their perfection in union, "the world may know” (not simply believe, but know) "that thou hast sent me, and" (by seeing them endowed towards each other and towards thee with the same divine THE CHURCH OF GOD: principle of holy oneness which exists between BY THE RIGHT REV. AUBREY G. SPEncer, D.D., thee and me, may have a proof that virtue has gone out from us both, that we are one in Godhead, and that it is not only I that have loved them, but) that "thou" (thyself) "hast" also "loved them as thou hast loved me." There is more too even than this in these petitions. The union or oneness of Christians in the one church was evidently intended to be a picture of the oneness of the Father and the Son; for see, again, the expressions in ver. 21: "As thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that they all may be one in us." When therefore schisms and divisions abound, as they do unhappily among us, we commit two great evils: we first rend in pieces the body of Christ, for the church is his body; and, secondly, we destroy the visible picture of the oneness of the eternal Trinity. May not these, our sad divisions, which have thus blotted out the picture of the holy Trinity, be one cause of that dreadful heresy called Socinianism or unitarianism? You see that we must carefully attend to the words and sentences of this wonderful prayer, if we wish to gather what thoughts were occupying the mighty mind of the Son of man as he offered it up. I pass over the 24th verse, as this is only the strong declaration of his exceeding love for his church. I only beg you to look, in conclusion, at the two last verses; for you will see that Jesus pleads with his Father for them, because they had known him, while the world had rejected him; as if to say, I have been pleading for their perpetual union, O grant it to them; for, while the world has rejected thee in me, they in receiving me have received thee. I commend them therefore to thee, O heavenly Father, in this my dying hour, pleading with thee by my own life of faith in thee, now just terminating, and by their obedience and faith in me thy own "elect" and holy "servant" Jesus, and entreating thee to grant (for this is evidently still in the Saviour's mind) that they all may be one, by means of that "love wherewith thou hast loved me," being for ever "in them, and I in thee." After considering this sublime prayer, I would wish the reader, if he has any doubts whether its meaning be such as I have explained, to read the whole through again, and to consider calmly and seriously, as if he had done it for the first time in his life, and at the same time most solemnly as in the presence of an heart-searching God, whether he that offered up this prayer did not desire that all his disciples, that is, all the members of his holy church, should be joined together in the closest bands in which it is possible for human beings to be united. I will then beg the reader to look at his own neighbourhood, wherever it be; and when he sees all kinds of sects each opposed to the other, and all opposed to the church, to consider whether this is the kind of unity which truly in his heart he can believe that Jesus Christ prayed to God the Father to grant him for his church. Lord Bishop of Newfoundland. (Preached in St. John's parish church, Newfoundland.) ACTS xx. 28. "Feed the church of God, which he purchased WHETHER I consider the particular circum- From the dim and dilapidated building in which I now address you, I look forward with confidence to a nobler structure, which shall be raised by your generous exertions to the service of God, and I trust to the inestimable advantage of yourselves and your posterity. While I look on the amount of the offerings already laid on the shrine of piety, and know the actual labour and privation to which some of you must submit in the fulfilment of your obligations, I cannot fail to acknowledge your furtherance of this good work, with the cordial satisfaction of pastoral feeling. I hail these liberal donations as an earnest of the sincere desire which divine grace has kindled in your hearts to propagate among yourselves, your children, and your dependants, the saving truths of the gospel, and to aid your ministers with all your power in the execution of the awful charge which they have received, to "feed the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood." These words constitute a most important part of the memorable address of the great gentile apostle to the Ephesian presbyters, whom he had summoned to Miletus previous to his departure for Jerusalem, whither he was induced by the constraining influence of the Spirit; unknowing indeed of the details of his fearful destiny, but upheld by an invisible arm for the encounter, and prepared, to use his own patient but triumphant expression, "not to be bound only, but to die also for the name of the Lord Jesus." Without further reference to the context, which embraces a variety of subjects, I shall endeavour to render that clause of the verse which I have adopted for my text as clear and practical to my present purpose as the limited time in which I may claim your