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Title: The Christian Recorder Vol. 2, Issue 2 (1820-April)
Date of first publication: 1820
Author: Various
Date first posted: February 24 2013
Date last updated: February 24 2013
Faded Page eBook #20130227

This eBook was produced by: L. Harrison, Marcia Brooks
& the online Distributed Proofreaders Canada team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net




  THE
  CHRISTIAN RECORDER.

  VOL. II.      APRIL, 1820.      NO. 2.




ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.


A SERMON ON THE DEATH OF THE LATE KING.

    "_And Hezekiah slept with his Fathers, and they buried him in the
    chiefest of the Sepulchres of the sons of David, and all Judah and
    the inhabitants of Jerusalem did him honour at his death."_--2d
    Chronicles, xxxii. 33.


It was the custom in ancient Egypt to examine with great solemnity the
character of their deceased Sovereigns, and to deny them an honorable
burial if they were found unworthy. There is reason to believe that a
similar custom prevailed among the Jews; for we frequently read in the
history of their Kings, that the wicked were excluded from the
sepulchre of King David, nor were any attended to their graves with
public marks of reverence and affection, unless particularly
celebrated for the uprightness of their conduct. In allusion to this
practice, the sacred historian mentions that the inhabitants of
Jerusalem and all Judah, deeply sensible of the greatness of their
loss, did Hezekiah honor at his death, and buried him in the chiefest
of the sepulchres of the sons of David.

This excellent Prince, on his accession to the throne, far from
imitating the wicked example of his father, whose idolatry had reduced
his kingdom and subjects to the most deplorable situation, hastened to
remove the cause of their calamities by restoring the pure worship of
God. He caused the temple to be cleansed; he made expiation for the
sins of the people, and taught them the true and perfect way.

In all things he set them an upright example, and not satisfied with
the reformation of his own people, he likewise sought, with
compassionate earnestness, that of the corrupted Israelites. For this
purpose, he wrote them a most affectionate and pathetic letter,
explaining the source of all their misfortunes--exhorting them to
return to the worship of the true God, and to present themselves
before him in his holy temple at the ensuing solemnity, as the most
effectual means of averting future judgments and of obtaining the
redemption of their unhappy brethren, whom the kings of Assyria had
carried into captivity.

Many of the Israelites laughed him to scorn, and mocked his pious
invitation; but divers of Ashur, and Manasseh, and Zebulon, came to
Jerusalem, and humbled themselves before the Lord.

The restoration of the worship of the temple gave courage to the
people, and as the king continued to do that which was right in the
sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David had done,
his temporal success was equal to his piety.

In comparing Hezekiah with king David, the Scripture refers to their
zeal for the worship of God and the service of the Sanctuary. It is in
this view only that the royal Psalmist is called a man after God's own
heart. A glorious title, not bestowed on him on account of the purity
of moral conduct, for he was guilty of many crimes, but for his
abhorrent of idolatry, and his faithful adherence to the civil and
religious institutions of his country. In like manner, Hezekiah was
said to do as his father David had done, because he was equally
hostile to idolatry and zealous for the worship of the Lord.

From the history of Hezekiah's eventful reign, and the mercies of God
which attended his administration, we are forcibly taught that a truly
pious king is of inestimable advantage to a nation, as an instrument
of deliverance and prosperity.

We are aware that many pretended friends to revelation are disposed to
deny the especial interpositions of Providence. They consider the
expressions of God's turning away the prophesied evil from king and
people, on their repentance and amendment, if not figurative, as
peculiar examples, confined to the children of Israel, and assert,
that the divine administration proceeds by immutable laws which have
no connexion with the wishes or conduct of particular men. Such
persons ought to reflect that events are in the hands of God--that he
directs the motives and actions of us all, according to his will, and
maketh even our wrath to praise him; that the past, the present and
the future are before him who is, in all places and at all times, the
witness of our conduct and our most secret thoughts--the friend of our
hearts, if we do well, and the insurer of our felicity both here and
hereafter. He never despises the prayer of the humble and contrite
heart, and hath revealed for our encouragement, many instances of the
efficacy of sincere prayer in relieving from distress and averting
public calamity. A remarkable example of this occurs in the life of
Hezekiah. Finding his kingdom invaded by the cruel king of Assyria,
and that he was in danger of losing not only his crown, but his
liberty and life, he called his chief officers together and exhorted
them to trust wholly upon God--saying, "be strong and courageous; be
not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the
multitude that is with him, for there be more with us than with him.
With him is the arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God, to
fight our battles." Afterwards when Sennacherib sent him letters full
of threats and blasphemy, he spread them in the temple before the Lord
and offered up that sublime and affecting prayer which was heard in
heaven, and answered by the total destruction of the Assyrian army.
Here we have a signal deliverance obtained through the piety of the
king, and similar deliverances may be confidently hoped for in every
age by those who trust in the Lord. The ways of Providence are now as
they were in the days of Hezekiah. God is still the hearer of prayer,
merciful and gracious, and equally ready to avert evil and confer
blessings, through the sincere prayers of our rulers. Nay, we have
more reason than formerly to believe that God will listen to our
requests, because we are better acquainted with his divine nature
through Jesus Christ our Saviour, who hath said "whatever ye shall ask
in my name, believing, ye shall receive." To doubt, therefore, that
the hand of the Almighty interferes every moment for our protection
and deliverance, betrays a total want of confidence in Christian
truth. Let us not then suffer the scoffer to laugh us out of a firm
belief in that Providence which watches over our actions--which makes
sin frequently feel its misery in the present life, and bestows on
righteousness the most precious rewards.

As king Hezekiah was distinguished for his piety and confidence in God,
so was he remarkable for his love to his people. His government was
truly paternal. Even in his plans of reformation, he proceeded with the
greatest gentleness and condescension. "My sons," said this good king to
the Priests and Levites, "be not now negligent, for the Lord hath chosen
you to stand before him to serve him, and that you should minister unto
him and burn incense."--"And when the altars of idolatry were destroyed,
and the true worship again set up, the king spake comfortably to all the
Levites that taught the good knowledge of the Lord."

To complete the good example which this amiable monarch set his
people, he became a pattern of active industry, by cultivating that
art upon which the prosperity of individuals as well as kingdoms
chiefly depends. He attended to agriculture in all its branches, and
was not only remarkable for his flocks and herds, but for the produce
of the ground.

The consequences of this general reformation soon became visible, not
only in the deliverance of Judah from all her enemies, but in the
great prosperity of the people. Nor were they insensible of the
blessings which they enjoyed, and which, next to God, they owed to the
wisdom and goodness of their king. They returned his paternal love
with affectionate obedience, and manifested their gratitude by
bringing him presents, so that Hezekiah was magnified in the sight of
all nations. And when he was gathered to his fathers, he was followed
to the tomb by his grateful and weeping subjects, who bestowed upon
his remains equal honors with those that had been conferred upon David
the most glorious of their kings.

It is, I trust, with kindred feelings that you are now assembled to
commemorate the death of our venerable Sovereign, who hath resigned
his soul into the hands of God who gave it, after a long and arduous
reign. His eventful life and character present a striking resemblance
to those of Hezekiah. His piety was rewarded by similar deliverances.
His kindness to his people by the strongest loyalty and affection, and
his example of integrity, regularity, and firmness produced among them
corresponding fruits. Even his recreations were those of Hezekiah, in
cultivating the ground, and patronizing the fine arts; but before we
direct your attention to these particulars, it appears necessary to
premise:

That the false glare of military renown which fascinates so many of
the present age, leaves very few capable of estimating the
comparatively quiet and unostentatious life of our deceased king. He
was not seen at the head of mighty armies surrounded by his generals,
and spreading devastation and misery among the nations. Better
acquainted with the duties which became the possessor of the British
throne, instead of seeking to be a conqueror, he aspired to and
attained the far more estimable title of Father of his People. The
sceptre in his hand was not an emblem of terrific power, but of
justice and mercy. Possessing a crown derived from the constitutional
choice of his subjects, he was as careful of their rights and
privileges as of his own. Believing that the good of his people was
the true principle that ought to direct his government, he never lost
sight of their happiness; and so far was he from being carried away by
the vain pomp of military glory, that when, at the commencement of his
reign, he found his kingdom engaged in a successful war, he had the
wisdom and moderation to perceive that victory, however splendid, only
increased the misery of his people. He therefore set bounds to his
triumphs and concluded an honorable peace.

The effects of war are sickening to every reflecting mind:--not merely
the slaughter of thousands in the field of battle, but the protracted
sufferings of the wounded--the excruciating agonies of the dying--and
the grief and wretchedness which the destruction of so many sons,
husbands, and brothers, must occasion in society, exhibit still more
forcibly the miseries of war. Alas! men do not reflect--they hear of the
noble art of war--the generosity, the magnanimity, the courage, the
fortitude and self-denial exhibited in the field--the devotion to one's
country--the fascinating ardour of the young rushing into battle, and
coveting with delight, the most terrible scenes of enterprize and
danger--and these throw a brilliant covering over its heart-rending
consequences, and make us insensible of its calamities. It becomes
associated with the most generous and disinterested virtues; the
guardian of our rights and honors; the restrainer of usurpers, and the
promoter of justice. Its sorrows are rendered familiar, or considered a
small price for its benefits, and were we not acquainted with the
religion of Jesus, we should never have become convinced of its amazing
turpitude, and its opposition to the will of God. Our departed Sovereign
saw war in its true light--a severe judgment of the Almighty upon the
nations--their scourge and disgrace, and entreated most fervently in his
daily prayers, that there might be peace in his days. But to proceed
with the resemblance of the two kings.

