instead of a useless incumbrance, to be one of the links in the chain of society, mutually imparting and receiving strength, security, and advantage.

Henbury, Gloucestershire,
December, 1816.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer.

I AM very sorry to see, by a paper in your valuable miscellany for November last, that a country. woman of mine has been cast by Providence into an embarrassing situation. After having, in the bosom of the Church of England, received the truth in the love of it," and for two years offered the sacrifices of joy in her tabernacles, she has been recalled to her native place, where the preaching of the Episcopal clergyman affords no nourishment to her soul; while she can derive no benefit from the lifeless forms of Presbyterian worship, although the clergyman, like the son of consolation, is "a good man. She requests advice and direction. I shall receive peculiar delight if I shall be made instrumental in comforting the heart of a country woman. My qualifications for the office I have assumed arise simply from baving been placed in a great degree in similar circumstances with herself. I too,

I

Mr. Editor," under the teaching. of an English clergyman, in an English church, and in the use of the Church of England's prayers,' obtained, I humbly hope, the same benefit of which she speaks; and, after two happy years, was called to remove to my native land. left the admirable Liturgy of your church, and one of the most useful and admired preachers of the day, to fill a place in one of the Scotch churches, and to join in what my fair country woman has called its "dull and uninteresting mode of worship." So far our circumstances almost completely agree. With your permission, Mr. Editor, I shall proceed to state my further progress.

When I first attended public worship in Scotland, upon my return from England, I felt there was a considerable difference in the modes of worship of the respective churches. I believe, however, I was sincerely desirous of spiritual improvement, and therefore humbly resolved to make the best use in my power of the public means of grace with which I was favoured. Accordingly, I was solicitous to be properly prepared for the duties of the house of God. I prayed to God in private for his blessing, and continued with humble hope to wait upon him in the ordinances which I believed were of his appointment. I waited not in vain; and let your fair correspondent listen to the word of a Christian brother, when I assure her that, in a very short time, I derived fully as much satisfaction and enjoyment by engaging in the simple forms of Presbyterian worship, as I once received from the more imposing service of the Church of England. And yet from engaging in the latter I have received a happiness which I would not exchange for all this world has to give. But, blessed be God, through the Church of Scotland there also run streams of living water. Blessed be his Name, that I have drunk of them and been satisfied; and that when I look round on those with whom I take sweet counsel, and walk into the house of God in company, I see many who derive still greater delight from the ordinances of public worship; whose language is," How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! Our souls long, yea, even faint for the courts of the Lord." This is no fanciful or highlycoloured picture. It is drawn with the pencil of truth. And why may not my country woman partake of these joys. I know of no reason to prevent her. The fountain is opened, and she has only to "taste and see that the Lord is good." With every feeling of respect, and desire for her spiritual good, I

gion! How useful, how affecting to join in the exercises of religious worship, with those who are bound to us by the dearest of earthly ties, as well as those which arise from being members of the body of Christ. But the forms used in family religious exercises are in general simple in the extreme. Among members of the Church of England, they are, as far as I have seen, almost exactly the same as with us. But is there any blank made by this absence of forms? Surely not; for if there were, their assistance would be immediately called in. In family worship, therefore, as well as in private devotionin both of which exercises the vital Christian leaves the things of earth and enjoys the sweetest and most exalted intercourse with his Maker, and in many cases indulges in his feelings of love and joy to an extent which might not be proper in public worship-any forms besides those of the most simple character are thought unnecessary if not prejudicial. Can your correspondent, therefore, inform me, why devotion, which in private flourishes and grows exceedingly without a clothing of forms, should pine away in public if it is not warmed with them; especially when she considers, that in order to make public worship peculiarly animating and interesting to us, we enjoy the privileges of joining with a multitude of our fellow creatures in the same work of prayer and praise, of hearing together the same word of life preached, of having our hearts expanded and comforted by the sight of so many children of our King travelling with us on the way to GOD;"-while we are assured,moreover, of the peculiar presence of God; believing that He "loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.".

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to my poor countrywoman. Our forms of worship are indeed simple as these lines I have quoted; but their simplicity, we think, forms their beauty and excellency. By laying aside all unnecessary form, we think we reach sooner the spirit of devotion.

But, supposing your correspondent to be now sensible of the impropriety of applying to our simple forms of worship, the terms dull and uninteresting, she may continue to say that the prayers of the English liturgy are incomparably finer than the generality of extemporaneous effusions. I am ready to admit this assertion to a certain extent. But do they speak more the language of the heart? Do they accommodate themselves better to the continually varying circumstances of society in general, and of each individual congregation, and member of that congregation, in particular? Are they more calculated to keep alive the devotional feeling, than the warm yet humble supplications uttered by the " good man," who is loved as the pastor and friend of his flock; and who in his closet and family has been pouring out his soul to God for a blessing on his ministrations? In reply to these questions, I shall only say, I have not found them so. The devotions of the man of God in his closet are not conspicuous for the characters of sublimity of thought, elegance of expression, or beauty and melodiousness of sentences and periods;-yet if in the pulpit, he can embody the feelings of his heart, burning with similar devotional ardour, in appropriate and scriptural language-and I never knew the clergyman of the Church of Scotland who failed in this particular I shall hold, so long as it is admitted that 66 as in water face answereth to face, so does the heart of man to man," that no forms whatever will bring a people nearer to their God, or be found more reviving and edifying to the flock of Christ.