attention shall permit, by considering, first, the nature and constitution of "the church" which "God," manifest in the flesh, "purchased with his blood;" and, secondly, the duty and ability of all the members, as well as the overseers of the church, to sustain and feed the holy society to which they belong, and in which it is the merciful intention of God that they should be saved. vided may be its component parts by time or locality, that Christ, having offered himself through the eternal Spirit a victim without spot or blemish, obtained the remission of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. It was to this church, at its primitive constitution, that St. Peter conAnd, first, I am to consider what is the verted by one sermon, delivered under a deevangelical definition and description of "the monstration of the Spirit and with power, church," in order that I may exhibit aright three thousand souls; and to which the Lord its true nature and constitution. The 19th subsequently added, and continues daily to article of our own branch of that church de- add, such as shall be saved. It is with this fines it thus-The visible church of Christ church that God's covenant is established, is a congregation of faithful men, in the which and through her ordinances that God's grace the pure word of God is preached and the is dispensed. Through ages of darkness she sacraments be duly administered, according has retained the lamp of truth: through the to Christ's ordinance, in all those things that fires of persecution she has passed immortal, of necessity are requisite to the same." And and brought down to the present generation this is the definition of a church built upon the words of eternal life. When I bid you "the foundation of the apostles and prophets, pray for Christ's holy catholic church, this Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner is the sacred "ark of the testament" for stone." You may trace the prediction of her which I invite your prayers. When you asfoundation in Zion in the prophecies of Isaiah sert your belief in " the holy catholic church," and his inspired brethren, until the confession you affirm the existence of a body of which of St. Peter was recognized by Christ him- "Christ is the head," and of which, if you self, as "the rock on which he would build be saved at all, you must be living and united a church against which the gates of hell members. If it be "the blood of Christ should never prevail." The holy and catho- alone which cleanseth from all sin," that lic character, which our liturgies ascribe to blood was the purchase-money of his church. her, is borne out by every figure under If it be by faith in that blood that sinners which she is introduced in the scriptures; must be justified, faith, which is the gift of and, though this character be compatible with God, is restricted to his church. If it be by occasional failure in her militant, and occa- the communication of God's Spirit that holisional error in her didactic state, it can never ness is to be obtained, that sanctifying inflube thoroughly lost, but the church must con-ence is the property of his church. If it be "by tinue, till the world shall come to an end, the word of God, which liveth and abideth the heritage of God," " the fold of Christ," for ever," that men are born again, not of "the ark of salvation," " the pillar and ground corruptible seed but incorruptible," with the of the truth." The branches of this church church are the oracles of God. "Let him may so err as to be cut off from the parent that hath an ear hear what the Spirit saith stem: the stem itself may be cankered; but unto the churches." the germ of perpetuity is in the root, and a remnant must survive. The candlestick may be removed from Jerusalem, Alexandria, Antioch, or Rome: the faith as well as the ceremonies of a particular church may be wrong, and "the light may go out in the temple where the ark of the Lord was ;" but, so long as there is any blessed company of faithful people, so long as God's word is in the earth, the promise of Christ will be realized; there will remain a visible society of baptized Christians, contemplating to enclose within its fold all nations: and there will be ministers apostolically ordained to teach them to observe all things whatsoever Christ hath commanded them; and with that society Christ himself will be present, present in his Spirit, present in his sacraments, present in his sustaining power, even unto the end of the world. It was for this visible church, however di Dissociation from this holy temple, with which Christ is identified, must, if there be any truth in revelation, be a most dangerous calamity: "without are dogs :" in the church are believers: in the world are infidels. "Lord, we believe; help thou our unbelief." "Lord, increase our faith;" not that it may endow us with the gift of working miracles, and of doing the signs and wonders which the disciples in their blindness coveted; but that it may obtain for us the victory which overcometh the world, and convince us that expatriation is less misfortune than excommunication, that "it is better to be a