exceeding in credulous wonder, arrogant pretension, and miraculous boasting, all that has gone before it, in a country which, in a twofold sense, may well be called' a land of vision?"" pp. ix-xvii. Mr. Jay, in conclusion, after lamenting that well-disposed persons should ever be seized with the fancy for making new discoveries in religion, instead of walking in the light, and having the heart established with grace asks,— "And what is the subject of these possible or desirable developments? And what lack of motive or of consolation did they feel, who have gone before us in every kind of excellency? And what more perfect characters can we expect than the Leightons and Howes, who, it now seems, were denied illuminations conferred on individuals just entering into the kingdom of God, without a religious education, and from the midst of worldly dissipation or indifference? And where are the superior effects of discoveries, which we are assured not only possess truth, but are of the greatest efficiency? We need not be afraid to compare the converts, the benefactors, the No man also having sufferers, the martyrs of one school with those of another. drunk old wine straightway desireth new, for he saith the old is better."" pp. xix. xx. And here we take our leave of one with whom we have often felt delighted In to commune in spirit, though not worshipping under the same roof. thinking of such men as Mr. Jay, and feeling with them a bond of union which no subordinate differences of opinion can burst, we can understand something of what our Lord meant in saying that his disciples should all One they are, not as to identity of opinion in all the particulars which form their complex creed; but one they are by union to their common Saviour, by identity of views in all the essentials of faith and duty as regards "the common salvation," and by mutual affection among be one. themselves. CONVERSIONS TO PROTEST- (Continued from p. 498.) WE have much pleasure in resuming our notices of this little colony, and relating the circumstances under which its inhabitants have quitted the corrupt Church of Rome and become a Protestant community; and not a few of them, it is trusted, become, in truth as in name, faithful followers of Jesus Christ. M. Lutz mentions the following interesting particulars. It will be remembered that, when he thus wrote, he was CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 368. still in connexion with the Church of Rome; so that his testimony to the spiritual benefits which resulted from the distribution of the word of God in his parish, is the more valuable. We will also take the liberty of disclosing to our readers that the two letters in the Appendix to the Report of the British and Foreign Bible Society for 1827, pp. 97, 98, under the reference of B. were from the pen of M. Lutz. The witholding his name might at that time be necessary, to prevent the jealousy of the Papal Church forbidding his exertions in supplying his parish with Bibles; but there can now be no reason why his name, and 4 A the obligations of himself and his parish to the British and Foreign Bible Society, should not be known, for the glory of God, and the encouragement of those who have been the honoured instruments of circulating his lively oracles. M. Lutz writes as follows: "But it was chiefly the New Testament that contributed to renew and strengthen their hearts. Their pastor having from his infancy experienced in various ways its powerful influence in enlightening, fortifying, and elevating the soul, neither could nor would deprive his parishioners of this treasure. He put it therefore with confidence into the hands of those with whose penitential spirit and pious zeal to tread in the ways of holiness and devotion he was acquainted, with earnest prayer that God would abundantly bless its perusal to their souls; and he might adduce many facts in proof that this confidence, far from deceiving him, has been richly rewarded. Many adults and married persons wished to learn to read, that they might peruse for themselves the word of God. A great number learnt, word for word, texts and chapters, which were a great blessing to them; and not only chapters, but whole Epistles and Gospels. This was particularly the case with the young people. To avoid as much as possible every abuse of this heavenly gift, the pastor gave them suitable instructions; explaining it aloud every day in the church, and exhorting them always to read it with profound reverence, with the prayer of faith, and with close application to their own heart and life; and to apply to their minister for explanation, in cases of difficulty. The issue was, that not merely did no abuse result, no dangers ensue, but that the perusal became a great blessing. How often has their minister felt to his own shame the truth of those words of the Saviour: 'I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemeth good in thy sight.'" All this was not effected without many obstacles. One of the greatest was extreme poverty, which when very severe, becomes an arduous trial; for it is difficult to keep the mind always in a state to be able to reply to Satan, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceeds from the mouth of God." And yet there were many, who, by the grace and faithfulness of their Lord, have come out triumphing from this furnace of affliction, and have had affecting proof, that the same God still lives, who fed his people with manna and gave them water from the rock. It will easily be believed that the poverty of the people was injurious to the school. Besides which, the parish is composed of families of almost all the German nations; there are Bavarians, Würtemburghers, Alsacians, Prussians, Austrians, and others, all drawn together on this sterile spot, and who, if they have brought little else from their respective countries, have not failed to bring a large portion of the vices which abound there. To this must be added, that means of employment are often wanting, and that the new colonists arrive almost every month, like the tares which mix with the good seed