LITURGICAL HINTS.-No. LIV. "Understandest thou what thou readest?"-Acts, viii. 30. CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL, 24th January. In the case of other saints, their martyrdom, or at least the days of their death, are celebrated by the Church. But in the case of St. Paul, his conversion is made the holyday, for these reasons: first, for the example of it, that no sinner, how great soever, might hereafter despair of pardon, seeing Saul, a grievous persecutor, made Saint Paul. Secondly, for the joy which the Church had at his conversion. Thirdly, for the miracle wrought at his conversion. "Probably, also, because as it was wonderful in itself, and a miraculous effect of the powerful grace of God, so was it highly beneficial to the Church of Christ; for whilst other apostles had their particular provinces, he had the care of all the Churches; and by his indefatigable labours contributed very much to the propagation of the Gospel throughout the world."t The COLLECT is one of that number which are "taken from ancient models, but considerably altered and improved by our reformers and the reviewers of the Liturgy. In the Breviaries a new prayer was added, mentioning St. Paul's intercession: in the year 1549 the old prayer alone, out of Gregory's Sacramentary, was restored, which had our walking after St. Paul's example' only; which was a little varied in the year 1662. There is in the Alexandrian liturgy a very ancient collect, called 'Oratio post apostoli seu Paulina epistolæ lectionem;' or, a prayer to be used after the reading of St. Paul's Epistle; which refers to nearly the same circumstances as our own English collect does. The Latin collect stands thus: 'O God, who hast taught the whole world by the preaching of thy blessed apostle Paul; grant us, we beseech thee, that we who this day commemorate his conversion may, by his example, advance toward thee.'"t The EPISTLE is the historical narrative of that "wonderful conversion" spoken of in the prayer that precedes it; and wonderful we shall confess it was, if we remember what Paul was before it, and what after. So blinded was his judgment before that event, that he verily thought that he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus; which mad persuasion he followed out to the utmost extreme; and, breathing out threatenings and slaughters against the disciples of the Lord, he took that momentous journey, in the progress of which he was converted. "His purpose was instantly changed. The enemy of the cross became its defender; and the persecutor, Saul of Jerusalem, was at last the martyr, Paul of Rome. His conversion was not less remarkable in its effect than it had been signal in its means; his purpose was changed, but not his lofty character. In the apostle we mark the same unabated zeal, the same unwearied activity, the same intensity of feeling, which distinguished the haughty pharisee; but directed to the honour of the cross of Christ. The cross was henceforth his glory. To establish its doctrines he traversed sea and land: in journeyings often his toils subdued him not; in perils in the sea his heart fainted not; in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness,' his faith failed him not. He had in view one great object, and he attained it-he preached the Gospel to the nations."§ The GOSPEL contains that promise of our Lord to Peter and the other disciples, that "every one that forsaketh houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for his name's sake, shall receive an hundred-fold, and shall inherit The " Liturgical Hints" for saints' days, and other holydays, appointed by the Church, which were commenced in December 1835, and discontinued for want of room, are now resumed. They will appear as often as such days occur, in the Number immediately preceding. + Nelson. Bishop Mant on the Common Prayer. § James on the Collects. everlasting life;" a scripture fitly "selected for the day, St. Paul being an eminent instance of those that forsook all worldly interests and relations, and suffered the loss of all things that he might win Christ." "If there be one not ready to do this, if there be one thus lukewarm in the profession of the Gospel, that Gospel solemnly and repeatedly assures him that a change and a conversion, similar to that we have been considering, must take place within him before he can appropriate to himself the mercy of his God, or the merits of his Saviour."* In this wonderful event we are particularly to remember, that conversion is the work of God. There was nothing in St. Paul to recommend him to the Divine mercy; for, even to the moment when he was struck to the ground, his heart was full of enmity against Christ, and the errand he was going upon was to root out his religion from the earth. Nor are there any previous qualifications now in those who are converted to dispose them to receive the grace of God. It is true, all are not bitter persecutors, as St. Paul was, but all men by nature are far from God; nor can any one be truly converted unto him without the influence of his grace. We have great reason to be thankful unto God for the wonderful conversion of this blessed apostle, not only on account of the great mercy and grace bestowed upon him, but for the encouragement given in his example to the vilest of