Romanism, Pelagianism." We entirely agree with him that the view of "actual regeneration" in Baptism, supposing the terms to be carefully limited and explained, may be held by devout and honest enquirers; but if the Professor can discover all these results of this particular doctrine, we can only say that he is far longer-sighted than most of his brethren. Will he be angry with us if, without designing any personal application, we venture to remind him of the proverbial saying, that "the longsighted people are not always the clear-sighted people?" If the Lords of the Privy Council should reverse the decision of Sir H. J. Fust, we hope the author will, in common justice, put forth a second pamphlet with similar advice to non-Evangelical divines.

Sermon on the Death of Her Majesty Queen Adelaide, &c. By C. Wordsworth, D.D. Rivington.-We are happy to bear our favourable testimony to a good sermon on a good subject. Dr. Wordsworth's object is to do honour to the Dowager Sovereign to whom the country is largely indebted; and he does it by referring to her simple piety, her deep humility, and her enlarged benevolence. But in the course of his sermon he discharges the still more important duty of rendering homage to that great principle of "faith" to which he believes that, under God, all her excellence is to be traced. We think that the author took his right place as a theologian, when he assumed to himself, at the Cathedral of which he is a Canon, and in the University pulpit, the office of an expounder of the crimes and follies of Popery; and we devoutly wish him a more and more entire escape from the slightest approximation to the errors of the system of which he is so stout an antagonist.

VIEW OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS.

THERE are certain periods in the history of nations in which a calm is scarcely less awful and portentous than the raging of the storm. A state of rest may result from the predominance of good over evil principles, or of good over evil men; in which case it is full of promise and hope. But, in other cases, there is no such evidence of the presence of great principles, or of the influence of good men; and, then, perhaps we are compelled to look suspiciously at the calm, and to fear that it is perhaps the precursor of a tempest. In coming, at the end of this month, to the contemplation of the events which have occurred in it, we come almost to a rasa charta, a sheet of blank paper. The wheel of life, which was, a little while since, running so rapidly, has come to a stand. Kings seem to sit at rest in their palaces, and Presidents in their chairs of honour; and the history of the preceding month would almost serve to describe the circumstances of this. But all this is not the calm of hope and promise. And it is not so, for this reason: that we do not perceive in any of the neighbouring nations the growth of any of those great truths, whether in politics or morals, which give stability to governments, and real prosperity to the people. In Russia, tranquillity is secured by a tyranny almost as stern as that which disgraced the worst tyrannies of antiquity. In Prussia, the king

finds no reason to trust his people with anything more than a shadow of the freedom for which they so loudly clamor. In Italy, the revolutionary passions are rather smothered than extinguished, and the Pope is still at Portici. Austria seems to have learned scarcely any lesson of political wisdom from her recent trials. France is tranquil only from necessity. Calling herself a Republic of freemen, she is living under a system of the most outrageous despotism. Within a few days, while she is loud in her protestations against the severity with which Austria has condemned to death, after trial, a few of the ringleaders in the late rebellion, she herself is about to despatch upwards of 450 of her people, altogether without trial, and many of them upon the slightest suspicion of guilt, to seek their bread, and probably to lose their lives, at the foot of a mountain in North Africa. In the mean time, in no one of these countries do we perceive the growth or predominance of a single principle which gives any security of continued peace either to those nations themselves, or to the countries around them. It was the saying of one of the ancients, that in every really great prince there must be two things, "vis et virtus ;" and of another, that no nation could be safe unless the ruler were a philosopher." Where are the "vis" and the "virtus," and where the "philosophy "-taking the word in the highest sense of the term, as the "love of heavenly wisdom"-to be found? In Russia, France, Austria, there seems to be scarcely an approximation to these qualities. And even in Prussia, the monarch, by doing equal honour to all modes of Christian faith, whether false or true-by worshipping with as much zeal in the Cathedral of Cologne as in the Church of Berlin-has done much to weaken the power of those truths which alone could give stability to that form of free government which he professes an anxiety to establish. He has a more formidable enemy in the Neology of his subjects, than in the bands of raggamuffins who fired and pillaged the houses of his capital. In all these countries, we believe that a pure faith, and, to this end, a wide circulation of the Holy Scriptures and a resolute support of a Scriptural religion, is the only balm by which their wounds can be staunched. When will the monarch and people be led, in despair of other remedies, to ask the question, "Is there no balm in Gilead, is there no physician there?"

Our own country has been as politically tranquil, to say the least, during the month, as the rest of Europe. And her tranquillity, as we believe, has a far sounder foundation. Not only is the relation of the governors and the governed better understood; not only are their reciprocal duties and obligations more generally recognized; not only have we no new theories of government to conceive, or new fabrics to erect; but we have, as we believe, many of those great truths and passions at work which are the life's-blood of national prosperity. And the fruits of this are abundant on every side. Institutions are springing up around us, some under the wing of Government, some under that of private benevolence, which have for their object the health, the instruction, the moral reform, the Christian instruction of the lower and the middle orders of the community.