As your correspondent confesses, her devotion must have been of a low order indeed while in communion with the Independents; seeing she denominates the act of joining in extemporary prayer, "listening in mere passive acquiescence to prayers repeated." I

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sure many members of the Church of England, as they read this sentence, would remember with gratitude the sacred joys of domestic and social religion, and thank God this had not been the character of the prayers they had offered up in these circumstances. Let me inform your correspondent, that the distinction she makes is more ideal than real; for when extemporary prayer is offered up with propriety, there is ample time afforded for the heart of every dividual to lay hold on each petition, and present it with due ardour to the Throne of Grace,

any

in

Before I conclude, let me beg of your readers, who may have it in view to visit this "land of mountains and floods," not to be terrified from their excursion by the fear of being deprived of their spiritual food, while feasting them selves with the beauties of nature. I have myself led some of your number this season to the banquet. They have all testified that it was sweet to their taste. Come, then, and see the goodness of God to your brethren on this northern shore. The sight will gladden your heart and refresh your souls; and when you return to the communion of your own church, to the enjoyment of the distinguished privileges you are blessed with within her ample domain, it will afford pleasure to your benevolent minds, that that country whose natural beauties have afforded you so much delight, is nourishing on her breast many sons and daughters who will shine, with yourselves, in the unfading beauties of an everduring eternity.

Dec. 24, 1816.

A SCOTCHMAN.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer.

I WAS much struck with the remarks of" A Scotchwoman" in your Number for November, p. 712, being myself a Scotch Episcopalian, and under difficulties which I have been led to consider in a more serious light, from a probability of my being charged with the education of some young members of the Church of England. I was educated in Presbyterian principles; and had I been taught any catechism I have seen, except that of the Westminster Assembly, I should in all probability have continued a member of that Church in whose communion my forefathers lived and died. There has been much discussion on the subject of Calvinism in your valuable miscellany, but I do not recollect that you or your corres pondents have fully considered the danger of presenting to the young and ignorant an inverted view of Divine truth. Granting to the Calvinist all he can ask, that personal predestination is clearly revealed in the New Testament, he will not say that it is among the first" principles of the doctrine of Christ.' Is it not rather, even in his view of the subject, the top stone of the sacred edifice, which should not be laid till the walls have been raised and consolidated on the basis of elementary truth?

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In a season of deep affliction, I became acquainted with the life and letters of Mr. Fletcher of Madely, and Mrs. More's writings. From these I learned, for the first time, that Christianity and Calvinism, although they might be consistent, were not inseparable the pleasure I felt in this discovery was followed by an aversion from the Church which had identified them by its authoritative decisions, and under whose tuition I seemed to have lost the most precious years of my life. I became a member of our Episcopal congre gation, and fully agree with A Scotchwoman," as to the tendency

of the English Liturgy. Did I then, in leaving a Calvinistic Church, become what is called an Arminian? No, Mr. Editor: I saw, and still see, nearly equal difficulties in deciding this question either way; and can listen, with equal pleasure and advantage, to the sober practical Calvinist and the devout Arminian. If our hearts were right with God, nothing which bears the stamp of his authority could, as we say in Scotland, come amiss to us. We should be satisfied with the degree of knowledge which he has been pleased to afford us, and repress every wish to anticipate those clearer discoveries which his wisdom has reserved for a higher stage of our existence. "Ce secret est celui de mon Pere: je ne dois l'apprendre que de lui." But is this state of mind natural to us; or do the generality of Christians attain to it suddenly or perfectly? The answer to such questions seems obviously to suggest the impropriety of introducing into a catechism doctrines which cannot be considered with safety or advantage, till the heart is subdued and established by Divine grace. Is it not dangerous, then, to give the whole Bible into the hands of the young and uninformed? The conclusion does not appear to follow. In the Bible, the truths of religion are presented to the mind with that degree of order or want of connexion, that clearness or obscurity, which Infinite Wisdom saw fit. Man is not responsible for the consequences of the Divine arrangements, nor entitled to withhold from his fellow men any part of the word of God from a short-sighted fear of consequences. But when he sets his ingenuity to work in framing systems, the case is altered or rather reversed.

I have long considered the Church of England as having attained that bappy medium, in point of doctrine, which seems likeliest, in God's good time, to "reconcile all opinions," as well as to "unite all

hearts." But it appears doubtful whether the existence of an episcopal church in Scotland does not tend to retard rather than to hasten that most desirable event. Our Episcopalians, holding it unlawful to dissent from a rightly constituted church, maintain the invalidity of Presbyterian ordinations.-It is painful to advert to the feeling of hostility which this must tend to keep alive in our Presbyterian brethren; and no less painful, to see this question disposed of by controversial theorists, without adverting to the plain fact—that, in dispensing his gifts and graces, God is no respecter of churches, any more than of persons. I trust, Mr. Editor, that many of your readers will rejoice to see all parties, by common consent, demolish their little enclosures, and employ the materials in strengthening the stakes of the Lord's vineyard. The time will surely come: and come when, it may, your publication will have done much to hasten it, if I may judge from its effects upon my own mind.

Your limits admonish me to conclude by offering to your consideration, or that of your correspondents, the question for the sake of which I have troubled you with this communication: Does a member of the Church of England act most suitably to the spirit of charity and catholic union, by conforming, in Scotland, to the Established Church of Scotland, or by adhering to the communion of his own church wherever he goes? Or to put the question in another form, Might not a churchman of a peculiar cast of mind, or placed in peculiar circumstances, avail himself of the festivals, and other opportunities of communion which Episcopal chapels afford him, and at the same time, communicate with his Presbyterian brethren, as an expression of charity, and an anticipation of that happy period when all who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity shall meet a