sinners, if, like him, they are truly converted and brought to repentance. "For this cause," he says, "I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew all long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting" (1 Tim. i. 16). And we have reason to be thankful, also, for the "holy doctrine" contained in his epistles, by which the Church of God has been so exceedingly enriched. In them he has set before us the great object of our faith, in whom he gloried, even "Jesus Christ, and him crucified" (1 Cor. ii. 2); and exhibited to us all the doctrines and duties, the graces and privileges of the Gospel. These things we pray that we may have grace through Christ to follow, that so doing we may shew forth our thankfulness to God for the "wonderful conversion" of his "blessed apostle St. Paul," and thereby prove that we have not "received the grace of God in vain" (2 Cor. vi. 1).† him not. The Cabinet. JESUS IN THE TEMPLE.-When Joseph and the blessed virgin-mother had for a time lost their most holy Son, they sought him in the villages and the highways, in the retinues of their kindred and the caravans of the Galilean pilgrims; but there they found At last, almost despairing, faint and sick with travel and fear, with desires and tedious expectations, they came into the temple to pray to God for conduct and success, knowing and believing assuredly that if they could find God, they should not long miss to find the holy Jesus; and their faith deceived them not, for they sought God, and found him that was God and man, in the midst and circle of the doctors.Bishop Taylor. THE CHRISTIAN'S WALK.-Considering himself a pilgrim on earth, and that he must shortly appear before God to give an account of the deeds done in the flesh, and knowing that eternal life is the gift of God's love through Jesus Christ, the Christian will ever make that love the constant theme of his meditation, the enlivening principle of his hopes and conduct, and it will animate his exertions to promote the glory of God, and the temporal and spiritual welfare of his fellow-creatures. He will fix his eyes on Jesus as "the way, the truth, and the life," through ⚫ Sermons by the Rev. F. W. Fowle. + See "Exposition of the Collects," by the Rev. Charles Birch, Curate of Happisburgh, Norfolk. London, 1826. whom alone he can have access to the Father; and will study his life, his doctrines, and precepts, in the humble but earnest hope of imitating, adopting, and following them. Conscious, at the same time, of his natural inability to act up to the dictates of reason, conscience, and Scripture, he will ardently pray for the gift of the Holy Spirit to enlighten and strengthen him. Feeling, notwithstanding his best exertions, that he is ever far removed from that purity which the law of God requires, and instructed that "without holiness no man shall see the Lord," he will pray without ceasing to obtain it. Still he finds a perpetual counteraction from the world, from the corruptions of his own heart, and from the temptations of Sitan; that he cannot do the good which he would, while he does the evil which he would not; and bewailing his propensity to sin, and lamenting his depravity, he exclaims with St. Paul, "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" The same Scriptures which teach him his weakness and his inCompetency to deliver himself, point out a remedy and deliverance in the words of the apostle, which he Joyfully appropriates to himself: "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is made to us wisdom, geousness, sanctification, and redemption." Thus string against sin, and aiming at habitual holiness, beghts the good fight of faith, and lays hold on eternal life, trusting that he shall obtain it through the merits of that Saviour who died for our sins, and ruse again for our justification. He sees that his business in this life is to prepare for eternity, without Fing into the secret will of God; that enough has been revealed on the mysterious subject of the Divine dispensations to silence doubt and to inspire confidence; that it is his duty to do the will of his heavenly Father; and in a life governed by this principle, he has an assurance of an inheritance eternal and incorruptible through Jesus Christ.- Lord Teign THE VISIBLE CHURCH.-When we read of any duty which the Church of God is bound unto, the Church whom this doth concern is a sensible known company. And this visible Church in like sort is but one, coninued from the first beginning of the world unto the ast end; which company being divided into two oieties, the one before, the other since the coming of Christ, that part which since the coming of Carist partly hath embraced, and partly shall hereafter embrace the Christian religion, we term, as by a cre proper name, the Church of Christ. And therefore e apostle affirmeth plainly of all men Christian, that be they Jcws or Gentiles, bond or free, they are all incorporated into one company, they all make but one Body (Eph. ii. 16). The unity of which visible body ai Church of Christ consisteth in that uniformity which all several persons thereunto belonging have, by reason of that one Lord, whose servants they all profess themselves; that one faith, which they all acknowdre; that one baptism wherewith they are all initated. The visible Church