As Hezekiah, at the beginning of his reign, put down impiety and
idolatry, the greatest crimes that can be committed, so did our
venerable Sovereign give early proofs of his fervent piety, not only
in commanding a proclamation to be issued for the encouragement of
piety and virtue, and for preventing and punishing vice, profaneness,
and immorality, but in the whole of his private and public conduct. He
delighted in the worship and service of God: he knew from experience,
that religion comforts the heart and elevates the soul; that it
presents the boldest truths to the high as well as the low, and
reminds kings and potentates that they are but men, and that there is
a judge who will demand of them an account of the deeds done in the
body. His piety became a living principle which animated and dignified
all his actions; it nourished in his breast the most inflexible
integrity--the purest honor, and uprightness of intention; and it was
daily displayed in uniform sincerity, in simplicity of manners, and
singleness of heart. His subjects beheld in the purity of his domestic
life, the brightest example of connubial happiness; religion reigned
there in all her innocence and beauty; the splendour of the court gave
way to the simplicity of the cottage. The King was seen in the
evening, hearing his children lisp their prayers to their Creator, and
directing the first motions of their lips to the praise and glory of
God; and in the morning bending over them while yet asleep, and
pronouncing with tender affection, his paternal benediction. His
example was felt and acknowledged by his people, and became a check to
thousands who experienced self-reproach, when they compared their own
neglect of parental duties with the affectionate example of the King.
It is impossible to conceive a more interesting picture than this
mighty Prince sitting with his queen and children around him on a
Sunday evening, reading to them a sermon on some edifying subject, and
recommending them, before they separated for the night, to the
protection of heaven. This was indeed preaching God and shewing him,
as it were visibly, to his household. In the bosom of his family,
leaning upon the promises of our blessed Redeemer, he reaped the
purest and most innocent pleasures. He had discovered that true
enjoyment is not to be found abroad but at home, in the midst of our
family. Surrounded by those we love, and who reciprocate our
affections, we experience delights worthy of the man and the
Christian--delights which never disgust, but are renewed daily with
equal satisfaction.

The piety which directed his private life, presided over his public
duties, and was productive of equal benefits to himself and to his
people. It made sincerity and uprightness the foundations of his royal
character; so that he was ever firm to the obligations of that sacred
oath which he took to his people, and which has given a consistency to
his reign which the most appalling events never could shake.
Disdaining the cunning policy and wretched expedients to which many
Princes resort, as beneath the dignity of a King of England, and
inconsistent with Christian principles, he sought, from a policy at
once steady, consistent, and upright, to secure the glory and
happiness of his people; and had his lot been cast upon common times,
his success would have equalled his virtues; but his reign, like that
of the king of Judah, comprised a very gloomy period; for, during
sixty years, to which it extended, thirty-two were consumed in war,
and only twenty-eight in the enjoyment of peace.

Hezekiah saw the destruction of Israel, and the people carried away
captive, and strange nations placed in their room--the sad result of
their wickedness and idolatry; and though he was rescued from the like
fate on account of his piety, he was involved in a cruel war with the
king of Assyria.

In much the same manner, our late Sovereign, though directing his
government on the principles of probity and justice, found himself
involved in a war with his revolutionary neighbours, the necessity of
which is now generally admitted. The incessant exertions of the French
in the cause of anarchy and irreligion, had given an inflamed and
dangerous character to the proceedings of many British subjects, who
declared themselves the friends of revolution; their conduct,
therefore, required the prompt vigilance of the King and the firm
execution of the Laws. These unhappy men, instead of looking to
religion as the source of true consolation, despised and ridiculed it
as the fabrication of wicked men. Yet, Christianity, in spite of all
the pretensions of false philosophy, is the only effectual restraint
upon bad passions, and incentive to good actions. It is the religion
of our blessed Redeemer that teaches us that man is bound to man by
the strongest obligations, and all principles, but such as flow from
this source, are vague and unproductive, and stand not before strong
temptation. This has been sadly manifested in the passing age; for the
French, after trampling upon the salutary restraints of the Gospel,
tore asunder the amiable ties that connect society, and spurning the
sweet charities of our nature, and the delightful affections of the
human heart, they astonished and shocked the world by the commission
of crimes hitherto unexampled in the page of history. They seemed to
take pleasure in fraud, injustice, rapine, bloodshed, and oppression;
nor were their cruelties and impieties confined within their own
territories, but spread like a mighty torrent among the neighbouring
nations, overturning states and empires, depriving kings and princes
of their thrones, or reducing them to be the slaves of a cruel tyrant.
For a time they overcame all resistance, and drove the religious, the
honorable, and the brave into foreign lands, to eat the bread of
charity, and weep over the miseries of their fallen countries. Against
this menacing evil, our late Sovereign was forced to unfurl his
banner, and to stand up for human happiness and the liberties of the
world. His kingdom had as yet been free from serious commotion, not
surely on account of the piety of the people, when we reflect on the
dissipation and licentiousness of manners and graceless negligence as
to divine things which at that time prevailed; nor is it easy to
conceive how Great Britain could have been protected from the
extending calamity which had already convulsed the whole Continent of
Europe, had not our beloved Sovereign been spared to give his decided
example in favour of religion. His life presented a bright contrast to
the lives of the prostrate kings and princes who had been overtaken by
the just judgments of God for their perverse infidelity, their gross
immoralities, and pernicious example. While the nations raged and
imagined vain things he stood like a beacon upon a hill, the rallying
point of all the wise and good. Blessed in the zealous support and
warm affections of the great majority of his subjects, he boldly met
the storm, consoled with the uprightness of his intentions and the
blessings of heaven.

Our venerable Sovereign was no less remarkable for what may be called
the lesser virtues, than for his habitual piety. His abstinence from
the customary pleasures of the table was scarcely equalled by the most
abstemious of his subjects. His methodical distribution of his time,
added to his early rising, enabled him to attend to the duties of his
high office with an accuracy of attention, and to an extent hardly
credible even to the most industrious; nothing was passed over with
indifference or haste. Firm and collected on the most trying
occasions, he pursued with inflexible consistency the plans which he
had conscientiously adopted; he never failed in the fulfillment of the
slightest promise--never relinquished any of his measures through
unworthy motives, and was never known to abandon a friend.

Even in his recreations he was a patriot King, for at his leisure
hours he employed himself in superintending the cultivation of a farm,
in which he displayed much taste and skilful arrangement. There is
indeed no employment so well calculated to produce a simple and
unaffected taste as agriculture. It is an innocent enjoyment of
nature, which raises the soul to nature's God.

His purity of manners banished every selfish and ignoble pleasure from
his presence, and adopted such only as were calculated to excite the
most sublime, religious, and moral conceptions. Here too his example
was of great advantage to his people; he had the pleasure of beholding
them copying his purity of taste, and of seeing the gradual
improvement of all the arts of life, and the boundaries of science
enlarging on every side, and his empire, amidst all the difficulties
and dangers of the most turbulent times, ascending to an eminence
above the nations, and displaying a greatness of power which hath at
length, through the divine aid, destroyed the tyranny which threatened
the liberties of mankind.

It is pleasing to remark, that as our venerable Sovereign delivered his
country through the blessing of God on his piety and virtue, from the
dreadful effects of revolution, as Hezekiah did Judah from the threats
of Sennecherib, so like that good king, he received the most sincere
proofs of love and affection from his people, during the whole period of
his arduous reign, which appears to have been protracted by a
superintending Providence, for the happiest purposes. When the nature
of his indisposition in 1789 was announced, the whole kingdom was filled
with grief and consternation, and the affections of the people were
manifested in the most affecting manner. This sorrow was, however, of
short duration, and his unexpected recovery, turned it into excessive
joy: all were anxious to give renewed assurances of fidelity and
attachment to their beloved Sovereign, and their fervour and earnestness
seemed to exhaust language for expressions to convey the strength of
their gratitude. These sentiments of love and affection were again
called forth in the commencement of the fiftieth year of his reign; even
the anticipation of this uncommon national event, warmed the hearts of
his subjects in every part of his extensive empire.[1] A spontaneous and
universal impulse awakened the public mind to unbought and unfeigned
expressions of fidelity and love. Without any order or even suggestion
from authority, preparations were made to celebrate the day in a manner
worthy of the cause. In allusion to the grand national festival among
the Jewish people at the return of the fiftieth year, when lands
reverted to their former owners, and all slaves were set free, the day
of rejoicing received by general consent the hallowed appellation of the
Jubilee, and though in our favoured sanctuary of freedom, personal and
political slavery are alike unknown, yet the unnumbered acts of private
and public mercy and compassion which marked the celebration of this day
beyond all others, rendered it worthy of the name. The greater part of
his subjects had been born beneath his paternal reign, and had shared in
the benefits which a pious Sovereign throws over his age, and in the
blessings which heaven confers upon the throne that is established by
righteousness. "Carried," said a celebrated preacher on the day, "as we
and all our interests have been, in his bosom, and remembered in every
day, in every prayer which he has offered to heaven, ours is now the
grateful duty to nourish his grey hairs with the tenderness of
children--to guard with jealous love, the throne which he fills, alike
from foreign injury and from internal insult--to press with more
affectionate loyalty to our bosom that aged head over which adversity
has shed other sorrows than those of time; to smooth with fond hands
that inevitable path which conducts virtue as well as glory to the
grave, and to ask with fervent prayer that his remaining course may be
like that of the summer sun, when he sets at last, slowly and serenely
in the west, amid the blessings of a grateful world."[2]

Our aged Sovereign was profoundly penetrated by the public joy, and
feeling himself more than ever the father of the people, extended his
paternal clemency and bounty so far as the welfare of the state
permitted, to the most unfortunate and even the most undeserving of
his children. Soon after this joyful event by which the public
sentiment respecting his character was manifested in the most striking
manner, a domestic affliction had such an effect upon his mind, as to
render him incapable of attending to public business; and what is most
melancholy, there is reason to believe that he never knew the
transcendant success with which the divine Providence had crowned the
firm and steady policy which he had conscientiously adopted, and which
has, during his illness, been unremittingly pursued. A policy which
has conferred upon him the title of saviour, not merely of his own
country, but of the rights, and liberties, and independence of all the
nations of Europe.

