[THE following pithy reply to a Church of England of Tract has been published by brother A. Sutton. It may be useful here as well as in Hindostan. The popish claims of our Establishment are every where urged with singular perseverance.-ED.]

I am not a Churchman because Christ is the only king in his Church, and he has commanded me to call no man master on earth-Matt. xxiii. 8-10. The Church of England has a temporal head; claims the power to decree rites and ceremonies, see Art. 20; teaches for doctrine the commandments of men, see Nicene, Athanasius', and Apostles creed; and assumes God's prerogative by inflicting pains and penalties to enforce religious obedience; all which are opposed to God's word. Matt. xxviii. 19, 20. Deut. xii. 32. Col. ii. 20-23. John. xviii. 36.

I am not a Churchman because with much that is true the Church of England holds much that is false, not one particle of which can be remedied or reformed by all the Bishops, Priests and Churchmen put together; but only by the reigning Sovereign, under the control of a house of commons, consisting of good men and bad, Protestants and Paptists, Jews and Infidels. I am not a Churchman because the New Testament does not teach the orders of Archbishops, Bishops, Archdeacons, Canons, Prebends, Deans, Chapters, Priests, and Deacons; but of Pastors or Bishops, and Deacons. Priests do not exist under the New Testament dispensation. Christ having offered the perfect sacrifice there is no other for Priests to offer, only as all spiritual Christians are priests unto God offering up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Christ Jesus. Much less are the other orders part and parcel of the Church of Christ.

I am not a Churchman because although she has produced many able champions for the truth, yet these champions can never effect the least alteration in whatever may be wrong, or unscriptural in their own church, without the consent of Parliament, nor can they follow out the dictates of their own consciences.

I am not a Churchman because the Church of England is a persecuting Church : if she has had her martyrs, she has made more ; and still is a persecuting Church, claiming the right to persecute. Hundreds are at this moment suffering actual persecution in England and Ireland.

I am not a Churchman because the Established Church by sprinkling children, by requiring sponsors, by her catechism and baptismal services VOL. 4.-N.S.

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teaching Children that in and through baptism they are made members of Christ, &c., and by confirmation, acts without the sanction of the Word of God in all cases, and in most cases in direct opposition to it.

I am not a Churchman because by using her liturgy, and forms of prayer on all occasions, and with reference to good men and bad, she confounds all distinctions of right and wrong and deludes many souls with respect to the most fearful and momentous concerns.

I am not a Churchman because although there is much of the Bible in her services yet it is not the Bible alone that is the authority to which her members refer. Bishop Barlow says, "The authentic doctrine and discipline of the Church of England are contained in the thirty-nine Articles; in the book of homilies; in the liturgy; in the book of ordination; in the ecclesiastical canons; in Linwood's collection of provincial constitutions; in the legentine constitutions of Otho and Othobon, (two popish legates who resided in England in the reign of Henry III;) and in the whole canon law; and every Divine of the Church of England, is bound to subscribe and defend this doctrine of the Church against all adversaries." Robinson's Claude, vol. i., 342. What a farrago of references for a Christian man to consult! But the Bible and the Bible alone is the religion of consistent Protestants. I am not a Churchman because on the principles of the Church of England there cannot be union. The Church of Christ includes all its faithful members, but no national Church in its very nature can do so, and only such. Moreover the Church of England condemns in others what she did herself she is a dissenter from Rome.

I am not a Churchman because the scriptures tell me "to render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsars, and to God the things that are Gods." To admit that any human authority is obligatory in matters of religion is to admit a principle that may directly oppose Christ. Human authority may be used for good or evil. Thus the English Government not only establish Episcopacy in England, but Presbyterianism in Scotland, and Popery in many parts of its dominions-all cannot be right.

I am not a Churchman because the Church of England, so far as it is connected with the state, is a mere political tool used to serve political and party purposes, and to enrich favored political parties. Its lordly Bishops and enormously rich sinecures are utterly repugnant to the religion of Him who said "my Kingdom is not of this world." Its very constitution is an infringement on man's natural rights by obliging him to pay for what he does not believe, and hence is calculated to create enemies not only to itself, but to all religion."

I am not a Churchman because there is no good in the Church of England that cannot be enjoyed elsewhere without the alloy of irremediable evil inherent in her-evil which proves her to be not of Apostolic but of Papal origin.

I am not a Churchman because all National Churches must include a mixed multitude of good and bad,-viz., such as the nation consists of. Similar is the case with the clergy. The Church of England has no power to enforce discipline, nor can her real Pastors put away from their respective churches"the wicked person."

I am not a Churchman because the Church of England directly opposes her own definition of the true Church, see 19th. Art. "The visible Church of Christ is a Congregation of faithful men, in which the pure word of God

is preached and the sacraments be duly administered according to Christ's ordinance, in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same." I am not a Churchman because the Church of England directly opposes the Scriptural order :

1. As to her Head.-Matt. xxiii. 8-10; John. xviii. 36, v. 22;

xxviii. 18, 19.

Matt.

2. As to her Members.-Matt. xxviii. 18-20; Acts. ii. 36; Cor. i. 2; 2 Cor. vi. 14-18; 1 Pet. ii. 1-10; John. xv. 19.

3. As to the Rule of faith.-Matt. vi. 17-19; Deut. xxxii.; Matt. iii. 8-10; Rev. xxii. 18-20; Isaiah. viii. 20; Mark. vii. 8—13.