of Jesus Christ is therelore one in outward profession of those things which pernaturally appertain to the very essence of Chrisfranity, and are necessarily required in every particular Christian man.... Howbeit, of the visible body and Church of Christ, those may be and oftentimes are, in respect of the main parts of their outward profession, , in regard of their inward disposition of mind, a of external conversation, yea, even of some parts of their very profession, are most worthily both hatein the sight of God himself, and in the eyes of the Luder part of the visible Church most execrable. Par Saviour, therefore, compareth the kingdom of aven to a net, whereunto all which cometh neither nor seemeth fish; his Church he compareth unto a vid, where tares manifestly known and seen by all sen do grow, intermingled with good corn, and even so continue till the final consummation of the world (Matt. xiii. 24, 47). God hath had ever, and ever shall have, some Church visible upon earth. When the people of God worshipped the calf in the wilderness; when they adored the brazen serpent; when they served the gods of the nations; when they bowed their knees to Baal; when they burnt incense, and offered sacrifice unto idols; true it is, the wrath of God was most fiercely inflamed against them; their prophets justly condemned them as an adulterous seed, and a wicked generation of miscreants, which had forsaken the living God, and of him were likewise forsaken, in respect of that singular mercy wherewith he kindly and lovingly embraceth his faithful children. Howbeit, retaining the law of God, and the holy seal of his covenant, the sheep of his visible flock they continued, even in the depth of their disobedience and rebellion. . . . . For lack of diligent observing the difference, first between the Church of God mystical and visible, then between the visible sound and corrupted, sometimes more, sometimes less, the oversights are neither few nor light that have been committed.-Hooker's Eccl. Pol., book iii. chap. 1. Poetry. THIRD SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. From infuriate passion's rage, Heedless youth and selfish age; From the lusts whose deep pollutions Adam's ancient taint disclose, From the tempter's dark intrusions, Restless doubt and blind repose; From the miser's cursed treasure, From the drunkard's jest obscene, From the world, its pomp and pleasure, Jesus! Master! make us clean! STANZAS. BISHOP HEBER. (For the Church of England Magazine.) O FOR a faith as firm, unmov'd, Moriah's mountain trod; And bound his son, and rais'd his hand, Obedient to his Lord's command. Or his, Arabia's tempted son, Surcharg'd with various woe; His children dead, his riches gone, In pain and sickness low; Still prone to choose the wrong, Oh, humbler things in thy dear word Are fitter far for me; Yet there, the humblest pray'r preferr'd Was heard and mark'd by thee: Both" If thou canst," and "If thou wilt," I know I know thou wilt not spurn Increase my weak, my wavering faith, Lead me to conquer sin and death, Feeble and faint my cry may be, Yet, Lord, I still would cling to thee. SUBMISSION. M. A. STODART. "O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me except Is there no way but this, most gracious Lord? Miscellaneous. Z. NATIONAL CHURCH.-Do away in Britain with a national Church, and let religion be put upon the footing of a set of voluntary associations, instead of dioceses subdivided into parishes, wherein a uniform worship is maintained; let each congregation for itself fix upon its creed, and appoint its pastor, who shall be equally recognised by government, whatever it be ;-let the country have no national religion at all; but let it be subdivided into societies, some rallying on the ground of an episcopally ordained Protestant priest; others adhering to the superstitions of the Church of Rome; others to the Jewish synagogue; others to the Socinians; others to the Congregational Union; others to Joanna Southcote; and others to the Baptists; while others are at full liberty to declare themselves without the pale of any sect:-we shall soon find that, were the country parcelled out into this extraordinary medley of every varied system of religion, or of infidelity, which may soothe the consciences or please the tastes of their respective votaries, the most widely prevalent sect will be that of no religion at all; for, when left to its own free choice, corrupt nature will in too many cases speedily throw off altogether the trammels of religion, and its worship, and its restraints, and its expense: and we shall soon have atheism as the prevailing denomination among us.—Osler. THE TEN TRIBES OF ISRAEL.