This state of tranquil and wholesome activity, however, may easily be disturbed. The Radicals and the ultra-Protectionists are threatening an united attack upon the present Ministry. "Desinat in piscem mulier formosa superne.' What a strange compound! How can a weapon constructed of such incongruous materials endure the shock of parliamentary warfare? We are also threatened with movements, in and out of Parliament, on the subject of Baptismal Regeneration, of National Education, and especially of the "Convocation." We are persuaded that the combatants, in such a strife, will take nothing by their insurrectionary movements; and that "Church Unions" will prove, however little intended by the leaders or the members of them, the pregnant source of Church disunion, weakness, and injury. Why not rather seek for points of union, within the Church, and within the rules of its discipline, with men who, though different from themselves in some subordinate points, desire earnestly to serve a common Saviour, and to uphold that Church which is the true exponent of the will of God in this privileged land.

It is our wish, in every Number of this work, to place before our readers

some of those Institutions or Societies which need and deserve the general support.-In our January Number, we had the satisfaction of introducing to our readers the plan, originating with Mr. Sidney Herbert, for securing the means of safe emigration to such young females as, by their good character, and their great necessities, have a double claim on the public benevolence ;— and we are sorry to see that the sums at present contributed are far from meeting the hopes of the enterprizing patron of the plan. On the present occasion, we wish to call the attention of our readers to a Hospital, in connexion with King's College, London, which, if not precisely new, is yet of comparatively recent birth, and which is making so large an effort for its own extension and increased capabilities, as almost to claim a place among the new creations of the day. It is a singular fact, that out of the ten principal Hospitals in the metropolis, seven existed a hundred years ago—and that this will be only the third added within the century. Nor is it less remarkable that there should be fewer public beds made up for the sick in London than in almost any capital of Europe. We do not know, however, that even these circumstances would have led to our notice of this Hospital, but for a reason which brings it more especially within our province-that it has for one of its principal objects the remedy of a moral evil of the most serious character. The tendency is well known of the study of anatomy and medicine, to dispose the persons employed in it, to deal with the human body as a mere machine, and to forget the immortal spirit with which it is so intimately associated. Hence the materialism which has too often prevailed in the medical profession; and hence the mischievous result, that those to whom almost as large opportunities are given of close and intimate communication with the sick, as even to the ministers of religion, are among the last persons with whom such communications are likely to be profitable. The healer of the body may easily be the destroyer of the soul. The true remedy for this is, the religious instruction of the medical student. He is to be taught that, for a Christian man to undertake the medical or the surgeon's art, is to undertake the great ministry of Christian benevolence; that, in dealing with the body of the poorest individual, he has to do with that which shall be re-united to the spirit in the day of the Resurrection-and that he ought, therefore, to handle reverently that body which he is also to handle courageously and skilfully. The object of King's College Hospital, is especially to mould the mind of the medical student to this particular character; to give him lessons in theology and morals, as well as in medicine-to make him familiar with the Bible as well as with books of human science-to take care, by lectures, examinations, and counsel, that he shall not, in the devotion of his mind to second causes, forget the one great Cause whose presence and blessing are the true source of power and success in the application of human wisdom and skill.

The case of "Gorham v. the Bishop of Exeter," naturally continues to occupy a large share of public attention. And we wish to say a few words, both as to the nature of our own observations upon it in the last Number of this work, and as to the present state of the question. It is with regret, we find ourselves charged, in some quarters, with too unfavourable a judgment upon the speeches of Mr. Turner, and a too favourable report upon that of Mr. Badeley. As to the former, we meant to say nothing which could derogate from his character of a learned and able advocate; but we still think that he was likely to weaken his case in the mind of his judges, by taking his stand too exclusively upon the authority of the Articles; when, in our judgment, the main point to be established (for no one in his senses could question the meaning and bearing of the Articles) was that which Mr. Goode, in his admirable work on Baptism, has unanswerably established, viz. the unequivocal opposition of the other Formularies to the sentiments of the Bishop of Exeter. In like manner, when we spoke of the "efficiency" of Mr. Badeley's address, our words were not in the smallest degree designed to imply the validity or justice of the reasonings. Perhaps we would have written more accurately, if we had substituted the word "plausible" for "efficient." And some parts of his speech could scarcely lay claim even to this modicum of praise. His needless, though very honest and veracious identification of the doctrines of Regenera

