legal, and are such as have been despatched by the highest tribunal for their settlement in this country.' If so, they are despatched by the tribunal in one way, and by his Grace in another.

"It would be entirely unbecoming in me as a member of the Court to presume to criticise the terms of a Judgment concurred in by the able and distinguished persons who assented to it; but on a question so momentous, involving as it does such grave issues to the Church of England, I must claim to myself the privilege of giving expression to opinions formed prior to the delivery of the Judgment, and wholly irrespective of the terms in which it is couched."

These opinions are worthy of the first Protestant minister, may we not say, of Christendom. They re-assert all that the Essayists had denied, all upon which the Lord Chancellor had doubted; and they encourage the clergy of the Church of England "steadfastly to adhere to those interpretations of the language of our Church which have been commonly accepted as agreeable to Holy Scripture and to the doctrine of the Catholic Church." But, no doubt, the pastoral letter will be eagerly read, and we cannot now enlarge. We would invite our readers to thank God and take courage. The insidious assault of the seven Essayists may even now turn out to the furtherance of the Gospel and the establishment of the faith of many.

The Danish war has not assumed larger dimensions, but it becomes more bitter. The Danes feel it in all its horrors, and the Germans in some of its disgraces. Over an enemy contemptible in numbers their victories are few, and gained at a terrible expense. We still hope that we may not be made reluctant parties to it before the war is over; at present, we are acting the part of the good Samaritan, and sending large contributions to relieve the suffering Danes. It becomes us well to do so, and we record the fact to the honour of our country.

In America, the civil strife continues. The hatred of each party to the other deepens; and though the resources of the North seem to be almost exhausted, yet as a border warfare, carried on by predatory bands, committing on each side acts of dark and sullen ferocity, it may last for years. The Federals will not fight their own battles ; and the Romish clergy in Ireland, startled by the discovery that they are losing every week hundreds of the most subservient of their flocks, are at length clamorously warning the people against sharing the crimes and perils of mercenaries in a contest in which they have no right to interfere. Selfishness compels them to discharge a duty which neither humanity nor loyalty to the Crown could move them to undertake. As for German mercenaries, they now find employment nearer home, and in a warfare scarcely less nefarious. Thus it is difficult to conceive how the American civil war can last otherwise than as a national crusade of banded ruffianism. A few regiments of negroes have been raised; but they do not seem remarkably fond of fighting; and if the Confederates should arm their slaves, the opposing armies of black men would be much more likely to shake hands upon the field of battle than to shed each other's blood. Thus, in England, the American civil war has almost lost its interest. We think we see the end in the disruption of the States into at least two independent republics. Perhaps we should not say republics, but governments, independent of each other; for the Federals at least seem ripening fast for a military despotism; and we believe that a majority of the higher classes would gratefully accept even this, or any strong form of

government, as a deliverance from that fierce democracy under which they are now insulted and oppressed.

One bright spot relieves the dismal scene. Slavery under its present form is giving way, and must soon expire. The Federals will have brought about this glorious achievement, though in a way which reflects no honour on themselves. As to slavery itself, with the exception of one virtuous party, the Federals have never been averse to it. And now, as Mr. Lincoln avows, it has been a military necessity, and no love or pity for the negro, that has led him to emancipate the slaves of the rebellious masters. Indeed, as we have all along felt ourselves obliged to maintain, the North have been quite as guilty as the South. If we have been wrong, at least we have gone astray under a very competent teacher, Mrs. Beecher Stowe. Let us recal her confessions. In the last chapter of "Uncle Tom," not the least eloquent portion of that remarkable book, she winds up thus :—

"Do you say that the people of the Free States have nothing to do with it, and can do nothing? Would to God this were true! But it is not true. The people of the Free States have defended, encouraged, and participated; and are more guilty for it, before God, than the South, in that they have not the apology of education or custom.

"If the mothers of the Free States had all felt as they should in times past, the sons of the Free States would not have been the holders and proverbially the hardest masters of slaves; the sons of the Free States would not have connived at the extension of slavery in our national body; the sons of the Free States would not, as they do, trade in the souls and bodies of men as an equivalent to money in their mercantile dealings. There are multitudes of slaves temporarily owned, and sold again, by merchants in Northern cities; and shall the whole guilt and obloquy of slavery fall only on the South?

"Northern men, Northern mothers, Northern Christians have something more to do than denounce their brethren at the South; they have to look to the evil amongst themselves."

men.

One million of slaves, it is computed, are now, in name at least, free But they meet with little sympathy in the Northern States, and less aid; they sicken and die uncared for, except by the small band of philanthropists who have always dared to advocate their claims. An association has been formed in this country, chiefly through the zeal of the Society of Friends, to relieve their immediate necessities. It would be strange, indeed, if the Christian Observer, after fighting the battle of the slave for sixty years, should be indifferent now, when final victory seems to be so near at hand.* Whatever may be the views of our readers as to the unholy civil war, or the degree of blame attaching to the respective parties, we cannot but hope that they will contribute liberally to the support of the emancipated negroes, until they can meet with employment. This is all we ask; but to accomplish even this, a very liberal subscription will be required.

THOUGHTS ON PREACHING REPENTANCE.

