Paisley and Greenock.-This Presbytery met at Greenock, on the 7th of February; Rev. S. M'Nab, of Rothesay, moderator, p. t. The Sessions in the bounds were recommended to forward the annual statistical returns; and to attend to the collection for the Home Fund appointed to be made during the month of March. The draft of a Summary of Principles was considered, and a committee appointed to receive suggestions respecting it. The report of a committee on the subject of regularity in the payment of Stipends was laid on the table, and the Presbytery agreed to consider it at next meeting, to be held at Paisley on the first Tuesday of March, The Rev. Mr. France was appointed moderator for the next six months. The following resolutions as to national education were unanimously adopted : I. That our views on the province of civil government in matters of religion, do not bind us to oppose every system of National Education. II. That we are strongly opposed both ENGLISH MOVEMENTS. (From our London Correspondent.) IGNORANCE AND SUPERSTITION-TRACTARIAN INSTRUCTION-THE REV. J. M. NEALE'S BLASPHE MOUS RHYMES AGAINST DISSENTERS-CURIOUS SPECIMENS OPINIONS OF THE Chronicle, English Churchman, AND THE Record-THE ORATORY OF ST. PHILIP NERI-ITS CONVERSION TO AN ILLUSTRATED LECTURE-ROOM-WORKING MEN'S EDUCATIONAL UNION-PRESENT MOVEMENTS OF THE ORATORIANS-MR. FABER'S POETRY-EXETER HALL AND FREEMASONS' HALL LECTURES-MR. MILLER'S DISCOURSE ON GEOLOGY-SOCIETY FOR THE LIBERATION OF RELIGION FROM STATE PATRONAGE AND CONTROL-CROMWELL AND HIS TIMES-THE WESLEYAN REFORMERS AND THE CONFERENCE-ACTION FOR LIBEL AGAINST THE British Banner-Tue War. Ir is always a lamentable thing to find zeal associated with ignorance, or reverence with superstition, and more especially when such ignorance and superstition are sought to be identified with the sacred truths of religion. It is, nevertheless, a glaring fact that there are in England, at the present moment, a large body of individuals, in whose narrow and bewildered minds these incongruous sentiments meet and operate to a terrible and most pitiable extent. Nobody can deny that our Puseyite clergymen, and their lay supporters, are a hardworking and earnest set of men; while it is equally certain that they are as profoundly ignorant as the darkest inhabitants of heathendom of the spiritual nature of the kingdom of Christ. The mischief, therefore, which is done by these men is just in proportion to their influence and their zeal; and it becomes the duty of every man of sense and piety to seek, by every to the present constitution of Parochial Schools, and to the arrangement by which grants are obtained from the Privy Council; to the former because it is sectarian, and to the latter, because it is latitudinarian. III. That the public mind, in Scotland, appears to be ripe for the adoption of a system which shall abolish the application of tests to teachers; which shall raise the standard of secular instruction to the pupils; which shall entrust the superintendence of Schools to local boards, chosen by the free suffrage of the rate-payers; and which shall demand no other guar antee for the religious training of the young than the religious convictions of parents and guardians. IV. That we shall give our cordial support to any measure framed on these principles, believing that differences of opinion about details, should be adjusted by the mutual concessions of all the parties that have a right to be consulted in this question. possible means, to neutralize their blighting and most pernicious efforts. The readers of those very excellent articles which appeared in the Journal some two years ago, entitled "John Fuller, the Mason," are duly alive to the religious character and opinions of a considerable number of our State-paid clergy. There are but few districts of England which are happily entirely free from Episcopal teachers of the Puseyite creed: and the town of East Grinstead, in the county of Sussex, has supplied us with a first-rate specimen of the mawkish genus. The Rev. J. M. Neale is not only a preacher, but an author to boot, and his writings are both in prose and verse. This worthy son of the Pope has lately published a new edition of the Pilgrim's Progress, after a very successful attempt to extract from it every portion of Protestant, and consequently scriptural, and soul-saving truth. According to this version of the immortal dream, "which is not all a dream," good old John Bunyan was a thorough-going adherent of the Papacy. It is to Mr. Neale's