He has now ascended to his last abode, leaving us to lament his death
and admire his character, and the sorrow which bursts from every corner
of his dominions, proves that he lives in the hearts of his people, the
first in rank, piety, and virtue. In delineating a patriot king, he will
be selected from the page of history, as exhibiting the most perfect
resemblance in his public and private conduct--temperate in the midst of
temptation, diligently seeking the truth, and never forgetting a
promise, when once made; exhibiting moderation in prosperity, and
fortitude, patience, and resignation, in adversity. Firm in his
religious principles, and the steady protector of that Apostolic church
of which he was a member, yet freely admitting religious liberty, in as
far as it was consistent with the safety of his government, and the
sanctity of his oath. Eager to promote the moral and religious
instruction of his people he sought most ardently the accomplishment of
his pious wish that he might live to know that every one of his subjects
could read the Bible, decreeing the independency of the judges, that the
laws might be more purely administered, and maintaining inviolate the
freedom of the people. These interesting and grateful recollections
justify the love and affection which he continually experienced from his
subjects, and will excite kindred emotions in the breasts of their
children to the latest posterity.

There is one important lesson of instruction, my Christian brethren,
furnished by the context, which I particularly recommend to your
serious consideration: the reformation effected by Hezekiah, proved
only temporary, and vanished with his death; his example being no
longer seen, his people returned to their idolatries and were involved
in still greater calamities than those from which they had been
relieved. And yet, there is nothing more certain than that if they had
persevered in the worship of the true God, as Hezekiah had exhorted
them by precept and example, the calamities which befel them would
have never happened.

Let not, therefore, the righteous example of our Sovereign be thus
lost upon you, and as we have him no longer before us, let him live in
our hearts; let his piety, his love of truth, his kindness, and
anxiety to ameliorate the condition of his people and soften the
calamities of life, bring forth in our conduct corresponding fruits,
and let us pray that we may never want one of his posterity clothed
with his mantle of righteousness, to direct his sceptre by the same
knowledge, wisdom and goodness, and to sustain the exalted rank which
we possess among the nations.


[Footnote 1: See Edinburgh Annual Register, and all the Journals of
1809.]

[Footnote 2: Alison's Sermons.]




DISSERTATIONS ON THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINES.


No. 8.

THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST.

(_Continued from page 463, Vol. I._)

The direct evidence of the Resurrection of Christ consists of the
testimony of the Apostles and of the Holy Spirit.

To render the testimony of the Apostles credible, many considerations
unite:

1. _Their Character._ The Apostles were men selected from the lowest
of the people, of obscure birth, and totally unacquainted with the
ways of the world or with the falsehoods and intrigues with which it
is filled. No set of men therefore could be worse qualified for
carrying on a scheme of deception; their education had been extremely
confined; their discourse was plain and homely, and their situation
such as could neither prompt their ambition or qualify them to rise
above their neighbours; their minds were deeply tinctured with all the
prejudices of their nation, and they were so far from supposing that
the Messiah whom they looked for, should ever die, that he might again
rise from the dead, that they expected him, with great pomp and
splendour to make their nation the most happy and flourishing in the
universe. Every religious impression made upon their minds from their
earliest years, rose up in opposition to this doctrine, as regarded
the Messiah, and to the dissemination of a new religion which
professed to be superior to the law of Moses.

But were we to suppose, for the sake of illustration, that these men had
agreed to fabricate the story of the resurrection, there are
circumstances that render such an agreement impossible, till after the
crucifixion. Friends and enemies admit that Jesus, as long as he
remained, was the chief among the Apostles, and therefore the principal
person in concerting and executing their schemes; but if we suppose that
his intention was to deceive, is it probable that he would contrive a
plan that must first prove fatal to himself? Was it necessary to
establish a belief in the resurrection, that he himself should be
crucified? To have acted so foolishly would have been contrary to human
nature; for every person that contrives schemes of deception, wishes to
reap the benefit of them. The inference, that no deception could have
been intended by Jesus, is, therefore, irresistible.

As no such scheme could have been contrived by Jesus, the only time
left for the Apostles to do it, was the space intervening between the
crucifixion and the morning assigned for his resurrection. To prove
the improbability of their contriving any thing so profound during
this short period of distraction and terror, many reasons concur: this
is to suppose, that a few ignorant men, without confidence in
themselves, and always accustomed to the direction of a leader, whose
superior qualifications and virtues they had affectionately revered,
should, on being suddenly deprived of him, and threatened themselves
with immediate destruction, assume a courage and conduct to which they
had been hitherto unequal, and, instead of lamenting the death of
their Teacher, busy themselves in fabricating a tale concerning him
from which they could derive no profit. Is this credible, terrified as
they were, disappointed in their hopes, and overwhelmed with sorrow?
Instead of planning impostures, they were scattered abroad, and each
man seeking for a place of safety. And what were they to gain by
deception? The veneration of the people had not been able to preserve
their Master. They could not hope to rise higher in the public
estimation, as they were neither endowed at this time, with the same
miraculous powers, nor possessed of the same wisdom and eloquence.

2. _Their number._ It is not common for deceivers to intrust many with
their secrets, but here we have Apostles, Disciples, and women, all
protesting their belief in the resurrection of Christ, not on the
report of others, but from their own knowledge; and this belief was
not the effect of credulity, for they left nothing untried to clear up
every possible doubt. They appeared too cautious, too backward, to
believe in the resurrection of their divine Master, as was manifested
by their impatience and contempt of the women who brought the first
intelligence of this wonderful event. Not content with hearing and
seeing him, they must examine the prints of his nails, and put their
fingers into his wounds. Their hands must concur with their eyes and
ears, before their doubts are silenced. Even those who were already
convinced in this manner, could not convince the rest without
resorting to the same proofs. The sepulchre is wide open; the tomb is
empty; the guards are fled.--Angels appear, and inform them of this
wonderful resurrection; but all is insufficient: they still call those
foolish and visionary who assert the truth of an event which their
divine Master had so often told them would come to pass, and to which
he referred them as to the most important of all his predictions. At
length they saw him, not separately, but together; not only by night,
but by day; they conversed with him, they ate with him, and examined
his body, till the most incredulous could no longer doubt. Nor was it
a few that saw him and believed; upwards of five hundred of the
faithful, besides the Apostles, beheld him at one time, of whom many
were living long after the doctrine was preached to the world. All
these declared openly, that they had seen Jesus of Nazareth, whom the
Jews had crucified, risen from the dead; that he had remained with
them forty days, had taught them many things, and that they had seen
him ascend visibly into heaven.

It has been asked, why Jesus did not appear to the people, or at least
to the chief priests and rulers of the Jews, and thus have precluded
the possibility of doubt? To this it may be answered:

1st, The Jews had been witnesses to the numerous miracles of our Saviour
while on earth; they had heard him speak as never man spake; but,
notwithstanding all this, they had rejected him as the Messiah, and put
him to an ignominious death. Instead of believing that he came from God,
as his holy life most loudly proclaimed, their minds were so amazingly
perverted, that they accounted him the child of the devil, and said that
all his miracles were performed by the power of satan. Is it to be
supposed, that Jesus risen from the dead would have made any impression
on minds like theirs? They would have had again recourse to their former
wicked blasphemy, that he had risen by the power of Belzebub, as the
miracle of the resurrection was not in itself greater than those which
he had often performed in their presence.

2d, "As the whole world had a concern in the resurrection of Christ,
it was necessary to prepare a proper evidence for the whole world;
which was not to be done by any particular satisfaction given to the
people of the Jews or their rulers."

3d, "As to the chosen witnesses, it is a mistake to think that they
were chosen as the only persons to see Christ after the resurrection;
but they were chosen as proper persons to bear testimony to all
people; an office to which many others who did see Christ, were not
particularly commissioned. The making choice of proper and credible
witnesses, was so far from being a ground of just suspicion, that it
is, in all cases, the most proper way to exclude suspicion."[3]

3. _Their consistency._ It is difficult, or rather impossible, to
conceive, that any scheme of deception could have been concerted in so
short a time, and continue to be propagated with so little variation. In
the case of Susannah, accused by the two elders, Daniel detected their
villainy from the inconsistency of their testimony, and preserved
innocent blood. How much more likely were five hundred witnesses to
vary in their testimony, had the resurrection of Christ been a
fabrication. It was not in the company of friends, when danger was at a
distance; or in secret, where discovery was guarded against, that the
Apostles asserted the truth of this doctrine; but in the public courts
of justice, and in opposition to those whom they formerly revered as the
chiefs of the people, and the oracles of the law. They never varied in
their evidence, never could be moved by any checks of conscience, nor
could hopes of gain or the fears of suffering induce them to disavow
their testimony, or to detect its falsehood.

"Now that so many persons should persevere immoveably in an
extravagant resolution to maintain a lie, so that no threats, no
perils, no pains, nor troubles from without, no regret or
dissatisfaction from within, should drive them from it, but that they
should die with it in their mouths, is so incredible, that nothing can
be more: it must be, therefore, truth alone that could uphold them
steady in the profession of this thing; so unanimous a consent, so
clear a confidence, so firm a resolution, such insuperable constancy
and patience, nothing but a sense of truth could inspire, and a
perfectly good conscience could sustain."[4] Insults, whippings,
chains, and prisons, were the salary of their steadiness in bearing
witness to this truth. Under showers of stones--under the edge of
murdering swords--in the shades and horrors of death, they persevered
in their testimony.

4. _The time and place where the testimony was given._ We are apt to
venerate early times, and to exalt the great men of remote ages to
something more than mortal. With this prejudice in their favour, it
has been always easy to disseminate marvellous accounts of distant
ages. Had therefore Jesus lived some centuries before any mention was
made of his resurrection, it would have been justly considered an idle
dream, invented by some person in honor of his virtues; but the
resurrection was announced to the world as soon as it happened. At the
very moment when it was least likely to be credited, it was proclaimed
to be true. The malefactor whom the Jews had most ignominiously put to
death a few days before, was said to have arisen and to have appeared
to his friends. No time was allowed to the people to forget his
disgraceful death, but they were informed that the person whom they
had supposed abandoned of heaven, had received the most certain proofs
of divine favour.