It is said of Richard Baxter, "when he spoke of weighty soul concerns, you might find his very spirit drenched therein." If the ministrations of others mightier than he, from Enoch, the seventh from Adam, to St. John, the last of the Apostles, were described, we should be at no loss to discover that this intense sincerity was an invariable element of their strength. There are different ways of doing successfully the same thing. Preachers vary; each has his proper gift of God, one after this manner, another after that. Natural gifts and educational acquirements, the tone and complexion of spiritual life, the atmosphere they live in, religious and social, qualify their preaching. But the Holy Ghost never separated any man unto Himself for this work, who fails to make it his one absorbing aim to convert sinners and feed the flock of God. He who can contentedly fulfil the routine of parochial duty, while the people remain as they were-the unholy still greedily pursuing the things of the world, the errors of the age invading his people, unchecked by well-timed instructions or warning, and the few who are spiritual left to languish in feebleness and fear, may well be visited by grave misgivings, whether, like Ahimaaz (2 Sam. xviii.), he has not set himself to run without his message, and entered upon a warfare without the call or training of a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

now gone.

The day for respectable self-complacent incompetence is An inefficient and lifeless ministry can find no sympathy in these wakeful times. It requires no keen-eyed sagacity to predict results. The Church of England is on its trial. No considerate observer can watch the religious tendencies of the day without anxiety. The settled alienation of large masses from all regard to spiritual things; the scarcely disguised avowal of infidel opinions among the higher and lower classes; the amount of popular literature,

not openly sceptical, but discoursing upon ordinary things in a sceptical spirit; the Sabbath question restlessly agitated, whether it shall be kept sacred to God, or yielded to the outcries for pleasure and the demands of gain; and even the religious education of the country suspended in discouraging uncertainty by recent changes;-these are but a sample of things which cannot be safely disregarded.

Still even these would be lighter evils, if fairly resisted. But is the embankment safe? Are there no signs of mischief working there, which portend grave results?

"When nations are to perish in their sins,
"Tis in the Church the leprosy begins;
The priest, whose office is with zeal sincere
To watch the fountain and to keep it pure,
Carelessly nods, and sleeps upon the brink,

While others poison what the flock must drink."

The presence of disease creates no great anxiety, if the vital functions remain vigorous; but when the heart beats feebly, and all physical energies languish, there is no expulsive power to grapple with morbid elements. We fear that such evils are seriously at work. Preaching seems somehow to be losing its power. The sword of the Spirit is wielded by an uncertain arm; the arrows are diverted, or soon spent, as if shot from a broken bow. The life and vigour of preaching seem wearing out; it neither alarms nor comforts; it awakens no fears, nor brings any peace; it is a feeble play with men's religious opinions, but kindles no resolute conflict between their conscience and their sins. It may faintly interest some, but deeply impresses few, and converts fewer. It may be the wisdom of man, but not the power of God. It makes people satisfied with themselves, their sins, and their religion, instead of plunging them in the depths of self-despair, and urging them to flee from the wrath to come. It encourages the soothing whispers of peace, peace, instead of extorting the agonizing cry, "Men and brethren, what must we do?" Truths which used to give life and unction are ministered with timid and stammering lips. Preachers seldom deliver the whole counsel of God, in the confident assurance that He will make it prosper in the thing whereunto it is sent. Scripture truth is the mould which shapes the religious mind of a people (Rom. vi. 17); any change in the mould must deform the figure. It behoves a Christian observer, therefore, to watch with scrupulous solicitude, lest any truth should be omitted, altered, or displaced, and the people corrupted from the simplicity of Christ. Never was it more needful than now that the words that fell as from the dying lips of the Apostle should be solemnly weighed-" Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. . . . But watch

thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry." (2 Tim. iv. 2—5.)

But what about repentance, the subject at the head of this article? Is that great doctrine faithfully dealt with? Does it occupy its due position in the pulpit ministration of our day? Is repentance as urgently insisted upon now as it was by the prophets and apostles, and is it put in the same place as to other truths? Is there no departure from the standard of our Church's teaching in this respect? Is no difference observable between the deep and contrite solemnity which pervades our liturgical devotions, and the superficial tameness which now makes preaching wearisome, and brings it into disrepute?

No man can doubt the prominent place which repentance occupies in the Scripture. As soon as men began to sin, they were commanded to repent. It was urged by Noah on his rebellious generation,-everywhere pervades the dialogues of Job,-and was constantly demanded of the Israelites. Samuel insisted on repentance in his day; and David stands forth as one of its most striking examples. Isaiah opens his prophecies by loud warnings to repent; Jeremiah wept over the impenitence of his countrymen; Ezekiel, himself a captive exile, never ceased his bold reproofs; Daniel uttered his cry for repentance amid the splendours of Eastern courts; all the Minor Prophets were preachers of repentance, and the Old Testament closed with denunciations of coming judgments on men who refused to repent. The great sermons with which the Baptist moved the heart of the Jewish people were mainly sermons on repentance. The first announcement with which the Lord opened His public ministry was-" Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." It was upon a woman who was penitent that He bestowed His highest commendation. Some of His chief parables are to illustrate and enforce repentance. A look of His brought a disciple to tears, but they were tears of penitence; and once He wept over Jerusalem, because they would not repent. When He sent out the disciples, they were commanded to preach repentance; wherever they went, among Jews or Gentiles, at Jerusalem, Ephesus, Athens, Corinth, or Rome, they preached everywhere that men must repent. In all their epistles repentance is explained and required. One of the last utterances of the Holy Spirit is the warning to a declining Church, to "remember how they had received and heard, and hold fast and repent." And if we examine the labours of the most successful preachers in each age, from St. John to Augustine, from Augustine to Wycliffe, from Wycliffe to Luther, and from Luther till now, they never lost sight of these three great principles which our Church requires of all her spiritual members-that they must repent them truly for their sins past, have a lively and steadfast faith in Christ, and be in perfect charity with all men. So prominent is re