I have been told they are triumphing in Oxford. There is wanting some power that shall concentrate the influence of the body, maintaining "the truth as it is iu Jesus." The parochial and other ministers are devoted to their own duties, and it is impossible that they can follow these Anglo-Catholics throughout their whole tortuous literature. If the work be done at all, it must be by champions chosen specially for the work, and who will devote their energies to it. The Christian com munity may raise such an influence by means of this Society, as shall grapple with and master the heresy which is daily spreading, and the power of which we have so much reason to deplore. By the strength of God this heresy must be overcome and expelled from the land. God is with us, truth is with us, all Protestant Associations are with us, the pulsations of every Christian heart are with us, and if we have only courage and resolution, I believe the pestilence will be swept from the face of the country. If I am asked, what are the means we should take to accomplish this? some of them are most obvious and practicable. It is possible for this Society, if adequately sustained by the public, to have not only a course of lectures at Oxford, which I rejoice to hear is in progress, but to have a sufficient number of accomplished scholars in its employment, whose duty it shall be to undo what our Anglo-Catholic enemies have been accomplishing. We should have books and tracts written like their own. We should have a literature imbued with sound Christian principles, in every city, town and parish. When we, as ministers, received ordination, we most solemnly promised, before God and the congregation, that we would do our diligence to drive away all strange and heretical doctrine from among us; let, then, the agents of this Society go through the whole land, let them personally visit every clergyman from parish to parish, bid him remember his ordination promise, and inquire if he has any pretext for not fulfilling it when the mischief is at his own doors. Let us act in the spirit as well as glory in the memory of our reformers and martyrs, and when the encounter comes, if we are only faithful to our trust, the victory shall be ours. 34. CHRISTIAN INSTRUCTION SOCIETY. Seventeenth Annual Meeting: May 3. Chairman Sir Culling E. Smith, Bart. Speakers-Rev. J. Clayton, Rev. C. Stovel, Rev. Dr. Morison, Rev. T. Archer, Rev. Dr. Jenkyn, and Mr. H. Dunn. The Rev. C. STOVEL Said-Allow me to suggest to the Society, that you occupy vantage ground; and you have a solemn trust. You are moving around the sphere of every Church; you are looking into the elements that make up, their congregations; thousands of individuals who have heard the Gospel, come under the investigation of your agents-men who have been excluded from churches, men who have not been admitted; men of all stages of religious instruction come within their reach; and there ought to be a most intensely interesting inquiry, what are the moral difficulties that obstruct the operations of our churches, and what are the moral things that stand in the way of the success of the truth-what are the evils that prevent the reception of the truth? I believe there is one point in which you may find a clue. We have now arrived at a state of civilisation, and we have a kind of religious prudence on which we lean. Almost everywhere you hear the word "tact." A man has tact in putting truth, in shifting blame from himself, in lodging imputations. There is too much leaning upon tact. That blessed Spirit of whom I spoke, never will be bound down to the rules of tact. The openhearted, the ingenuous, the sincere penitent will find mercy at His feet. Those whose hearts are transparent as the dewdrop, may receive the beam of His smile, and become as beautiful as that dewdrop in the morning sun. But I hold that there is nothing to lead us to expect that the energies of the Holy Spirit will combine with the tact of which I speak. Allow me to state what I think tends to prevent the reception of Divine truth. I have the honour, and I hold it to be an honour, to belong to a Society, in which we differ from many of my brethren in the view we take of one ordinance of our Lord's appointment. I feel I have, so far as my own view of it is concerned, that amount of truth which I cannot, I dare not forsake. I must not be supposed as insinuating any thing to any part of bremy thren; but I feel that the prevalence directly or indirectly of the doctrine of baptismal regeneration is at the present hour one of the most pernicious errors that can, by any means, stain society or rest upon mankind. I will state why, and you may verify it through the instrumentality of all your agents. It makes every child advance into life under the impression, that he has been placed in a state of safety by an act which has transpired before he was conscious of it. He does not look upon himself as under condemnation, and therefore he does not by any means feel that he is bound to flee from the wrath to come. In the Oxford Tracts on this subject, it has been clearly