doorkeeper in the house of our God than to dwell in the tents of ungodliness." Brethren, what God hath joined together let no man put asunder. There is a mystical union betwixt Christ and his church, mercifully designed for the redemption of fallen man; and to this union we must be indebted for every means of grace and hope of glory. Is this to preach a religion of forms and ordinances, in disparagement of the spirit and life of the gospel? No: I tell you that the whole goodly fabric of an apostolic church will be profitless to you if you dissociate from the form the power of godliness. "Unless you be born again of water and of the Holy Ghost," and unless you sustain that regenerate character by a life of holiness, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven, ye shall not see God. The apostles could scarcely be called formalists and promoters of a lifeless dispensation, when they applied their illuminated minds to preserve unity, to rebuke schism, to put all things in decency and order, to propagate the form of sound words, to edify and build up the church, so that through it, "by Christ Jesus, there should be glory to God throughout all ages, world without end." "with one accord are in one place." The flame on her altars may occasionally be suppressed, but can never be extinguished. It may burn according to the indolence or activity of its human guardians, with a dimmer or a brighter lustre, but the period shall arrive when its splendour shall be perfected, and all people shall rejoice in its illumination. It was for this purpose of ineffable benevolence that Christ paid the awful price of his own immaculate blood for the purchase of his church, when " he loved it and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, and present it to himself," when he should revisit the earth, as "a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, but holy and without blemish.' Taking with us this comprehensive, and, I trust, not unprecise or indistinct view of the whole church of Christ, a few words will suffice for my present purpose to describe that pure and apostolic portion of it which claims our allegiance, and whose claims have lately been urged from this pulpit with much fidelity and eloquence. The church of England is a reformed and protestant branch of the catholic church of Christ, and possesses all the marks that can be required to avouch her authenticity. She is an integral part of that "blessed company of faithful people," who are subject unto "Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth are named." This society consists of an ordained ministry and baptized members; the one derived, in its trifold offices of bishops, priests, and deacons, direct from the apostles; the other day by day received into her communion by the rite which Christ has instituted, and appointed his commissioned servants to retain: "Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." I rejoice to be in the smallest degree accessory to the extension of this glory. While I know and confess the sinfulness of my own nature, the insufficiency of my own works, the weakness of my own prayers, the utter inutility of my own poor efforts to advance me one step of proximity towards God, I learn with admiration and gratitude of the adequacy of Christ's atonement, the infusion of his Spirit, and the imputation of his righteousness for the salvation of the believer. And I know, of these gracious properties, devised to me in common with a world of sinners in the blood of the New Testament, the church is the executrix and the legatee; I know that, before I can plead any title to the heritage, I must prove my communion with the society to whom it is conveyed. I speak not now of the national church with which we are associated, and which, whatever may be our conviction of its excellence, had no being as a distinct society at the period of the apostolic injunction. I speak (and I beg We live, my brethren, in critical times-in that I may be distinctly understood on this times in which, on the one hand, Satan seems point) of the holy catholic church, in her uni- to be mustering all his forces, and contriving versal character as the bride of Christ. I all his frauds, and recollecting all his wiles, speak of that spiritual Jerusalem of whom in order that he may direct them in concenmost excellent things are written, as the city trated energy against the church; while, on of God, and which, in this holy alliance, is the other hand, her children, awakened from "the mother of us all." Informed of the a long-continued lethargy, are alive to a sense essential truth that there is no other access to of peril, and are preparing themselves, though God than through the Son, I find no means with weapons of very different temper, for the of acquiring the passport of the Son but inevitable conflict. In such a contest it well through the church which he has espoused becomes us to beware that "the weapons of and ordained. Amidst the general darkness our warfare be not carnal." The natural that veils eternity from my view, even "a strength of the man may prevail over enemies darkness that may be felt," I have seen