As the speedy announcement of the resurrection allowed no time for any
deception, and contradicted the received notions and prejudices of the
people, so it was very easy to appeal to facts accessible to every
one; for the Apostles went not to a distance from Jerusalem to
proclaim the resurrection; they taught it in the porch of the temple,
and in the hearing of the very men that had condemned him to death. To
have published this doctrine in some obscure corner, and declined
coming to the place where the particulars of the crucifixion might be
strictly examined, would have argued a timidity not consistent with
the dignity of truth. But, Jerusalem was the place where the Saviour
of the world suffered--here he arose--and here his resurrection was
first published.

5. _Their motives._ In the expectation of fame, wealth, and honor, men
will undergo the greatest dangers and fatigues; but where shall we
find them voluntarily giving up all prospect of future advantage,
merely to propagate truths exceedingly offensive to all those who are
able to assist them in their progress through life? But here we find
men sacrificing all hopes of reputation as well as interest,
subjecting themselves to general hatred, to the scorn and cruelty of
the world. To suppose them capable of doing all this without
sufficient motives, is to suppose them destitute of human reason. They
were supported by a deep conviction of the reality of our Lord's
resurrection. Before this great event, the Apostles had mistaken the
nature of his kingdom, and during that time they were timid and
desponding; but after it happened, their thoughts were purified, and
learning that the kingdom of their Master was not of this world, they
were no longer weak and feeble, but "courageous, undaunted and
intrepid; they boldly preached that very Jesus whom, but a short time
before, they had deserted in his greatest distress, and although his
crucifixion was fresh in their eyes, and they had reason to expect the
same fate, yet they persisted in avowing themselves his disciples, and
told it publicly that God had made that same Jesus whom they had
crucified, both Lord and Christ."[5]

The Chief Priests and Rulers were highly enraged against the
Apostles, for accusing them of putting to a cruel death an innocent
man. They well knew that every convert made by the Apostles would
execrate them as the worst of men, for having procured, by false
evidence, the death of Christ, the Son of God. They adopted,
therefore, the severest measures to crush them, and all the
instruments of cruelty were called into action. So that to the
witnesses may be applied the description of the sufferings of the
prophets, so forcibly drawn by St. Paul. They had trials of cruel
mockings and scourgings: they were stoned; they were sawn asunder;
they were tempted; they were slain with the sword; they wandered about
in sheep-skins and goat-skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented;
wandering in deserts, in mountains, in dens, and caves of the
earth.--Such was the reward which the Apostles expected and received
for preaching the doctrine of the resurrection. Their motives,
therefore, for disseminating this doctrine, must have been superior to
worldly considerations; for, we cannot suppose that men so wise as
their future conduct in all other respects proved them to be, would
forego a greater for a less good. What their motives really were,
appears from their lives and doctrines. They were convinced of the
truth of the resurrection of Christ, and that it was their duty to
proclaim it; and they knew that he was the first fruits of them that
slept, and consequently that the resurrection would be general, and
therefore, that their mortal body, though laid in the grave, would
rise again, and once more associated with their souls, would be
introduced into the joys of heaven. With this glorious motive ever
present to their minds, dangers and disgraces were contemned and
disregarded. Having their eyes fixed upon another state of existence
infinitely more important than the present, they rejoiced in being
thought worthy of stripes for the Gospel of Christ.

Such are a few of the considerations which establish the truth of the
testimony of the Apostles, and the conclusion is, that Jesus arose
from the dead.

(_To be continued._)


[Footnote 3: Bishop Sherlock.]

[Footnote 4: Whitby.]

[Footnote 5: Bishop Porteous.]




ON THE INCREASE OF THE CHRISTIAN SPIRIT.

(_Continued from page 458, Vol. I._)

    _The 2d proof of the increase of the Christian Spirit, is the Holy
    League entered into by the three greatest Potentates on the
    Continent of Europe._


This Treaty is of a nature so extraordinary as to form an era in the
history of the Church. It affords the gratifying and hitherto
unprecedented spectacle of a union of Christian Sovereigns, differing
in their respective modes of religious worship, but agreeing in a
public recognition of the divine authority of the Gospel and binding
themselves by a solemn compact to adopt its precepts as the rules of
their policy and conduct. To behold potentates whose governments have
not been hitherto directed by those principles of common right and
rational liberty, which we have so long enjoyed, and which the
dissemination of the true religion must at length produce among all
nations, is a triumph of Christianity, which has seldom been surpassed
in value or importance.

There is something grand and affecting in viewing these Sovereigns,
whose actions are not amenable to human tribunals, declaring in the
awful presence of the Almighty, that in order to insure the blessings
which Divine Providence has shed upon their states, they adopt the
sublime truths which are pointed out in the eternal religion of the
Saviour God; that these truths shall furnish their only rule of
conduct, both in the administration of their respective states, and in
their political relations with every other government: for, the
precepts of this religion being the precepts of justice, of charity,
and of peace, are so far from being solely applicable to private life,
that they ought at the same time to direct the resolutions of princes,
and to guide all their undertakings, as being the only means of giving
stability to human institutions and remedying their imperfections.

Animated by such holy principles, these three Sovereigns have agreed
to regard one another as brethren, and their subjects and armies as
the fathers of families; that they will govern them in the spirit of
paternal tenderness; that the only directing principle between them
and their subjects, shall be that of rendering reciprocal services,
of testifying the mutual affection with which they ought to be
animated, and considering them all members of the Christian nation.

Therefore, the three allied princes, looking upon themselves as
delegated by Providence to govern three branches of the same family,
viz. Austria, Prussia, and Russia, confess likewise, that the
Christian community of which they and their people form a part, have
really no other Sovereign than Him to whom alone power belongs, our
Divine Saviour Jesus Christ.

Their Majesties, therefore, recommend with the most tender solicitude
to their people, that peace which springs from a good conscience, and
which alone is durable, and to fortify themselves every day more and
more in the principles of that religion which our divine Saviour has
revealed, and in the diligent performance of the duties which he
requires; and they conclude by inviting all Christian powers to accede
to this marvellous league.

We do not expect that these princes will always act up to the sublime
principles recognized in this holy alliance; but it is of vast
importance, that such divine truths are thus publicly acknowledged to be
essential to the well-being of society. It manifests a great advancement
in the amelioration of such governments, and of individual happiness,
and cannot fail of producing the most beneficial effects. And should all
Christian states join in this or a similar alliance, and turn their
attention to the dissemination of that religion which they profess,
their exertions would be attended with the most eminent success, and
leave the strenuous labours of individuals and societies, great as they
certainly are, at an unmeasurable distance. This holy alliance, as well
as the benign spirit which begins to animate different denominations,
were undoubtedly forwarded by the late convulsions among the nations,
for times of calamity are the harvests of religion. When property
becomes insecure, and the comforts of life precarious, when untimely
death threatens, and all worldly prospects disappear, we call for
consolations of a more efficacious nature than the world has to bestow.
It is then perceived, that religion alone can furnish such consolations,
and offer blessings capable of counterbalancing all the miseries of the
worst of times. By this we account for the great progress which
Christian feelings and principles have made within a few years, among
the high as well as the low, and of which every year affords us new
proofs. To the progress of this excellent spirit, we attribute the
liberal toleration adopted by the government of France; all
denominations of Christians are allowed to worship God as they think
proper. The Catholic form is that of the state, but there is no severe
restraint upon any other. This great improvement has taken place in a
kingdom, which, a century ago, depopulated its provinces rather than
allow Protestants to live, and refused to their dead the rights of
Christian burial. Such are the triumphs of Christian principles, and
thus is the fold of the good Shepherd extended.


    _The 3d proof of the increase of the Christian Spirit is the great
    anxiety for the propagation of the Gospel._

The only means used for the propagation of the Gospel till the
Reformation, was by hearing or preaching the word, and this for many
ages was blessed with the happiest effects; for the Apostles and first
teachers became a living example, more powerful than the precepts of
that divine religion which they inculcated. There was in every small
company or society of converts, one minister of the mysteries of God,
assisted by the heads of families, to guard the moral and religious
qualifications of the congregation. With such support, the minister
kept up among his people a reverence for every thing pure and holy,
and holding a free intercourse with his parishioners, he became their
friend and adviser; the same advantages are still derived from a
respectable clergyman in the midst of his people. He naturally becomes
the composer of differences; the promoter of peace and contentment;
the catechiser of children; the encourager of industry, sobriety, and
all the virtues that make man prosperous and happy. The advantage of
having a person placed in every small circle, whose life is devoted to
purposes so useful, is sufficient to prove its excellence. Where a
clergyman is settled, one correct example will generally be found and
all the advantages of the Sabbath enjoyed; a sense of religion will be
kept up, even among those who do not attend any place of public
worship. So useful is a standing ministry, that it has been held by
many, and not without reason, a cogent proof of the truth of
Christianity. No other religion, but the divine, could have suggested
an idea so grand and affecting, as to place a preacher of
righteousness in every small society throughout the world.

Another means of propagating Christianity was granted by Divine
Providence, a little before the Reformation, in the discovery of the
art of printing. By this invention, the facility of acquiring and
propagating knowledge was wonderfully increased. The sacred records,
to which few before this time had any access, and still fewer
understood, were multiplied, and laid open to all. Every person who
had acquired the first rudiments of learning, was enabled to derive
information and instruction from those never-failing sources of wisdom
and of life.

This circumstance places Christians of the present day in a more
favourable situation than the first converts; for we have the whole
revelations collected before us, but the first Christians had little
more than what fell from the lips of the Apostles and preachers; and
at that time a Church that possessed a single Gospel or Epistle, was
considered to possess the greatest treasure.

