Missionary Entelligence. JASSY. LETTER from the Rev. Alfred Edersheim to Jassy, Dec. 18, 1846. MY VERY DEAR SIR,-I hope and trust that you will not have altogether forgotten the person who now intrudes upon your time, and that you remember him even sometimes at a throne of grace. I, for my part, though I passed through many countries, saw much, was tried much-would I could say, was taught much-have never lost out of memory the kindness and the interest so many respected Christian brethren manifested during my last stay in London. In fact, when in the field, one oftener than you at home can fancy, needs a cheering and an encouragement, and how useful and comfortable are these remembrances of the sympathy and prayers of Christ's true children! I would not be acting faithfully or speaking the truth, were I to say that a missionary is anything like an unhappy man ;much the contrary-but this, I believe, arises mainly from God making His grace always sufficient for us. How blessed, when shut out from all intercourse with brethren, when alone in the midst of open and secret enemies, false disciples, made a scorn and a laughing-stock of Jew and Greek, no man near to help or advise, no man to sympathize or help us to bear the trial, little or no apparent success, how blessed at such seasons to lock one's-self into one's closet, and meditate and pray over such passages as Ps. xci., or Ps. xlvi., or lxxi., lxxii., lxxiii! How sweet to be taught by the Lord; but for a hungering and thirsting after the Lord, a real panting after his grace, how certainly will all our desires be satisfied! The first few months of my missionary activity I was quite alone in the most difficult of our stations, having, besides my duties as missionary, also for six weeks those of Pastor of the German Protestant congregation here. You may fancy that this was no light time for me. I do not mention secondary difficulties such as the relaxing influence the heat has at first upon foreigners, that I had to preach three times every Sabbath, and at least twice in the week, that I was quite lonely, &c.;but such as these: my inexperience of and incompetency for the work, the utter deadness and often open enmity of the Protestants here, the number of Jews (40,000), and many, many more, the mention of which would be, perhaps, tiresome and disagreeable to you; but the Lord has delivered me out of all of them. At the moment I write you, the more able and experienced brethren, who have for the last six years published the Gospel here, have long joined me again. Our brother, the German Pastor, is also a comfort to us. Signs of real good are appearing, and though there be much in us and about us to make us very sad, yet there are also some things to make us glad. There is, perhaps, at least to my knowledge, no station where a missionary has to contend with more difficulties, but none also where one has more opportunities of declaring Jesus. The number of Jews is daily swelling; none hinder us; we visit every week from house to house; of a hundred Jews, perhaps one refuses to accept of a tract; often have I seen them running behind us begging for tracts or a New Testament; our meetings are well attended, and there is no misgiving (among the Jews at least) as to our real object in coming here, viz., to win souls unto Jesus. I have been preaching in market-places, streets, public houses, shops, and not unfrequently do I hear necessary, as there are numbers here who ago to Yours, in the Master's service, · PERSECUTION AT MADEIRA. (From an American Journal, the "Presby- 19th Sept., 1846. JOHN LAW. EXPERIENCE is indeed a strong demonstration, and it is such a witness as leaves no room for debate; for here the truth is felt, proved, and acted on the heart, which the Christian knoweth well, and is as sure of as he is persuaded that he liveth, or that the sun when it shineth hath life and warmness therewith.-Fleming. THE law presseth on a man till he flies to Christ; then it says, Thou hast gotten a refuge, I forbear to follow thee; thou art wise, thou art safe.-Bengelius. Poetry. ON THE DEATH OF A YOUNG CHRISTIAN. WEEP not! because the fair young bud hath faded, Will guide thine aged steps, through Life's dark way! being Saturday; and the rest were issued at intervals, varying from a week to a month, till March 24, 1657, the whole thus extending over a space of a year and three months. "All accounts agree in stating that the impression produced by the Provincials,' on their first appearance, was quite unexampled. They were circulated in thousands in Paris and throughout France, Speaking of the first letter, Father Daniel says, 'It created a fracas which filled the fathers of the Society with consternation. Never did the Post-office reap greater profits; copies were despatched over the whole kingdom: and I myself, though very little known to the gentlemen of Port Royal, received