and threaten to choke it. These details are taken from the work of M. Lutz, the object of which was to obtain assistance, and thus to relieve the external wants of his parishioners. He procured some donations; and it pleased God to open the hearts and hands of some Christian friends for his aid. But as the work went on, new events arose, which required, and still require, fresh efforts of charity. This will be seen by the following extract from a letter of a Christian friend, well acquainted with the local circumstances. "Dear Lutz and his parish present a spectacle upon which the eyes of many are fixed. You will have heard that this summer (1831) he has received from the king a gold medal of civil merit. When he received it, he said, This is the presage of my fall.' From that moment those of his neighbours who were of contrary sentiments to himself, exhibited towards him the strongest opposition. They sent in complaint upon complaint to the public authorities. The bishop and ordinary knew both his enemies and his innocence, yet they would not support him; and to get rid of him as easily as possible, the bishop did all in his power to induce the king to appoint him to a valuable preferment in the diocese of Munich. About the middle of October, he received the official announcement of it, together with an order to quit Carlshold immediately, and to repair to his new parish. It is impossible to describe the extraordinary emotion and sensation which ensued. A deputation from the parish immediately repaired to Munich to present two petitions to the king, one signed by an hundred and eighty-six families, and the other by Lutz himself, and to address him in person on the subject. But the deputies were not admitted, and their papers alone were received. While Lutz was waiting for the decision of the king, the new minister arrived at Carlshold, and demanded possession of his house. Lutz told him that he should not leave till he knew the decision of the king. The minister reported this, and immediately there came an official order, to say that, if he did not instantly quit Carlshold, he should be forcibly driven away. Upon this he yielded and repaired to Munich; where he remained about a fortnight, partly to wait for the decision of the king, and partly to consult his friends, as to what he ought to do. He could only expect a negative from the king, for the bishop managed the whole cabal. From Munich, he went to Untermaxfeld, about a league from Carlshold, where he has two married sisters and some property, in order to live there for some time as a private person. The answer of the king was a negative, as he expected; upon which he declined the new parish which had been offered to him, and remained at Untermaxfeld." When it was determined by the king that he should be removed from his beloved flock, he felt himself impelled to leave with them a last farewell, in order to strengthen them in the ways of God. This he did in a printed address, entitled "A Word of Exhortation, of Prayer, and of Consolation to my former Parishioners in the Donau-Moos." We will extract some passages, still reminding our readers that M. Lutz had not yet left the Church of Rome, or professedly embraced Protestant doctrine. to know' and to preach nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified;' being convinced by Scripture, by history, by my own experience, and by that of others, that 'other foundation can no man lay' of faith, of righteousness, and of life, 'than Jesus Christ and Him crucified.' Adhering to this resolution, I declared unto you the Gospel as I had received it of the Lord; I have kept back nothing from you,' I have declared unto you' all the counsel of God' for your salvation. And God be praised it has not been in vain. The Lord has opened the hearts of many, of a very great number, in order that they might believe, understand, and taste with delight what was preached. They have felt that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth,' nor will they be ashamed " Hold that fast of it or turn from it. which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.' Continue faithful to the truth of the Gospel which you have experienced, and to the grace of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which you have proved; and be assured that I still know no other way which leads to life, to righteousness, and happiness, than that which I have a thousand times shewn and recommended to For this reason, though I or an angel from heaven' preach any other way of salvation than that which I have preached during five successive years, 'let him be accursed.' And even if I should have the misery, (which the Lord in his infinite mercy prevent,) of being unfaithful to the truth and grace which are in Christ Jesus, be not ye less firm; for it is not I, but Christ in whom you have believed, as the foundation and source of all wisdom, righteousness, and happiness. It is not on my testimony alone that you have believed in him,-you have known him yourself-you have experienced his presence in your souls in truth and grace. My dearly beloved! It is then the holy and incomprehensible will of God our Saviour, that the connexion which has existed between us for nearly five you. My heart is years should now cease. torn with grief when I think of it; for neither you nor I had any idea of such a separation: I, on the contrary, had determined to share with you sorrow and joy, poverty and want, ridicule and contempt, walking by faith in our Saviour Jesus Christ in the path of life, offering you a guiding hand, and remaining among you till the Lord should withdraw me from you to the peaceful mansions of eternity in his kingdom of glory. But the counsel of God has determined otherwise; and therein is fulfilled that saying, My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways.' Never theless, it is only outwardly and for a few days that we are separated. We are members of one body, of which Jesus Christ is the Head; and in Him, even here on earth, we are one, we are inseparably united; and in the other world we shall Of this I feel be so