As a standing ministry and the dissemination of the Scriptures are the
means of propagating the Christian religion, it becomes the duty of
all believers to promote both as much as possible; and we shall be the
more encouraged to do this within the narrow sphere of our influence,
when we revert to the great exertions that are now making by our
brethren in Great Britain, to extend the limits of Christ's kingdom.
Of the numerous Missionary Societies employed in sending out labourers
to the vineyard, you have already spoken in the Recorder, and likewise
of the various institutions for disseminating the Scriptures; and
while we bless their labours of love, and fervently pray that the
Spirit of our great Master may be present with them, we shall conclude
this article with a few remarks on the Bible Society, which tends more
directly than any of the rest to unite all denominations of Christians
of whatever nation and language, and is on that account more
particularly connected with our present subject.

About the commencement of 1804, when the flames of war began to spread
their baneful influence over Europe, a number of learned and respectable
men formed a Society in London for the pious purpose of diffusing the
knowledge of the holy Scriptures, by circulating them in the different
languages spoken throughout Great Britain and Ireland, and also,
according to the extent of their funds, by promoting the printing of
them in foreign languages, and the distribution of them in foreign
countries. The reasons which called for such an institution, chiefly
refer to the prevalence of ignorance, superstition, and idolatry over so
large a portion of the world, and the recent attempts that have been
made on the part of infidelity to discredit the evidence, vilify the
character, and destroy the influence of Christianity.

The principles upon which this undertaking is conducted are
comprehensive; it embraces the common support of Christians at large,
and invites the concurrence of persons of every description, who
profess to regard the Scriptures as the proper standard of faith.

The Society likewise solicited the countenance of the public, from the
fact that the enlarged means of instruction which the lower classes
enjoyed, increased among them a desire of perusing the Scriptures.

Such was the simple, manly, and unobtrusive appeal of this Society to
the world in its commencement. In 1805, the first report was published,
when the receipts and disbursements very little exceeded £5000.

From this period it rapidly increased in its means, so that its funds
for several years have amounted to one hundred thousand pounds, and it
has distributed upwards of two millions of Bibles and New Testaments.
After an experience of sixteen years, it is impossible to hesitate as
to its extensive usefulness; and the real sentiments and intentions of
those who are its most active supporters. It is indeed impossible (to
use the language of one of the reports of this august institution) to
contemplate the effects produced by the British and Foreign Bible
Society, so conspicuously displayed in the attention it has excited to
the supreme importance of the Holy Scriptures, in the uncommon efforts
for the diffusion of them and in the extension and enlargement of
charitable feeling, without emotions of the purest delight and the
most cheering anticipation.

In humble dependence on the favour of Almighty God, deriving
efficiency from the public bounty, and with no other recommendation
than the simplicity of its principle and the benevolence of its
design, the British and Foreign Bible Society has gone forth from
strength to strength, triumphantly opposing the attempts of infidelity
to discountenance the truths of divine Revelation, imparting its
spirit to Christians all over the world animating their zeal and
aiding their exertions, accompanied by their prayers and rewarded by
their benedictions.




BISHOP OF LONDON'S LETTER TO THE KING.

_To the Editor of the Christian Recorder._


  SIR,

The death of our venerable Sovereign confers a double interest on
every circumstance of his life; I therefore send for insertion in the
Recorder the prophetic Letter written to him on his accession to the
Throne by Dr. Sherlock, at that time Lord Bishop of London, and
likewise a sketch of their Majesties' domestic life at Kew, in 1775.
They will afford much gratification to your Readers, and accord with
that affectionate grief so universally felt for the best of Kings.


                                           _London, Nov. 1, 1760._

SIRE,

Amidst the congratulations that surround the Throne, permit me to lay
before your Majesty a heart which, though oppressed with age and
infirmity, is no stranger to the joys of my country.

When the melancholy news of the late King's demise reached us, it
naturally led us to consider the loss we had sustained, and upon what
our hopes of futurity depended. The first part excited grief, and put
all the tender passions in motion; but the second brought life and
spirit with it, and wiped away the tears from every face.

Oh! how graciously did the Providence of God provide a successor able
to bear the weight of Government in that unexpected event.

You, Sir, are the person whom the people ardently desire; which
affection of theirs, is happily returned by your Majesty's declared
concern for their prosperity; and let nothing disturb this mutual
consent. Let there be but one contest between them; whether the King
loves the people best, or the people him; and may it be a long, a very
long contest; may it never be decided, but let it remain doubtful; and
may the paternal affection on the one side, and the filial obedience
on the other, be had in perpetual remembrance.

This will probably be the last time I shall ever trouble your Majesty.
I beg leave to express my warmest wishes and prayers on your behalf.
May the God of heaven and earth have you always under his protection,
and direct you to seek his honor and glory in all you do; and may you
reap the benefit of it by an increase of happiness in this world and
in the next.




SKETCH OF THEIR MAJESTIES' DOMESTIC LIFE AT _KEW_, IN 1775.


Their Majesties rise at six in the morning, and enjoy the two
succeeding hours, which they call their own: at eight, the Prince of
Wales, the Bishop of Osnaburgh, the Princess Royal, and Princes
William and Henry, are brought from their several houses to Kew House,
to breakfast with their illustrious relations: at nine, their younger
children attend to lisp or smile their good morrows, and while the
five eldest are closely applying to their tasks, the little ones and
their nurses pass the whole morning in Richmond Gardens.

The King and Queen frequently amuse themselves with sitting in the
room, while the children dine, and once a week, attended by the whole
offspring in pairs, make the little delightful tour of Richmond
Gardens. In the afternoon, the Queen works, and the King reads to her,
and whatever charms ambition or folly may conceive as attendant on so
exalted a situation, it is neither on the throne, nor in the drawing
room, in the splendor or the toys of Sovereignty, that they place
their felicity; it is, next to fulfilling the duties of their
stations, in social and domestic gratifications, in breathing the free
air, admiring the works of nature, tasting and encouraging the
elegancies of art, and in living to their own hearts.

In the evening, all the children again pay their duty at Kew House,
before they return to bed, and the same order is observed through each
returning day. The Sovereign is the father of his family; not a
grievance reaches his knowledge that remains unredressed; nor is a
single character of merit or ingenuity ever disregarded; so that his
private conduct must be allowed to be no less exemplary than it is
amiable.

Though naturally a lover of peace, his personal courage cannot in the
smallest degree be impeached: he exercises his troops himself,
understands every martial manoeuvre as well as any Adjutant in his
service, and has the articles of war at his fingers ends. Topography
is one of his favourite studies; he copies every capital chart, takes
the models of all the celebrated fortifications, knows the soundings
of the chief harbours in Europe, and the strong and weak sides of most
fortified towns. He can name every ship in his navy, and he keeps
lists of the commanders; and all these are private qualifications, and
of his own choosing.

Exercise, air, and light diet, are the grand fundamentals in the
King's idea of health and sprightliness: his Majesty feeds chiefly on
vegetables, and drinks little wine; the Queen is what many private
gentlewomen would call whimsically abstemious, for at a table covered
with dainties, she culls the plainest and the simplest dish, and
seldom eats of more than two things at a meal.




BISHOP HORSLEY ON THE SABBATH DAY.

(_Continued from page 8, Vol. II._)


You have now seen that the Christian clearly stands obliged to the
observance of a Sabbath; that in the observance of his Sabbath, he is
held to the original institution of keeping every seventh day; and
that his proper Sabbath is the first day of the seven. By keeping a
Sabbath, we acknowledge a God, and declare that we are not atheists:
by keeping one day in seven, we protest against idolatry, and
acknowledge _that_ God who in the beginning made the heavens and the
earth; and by keeping our Sabbath on the first day of the week, we
protest against Judaism, and acknowledge _that_ God who, having made
the world, sent his only begotten son to redeem mankind. The
observation, therefore, of the Sunday in the Christian church, is a
public weekly assertion of the two first articles in our creed,--the
belief in God the Father Almighty the Maker of heaven and earth; and
in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.

I must not quit this part of my subject without briefly taking notice
of a text in St. Paul's epistle to the Colossians, which has been
supposed to contradict the whole doctrine which I have asserted, and
to prove that the observation of a Sabbath in the Christian Church is
no point of duty, but a matter of mere compliance with an ancient
custom. In the second chapter of that epistle, St. Paul, speaking of
"the handwriting of ordinances which is blotted out, having been
nailed to the Redeemer's cross," adds, in the sixteenth verse, "Let no
man therefore judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect of an
holiday, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days." From this text,
no less a man than the venerable Calvin drew the conclusion, in which
he has been rashly followed by other considerable men, that the
sanctification of the seventh day is no indispensible duty in the
Christian Church,--that it is one of those carnal ordinances of the
Jewish religion which our Lord hath blotted out. The truth however is,
that, in the Apostolical age, the first day of the week, though it was
observed with great reverence, was not called Sabbath day, but the
Lord's day,--that the separation of the Christian church from the
Jewish communion might be marked by the name as well as by the day of
their weekly festival; and the name of the Sabbath days was
appropriated to the Saturdays, and certain days in the Jewish church
which were likewise called Sabbaths in the law, because they were
observed with no less sanctity. The Sabbath days, therefore, of which
St. Paul in this passage speaks, were not the Sundays of the
Christians, but the Saturdays and the other Sabbaths of the Jewish
calendar. The Judaizing heretics, with whom St. Paul was all his life
engaged, were strenuous advocates for the observation of these Jewish
festivals in the Christian Church; and his (St. Paul's) admonition to
the Colossians is, that they should not be disturbed by the censures
of those who reproached them for neglecting to observe these Jewish
Sabbaths with Jewish ceremonies. It appears from the first Epistle to
the Corinthians, that the Sunday was observed in the Church of Corinth
with St. Paul's own approbation. It appears from the Apocalypse, that
it was generally observed in the time when that Book was written by
St. John; and it is mentioned by the earliest apologists of the
Christian faith, as a necessary branch of Christian worship. But the
Sabbaths of the Jewish Church are abolished; nor is the Christian in
the observation of his own Sabbath, to conduct himself by the
childish rules of the old Pharisaical superstition. This brings me to
consider, in the last place, the manner in which the Christian Sabbath
is to be kept.