a large packet of them, postresiding. The same method was followed with the rest of the Letters. The seventh found its way to Cardinal Mazarin, who Fear not, when Death's cold waves are round thee paid, in a town of Brittany where I was then swelling, That heavenly strength will still its aid impart. Weep not although no gladsome voice is cheering Thy household labours, or thy lonely hearth, Though well thou know'st no more those tones endearing laughed over it very heartily. The eighth did Shall e'er be heard, by thee, again, on earth. Think not her gentle notes are hush'd for ever; Upon thy joyous ear, they yet will rise In that bright land, where lov'd ones never sever, not appear till a month after its predecessor, apparently to keep up expectation. In short, everybody read the Little Letters,' and, whatever might be their opinions of the points in dispute, all agreed in admiring the genius While in that song, through Heaven's high arches thrilling, which they displayed. They were found lying Beyond the splendour of those beaming skies! Ah! who can tell the rapture that is filling, The bliss now flowing through her sinless heart, She bears her grateful and triumphant part! We will not weep then, that to endless glory Our treasur'd Gem hath gently been convey'd ; Rather be ours the joy to spread His story, On whom were all our griefs and sorrows laid. ELIZA THOMSON, WHEN the "Provincial Letters" first came out in 1656, Jesuitism was at the height of its power, and seemed secure from all opposition. In vain Protestants had reasoned against the system; in vain Catholics had sought to interpose checks to the dominancy of the Order in the Church; in vain had statesmen endeavoured to guard against the seizure of political powers by a Society whose interests were separate from those of the countries where they lived. In almost every country in Europe; their power and influence were supreme. It was then that Pascal attacked them, and his letters, as they successively appeared, dealt such heavy blows to the system, that from that time the influence of the Jesuits declined, and never in France, at least, is likely to be again dominant. In the present time, when Jesuitism is making such strong efforts to recover its former ground, it is well that Pascal's letters be again brought prominently before the public. In England two translations only have yet appeared, one in 1657, the other in 1816, both giving most imperfect ideas of the original. The present translation is done with much faithfulness and spirit, and is enriched with valuable Notes and an Historical Introduction by Mr. M'Crie. The following extracts are from the Introduction : "Pascal, with the native superiority of genius, pitched on the very tone which was calculated to arrest the public mind. Treating theology in a style entirely new, he brought down the subject to the comprehension of all, and translated into the pleasantries of comedy, and the familiarities of dialogue, discussions which had till then been confined to the grave utterance of the school. The framework which he adopted in his first letter was exceedingly happy. A Parisian is supposed to transmit to one of his friends in the Provinces an account of the disputes of the day. Hence arose the name of the Provincials which was given to the rest of the Letters. "The letters were published anonymously, under the fictitious signature of Louis de Montalte,' and the greatest care was taken to preserve the secret of their authorship. The first letter appeared January 13, 1656, being on a Wednesday; the second on January 29, on the merchant's counter, the lawyer's desk, the doctor's table, the lady's toilet; and everywhere they were sought for and perused with the same avidity. The success of the Letters in gaining their object was not less extraordinary. The Jesuits were fairly checkmated; and though they succeeded in carrying through the censure of Arnauld, the public sympathy was enlisted in his favour. The confessionals and churches of the Jesuits were deserted, while those of their opponents were crowded with admiring thousands. 'That book alone,' says one of its bitterest enemies, has done more for the Jansenists than the Augustinus" of Jansen, and all the works of Arnauld put together.' This is the more surprising when we consider, that at the time, the influence of the Jesuits was so high in the ascendant, that Arnauld had to contend with the pope, the king, the chancellor, the clergy, the Sorbonne, the Universities, and the great Jansenism at a lower ebb, or more generally body of the populace; and that never anathematized than when the first Provincial Letter appeared. was high encomium of Voltaire is well known: The "Provincial Letters" were models of eloquence and pleasantry. The best comedies of Molière have not more wit in them than the first Letters; Bossuet has nothing more sublime than the