for ever and visibly. assured. a "But in separating from you as preacher and pastor settled by the church, I feel constrained to exclaim with St. Paul from the bottom of my heart, Dear brethren, dear sisters! I declare unto you the Gospel which I have preached unto you' for more than five years, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.' Ye know from the first day that I came to Carlshold, which was on the 23d of August, in the year 1826, at 6 o'clock in the evening, that I determined' as I declared openly to you in my first sermon, "In order, then, that you may have some fixed points to which you may adhere, in the midst of the various assaults which you are now called to sustain, both from within and from without, I will and thus, present some to your attention; at the same time, give you the substance of all my sermons and all my instructions. May the Lord bless them to your salvation and my consolation. "The first thing which the Word of God proposes to man is regeneration, the entire conversion of the heart to God. Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.' Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.' Christ and his holy Apostles (and the same remark applies to all who follow them, and are enlightened by God) did not consider any man fit to discuss the doctrines of the Gospel before he was truly regenerated. This point they maintained stedfastly, and never ceased to urge, till it had penetrated the hearts of their hearers. This being effected, men received the Word of God with new eyes, new ears, new hearts; they received the Spirit of Christ, and all that before appeared to them obscure, erroneous, extravagant, and impossible, disappeared. They then began really to understand the Word of God, it became to them clearly demonstrated truth; then, led by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, which they had received on their regeneration by faith in Christ, they walked in the truth. They then began to believe from the heart in Jesus Christ as their God and Saviour, to love him, to depend upon him, to build upon him as the foundation of their wisdom, their justification, and their happiness; to renounce self, to take up the cross of Christ, and to follow it; they then became capable of proving and judging all things. This is the course we wish to adopt and pursue among ourselves. Let each of us first endeavour to obtain a regenerate heart; a heart purified from sin by the blood of Jesus Christ, and filled by his Holy Spirit; and if he possess this, let him labour in all love and patience to procure this blessing for others. Our Lord and his Apostles did not wish that the Jews should become Samaritans, or the Samaritans Jews, but that both Jews and Samaritans should become children of God by regeneration; thoroughly converted, enlightened, and holy, and consequently heirs of eternal life. This is what they wished, and what we wish also. "In the sight of God no man is righteous by nature, but, on the contrary, is a sinner, and as such is lost to all eternity. In the sight of God no man is justified or obtains happiness by any works of his own performed out of Christ. It is only by faith in Jesus, who was crucified, who rose again, and who lives eternally, that we become righteous and blessed in the sight of God. This same Jesus, if we believe in him with our heart, and if in faith we use his holy word and other means of grace, for his own sake, takes away all our sins, all our iniquities; he himself gives us, by his grace, his wisdom, his righteousness, his holiness. The Spirit of Adoption bestows upon us his love and patience, his humility and brotherly kindness, his peace and glory, and will make us participators in the world to come of the glory which he had with the Father before the world was made. But man does not bring this faith into the world with him; he does not inherit it from his parents; he cannot learn it in any school nor in books: it is God who by his Spirit produces it, for the sake of his Son in the heart of man, rendering his word lifegiving by this same Spirit. "There are many who profess by their own good works to atone for their sins, and to be justified and holy before God. There are others who reject all superstition, in order to believe only in Christ, and to become justified and sanctified in Him, but they will not amend their lives; they will not suffer that Jesus should destroy sin in their hearts; and thus they remain, notwithstanding their pretended faith, in their old dispositions and courses. But in Christ this is of no use; we must be new creatures, we must be clothed with new dispositions, we must have a new heart, a new life, and a faith that worketh by love. 6 "Let us not then be satisfied until our hearts are thoroughly converted to Jesus Christ, and filled with his grace, and until the fruits of the Spirit of Jesus Christ are manifested in our tempers and conduct. These fruits are, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.' Let us not be satisfied until our conduct adorns the Gospel, until we find in ourselves so much grace, love, and strength, that we are ready to give up every thing, if it were the will of God, for him and for his people. Let us, following the example of St. Paul, put off self, to be clothed with Christ, that we may never draw back but press forward to those things which are before. "Let us not in our prayers ask or expect from God extraordinary events or manifestations, nor any thing singular; but let us simply pray for faith, charity, hope; let us thus walk, for this is wellpleasing to God. "Let us watch and pray without ceasing, that Satan, the world, and the flesh, may not lead us into sin; that our conscience may not be troubled, that grace may not be weakened, and that we may not finally lose eternal life, which we receive from God. Without this it had been better never to have known the way of truth and life, and our last state will be worse than the first when we were not yet enlightened and converted to Jesus. We know what we must expect if we follow him. Therefore far be from us all worldliness