As the reason of the institution rests on such common benefits as the
creation of the world and man's redemption, it is evident that all
descriptions of men stand obliged to the duties of the day. No
elevation of rank may exempt: no meanness of condition may exclude; no
inexperience of youth disqualifies for the task; no decrepitude of age
is unequal to the toil; no tenderness of sex can suffer from the
fatigue. Since the proper business of the day thus engages every rank,
every sex, and every age, it is evident that it requires a suspension
of the ordinary business of the world; for none can be at leisure for
secular employments, when all are occupied, as they ought to be, in
devotion. All servile labour, and all worldly business were
accordingly prohibited by the Mosaic Law, under the highest penalties;
and capital punishment was, in an early instance, actually inflicted
on a man who only went out on the Sabbath to gather sticks for fuel.
Christian Magistrates have not only the permission, they have the
injunction of our Lord--they have the authority at least of inference
from the example of what he did himself, and what he justified when
done by his disciples, to remit much of the rigour of this
interdiction. Such a cessation, however, of business and of pleasure,
should be enforced, as may leave neither necessity nor temptation upon
any denomination of men in the community, to neglect the proper
observance of the festival. It is to be remembered, that although the
worship of God is the chief end of the institution, yet the
refreshment of the lower ranks of mankind, by an intermission of their
labours, is indisputably a second object.--"Thou shalt rest on the
seventh day," said the law, "that the son of thy handmaid, and the
stranger may be refreshed." A handmaid, in the language of the Old
Testament, denotes a female slave: the son of a handmaid, therefore,
is the offspring of a female slave, which, by the laws of the Jews, as
of all people among whom slavery hath been allowed, was the property
of the master of the mother. The stranger seems here to be set in
opposition to the home-born slave, denoting a foreign slave bought
with money or taken in war. These two descriptions of the home-born
and the foreign slave, comprehend the whole of that oppressed and
helpless order of mankind. It is expressly provided by the law, that
on the Sabbath Day this harassed race of mortals should have their
refreshment. Now, as these injunctions are evidently founded on the
general principles of philanthropy, it should seem that allowance
being made for the difference between the rigour of the Jewish and the
liberality of the Christian dispensation, and allowance being also
made for the different circumstances of the ancient and modern world,
these injunctions of the suspension of the labours of the lower ranks
are universally and perpetually in force, in all parts of the world,
and in all ages; the rather as they are no less calculated for the
benefit of the higher than for the comfort of the lower orders. It is
useful to both to be admonished at frequent intervals--the one, for
their consolation, the other, for the suppression of that pride which
a condition of ease and superiority is too apt to inspire. It is
useful to both to be reminded of their equal relation to their common
Lord, as the creatures of his power, the subjects of his government,
the children of his love--by an institution which at frequent
intervals unites them in his service. Under this recollection, the
servant will obey with fidelity and cheerfulness, and the superior
will govern with kindness and lenity. It is of the highest importance
to the present good humour of society, and to the future interests of
men of every rank, that these injunctions should be observed with all
the exactness which the present state of society may admit.

The labour of man is not the only toil which the Mosaic Law prohibited
on the Sabbath Day. "On the seventh day thou shalt rest, that thine ox
and thine ass may rest." It was a principle with some of the Heathen
moralists, that no rights subsist between man and the lower animals;
that in the exercise of our dominion over them, we are at liberty to
pursue our own profit and convenience, without any consideration of the
fatigue and the miseries which they undergo. The Holy Scriptures seem to
speak another language when they say, "The righteous man is merciful
even to his beast;" and as no reason can be alleged why the ox and the
ass of Palestine should be treated with more tenderness than the kindred
brutes of other countries, it must be upon this general principle, that
mercy is in some degree due to the animals beneath us, that the Divine
Legislator of the Jews provided on the Sabbath for their refreshment.
This, therefore, like the former provision, (allowance still being made
for the different spirit of Judaism and Christianity,) is to be
considered as a general and standard part of the institution, which is
violated whenever, for the mere pleasure and convenience of the owner,
either servants, or even animals, are subjected to the same severity of
toil on the Sabbath which belongs to the natural condition of the one,
and the civil rank of the other, on the six days of the week. On the
Sabbath, man is to hold a sort of edifying communion with the animals
beneath him; acknowledging, by a short suspension of his dominion over
them, the right of the Creator in himself, as well as in them, and
confessing that his own right over them is derived from the grant of a
superior Lord.

It appears from what has been said, that the practice which is become
so common in this country among all ranks of men, of making long
journies on the Sabbath Day, without any urgent necessity, is one of
the highest breaches of this holy institution. It breaks in upon the
principal business of the day, laying some under a necessity, and
furnishing others with a pretence for withdrawing themselves from the
public assemblies; and it defeats the ordinance in its subordinate
ends, depriving servants and cattle of that temporary exemption from
fatigue, which was intended both should enjoy.

This, like other evils, hath arisen from small beginnings; and by an
unperceived, because a natural and gradual growth, has attained at
last an alarming height.

The primary and general end of the institution is the public worship
of God, the Creator of the world and Redeemer of mankind.

Among the Jews, the absolute cessation of all animal activity on their
Sabbath had a particular meaning in reference to their history. It was
a standing symbolical memorial of their miraculous deliverance from a
state of servitude. But to mankind in general--to us Christians in
particular, the proper business of the day is the worship of God in
public assemblies, from which none may, without some degree of crime,
be necessarily absent. Private devotion is the Christian's daily duty;
but the peculiar duty of the Sabbath is public worship. As for those
parts of the day which are not occupied in the public duty, every
man's own conscience, without any interference of public authority,
and certainly without any officious interposition of the private
judgment of his neighbour--every man's own conscience must direct him
what portion of this leisure should be allotted to his private
devotions, and what may be spent in sober recreation. Perhaps a better
general rule cannot be laid down than this:--that the same proportion
of the Sabbath, on the whole, should be devoted to religious
exercises, public and private, as every man would spend of any other
day in his ordinary business. The holy work of the Sabbath, like all
other work, to be done well requires intermissions. An entire day is a
longer space of time than the human mind can employ with alacrity upon
any one subject. The austerity, therefore, of those is little to be
commended, who require that all the intervals of public worship, and
whatever remains of the day after the public duty is satisfied, should
be spent in the closet, in private prayer and retired meditation.

The Sabbath was ordained for a day of general and willing resort to
the holy mountain; when men of every race, and every rank, and every
age, promiscuously--Hebrew, Greek, and Scythian--bond and free, young
and old, high and low, rich and poor, one with another, laying hold of
Christ's atonement, and the proffered mercy of the Gospel, might meet
together before their common Lord, exempt for a season from the cares
and labours of the world, and be "joyful in his house of prayer."




THE MIRACLES OF CHRIST CONSIDERED WITH REFERENCE TO THE DIVINITY OF
HIS NATURE.


Our blessed Lord frequently refers to his miracles, as evidences or
testimonies, which the Father bore to his divine commission. The same
power recommended and attested the authority of Moses and the
prophets, but with this important distinction: they acted by
permission or request, Christ by his own inherent and independent
power. If he prayed or gave thanks upon the occasion, it was because
of the people, not from any defect in himself. He healed them that did
not even declare their wants; he healed them that were absent, and
whom he never saw; he healed them by his word, and it was enough for
him to say to the deaf, Hear; to the blind, See; to the dumb, Speak;
to the lame, Walk; and to the lepers, Be cleansed; and they heard,
they saw, they spake, they walked, they were cleansed, and glorified
God. The devils, before he approached them, before he received any
petitions, or issued any command concerning them, declared who he was,
and besought him to torment them not. The wind and the sea heard him
commanding them to be still, and when the astonished disciples
exclaimed, What a person is this, that even the winds and the sea obey
his voice! they could not but remember whose property it is to make
the storm to cease, so that the waves thereof are still: and this
property they seem to have actually attributed to Jesus, in the prayer
which they used upon the occasion, Lord, save us, we perish.

It is a stronger instance of the miraculous power inherent in Jesus,
that he not only possessed it complete in himself, but that he was
able to confer it upon others, and that he gave power to his disciples
over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of
diseases. They exercised the authority which he gave them, and even
the devils were obedient unto them _through his name_. To the same
mighty name they ascribed the miracles which they wrought after his
ascension, and for which they claimed no honor to themselves.

Such power belongeth not unto men. The more illiberal and prejudiced
Jews imputed it to Satan: the more ingenuous confessed, that even
their expected Messiah could not surpass the works which Jesus did.
Nicodemus declared that no one could perform them except God was with
him; and Peter concurs in his testimony, when he speaks of Jesus of
Nazareth as a man demonstrated from God, by miracles, and wonders, and
signs, which God did by him, and that God was with him in the
performance of them.

It was after an exhibition of this miraculous power for the
satisfaction of John's disciples; after an affecting reproof of the
impenitence of the cities, which considered it not, and after
receiving the report of the disciples, that he gave thanks to the
Father, and declared of himself: All things are delivered unto me of
my Father, and no one knoweth the Son, or who the Son is, but the
Father; neither knoweth any one the Father, or who the Father is, but
the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him. In interpreting these
words of the will of the Father, and of the prophetic commission of
the Son, which might seem to be countenanced by the blessedness
pronounced in St. Luke's narrative, on those who heard and saw the
things which were plain to the disciples of Jesus, but which others
had in vain desired to know, there is a wide departure from the plain
meaning of the words, nor was it true, even at the time the words were
spoken, that the commission of the Son was unknown to any but the
Father. Applied to the mysterious and inscrutible nature of the Father
and the Son, they announce a verity in all ages, of which the Church
has no knowledge, but by the revelation of the Son. There is a passage
in the Gospel of St. John, which may be alleged as throwing
considerable light on this obscure and difficult text: Jesus said, If
ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also, and from
henceforth ye know him and have seen him. Philip, referring to the
visible manifestations of the divine glory under the law, said, Lord,
shew us the Father and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him: Have I
been so long with you, and hast thou not known me, Philip? He that
hath seen me, hath seen the Father, and how sayest thou then, show us
the Father? Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me;
the words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself, and the Father
that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. On another occasion he said:
He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me,
and he that seeth me, seeth him that sent me. The same truth is more
briefly expressed by the Apostle, when he asserts it to be the first
article of the great mystery of godliness, that God was manifested in
the flesh, and when he declares, that in him dwelt all the fullness of
the Godhead, bodily; i. e. says Parkhurst,

"In the body of Christ, as opposed to the Jewish tabernacle or temple;
truly and really in opposition to types and figures; not only
effectually as God dwells in good men, but substantially or personally
by the strictest union, as the soul dwells in the body, so that God
and man are one Christ."