within of flesh and blood, and that but in a partial her sanctuary "a burning and a shining sense; whilst against the hostility of the prinlight." Like the pentecostal effusion of the cipalities and powers, the spiritual wickedSpirit, the cloven tongues of fire, the hallow-ness that is opposed to him, they will be ing graces of religion rest on them who utterly unavailing. Our great danger is from within. It is that the prince of darkness may enter the citadel as an angel of light. It is that he may sow dissensions among our defenders, and tamper with the instruments of our protection and safety. Alas! while our soldiers are marching around our ramparts, they forget that they are brethren, and they "fall out by the way." Thus it is that men deeply endued with the spirituality of religion, in their anxiety to escape from formalism, are led to renounce the very ordinances which God has instituted for the vehicles of his Spirit, and to undervalue the efficacy of sacraments which Christ hath commanded to be received. In their solicitude to preach nothing but Christ and him crucified, they forget that preaching would be itself but foolishness were it not for the accompanying grace which God has annexed to it, and that the church and her sacramental observances, "in the breaking of bread and in prayers," claim for their sufficiency the same unquestioned authority. Opposed to these low views of apostolical order and discipline, held by this portion of our Zion, has arisen another party, consisting of persons eminent alike for their learning and their piety, but who, in an overweening fear of a general secession from "God's way in the sanctuary," have sought to revive the habits of discipline by a return to obsolete usages, many of which have no foundation in scripture, and have too near an alliance with those corruptions of the gospel which the fathers and martyrs of the reformation shed their blood to repudiate and condemn. To the one of these parties catholicism and Romanism are synonymous terms; to the other the genius of protestantism is an evil spirit to be anathematized and cast out. And yet, my brethren, the plain truth beyond all controversy is, that our beloved church assumes to be in name and in spirit both catholic and protestant-catholic in her communion of faith with "the general assembly and church of the first-born which are written in heaven;" and protestant in her first and continued protest against those errors and delusions which the Roman ritual enjoins, which no antiquity can hallow, and from which we believe that an especial interference of Christ, in the vindication of his church, has made us free. While the love of many has waxed cold, so cold as to deny the Lord that bought them, and others, "swerving from the law of charity, have turned aside unto vain janglings," the church of England has "continued stedfast in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship," and retained in her scriptural liturgies, and illustrated in her decent ceremonies, the faith once delivered to the saints. In her walk through successive generations of a world deeply stained with pollutions, she may occasionally manifest the defects of her human constitution, for nothing temporal can be perfect, and she may, like Peter, require washing, "at least her feet." She may again have to pass through the furnace of persecution, but she will abide the trial, and come forth from the ordeal purified, aye, purified like the precious metal in the refiner's fire. However dense may be the smoke that would obscure her beauty, "the king's daughter is all glorious within, and her clothing" (her sacred ordinances), will stand the assay, for it is "of wrought gold." Accompanied by the churches which she has planted in the east and in the west, she shall approach, at the last day, the presence of her Lord: when the appointed time is come, and the bride shall have made herself ready, "she shall be brought unto the King in raiment of needlework: the virgins that be her fellows shall bear her company;" and with joy and gladness shall she enter on her home. And this is the church which, according to the third and concluding topic of my discourse, it is the duty and within the ability of all her members to sustain and feed. Undoubtedly this is a duty which devolves mainly and especially on the pastors and overseers of the flock of Christ. The ministration of the sacraments of grace, the preaching of "the word which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all those which are sanctified," belong exclusively to the ministers whom the Holy Ghost has ordained, and constitute an office which cannot be invaded without guilt. But that ministry must look to you, of the laity, in a large measure for encouragement, for maintenance, for support. Pledged as they are to lay aside the study of the world, and to omit its gainful occupations, that they may minister to you in all spiritual things, it is surely right that they should sometimes reap your worldly things, and not be left to a state of poverty which may paralyse their influence and utility. Whatever be the straitness of their pecuniary