sin." "I have cast them behind my back, and will remember them no more," fear not, go in peace, thy faith hath made thee whole. Glad tidings to a trembling soul! I wish this great change was well underMAY, 1840

stood by all penitents, that their pardon is free and full, and not one siu left unpar doned. "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." Rom. iii. 24.

When sinners are once in Christ, they are ever afterwards in a pardoned state. Yet even these have cause for repentance all their days on earth. "For in many things we offend all." They who are in a pardoned state often offend God, provoke his anger, and bring down temporal judgments on themselves, but never a condemnation, The Lord saith, " If they sin against me, I will visit their iniquity with a rod, nevertheless, my loving kindness will I not utterly take from them. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips." Having once pardoned them, "their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." When the Lord once pardoneth his people, he pardoneth thein for eternity. He will, when he sees fit, Scourge and afflict them, but will never pass on them the sentence of condemnation. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit." "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." You see that the holy scripture declares in the most clear and explicit manner, that they who are once in a par doned state, are never brought again under condemnation. The sentence of eternal death is taken away, and shall never be passed on them any more. They are always in a pardoned state, though they may be often under the rod, and scourged for their transgressions.

Nothing under heaven can give the Christian such sweet delight and lively joy, as to know and be confident on sure ground, that he is in a pardoned state. Our debt to God is an infinite debt. To have all our debts cancelled is an infinite mercy. To know that they are all cancelled, and that we are now free, brings our souls into a state of sweet tranquillity, and at times fills us with unutterable joy, joy that can never be expressed, yea, joy which strangers intermeddle not with. Let a true penitent hear what the Lord God saith unto him, when he is trembling for fear of judgment, and he shall hear a voice from heaven saying unto him, "Be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee, go in peace."

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