tion, as held by his Right. Rev. client and the Church of Rome, comes under this category; and it was scarcely possible that his address should not forfeit a large measure of its influence, by his most offensive reference to the private opinion of the Most Rev. assessors who were summoned to the help of the Privy Council. A greater indiscretion as an advocate it was, we think, scarcely possible to commit.-But we turn from these minor points to the question itself. And here, it would be mere hypocrisy to pretend to any doubt upon the fact which is now in every one's mouth, that the decision of the Privy Council will, within a few days, even if it does not anticipate the printing of these observations, be announced, setting aside the judgment of the Arches Court, and proclaiming the sentiments of Mr. Gorham upon Baptisin, to be such as ought not to exclude him from the ministry of the National Church. If so, how solemn are the duties and responsibilities which such an event casts especially upon those whose opinions and desires may be said to have been permitted to triumph in this anxious controversy. In the first place, how large is their debt of thankfulness to the Father of mercies, who, by suffering this to be left as an open question, has scattered their anxieties as a morning cloud, and has removed all temptation to abandon the dear and honoured Church of their fathers. Then, how imperative is the duty of enlarged and Christian benevolence and brotherly kindness towards those who will now hear, for the first time, a public sentence announced which condemns those exclusive views on the subject of Baptism which they have cherished among the earliest and deepest prejudices and passions of their minds. Then, again, how strong is the obligation to watch over our own spirit, lest, on the one hand, we allow anything of presumption, of indifference to ordinances, of disrespect to ecclesiastical authority, to graft themselves upon our success; or, on the other, lest we waste an opportunity of such infinite importance to the interests of Evangelical religion. A new evidence is supplied to us of the value of a simple adherence to the letter and spirit of Scripture. Let us cleave to these testimonies as, next to God himself, the very sheet-anchor of our hopes in every storm. A new proof is given us of the value of our Church Articles as a test of truth, and of our Formularies as a rule of worship. Let us study them more and more, and endeavour to shape our theology and our devotions more faithfully according to their language and spirit. A more palpable example has been forced upon us of the anxiety of one high in authority to exercise the most iron-handed tyranny over those who simply and faithfully adhere to the faith of their forefathers. Let us carefullydistinguish between the office and the man. Let us render due homage to the office by honestly, not in words only, but in deed, bowing down to it, as long as it is exercised in conformity to the laws of the Church and of the land. And, for the individual invested with this high office, and who is now, from his age, about soon to render in his account at the bar of God, let us offer the most devout and compassionate prayers, that he may have more respect for the rights of Englishmen, for the principles of law, for the doctrines of the Reformation, for the spirit and language of the Articles and Formularies of his Church, for the feelings and interests of those submitted to his control; that he may covet less to "have dominion over their faith," than to be helpers of their joy;" that he may live less in the law courts and more in the secret chamber of prayer and holiness; that he may rejoice to exchange the sceptre for the shepherd's crook, and may become, under the power of the Holy Spirit, the father of those of whom, it is not too much to say, he has hitherto been the stern and relentless persecutor.

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ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

It is difficult not to feel the same apprehensions with those of M. A. Cantabr.; but the person concerned loudly and publicly disclaims the imputation. The passage to which A. R. refers, is very objectionable; but we are persuaded that the fault is rather in negligence of expression, than in looseness of opinion. Clericus O. T.-W. H. M.-T. Ă. A.-T. R. J.-C. H. B.-H. W.-E. B.— J. B. M.-T. D., have been received.

[The Editor desires to be considered as not responsible, except for the general tone and character of the Papers in the "Miscellaneous" department of this Work.]

ON THE CHRISTIAN HOPE OF HEAVEN.

For the Christian Observer.

IN the last Number of the CHRISTIAN OBSERVER, some observations were admitted, on the manner in which Divine Revelation has dealt with that important part of its system, "the hope of Heaven." The object of those observations was to shew that the Christian prospect of futurity is purposely veiled to such an extent as to be attractive only to the Christian mind. It may be affirmed generally, that, while Scripture presents the future happiness and glory of the believer only in their essential qualities, it conceals such parts of this happiness and glory as are merely circumstantial; and that, in so doing, it rescues the "hope of Heaven" from that almost mercenary character which attaches to any ordinary expectation of reward, and transforms it into an exercise of the noblest aspirations and aims.

Yet the thought may occur that, if something is gained by this partial discovery, something also is lost. The same reserve which has abstained from offering any encouragement to the self-flattering dreams of imaginative but unconverted minds, and has aimed only to awaken the solemn anticipations of the true heirs of heaven, may be thought to have deprived the believer of many auxiliary stimulants and secondary enjoyments, which would have been delightful in themselves, and which the weakness of his faith and hope may sometimes appear to require. A man who really loves the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, and habitually looks to the enjoyment of His presence and love as the essence of eternal happiness, may still, at times, find within himself the likeness of such reasonings as these: "Might it not have added strength to my faith, and vividness to my expectation, and have altogether proved a blessing to my soul, if something more of the great prospect had been unveiled, and something CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 147. U