-At a meeting of the Royal Asiatic Society, a paper was read " on the Fate of the Ten Tribes of Israel after the Fall of Samaria," by the late T. M. Dickenson, Esq. of the Bombay Civil Service. The writer in this essay acutely investigates the several opinions which have obtained currency among the learned, as to the location of the captive Israelites after the destruction of their kingdom. He considers the opinions of Bochart and Sir William Jones on this subject to be without good foundation; but he leaves the question undecided, supposing it more probable that the children of Israel were not long preserved as a separate people. He is inclined, however, to afford more consideration than recent writers have been induced to give to the idea which was advocated so warmly by the early settlers in the new world, that the North American Indians were of Hebrew origin. This opinion, Mr. Dickenson states, was first suggested to John Elliott (the Indian evangelist, as he is sometimes called,) by a Mr. Winslow, a commercial agent in New England, about 1549. It was subsequently maintained by several other writers, and supported by arguments drawn from many striking peculiarities which characterise the manners, customs, religious rites, physiognomy, &c. of the American Indians. He then adverts to the black Jews of Malabar, who are invariably termed Beni-Israel or Israelites, and not Jews, as the followers of the law of Moses are elsewhere designated; and thinks that their origin and history are well deserving investigation; but concludes with observing, that although the exiles of Samaria should any where be preserved as a separate people, the difficulty of distinguishing them from their brothers of Jerusalem will most probably be an insuperable bar to any thing like a certain decision upon their ultimate fate.--Athenæum. BARONIAL RIGHTS OF THE PRELACY.-The protection of the baronial rights of the prelacy is demanded by the integrity and safety of the Church. Their proposed removal from parliament is but part of a systematic assault on the Church, in which some good men are unconsciously embarked, at the instigation of others, who, professing to reform, are intending to destroy. If she is to be upheld as a whole, let not her defences be abandoned in detail. That the legislative functions of the bishops are among the securities of the Church, no considerate man can doubt: her enemies know it, and are acting on that conviction.--Hull. LONDON:-Published by JAMES BURNS, 17 Portman Street, Portman Square; W. EDWARDS, 12 Ave-Maria Lane, St. Paul's; and to be procured, by order, of all Booksellers in Town and Country. PRINTED BY ROBSON, LEVEY, AND FRANKLYN, 46 ST. MARTIN'S LANE. ON THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF THE YOUNG. BY THE REV. W. W. STODDART, M.A. Is reading a recent work on America, I was struck by an observation upon the religious education of the young, namely, that in our manner of conducting it we act inconsistently, in reversing the practice which we pursue with regard to all other knowledge, first teaching the child what conclusions he is to arrive at, and then, but not till then, supplying him with the grounds upon which they rest. If this view of the subject were confined to the author I refer to, I might have let it pass unnoticed; but as the objection has a plausible appearance, and as it seems to have been adopted by a certain class of persons, whose works are very much in the hands of the poor, it may be of use to shew how far this reasoning is false, and how far it is likely to prove injurious. It is false, because it is used to prove that our practice tends to foster superstition. The analogy, upon which it is founded, between religious and scientific truth does not hold good in this particular. Our progress in the latter may be said to depend entirely upon our own exertions. The more we cultivate our natural faculties, the better do we prepare ourselves for the discovery of new truths-that is, of truths which to us were wholly unknown before; and the value of these, as truths, depends absolutely upon the accuracy with which we have traced our conclusions. Should these have been hastily assumed, as, for instance, when there is only VOL. IV.-NO. LXXXVIII. PRICE lad. an apparent, but no real connexion between the facts, the result is no longer truth, but mere idle speculation. In religious knowledge the reverse of this is the case there, whatever is true depends for its authority, not upon any process of investigation that we ourselves have carried on, but, on the contrary, on something in which we have no part: it is of Divine imposition; of such a nature, that, but for revelation, we never could have attained to it. Although, then, it may be true that in science it would be most unphilosophical to press conclusions upon the student before he has first mastered the premises, this affects not religious truths, which are not conclusions, but facts, or plain assertions; in themselves as incapable of proof by us, as are the axioms of mathematics. In saying this, I do not mean to deny that many of the leading truths of Christianity, perhaps all of them, admit of reasoning upon them. But we must remark, that all that is sought to be proved by such arguments, is, that they are actually contained in Scripture. For the moment that this is established, we have no farther choice; either we must reject Scripture altogether, or we must receive them. Nor do questions such as these ever form the elements of our religious education. They are "the strong meat which belongeth to them that are of full age, who, by reason of their use, have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil." Such reasonings may profit those who seek to understand the 66 analogy of faith," that they may disclose to others the whole counsel of God; but, far from their being obnoxious to the objection which I am considering, there is no reason to E doubt that