stated, that it is only here and there, where the act of Infant Baptism has been neglected-only in a single exception or two, belonging to the poor half infidel sect to which I am attached-that the necessity of seeking personal deliverance from the wrath to come is entailed upon the human race. If this be the feeling, it is necessary for you to look at it. I point you to this particular, because I would take this opportunity of saying, what I have so frankly stated to my brethren of the Congregational Body, in a letter addressed to them, through Dr. Fletcher, that you stand implicated, because they claim you as compatriots. They claim you as copartners. (Cries of "No, no.") If I am not stating what is true, show me that I am wrong. But I only suggest one point more. Wipe your hands of it, and throw it away. (Renewed cries of "Question," and confusion.) I do not wish to introduce a subject contrary to your business. But I suggest, that this is a practical point. If it be true, that your adversaries impute any thing that is not just, wipe yourselves of the injustice. (Great confusion, during which the Reverend Gentleman resumed his seat, and which was followed with loud cheers). 35. LORD'S DAY OBSERVANCE SOCIETY. Eleventh Annual Meeting: May 9. Chairman-the Bishop of Chester. Speak-Rev. H. Stowell, Mr. Plumptre, the Bishop of Peterborough, Rev. E. Hoare, Rev. H. Raikes, Rev. J. Harding, Mr. Peck, Mr. J. Wilson, and Rev. J. Baylee, ers 36. UNIVERSAL PEACE SOCIETY. Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting, May 17. Chairman-- Mr. Brotherton, M.P. Speakers-Rev. Mr. Hargreaves, Mr. G. Pilkington, Lieut. Hanley, Rev. J. Burnet, Mr. J. Collins, Rev. C. Stovel, Mr. G. Thompson, Mr. J. T. Price, Mr. J. J. Gurney, Mr. Macnamara, and Rev Dr. Campbell. 37. INDIGENT BLIND VISITING SOCIETY. Eighth Annual Meeting, May 13. Chairman-Mr. J. Labouchere. Speakers Rev. Dr. Holloway, Rev. T. Watson, Rev. T. Mortimer, Mr. J. D. Paul, Rev. D. Kelly, Rev. R. W. Dibdin, Rev. E. Sidney, and Mr. C Harman. 38. BRITISH AND FOREIGN TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. Eleventh Anniversary, May 17. Chairman-Lord Teignmouth. Speakersthe Bishop of Norwich, Rev. D. Ruell, Rev. R. W. Dibdin, Rev. C. Gilbert, Rev. G. Scott, Rev W. P. Wait, Captain Cole, and Mr. J. Oliver. 39. NEW BRITISH AND FOREIGN TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. Annual Meeting, May, 16. Chairman-Mr. Dunlop. Speakers-Mr. Martyn, Mr. J. S. Buckingham, Mr. R. Allen, Rev. T. Spencer, Mr: Collins, Mr. Greig, Mr. J. Edgar, and Mr. T. A. Smith. 40. SOCIETY FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF INTEMPERAN CE. Annual Meeting, May 18. Chairman-Earl Stanhope. Speakers-Mr. J. S. Buckingham, Rev. C. Stovel, Mr. Kenrick, Mr. R. Allen, Mr. Walkden, the Bishop of Norwich, Mr. Grosjean, Mr Greig, Mr. Whittaker, and Mr. Currie. a The Subscriptions and Donations had increased to this extent, though the total income had fallen off; the receipts from Sale of Bibles and Testaments being £50,205, (forming part of the £95,095,) whereas in the preceding year it was £57,586. b £985 of this sum arose from the sale of Bibles and Testaments. c Amount not stated, but about this sum. d This sum chiefly arises from the sale of Tracts, the Society's benevolent Income for the year being only £5,827, or £164 more than the year preceding. e Amount not stated, but about this sum. f Besides £4,393 received for the board and education of Sailors and Apprentices. g The annual subscriptions were stated to amount to £6,000, but the amount of collections, &c. does not clearly appear. The expenditure and grants for the year were near £19,000. h Precise amount not stated, but it may be gathered from the proceedings that it is about this sum. EVANGELICAL REGISTER. JULY, 1842. THE LAST JUDGMENT. A SERMON, BY THE REV. RICHARD WINTER HAMILTON, PREACHED AT SURREY CHAPEL, BLACKFRIARS ROAD, ON SUNDAY EVENING, And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works."-Revelation xx. 11-13. IN looking around this congregation, beloved hearers, I feel at this moment well nigh overwhelmed. So many eyesso many ears-all, the organs and the representatives of immortal souls! where every pomp was mixed and every trophy strewn. It found there no resting place, amidst all that idle parade and all that mocking vanity. Once more it settled; it had fastened upon the bier, glittering with escutcheons and veiled with plumes. A sense of the indescribable nothingness of man "at his best estate," in that hearsed mortal, overcame him. His eye once more closed; his action was suspended; and in a scarcely audible whisper he disturbed the longdrawn pause-" There is nothing great but God." Suffer me to relieve my emotions by an allusion to a well known fact. When Massillon pronounced one of those discourses, which have placed him in the first class of orators, he found himself surrounded by the trappings and pageants of a royal funeral. The temple was not only hung with sable, but shadowed with darkness, save the few twinkling lights of the altar; the beauty and the chivalry of It would