and carnal mindedness. Far be from us a divided heart, all timidity, all indecision! Christ will have undivided hearts. "Let us not seek agreeable feelings or sensible favours, provided that Christ be with us, with all that he is and all that he has. It is by faith that he dwells in us. Let us then walk by faith, let us persevere in faith, notwithstanding every opposition from within and from without. "No man ought to consider himself freed from the yoke of the law until Christ himself has liberated him from it by his Spirit and his word; until he has given him grace to perceive his state as a lost sinner, until he has manifested the Gospel in his heart and has there planted his grace. But he who is in this blessed state ought no longer to be bound by human ordinances; he must walk in the glorious liberty of the sons of God, which his Saviour at so great a price has purchased for him, and so graciously bestowed upon him. He only can guide and direct him until he has acquired adequate experience. But let him beware lest he use this spiritual liberty to gratify the flesh, which would be very possible, if he were to neglect watchfulness and prayer, and to suffer himself to be turned from the simplicity which is in Christ." Then follow some instructions on the care necessary in applying the Gospel to minds under different circumstances; after which M. Lutz adds: "Satan will consent for us to abandon outward sins, provided we do not receive Jesus Christ into our hearts, as our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification, and our redemption; provided we do not suffer him to assume so great an empire over us that our heart and life should be completely changed. He will permit us to speak often and much of Christ, to discuss doctrines, to sing psalms, to read, and so forth, provided all this has no influence upon us.' M. Lutz then offers some advice respecting the ceremonies and outward forms of Divine worship, and the assistance and forbearance which Christians should exercise towards their weaker brethren, and on the use of the Word of God and the sacraments. He then goes on:"Persevere in prayer, and pray for one another. Prayer is the breath of the regenerated soul. Where a spirit of prayer does not exist, the Divine and heavenly life is entirely wanting, or at least ready to be extinguished. "Do not be surprised if you are exposed to many trials. Rather rejoice at it. He who wishes to receive Christ, must receive him with all his griefs and anguish, with his stripes, with his crown of thorns, with his cross, in a word, such as the Father presents and offers him to us from Gethsemane to Golgotha. Unless we do this, we receive not the Saviour. But they who accept him willingly and joyfully, already enjoy here on earth a joy which passeth all understanding, and they will possess it gloriously to all eternity. "Be active, diligent in your vocation; kind, and submissive to those in authority, praying for them. In short, to say all in one word, be, or at least become, what you are in name; be Christians, that is to say, men anointed and penetrated with the Spirit and love of Jesus. Be such as your Saviour wills; such as Paul and Peter, John and James, and all the saints and elect people of God have been. Then will you be true disciples of Christ; the brethren and sisters of the Son of God; heirs of God, and fellow-citizens and friends of all the saints chosen of God. "This is what I have endeavoured to impress upon your hearts in my sermons, in my instructions in the Confessional, by the side of sick beds, and on every favourable occasion. It is what I now believe, and by the grace of God I shall believe it to my latest breath, until I see the Saviour as he is. This is what I should affectionately desire-yes, beloved brethren, whom I shall never forget, this is what I should affectionately desire to be so powerfully and indelibly engraven in your hearts, that it may be a star ever shining to guide you through life unto the throne of the Lamb to whom we belong even upon earth. "Cleave then to every man who believes these things, and to whatever agrees with them, to every man who walks according to this rule. Such a man is a true Christian, a living member of the holy church of God. Whatever may be his denomination, he is a living and fertile branch united to the heavenly Vine Christ Jesus. But he who departs from this doctrine, either in doctrine or practice; he who endeavours to make you suspect the truth, or to turn you aside from it, even if it should be one of your own body; that man, I say, is a man whose thoughts and feelings are not right with God. Have no communication with such men; for, whatever may be their external appearance, they are false prophets, ravening wolves in sheep's clothing, against whom the Saviour seriously warned his disciples, and whom St. Paul represents under characters as strong as alarming; and whom St. John condemns in terms the most decided. "My dearly beloved! Be assured that I bear you upon my heart, and that in my prayers I shall ever remember you with joy. Be assured that the Lord will not fail to complete in you that good work of faith which he has begun, until the day of his glorious appearing. It is right that I should thus think of you, for you have been made participators in the same grace with myself. "God is my witness, that I cherish you all with cordial affection in Christ Jesus, and that in no place shall I ever be ashamed of this affection before the whole world. The remembrance of you is deeply engraven on my heart, and nothing can tear it from thence. As long as Jesus my Saviour lives, so long will my affection for you last without becoming weaker. For this reason my most ardent wish for you, and what I above all things entreat of my Saviour is, that your love may increase more and more in all knowledge and experience, that in every respect you may perceive the things that are excellent, that you may be pure and without spot until the day of Jesus Christ, filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ to the praise and glory of God. Take care not to |