circumstances, they may resort to no secular employment to amend and better them. The bank and the counting-house, "the tables of the money-changers," are proscribed to them. They may watch the clouds of adversity looming darker and darker over their beloved homes: they may see the desire of their eyes and the joy of their hearts sinking under the pressure of calamity which no prudence could avert: they may see the olive branches round their tables withering in the sickly atmosphere of poverty and want; and yet the hand which has been solemnly and in perpetuity devoted to the plough of the gospel may not be stretched out in any worldly husbandry for their relief. No, though the sickness be at | In conclusion, I would revert to the necessity of erecting a new and more commodious parish church within this town, and of vesting it with the cathedral character which our ecclesiastical position seems now to require. From the day in which I first addressed you on this subject up to the present hour, I have had the satisfaction of knowing that many imaginary impediments to our undertaking have gradually been abandoned, and some real ones surmounted; and I believe that the work will now be carried on with a zeal and liberality proportioned to its acknowledged importance, and which will fully vindicate the Christian character of this community. Forgive me too if I confess my hope, that not only will the members of the religion of our forefathers and our common country evince their attachment to our cause by a generosity of which I have already sufficient earnest, but that many of the inhabitants of this parish, whose religious tenets differ in some respects from our own, will not be restrained by a contrariety of opinions in matters which, though important, they do not deem essential to salvation, from contributing, unasked, to the erection of a church designed to admit the greater part of the parishioners within its walls; in which all may occasionally "take sweet counsel together, and walk in the house of God as friends." I appeal then on these principles to all who now hear me, for such assistance as it may be in their power respectively to afford. I appeal to those who, whether strangers or parishioners, are solicitous to advance the kingdom of Christ and the extension of his church on earth. I invite them to rejoice in an opportunity of contributing to the building of a temple to be devoted to the pure and evangelical worship of their God and Saviour-a temple which I trust will in many a trying hour afford to its future congregations the lessons of divine wisdom and the consolations of the gospel of truth-a temple in which the rich will be admonished, the poor comforted, the afflicted supported, and the spiritual life of all will be sustained by the unadulterated doctrine and prevailing prayers of that true and apostolic church, which has now taken root in this land, and which may well be described as a vine which "the Lord's right hand hath planted, and the branch which he hath made so strong for his own self." My brethren, I have done; and may God, in the fulness of his mercy, grant that, when you and I and every contributor to this work of piety shall long have mouldered in the grave, your children and your children's children may have cause to bless the memory of their ancestors, and may never want within the walls which we shall rear to God the labours of a faithful ministry, to "feed the church of Christ, which," on the awful occasion that we now commemorate, "he purchased with his own blood." VISIT TO THE TOMB OF HOWARD, AT KHERSON, ON THE DNIEPER, RUSSIA*. Ar the distance of five versts to the north of Kherson, stands the original monument of the prince of Christian philanthropists-the great, the illustrious Howard, who, after travelling 50,000 British miles to investigate and relieve the sufferings of humanity, fell a victim, near this place, to his unremitting exertions in this benevolent cause. leading from Nikolaief to Kherson, near the southIt is situated a little to the east of the public road ern bank of a small stream which here diffuses a partial verdure across the steppe. On the opposite bank are a few straggling and ruinous huts, and close by is a large garden, sheltered by fine lofty trees, which have been planted to beautify the villa once connected with it, but now no more. of vegetation, and is only distinguishable from The spot itself is sandy, with a scanty sprinkling the rest of the steppe by two brick pyramids, and a few graves, in which the neighbouring peasants have interred their dead-attracted, no doubt, by the report of the singular worth of the foreign friend whose ashes are here deposited till the resurrection of the just. As we approached the graves, a hallowed feeling of no ordinary descripthe conviction that the scene before us was intion grew upon our minds, and forced upon us deed privileged beyond the common walks of life. One of the pyramids is erected over the dust of our countryman, and the other has subsequently been raised over the grave of a French gentleman who revered his memory, and wished to be buried by his side. As we had no person with |