last ones.' Again, the same writer says, "The first work of genius. that appeared in prose was the collection of the "Provincial Letters." Examples of every species of eloquence may there be found. There is not a single word in it which, after a hundred years, has ndergone the change to which all living languages are liable. We may refer to this work, the era when our language became fixed. The Bishop of Luon told me, that having asked the Bishop of Meaux, what work he would wish most to have been the author of, setting his own aside? Bossuet instantly replied, the "Provincial Letters!" Pascal succeeded beyond all expression,' says D'Alembert; several of his bon mots have become proverbial in our language, and the "Provincials" will be ever regarded as a model of taste and style.' To this day the same high eulogiums are passed on the work by the best scholars of France."—Introduction, Pp. liii., liv. The North British Review. February, 1847. No. 12. Edinburgh: W. P. Kennedy; London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co. We hope that most of our readers are now acquainted with the " North British Review." It is the freshest, the most powerful, and the most truly Catholic of its cotemporaries. In general interest the present number yields to none of its predecessors; and there is one article of such pre-eminent eloquence and acumen as to be worth the price of the whole, we mean the opening article on Modern Philosophy. So desirable is it that the large information, the sound and enlightened views, and the Christian principles of this noble periodical should circulate through all our members, that we trust it will find a place in every congregational library, and those who cannot command it entirely for themselves, will combine in twos and threes, so as to secure its stated perusal. Madeira; or, the Spirit of Antichrist in 1846, Pp. 103. By J. Roddam Tate, R.N. Lon don: Nisbet and Co., Berners-street. "This, however, was not all. Besides having WE advise all who feel interested in the the tide of public favour turned against them, subject of the persecutions in Madeira, and in the Jesuits found themselves the objects of the cause of Protestantism, to read this little universal derision. The names of their work. It contains a narrative of the outrages favourite casuits were converted into perpetrated in August last on British subjects proverbs: Escobarder came to signify the same and Portuguese Protestant Christians, through thing with 'paltering in a double sense; the instigation of Popery in that island. The Father Bauny's grotesque maxims furnished author was an eye-witness of the scenes detopics for perpetual badinage; and the Jesuits, scribed by him, and comments on them in the wherever they went, were assailed with inex-style and spirit of a British sailor and earnest tinguishable laughter. By no other method Christian. could Pascal have so severely stung this proud and self-conceited Society. The rage into which they were thrown was extreme, and was variously expressed. At one time it found vent in calumnies and threats of vengeance. At other times they indulged in puerile lamentations. It was amusing to hear these stalwart divines, after breathing fire and slaughter against their enemies, assume the querulous tone of injured and oppressed innocence. "The literary merits of the Provincials' have been universally acknowledged and applauded. On this point, where Pascal's countrymen must be considered the most competent judges, we have the testimonies of the leading spirits of France. Boileau pronounced it a work that has surpassed at once the ancients and the moderns.' Perrault has given a similar judgment: There is more wit in these eighteen letters than in "Plato's Dialogues; "more delicate and artful raillery than in those of Lucian; and more strength and ingenuity of reasoning than in the "Orations of Cicero." We have nothing more beautiful in this species of writing! Pascal's style,' says the Abbé d'Artigny, has never been surpassed, nor perhaps equalled.' The MADAGASCAR. WE are happy to learn, that the Secretaries of the London Missionary Society have lately received intelligence from Medagascar of a very cheering character,--the. more cheering, as, from the fierce persecu tion directed by the Queen against all who dared to profess Christianity, in addition to the other difficulties which hindered the re ception of the Gospel, many had almost abandoned all hope of immediate food for that island. About a hundred of the natives have been converted; and, more striking still, Rakotondredama, the Queen's only son, and heir apparent to the throne, has embraced the truth, and (although only seventeen years prudence, courage, and stedfastness in his of age) has already manifested admirable adherence to Christianity. Through his influence the lives of twenty-one believers who were doomed to martyrdom have been preserved; and his religious progress is represented by the latest accounts as rnost satisfac tory. LADY HEWLEY'S CHARITIES. THE following sums were paid out of the Charity Trustees' Costs allowed them on passing their Relator's Costs up to same period.......... £. s. d. 1698 17 9 1164 17 8 504 11 4 1972 11 5 49 18 2 LONG PRAYERS, LONG SERMONS, LONG DUTIES in their performance drawn out to 240 4 4 In addition to the foregoing there are the Receiver's poundage, his costs, and the Relator's, and Attorney-General's, and other costs, which have been allowed on passing the Receiver's accounts, by order of the Master, viz.:In first account-Poundage.. 