We are to consider him therefore as One, who for his nature and for
his works is rightly designated the Wonderful, the image of the
invisible God, the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express
image of his person.

Among the miraculous works of Jesus, may be placed the rising of the
dead, under circumstances very extraordinary, and illustrative of
divine power. The widow's son at Nain, though he was carried to his
burial, was raised in an instant, by the powerful word of him who
said, young man, I say unto thee, arise. And there came a great fear
upon all, and they glorified God, saying, that a great prophet is
risen up amongst us, and that God hath visited his people. The
restoration of Lazarus was still more remarkable. He had been dead
four days, at which time, the body usually began to putrify; and
though Jesus was informed of his sickness, he took no other notice of
it, than to observe, this sickness is not unto death, but for the
glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified thereby.--Such was
his avowed knowledge of human contingencies. When he came to the place
where he was, Martha declared, that if he had been there, her brother
would not have died, and her persuasion corresponded with that of the
people, that he who opened the eyes of the blind could have caused
that even this man should not have died. So strong was their belief of
his power over life and death. Jesus, to comfort Martha, and in answer
to her declaration, that even now, whatsoever he would ask of God, God
would give it to him, said, Thy brother shall rise again; Martha said,
I know that he shall rise again at the last day. Jesus not only
confirms this doctrine which he had taught and illustrated, but
declares of himself, I am the resurrection and the life, he that
believeth in me, even if he die, shall live, and every one that liveth
and believeth in me, shall not die for ever. Believest thou this? She
saith unto him, yea, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God, who should come into the world. When he came to the
tomb, Jesus lifted up his voice and said, Father, I thank thee, that
thou hast heard me, and I know that thou hearest me always, but
because of the people, which stand by, I said it, that they may
believe that thou hast sent me. And when he had thus spoken, he said
Lazarus come forth, and he that was dead came forth.

These actions of his ministry may explain his saying of himself: As
the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, even so, the Son
quickeneth whom he will. The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of
God, and they that hear shall live, for as the father hath life in
himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself. Whoso
eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life, and I will
raise him up at the last day. In reference to the same power, the
Apostle exhorts the Philippians to look for the Saviour, the Lord
Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile bodies, that they may be like
unto his glorious body, according to the mighty working whereby he is
able to subdue all things to himself: and he not only calls Christ the
second Adam, a title appropriate to him who was not born of earthly
parentage, but he contrasts his nature with the first Adam, saying,
The first Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam was made a
quickening spirit. And thus it was written, not in the volumes of
authentic Scripture, but of ancient tradition, from which Mr.
Bloomfield has extracted the excellent comment: "The Word of Jehovah
said, Here, Adam, whom I created, is the only-begotten Son in the high
heaven." This comment explains St. Paul's comparison of Adam and
Christ, and St. John's allusion to the Word, as the Only-begotten of
the Father: and it proves that the title of the Word, was of Jewish
origin, and was used to designate a person distinct from the Father.
The argument may be concluded with the sublime description which the
glorified Jesus gives of himself in the Apocalypse: I am he that
liveth and was dead, and behold, I live for evermore; Amen, and have
the keys of hell and of death.




CARLILE'S TRIAL.

(_Concluded from page 40._)


4. The story of the miracles abounds in minute particularities; it has
been followed by a vast impression on the frame of society, and it
required a practical change in the lives of those who believed it.
This excludes the stories of common delusions, the popular
superstitions of phantoms, and the whole crowd of credulities, which
it costs nothing to admit. Christianity broke up the habitual faith of
the Jew and of the Gentile, and exposed them to persecution.

5. The miracles were wrought before the establishment of the doctrine.
This strikes down all that have been pretended to be wrought in
affirmance of opinions already flourishing: Popish miracles happen in
Popish countries. We here allude simply to the miracles of Christ and
the Apostles. Those which are said to have occurred in the third and
fourth centuries, found Christianity strong. This occurrence, before
the establishment of Revelation, stands altogether alone. There is no
example of it in the history of religions. Such are the evidences of
the story of the miracles. There are distinctions relative to the
miracles themselves.

1. We need not admit as a miracle that which can be resolved into a
false perception. This excludes the dæmon of Socrates, the vision of
Lord Herbert, Colonel Gardiner's vision, &c. Those may be accounted
for as temporary insanity: they appeal but to a single sense, they
appear but to the individual--they are momentary. The blind man that
saw was an object of investigation to the multitude; the cure of the
withered limb was permanent; Lazarus retained life. The blind man
appeared to stand the scrutiny of the Jewish sceptics. The lame man,
cured by the Apostles, followed them to the judgment-hall before the
Jewish council.

2. The miracles never failed, according to the Gospel narrative. This
distinguishes them from all tentative wonders--those in which one out
of many succeeds. This excludes the cures wrought by relics, and at
the tombs of saints, the King's touch, and the effect of nostrums, &c.

3. We exclude all accounts, which, allowing the facts to be true,
leave their miraculous nature in doubt: we thus get rid of the story
of the "Thundering Legion;" the hindrance to the re-building of the
Temple by Julian; the circling of the flames at the death of Polycarp;
Constantine's vision of the cross in the clouds; the liquefaction of
the blood of St. Januarius; the sudden cure of hypocondriacal
complaints, &c.

4. We exclude those that may be the exaggeration of a simple fact. But
the raising of Lazarus, the widow's son, and the feeding of the five
thousand, allow of no connection with an original fact, not
miraculous. The sum of all is, that the miracles of Christ are
numerous, public, powerful, and for an immediate and adequate
purpose. He heals all diseases; feeds multitudes with a few loaves and
fishes; walks on the sea; calms a storm; and raises the dead in three
several instances. Connected with those stupendous evidences of the
divine power, are the voice and celestial appearance at his baptism;
his transfiguration; and his resurrection. And such is the author of
Christianity. There is no wonder wrought since the days of Christ and
the Apostles, which cannot be resolved into deception from the actual
narrative. But in the miracles of Christ and his immediate disciples,
the narrative leaves not room for the suspicion of imposture. No human
ingenuity has since that memorable age succeeded in constructing the
glory of a miracle; and no human scepticism has been able to discover
a weakness in the story of the signs wrought by the Jewish wanderer,
"who had not where to lay his head," and his twelve peasants. And this
mass of evidence is to be abandoned for the feeble folly of a few
half-witted profligates, whose opinions we should not adopt on any
subject in the whole range of human questioning. Why are we to suppose
their wisdom in religion more infallible than in politics? We see that
in public questions they are either treasonous or mad; we see, that if
they had power equal to their malignity, the state would be in flames
from end to end. Is the man, breathing bitterness against all that we
know to constitute the honor, and happiness, and existence of society,
in the state of mind to judge of the solemn purity of Revelation? Is
the being, whom society labours to cast out as a disease, born in
degradation, reared in pestilent ignorance, and feeding his maturity
on visions of universal subversion--the hater of the law--the
anticipated murderer of every man above himself--to be our guide in
the concerns of the eternal world?




EPISCOPAL CHURCH AT OTTER CREEK.


At a public Meeting of the inhabitants of the Townships of Bayham and
Malahide, held at Otter Creek, Talbot Road, in the District of London,
on the 29th of April, 1820, for the purpose of taking into
consideration and adopting the most expedient measures to erect an
Episcopal Church,

Mr. Joseph De Fields being unanimously called to the Chair, in a short
but impressive speech, stated to the Meeting the object of their being
called together, and recommended that the same spirit and zeal be
manifested on this occasion as on similar ones in different parts of
the Province; he concluded with recommending the reading of a
communication in the Christian Recorder, on the building of Churches,
which was received with the greatest interest; after which, the
following Resolutions were entered into:

_Resolved_--That a Committee be elected, and the officers to consist of
one President, two Vice-Presidents, one Secretary, and one Treasurer,
the whole of whom shall constitute the members of the Committee.

_Resolved_--That the first and each succeeding annual Meeting of the
subscribers, be holden on the fourth day of June, at Bayham, when the
officers for the ensuing year shall be chosen, and a Report of the
proceedings read.

_Resolved_--That all Magistrates and Ministers of the Gospel, being
members of the Church, shall be members of the Committee, by virtue of
their office.

_Resolved_--That the object of the Committee shall be to open
subscriptions, to receive gratuitous contributions, and transfer the
same to the Secretary and Treasurer.

_Resolved_--That the Secretary shall record all the proceedings at every
Meeting of the Committee, and shall draw all drafts on the Treasurer,
when ordered by the Committee and signed by the President, to keep a
correct account of subscribers and subscriptions, and to call special
Meetings of the Committee by a timely Notice, which shall be three days
at least, with the concurrence of three or more of its members.

_Resolved_--That it shall be the duty of the Treasurer to receive all
monies and other property belonging to the friends, from whatever
source, to keep a correct account of the same, together with a list of
the subscribers and subscriptions, to answer drafts and orders by the
Committee, and when requested by three or more of its members, to
submit his accounts to inspection.

_Resolved_--That three men chosen out of the number of those appointed
as a Committee one of which shall be the Secretary for the time being,
shall be empowered to act as Contractors and to superintend the
building of the Church, to receive subscriptions, and furnish
materials, and agreeable to the last Resolve, submit their accounts to
inspection, when called on by three or more of the Committee.