4. As to her Officers.-Epistles to Timothy and Titus; Acts. vi. 1-6; xx. 17-35.

5. As to her Means of support.-1 Cor. xvi. 2; 1 Pet. v. 2-3, 2 Cor. viii. ix.; Gal. vii. 6.

6. As to her Discipline.-Matt. xv. 15-17; 1 Cor. v. 3—13; 2 Cor. vii. 14-18; Gal. vii. 1, 2; 2 Thess. iii. 6.

While therefore I love all who love Christ, I am from a conscientious regard to His authority a dissenter.

"The British Christians, for the first 500 years, were Baptists. In the year 596, Gregory the Great, of Rome, sent over Austin, an abbot, with about forty monks, to convert the English. On his arrival, he found that he had been long preceded by the Gospel of Christ, and that multitudes of persons had received it for ages. He labours to unite them with, in order to bring them under the authority of the Church of Rome, but in vain. At length he calls their ministers together, and proposed three things to them, to which, if they objected, the sword of war should be the penalty. One of these things was thus expressed, That ye give Christendome (or baptism) to children.' To this, with the other two, (which were essentially popish,) the British firmly objected, and painful to add, suffered the threatened fate."-Encyclopædia Brittanica. Cuttack, 1840.

A DISSENTER.

THE SABBATH-SCHOOL TEACHER.

THE CONNEXION AND THE TIMES.NO. IX. "How still the Puseyites have been lately!" said a clergyman to a brother from a neighbouring parish, in our hearing the other day. "Yes,"

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was the reply, "but they have not been idle; they have been laying their plans very deeply. I hear they have now got hold of the new trainingschool of the National School Society, and imagine what an influence they will gain as they send forth their teachers into every part of the country to indoctrinate the young with their poisonous heresies. It is evident they are just acting over again the system of the Jesuits." "True:" said the other, "I have thought so for a long time; and though your information is news to me, yet I am not at all surprized to hear it. The Puseyites have much of the artful subtlety of the old serpent. They make way silently, but surely, and I fear will do so. Still I am not so alarmed at their efforts as some are, for at present I see nothing in them but what may be met by counteracting efforts, and successfully combatted by the use of wise and judicious means on the part of true christians. I met with some remarks recently in one of the Reviews, which I suppose must refer to the Pusey

The

ites, and in the sentiment of which I feel inclined to concur. I have the book at hand, and, with your permission, will read the passage. writer, after referring to Ignatius Loyola, and the self-denying labours of his jesuitical associates, observes, "In our own times much indignation and much alarm are thrown away on innovators of a very different stamp. From the ascetics of the common room-from men whose courage rises high enough only to hint at their unpopular opinions, and whose belligerant passions soar at nothing more than to worry some unfortunate professor, it is almost ludicrous to fear any great movement on the theatre of human affairs. When we see these dainty gentlemen in rags, and hear of them from the snows of the Himmalaya, we may begin to tremble."

It would be digressing to relate more of the conversation that passed between the two clergymen. Thus much has been mentioned because the writer felt it bring home to him in a stronger light than ever the high and important office which the Sabbath-school teacher sustains, and its intimate bearing upon the interests of truth, and of the rising generation in these times. If the advocates of a system that would revive popish delusion and superstition deem it essential to their success to enlist the sympathies, and secure the training of the young, then what a responsibility rests upon those to whom already the spiritual instruction of millions of Britain's sons and daughters is entrusted! It seems almost impossible to exaggerate the idea of this responsibility, or even to form an adequate conception of it. These self-denying friends of youth occupy the place of parents that cannot or will not direct their children to Christ; they act as the allies of ministers, who, amidst the heavy duties of attention to persons of every age and class, cannot shepherd these lambs as they would wish to do; they are the best friends of legislators, and help to raise up a population of honest, peaceful, orderly, and righteous subjects; they impress Scriptural principles and truths on minds which may do immense good or mischief on earth, and which must experience immeasurable joy or woe throughout eternity.

It has been much the fashion of late years to praise knowledge to the skies, and it is a happy thing for our country that the facilities for acquiring it have so greatly increased; but it is a question whether mere knowledge is not in itself worse than ignorance, whether it is not like giving a sword to a madman, or placing a cup of poison in the hand of a child. Knowledge, to be a blessing, must be sanctified; it must be steeped in the doctrines and sentiments of Divine revelation. A popular writer has given a spirited and sharp rebuke to that unqualified praise of knowledge in which many are apt to indulge.

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"What an excellent thing is knowledge!" said a sharp-looking, bustling little man, to one who was much older than himself. Knowledge is an excellent thing," repeated he. "My boys know more at six and seven years old than I did at twelve. They can read all sorts of books, and talk on all sorts of subjects. The world is a great deal wiser than it used to be. Every body knows something of every thing now. Do you not think, sir, that knowledge is an excellent thing?"

Know

"Why, sir," replied the old man, looking gravely," that depends entirely on the use to which it is applied. It may be a blessing or a curse. ledge is only an increase of power, and power may be a bad as well as a good thing."

That is what I cannot understand," said the bustling little man. can power be a bad thing."

"How