be in vain for me to attempt the land were spread out before him; the his power of impression; but it may not censers threw forth their fumes of incense, be wrong to covet his depth of feeling. and they mounted to the gilded dome. And while these words are yet vibrating There sat Majesty, clothed in sackcloth on your ears, and are harrowing up and sunk in grief. All felt in common, your souls, I take the abrupt sentence and as one. It was a breathless suspense; and fit it to the present theme. There is not a sound broke upon the awful still- uothing solemn but Judgment. ness. The master of mighty eloquence arose. His hands were folded on his bosom his eyes were lifted to heaven; utterance seemed denied him; he stood abstracted and lost. At length his fixed look unbent; it hurried over the scene, VOL. XIV. The thunder-storm is solemn: when the lightnings, "as arrows, shoot abroad;" when the peals startle up the nations; when the dread artillery rushes along the sky. But what is that to the far-resounding crash, louder than the roar and U bellow of ten thousand thunders, which shall pierce to the deepest charnels, and which all the dead shall hear ? The sea-tempest is solemn : when those huge billows lift up their crests; when mighty armaments are wrecked by their fury; broken as the foam, scattered as the spray. But what is that to the commotion of the deep, when " its proud waves" shall no more "be stayed," its ancient barriers no more be observed, the great channels be emptied, and every abyss be dry? with fervent heat," and "all these things shall be dissolved." 66 It is the day of God. It is "the judgment of the great day." And I saw,' said the prophet of the New Testament, a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of The earthquake is solemn when with those things which were written in the out a warning cities totter, and kingdoms books, according to their works. And rend, and islands flee away. But what is the sea gave up the dead which were in it to that tremor, which shall convulse it; and death and hell delivered up the our globe, dissolving every law of attrac- dead which were in them; and they were tion, untying every principle of aggrega-judged every man according to their tion, heaving all into chaos and heaping works." all into ruin? The volcano is solemn : when its cone of fire shoots to the heavens; when from its burning entrails the lava rushes, to overspread distant plains and to overtake flying populations. But what is that to the conflagration, in which all the palaces and the temples and the citadels of the earth shall be consumed; of which the universe shall be but the sacrifice and the fuel? Let us consider the scenery, which shall attend this august assize: the multitude, that shall be summoned to it: the process, which must adjudicate it. I. Let us consider the scenery, which shall attend this sublime event. The "throne" is the emblem of royal dignity. "Only," said Pharaoh to Joseph, on the throne will I be greater than thou." It is the symbol of Divine supremacy. "The Lord hath established His throne in the heavens, and His kingdom ruleth over all." 66 "His throne is as a fiery flame. Rolling on wheels of burning fire." Great God! must our eyes see-our ears hear-these desolations? Must we look forth upon these devouring flames? Must we stand in judgment with Thee? Penetrate us now with Thy fear; awaken the attention, which Thy trump shall not fail to command; surround our imagination with the scenery of that great and terrible day. Let us now come forth from the graves of sin, of unbelief, of worldliness, to meet the overture of Thy mercy, as we must perforce start then from our sepulchres to see the descending Judge."high" and which is "lifted up." SomeJudge us now, that Thou mayest not contimes He holdeth back the face of His demn us then. Let Thy terror persuade, that it may not crush us. Yes, it is no illusion. The heavens shall be as the shrivelled scroll of parchment; this solid earth shall stagger as the drunken man, and cry as the travailing woman. The period is long since determined, when time shall have completed its course, when probation shall have run its measure, and when all the signs in the present system shall be fulfilled: when "the stars shall fall" as the leaves of autumn, when "the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt It is a "throne of glory," which He will not disgrace." It is a "throne of holiness," which He will remember. It is a throne of mercy, to which we have access. It is a throne, which is for ever and ever." It is a throne, which is throne. Sometimes "clouds and darkness are round about Him;"" righteousness and judgment," however, are alike its" habitation" and its base. But this throne" is new to heaven. It is specially prepared; and He sitteth upon it, who judgeth right. It is " a great white throne." Refulgent in its purity and righteousness; with the radiance of sun-beams, woven formed of the fleecy vapours, burnished from the garniture of the sky. Sunrise and sunset never imprinted that stately purple, that glowing vermillion, that |