158 O 0 Costs 132 3 6 In second account-Poundage 158 0 0 Costs 82 4 4 In third account-Poundage 157 12 8 Costs 432 9 9 In fourth account-Pondage 155 4 0 Costs 136 10 2 In fifth account-Poundage.. 159 1 4 Costs 61 6.11 15818-9 140 15 11 159 15 1 137 17 4 In sixth account-Poundage Costs .... In seventh account-Poundage Costs .... Court Costs brought from above 590 2 5 220 8 3 299 14 8 237 12 6 2229 19 9 10393 17 0 £12,623 16 9 The above 12,6231. 16s. 9d. has all come out of the Charity funds. In addition to this, the Original Defendants (the Trustees) had to pay out of their own pockets the Costs of the appeal to the Lord Chancellor, and considerable extra Costs which were agreed at..... They also paid the Relator's taxed Costs in the House of Lords Their own Costs.......................................... The two sets of Orthodox Petitioners were only allowed one set of Costs between them, and consequently had to subscribe out of their own pockets about The poundage allowed to the receiver (who is one of the complainants' solicitors in the new litigation commenced by the Independents) is after the rate of 51. per cent.; so that an accurate estimate can be made of the annual income of these Charities. Lord Cottenham, in his speech on the Dissenters' Act of 1844, stated, "There is now pending in the Court of Chancery a new suit instituted by some denomination of Dissenters who think they can make out a case there which they did not make out in the Master's Office." And Sir Wm. Follett, in his speech on the same Act, stated," The parties litigating for the benefits of that Charity have not been content with contesting their rights in the Master's Office, but a fresh information has been filed on behalf of the Independents, alleging that the Presbyterians do not agree in doctrine with the doctrine of the founders of that chapel, and that they are no more entitled to the benefit of that Charity than the Unitarians, and therefore that suit may now probably go through all its stages in litigation, and may last another fourteen years, if the funds of the Charity are found to be sufficient, before any ultimate decision is come to as to the parties entitled to the property." IN St. Paul's prayer for the Colossians, we find him first giving thanks for three things he had heard:The hope laid up for them in heaven, their faith in Christ Jesus, their love to all the saints. IT was said of a French Christian, from reading of Christ he went to Christ; and from being with Christ, he went forth among men for Christ. DONATIONS TO COLLEGE LIBRARY. MISS MORNING ESTABLISHMENT. GREAT CORAM-STREET, BRUNSWICK-SQUARE, ISS RICHARDS avails herself of this opportunity to express her sense of the kind approbation which her plan of EDUCATION has elicited, and she trusts that by pursuing the same course of systematic Instruction, enlivened and aided by the introduction of the various methods continue to receive assurances of her successful rendered available by modern improvements, to endeavours to promote the intellectual and moral welfare of those entrusted to her guidance. References kindly permitted to the Rev. J. H. Evans, Hampstead; and Rev. J. Hamilton, 7, Lansdowne-place, Brunswick-square. 21, Berners-street, March, 1847. AMES NISBET and CO. have just published: - JAM In foolscap 8vo., price 5s, cloth boards, PROPHETICAL LANDMARKS; containing data for helping to determine the Question of Christ's; Pre-millennial Advent. "O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things!"-Dan. xii. 8. "By the Rev. HORATIUS BONAR, Kelso. Also, A new Edition, being the Thirteenth Thousand, in 18mo., 2s. cloth boards, 2. The NIGHT of WEEPING; or, Words for the Suffering Family of God. By the Rev. HORATIUS BÖNAR, Kelso. Also, In one thick vol. 18mo., price 2s. cloth boards, 3. The CHURCH in the HOUSE, and other Tracts. By the Rev. JAMES HAMILTON, National Scotch Church, Regent-square. Also, by the same Author, The Thirtieth Thousand, in 18mo., price ls. 6d. cloth boards, In foolscap 8vo., price 5s. cloth, James Nisbet and Co., 21, Berners-street. 4. The MOUNT of OLIVES, and other Lectures 5. LIFE in EARNEST: Six Lectures on Christian Activity and Ardour. "Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord."-Rom. xii. 11. In post 8vo., cloth, with Illustrations, price 8s. 6d., EM OF TEAS. This Tea is consigned GEN to the Proprietor by a relative resident in China. For richness of flavour, exquisite taste, and great strength, it is unequalled, and far surpasses any other Tea in this country. 6s. per lb. [NVALID or DR. TURNER'S COCOA; prepared after the formula of the eminent Chemist whose name it bears. 2s. per lb. INVALI H OMOEOPATHIC COCOA, 1s. 6d. per lb. recommended by Dr. CURIE, President of the Homœopathic College. CHOCOLAT DE SANTE which requires no boiling, in Canisters of ls. and 2s, each. These Dietic preparations are manufactured by, place, Oxford-street. Printed by ALEXANDER MACINTOSH, of No. 20, Great New Stamped (to go post-free).... Four Shillings. month. PRESBYTERIAN TAMEN CONSUME BATUR MESSENGER. THE great thing in the Church is Christ, the eternal deity of Christ, the blood of Christ, the Spirit of Christ, the presence of Christ among us. The great thing is Christ, but there is also advantage in a certain government of the Church. I am a Presbyterian, not only of situation, but of conviction and choice. Our Presbyterian way is the good middle way between Episcopacy on the one side, and Congregationalism on the other. We combine the two great principles that must be maintained in the Church-Order and Liberty: the order of government, and the liberty of the people.-MERLE D'AUBIGNE. rethren. In the system of INDEPENDENCY he evil of Prelacy is shunned, but the pposite extreme is run into; and the rethren are not only all equal, but inde endent of one another. This principle, of the tendency to pass om one extreme to another, will account r most of the anomalies of Independency r Congregationalism, and will explain how England so many good and learned men ave been driven past the sound and scripiral position of Presbyterianism. How is it at in England alone of Protestant lands Inpendency has so remarkably flourished? It because the Church of England alone of the hurches of the Reformation has retained e Romish system of Prelacy. How is it at in England more than any other country hism and sectarianism has abounded? It because ecclesiastical tyranny has been here more stringent than in any other Church, calling itself Protestant. The rigour of the measures adopted to secure ecclesiastical order gave rise to the more strenuous efforts for attaining Christian liberty. But, in revolting from the one extreme of uni formity, many of the Puritans in Queen Elizabeth's time passed to the other extreme of Independency. At first they were called Brownists, from one Robert Brown, a preacher in the diocese of Norwich, who, according to Neale, was "a fiery hot-headed young man, who went about the country inveighing against the discipline and ceremonies of the Church, and exhorting the people by no means to comply with them." He was frequently put into prison, from which the intercession of some powerful relatives obtained his release; and he afterwards was forced to leave the kingdom, when he settled at Middleburg in Zealand, and with other exiles formed a Congregational Church according to his own model. "But when this handful of people were delivered from their oppressors the bishops, they crumbled into parties among themselves, insomuch that Brown, being weary of his office, returned into England, and having renounced his principles of separation, became rector of a Church in Northamptonshire, where he lived an idle and dissolute life, and at last died in Northampton jail." The system promulgated by Brown was afterwards adopted by abler and better men, who rejected many of his extravagant views. These principles, so far as they agree with the Independents of the present day, were the following: They apprehended, according to Scripture, that every Church ought to be confined with * Neale's " History of the Puritans," c. iv., vol. i., p. 205. in the limits of a single congregation, and that the Government should be democratical. When a Church was to be gathered, such as desired to be members made a confession of their faith, and signed an agreement to walk together in the order of the Gospel, according to certain rules therein contained. The whole power of admitting and excluding members, with the deciding of controversies, was in the brotherhood. Their ministers and Church officers were created by the vote of the brotherhood, who gave authority for preaching, and administering the sacraments among them, and the same power could discharge from the office thus given. One Church might not exercise jurisdiction or authority over another, but each might give the other counsel, advice, or admonition, if such seemed necessary. "In short, every Church or Society of Christians meeting in one place, was, according to the Brownists, a body corporate, having full power within itself to admit and exclude members, to choose