they are in most cases conducted | yet only being trained to the task: afterwards, upon principles of the most approved philosophy. But the analogy here sought to be instituted fails also in another point. In science cách generation surpasses that which preceded it, often exposing and refuting what till then had been received as undoubted truth. Not so in religion. To quote the words of the admirable Jeremy Taylor, " It is otherwise in theology than it is in other learnings. The experiments of philosophy are rude at first, and the observations weak, and the principles unproved; and he that made the first lock was not so good a workman as we have nowa-days but in Christian religion they that were first were best, because God, and not man, was the teacher; and ever since that we have been unlearning the wise notices of pure religion, and mingling them with human notices and human interest. Quod primum hoc verum." Men once taught that the earth stood still, and the sun revolved around it; and their posterity may now smile at their mistake. But what in religion was taught quite as long ago, not only we must not reject, but we acknowledge it to possess an authority compared to which every thing in modern times sinks into utter insignificance. Science, then, as resting upon observation and experiment, has a progressive,-religion, as based upon ancient revelation, a retrospective, character: and if so, will not this sufficiently account for the difference in the manner in which we bring them before the notice of the young? It is true that there are many things which we are in the habit of teaching children, which they cannot at the time understand; but if, as I believe, our whole faith is dependent upon authority, what fitter age is there in which to commend it to our notice, than that to which authority is all in all? It is "as little children" that we are to "receive the kingdom of God;" with a child's docility and singleness of heart, a child's diffident and unpresumptuous mind. And would indeed that our devotion did never in after-life degenerate from the character which it possessed in our childhood! Then should we hear but little of the divisions which distract our Church, or of the broader schisms which have done such outrage to Christianity. But is not this superstition? I answer, No -unless this term be applied to every thing that the child first receives into its mind. It is never taught in any other way than as that which has been revealed by God in Scripture. And if this be not prematurely forced upon the child, it is only because the faculties necessary to a right understanding of it are, together with his other natural powers, as when they have gained the necessary strength, they are not only encouraged, but commanded, to fulfil what they have already begun. The mistake here alluded to appears to arise from confounding religious belief with the assent that is given to the deductions of our reason. A Christian faith consists in an acceptance of divine truth because God has revealed it. As in all other matters, so in this, in youth we believe the facts to be as our teachers assert; we believe them to have told us the truth; we believe that they have fairly stated the Divine revelation. At a more mature age we are able to scrutinise the accuracy of their statement, and they themselves invite us to do so; and thence we deduce our confidence in their trustworthiness as repositors of revelation, just as in science we judge of their capacity as instructors by a comparison of what they have taught with the principles by which they profess to have been guided. He who, with the power and means of judging whether he has been taught aright, prefers to rest entirely on the authority of the teacher, may indeed come under the charge of superstition; but the fault is not in the education, but in the man himself: the Bible is within his reach; its use has been declared to him: if he will not employ it, the blame must rest on him, and not on us. I have said that the reasoning upon which this objection rests is false; but it is even more injurious: for suppose the alteration made, and the youth permitted to choose for himself his own system of belief; it is quite contrary to this plan that he should fix on any until at least he is pretty well advanced in his general education. As a child, he must be altogether without religion; as a boy, while his mind is just being formed, and his judgment is yet weak, he must exercise them both upon matters in which any material error may lead to the most fatal results. And what may we hope for in the man? At best he will be but a confirmed rationalist in his belief, whose dread of superstition must lead him to reject every thing which cannot be brought down to the level of scientific demonstration. Again; upon this supposition, men would soon get to regard religion and science as though in all essentials they partook of the same character; and as in the latter there is no particular harm in attaching ourselves to one school or another, they would be for having the same liberty in matters of faith; for as it can be no moral crime in any one to adopt a mistaken view of a particular train of reasoning, the subsequent error is of course venial. This is no imaginary case. The writer to whom I am referring all but con |