_Resolved_--That when a vacancy occurs in any office, the Committee
shall have power to supply such vacancy by election, till the next
general Meeting of the subscribers.

_Resolved_--That the Minutes of all Meetings of the Committee shall be
signed by the President and Secretary.

_Resolved_--That the Church be built on the land appropriated to that
purpose by Mr. Thomas Godwin situated on Richmond Hill.

_Resolved_--That the thanks of the Meeting be voted to the President,
for his able conduct in the Chair.

_Resolved_--That the thanks of the Meeting be voted to Mr. T. Godwin,
for his very liberal donation of land for the purpose of building the
Church upon.




SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE.


At a Special General Meeting of the Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge, held on the 29th November, 1819;--Present, their Lordships
the Bishops of London, Lincoln, Bangor, Carlile, Ely, Chester,
Gloucester, Peterborough, and Landaff, Lord Kenyon, &c. &c.

The Secretary read from the Minute Book of the Committee for
Correspondence with the Diocesan and District Committees, the
following Report:

"'The Committee for Correspondence with the Diocesan and District
Committees, having considered, with the attention due to its importance,
the matter in reference under the resolution of the 2d of November, beg
leave to submit to the General Board, that they find the stores of the
Society amply furnished with defences against the designs of those who
endeavour to propagate Atheism and Infidelity amongst us, as such
designs have been heretofore carried on; but that of late the modes of
attack having been for the most part changed, as well with regard to the
parties assailed, as to the instruments of assault, a similar change in
the means of defence is indispensibly required.

"'It is not therefore so much against the specious arts and arguments
of the Sceptic, addressed as formerly to the middle and higher ranks,
and to them almost exclusively, (though these are not to be lost sight
of, in the measures to be adopted by the Board,) that we have at this
time, principally to provide. The peculiar and more pressing danger of
the moment arises from a diffusive circulation, amongst the lower
classes, of short tracts, which, however otherwise to be despised, are
but too well calculated, by bold fallacies and blasphemous assertions,
to shake the faith of the ignorant and uninformed, and by an
unceasing repetition of attacks in daily and weekly numbers finally to
overthrow it; and to these the attention of the Committee has been
more particularly directed.

"'With respect to the first, the Committee are of opinion, that great
good may be effected by an increased circulation of many valuable
Tracts, now on the list of the Society's books, and that such increased
circulation may reasonably be expected from the Christian zeal of
members in every part of the country; but they also submit that it is
desirable to promote a still wider dispersion of these and similar
pieces,--by a reduction of the present prices,--by an immediate notice
to District Committees of such reduction--and by Special Meetings or
otherwise, the most extended distribution in their power.

"'Your Committee, however, apprehend, that when all this has been
done, and all these means have been most actively and usefully
applied, much will still remain to be done; and the most effectual
means of counteraction will still be found wanting; as, in the opinion
of your Committee, the alarming evils of this frightful crisis can
only be successfully met, in many cases, by the prompt application of
remedies, perhaps as novel as the mischief, which calls for them;
adapting themselves to the varying aspects, under which it may from
time to time appear; and especially so far accommodated to the
parties, for whose benefit they are designed, as to insure their
acceptance, and give the most reasonable promise of relief.

"'With remedies of this description the Society's stores, as might
naturally be expected, are at present unprovided; and it is feared,
must, from its character and constitution, in a great degree, ever
remain so, inasmuch as the poison is circulated, in a form and
manner, in which, according to its usual course of proceeding, or by
any of its accustomed organs, the Society cannot offer the antidote.

"'Your Committee feel, however, the magnitude of the mischief to be so
appalling, and the peril to the souls of thousands so imminent, as to
demand from the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge every
practicable exertion, and to justify almost any departure from its
ordinary habits, which shall not actually compromise its character, or
endanger its constitution. With this feeling, therefore, they call upon
the General Board, to do all in its power, under these reservations, to
stay the moral plague, which, though like its antitype in the natural
world, of rare occurrence, and they humbly trust, by the divine mercy,
of short continuance too, would like it, if unchecked by proper
antidotes, sweep millions to destruction in its course.

"'The Committee, therefore, finally submit to the General Board their
earnest hope, that a Special Committee may be appointed, with the
fullest discretionary powers suited to meet the exigence of this
extraordinary crisis, with a recommendation that they immediately
engage in the most active distribution of the above-mentioned works,
on the list of the Society, and of such small single sheet Tracts, and
other temporary pieces, not having a claim to a permanent place on the
Society's catalogue, as may in their judgment be fitted for the
purpose; that they have authority to add to their number; and to call
upon the public for contributions, in aid of their designs; and that
the Society do encourage the formation of a fund, for these important
objects, by placing 1000_l._ at the disposal of such Committee.'"

"Whereupon the Society, taking into consideration the interesting and
important particulars contained in the Report of their Committee,

"_Unanimously agreed_ to adopt and do what is therein contained,
concurring with them in all particulars.

"Also, that the Special Committee, for the purposes stated in the
Report, do consist of the present Committee for Correspondence, with
the addition of the Secretary (the Rev. Dr. Gaskin,) the Reverend
Preachers of the three Inns of Court,--the Temple, Lincoln's Inn, and
Gray's Inn,--the Rev. Incumbents of St. James's, St. George's, and St.
Martin's, Westminster, the Dean of Westminster, and the Christian
Advocate of Cambridge.

"That there be a Committee of Superintendence, consisting of his Grace
the Archbishop of Canterbury President of the Society, the Bishops of
London and Lincoln, and the Bishop of Peterborough, Margaret Professor
of Divinity, Cambridge, and the Bishop of Landaff, Regius Professor of
Divinity, Oxford.

"That the powers of the Special Committee do last for a twelve month,
and then expire, unless revived by the Board.

"That the Special Committee do make Reports of their Proceedings, from
time to time, as occasion shall require, and

"That the thanks of this Board be returned to the Lord Bishop of
London, for his attention to the business of the Meeting.

"_The Special Committee hold their Meetings at the Society's House,
No. 5, Bartlett's Buildings, Holburn, to whom all Communications are
to be addressed, and by whom Contributions are received, as well as at
Messrs. Gosling's and Co. Fleet-Street, on account of the Treasurer._

"ADDRESS TO THE PUBLIC.

"At a time when the enemies of Christianity are employed in
disseminating the poison of Blasphemy and Infidelity to an
unparalleled extent, THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE
consider it their peculiar duty to call into action all the means
within their power to arrest the progress of the evil. Upon the
magnitude of that evil they deem it unnecessary to dwell. The signs
of the times are, in themselves sufficiently alarming. But the
success, which, under the blessing of Providence, has for more than a
century attended the labour of the Society in the sacred cause, gives
them the assurance that now, in the hour of peril, their appeal to the
attention of the public will not be made in vain.

"Without a general co-operation, however, of the friends of
Christianity, the exertions of the Society, as a collective body will
be productive of a comparatively confined and partial benefit. Upon
their own part, the Society have not been inactive. Directing their
attention in the first instance to the religious works already on
their list, they have published in the most popular form, and at very
reduced prices, such as appeared to them best calculated to check the
growth of irreligion. The extraordinary demand for these Tracts which
may be anticipated, joined to the reduction of prices which has taken
place, will, of necessity, be attended with much additional expence.
This expence, however, the Society (although their revenue has not in
general exceeded the calls which have been made upon them) are anxious
to meet out of their ordinary funds.

"But as the forms which Infidelity has now assumed are novel, and
peculiar, the Society have also thought it necessary to vary in some
degree, their ordinary modes of operation. A Committee has therefore
been appointed for the special purpose of searching for other Tracts,
not at present on the Society's List, of opening new channels for
distribution, and of circulating, at the lowest prices, such other
Tracts and Papers, as may be called forth by the occasion, and may
appear to them best suited to the exigency of the moment. And it is
proposed by the means of this Committee, to extend to the public at
large, those advantages of purchase and distribution, which have
hitherto been confined to the Members of the Society, and every
facility will be afforded by the Committee in London, and by the
Diocesan and District Committees in the country, to all those pious
and well-disposed persons, whether Members of the Society or not, who
may be desirous of giving to these Tracts that effective circulation,
which it is the especial object of the Society to obtain. In order to
carry into effect these extended operations, the Society have already
appropriated the sum of £1000 from their general fund to this specific
object. And they look confidently to the friends of Christianity for
such cordial and zealous aid, as may enable them to give the fullest
effect to their endeavours. They trust, that they shall be assisted by
the powerful and the active in the diffusion of these salutary
publications, through all parts of the country; and that, in every
place where the Word of God shall be assailed, the weapons also of
defence may be at hand, to repel the attacks of the Blasphemer. They
trust that, from the pious and the wealthy, they shall find that
liberal assistance, which such extensive measures will require; and
that, while they are engaged in the anxious defence of all that is
sacred, and dear to Christians, their exertions will not be allowed to
languish, for the want of due co-operation and support."

    _The undermentioned Tracts which are already on the Society's
    Catalogue, have been reduced in price as follows_:

                                                    _s._  _d._
  Leslie's short and easy Method with
    the Deists                                       0     3

  Leslie's Truth of Christianity demonstrated        0     3

  Bishop Porteus's Evidences of the
    Truth of Christianity, bound                     0     6

  Ditto, half-bound                                  0     4

  Bishop Horne's Letter to Adam Smith                0     1

  Bishop Watson's Apology for the Bible              0     6

  Bishop Gibson's three Pastoral Letters
    on Infidelity, 3d each, or together              0     6

  Lord Lyttleton's Observations on the
    Conversion of St. Paul                           0     4

  Bishop Sherlock's Trial of the Witnesses           0     6




Transcriber's Note


  Obvious punctuation and spelling errors repaired.

  Publication date "March, 1820" changed to "April, 1820".

  Edition "Vol. II No. 1" changed to "Vol. II No. 2".

  Pg. 80: "0 0h" changed to "0 1".


[The end of _The Christian Recorder Vol. 2, Issue 2 (1820-April)_ by Various]