and ordain officers; and when the good of the society required it, to depose them without being accountable to any jurisdiction whatsoever." Neale, vol. i., p. 207. This system of Church polity Presbyterians regard not only as oppposed to Scripture, but unsanctioned by the practices of the primitive Church, and contrary to all the analogies of nature. This latter point is thus put by Dr. Vaughan, the learned Principal of one of the Independent Colleges :-" It has been my feeling from the time when I became a Congregationalist to this day, that the weak side of Independency is its want of cohesiveness, the want of definite, cordial, and effective unity. Independency in the abstract is a most unnatural, unlovely thing. It has no place in the works of God. Throughout the physical universe there is not a thing existing | oversight and rule, while others also publicly | courts every case may obtain full and imparfrom itself, by itself, or for itself. Creation laboured in word and doctrine; in other tial consideration, and the mature judgment is a sublime development of the great law of words, there are teaching and ruling elders, relation and affinity. As it is in the physical, the office of the former being to preach the so is it in the moral; as it is in the na- Gospel and administer the sacraments; that tural, so is it in the revealed; as it is in of the latter, along with the pastor, to aid in the spiritual in the Gospel, so must it the government of the Church, the spiritual be in the institutional there. Independency superintendence of congregations, and other would be a monster in God's universe, if it duties of the eldership. The apostle Paul tended to isolation, rather than to relation, referring to this distinction in the eldership in affinity, unity." Such were the sentiments 1 Tim. v. 17, says, "Let the elders that rufe uttered before "the Congregational Union of well be counted worthy of double honour, England and Wales," a body formed under especially they who labour in the word and the felt evils of Independency, and with the doctrine." In the care of the poor, and in the view of obtaining something of that unity, temporal affairs of the Church, the elders are which, in a regular and scriptural way, Pres- assisted, as in apostolic times, by Deacons. byterianism affords. That Congregationalism was not the Constitution of the primitive Church is plain from the xvth chapter of the Acts and other parts of the New Testament. We know also, from early ecclesiastical history, that it was not the way for every Church to be self-dependent and self-governing, each looking on its own things and not on the things of others. Their common faith, their common interests, their common dangers, tended to keep them to the scriptural way of Presbyterianism. And when the time of falling away from primitive order did come, the tendency was not to isolation and independency, but to centralization and prelacy,-congregational episcopacy giving place to diocesan prelacy, and that finding its legitimate consummation in the Papal supremacy. These are all the office-bearers that we believe to be permanent in the Church of Christ, for we reject the doctrine of apostolical succession, that is, the existence in the Church of any successors of the inspired apostles and evangelists, and the other extraordinary officers who existed for special work, and with special miraculous gifts, at the first institution of the Church. Every a of the whole Church is obtained for any matters brought up for counsel and decision. We have our authority for this in the xvth chapter of the Acts. There we read that difficult question had arisen in the Church at Antioch, and no small dispute and discussion taking place, the elders did what every Presbyterian Church does now under similar circumstances, they resolved to refer the matter to a synod of apostles and elders which met at Jerusalem, when the question was not decided by apostolic authority, but after free and open deliberation, and the decision, which at last was come to, was sent down to Añtioch and other churches. Presbyterianism maintains aright the posi tion both of the office-bearers and members of the Church; preserves the scriptural distinction between the rulers and the ruled (Heb. xiii. 7); it gives protection to the people from undue domination, and at the same time protection to the pastor from undue popular controul; under it too the various congregations are knit together in mutual depend ence and sympathy, the strong helping and bearing the burden of the weak, the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, with one mind striving together for the faith of the Gospel. With regard to the official equality of our ministers, we hold what is called Presbyterian parity, none possessing superiority of rank or order over others, but all being equal as brethren, having one master, even Christ. "Jesus called them to him and said, 'Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and "Our Presbyterian way, (says Merle their great ones exercise authority upon D'Aubigné, the historian of the Reformathem. But so it shall not be among you. One tion), is the good middle way between EpiscoIn order to prevent further interruption in is your master, even Christ, and all ye are pacy on the one hand, and Congregationalism our historical narrative, it may be well here brethren."" Mark x. 42, 43; Matt. xxiii. 8. on the other; we combine the two great princito state some of the leading principles of the In so far as it is distinguished from the In-ples that must be maintained in the Church, Presbyterian polity, as distinctive from Epis- dependent system, Presbyterianism combines ORDER and LIBERTY, the order of governcopacy on the one hand, and Congrega- congregational and local liberty, with centralment, and the liberty of the people." tionalism on the other. Such are the go- government and unity of action. vernment of the Church by Presbyters or congregation is free and independent in its Elders; the official parity and mutual sub-local government and discipline, in the elecjection and superintendence of the ministers; tion of its officebearers, in devising and the successive and subordinate jurisdiction of executing its plans of Christian usefulness, Church Courts; the combination of local and and in the whole management of its affairs, congregational liberty with central govern- so long as its acts are not inconsistent with ment and unity of action. the general rules, and with the common weal of the Church. In all good government, civil or ecclesiastical, there is some central authority to confirm or to regulate local liberty. This superintendence is exercised by each Presbytery over the several congregations within its bounds. The people, that is to say, the members of each Church, manage their affairs in the only wise and practicable way among large bodies of men, by representative government, that is, through officebearers chosen by them, who form the Church session. In so far as we differ from Episcopacy, or rather Prelacy, we hold, from the word of God, the identity of Presbyters and Bishops, which were only different names for the same office. For instance, in Acts, ch. xx. 17—28, when Paul called the Elders (Presbyters) of the Ephesian Church, he charged them to take heed to the flock over which the Holy Ghost had made them overseers (Bishops). So also in the epistle to Titus, i. 5-7. "I left thee that thou shouldst ordain Presbyters... if any be blameless . . . for a bishop must be blameless." The Apostle Peter too, in his 1st Epistle, ch. v. 1, the Elders, or Presbyters, that are among you I exhort, who am also a Presbyter; feed the flock of God which are among you, taking the oversight thereof (in the Greck episcopizing, being bishops thereof),-not as lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. Of Presbyters or Elders there were two classes, some who only exercised spiritual AGAINST PERSECUTION.-It is true, for the most part, there is an interposition of corrupt the truth. With these are they tossed up affections seducing the minds of men from and down, and so driven with the winds of temptations that befal them. But is it humanity to stand on the shore, and seeing men in a storm at sea, wherein they are ready every moment to be cast away and shoot them to death, or to cast fire into their perish, to storm at them ourselves, or to vessel, because they are in danger of being drowned? Yet, no otherwise do we deal with them whom we persecute, because they miss the knowledge of the truth, and it may be, raise a worse storm in ourselves, as to our intellectuals (Jude 22, 23.)—Dr. Owen. own morals, than they suffer under in their BE YE ALSO READY.-Meanwhile, trim your lamps, be ready for the Lord is at hand. The preparation for his coming is not knowledge of the time, but character-holy charac A Presbytery is formed by the minister ter; we expect no stop to man's business; just and a representative elder from each of the as it was in the days of Noah, as in the days Churches within its bounds; while Synods or world-no removal of errors;-but "perilous of Lot: we expect no conversion of the Assemblies are composed of ministers and times," and evil men and seducers waxing elders of Churches in a larger district or pro-worse and worse: like a flash of lightning i vince. In cases of difficulty reference may be like a thief, as a snare; so shall he come upon. made, and in disputes appeal may be taken, a sleepy world. Now then, "little children, abide in him, that when he shall appear, we from a session to a presbytery, and from a may have confidence, and not be ashamed presbytery to a synod or assembly of the before him at his coming." "Even so, come Church. By this succession of Church Lord Jesus." |