poetry, however, to which I desire just now to invite a few moments' attention. He has not aspired, it is true, to write a drama or an epic, but confined himself to the humbler walk of making Songs and Ballads for the People. A goodly number of these 61 'songs" are devoted to the exaltation of the so-called "Church of England." The following is a neat little specimen both of the poetry and the theology of the rhyming bigot: "The good old Church of England! With her Priests through all the land, "Dissenters are like mushrooms, Twelve hundred years, through smiles and tears, She hath lasted on alway! "The true old Church of England, She alone hath power to teach : "Tis presumption in Dissenters When they pretend to preach." He has the charity, moreover, to affirm that every Protestant Dissenting chapel is a road "that leads to death ;" and to make this appear as plausible as possible to the ignorant peasantry, and the poor misguided children who have the ill fortune to come under the teaching of such wooden-headed intolerants as Mr. Neale, a text of Scrip ture is invoked and most grossly perverted from its natural and obvious meaning. Listen: "You may tell me of the Meeting where you Dissenters go; You may tell me of the liberty that you Dissenters know; I am little of a scholar, but the question is not long, For he who stays away from church, I know, is going wrong: THERE IS A WAY THAT SEEMETH RIGHT, the holy Scripture saith, IN A MAN'S OWN EYES, as yours does now, BUT THE END THEREOF IS DEATH." The logic of these lines is about on a par with their common sense and theology; and from whence they come there is a great deal more of the same sort. The next extract I shall give is from a long piece, entitled "The Child's Answer" to the question supposed to be addressed by a Dissenter, "Why don't you go to meeting?" The little innocent is craftily taught to "say or sing" "Oh no! I dare not turn away, As you would have me do; "In church God always waits I know, HIS PRESENCE IS NOT There. "GOD'S PRIEST in church for GoD doth stand; And when the prayers begin, The LORD will give me, at His hand, "But who taught others how to pray? That God's own word doth teach!" It is thus broadly asserted that God's presence is withheld from all but "Church of England" congregations, and that her ministers, "God's priests," have a delegated power "to forgive the sins of the people." This is Puseyism; and it would be no easy matter to show wherein it differs from genuine Popery. The priests of Rome never put forth a more arrogant or blasphemous claim 1 But further on, in the same impious ballad, the child is taught. that Saul was slain of God, "Because he offered sacrifice, Which only priests might do!" In another stanza, Baptists, Wesleyans, and Independents, are classed with infi dels and Chartists, and the "church" is put in the place of Christ. The Presbyterians have escaped "honourable mention" by this wholesale slanderer, but I fear that they may possibly be included in that comprehensive line, "other sects a score." It is thus the good man rants and rhymes : "Though Baptists, Chartists, Infidels, And other sects a score; When SHE ALONE hath power And BLESS our dying hour?" "Her," of course, means that vague and shadowy thing which Tractarians call "the church." After this zealous explosion of sectarian wrath, the Christian charity of the man oozes forth in a gentle stream from his capacious and most benevolent heart : "To be sure it looks like sinning, But they say its all well meant; But thereupon remembering that "all liars shall have their portion in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone," the 'poet" once more addresses himself to "the hight of his great argument," and in the most unceremonious manner possible, hurls every Dissenting rebel to the very "nethermost abode of woe," and allows them no chance whatever of escape:— other productions of a similar order. So "Do not the Holy Scriptures show- But he further denies them all social as well as spiritual privileges, and holds that persons married otherwise than in a steeple house, and by a man with a white gown, are not married at all. "And I scarcely think, 'whatever you Dissenters choose to say, That she's an HONEST WOMAN Who What he would say to you Scotch people for your notions upon this point I cannot possibly conceive, but the very thought is alarming, and it is to be hoped, therefore, that so keen an observer, and so withering a censor, will confine himself to the religions and manners of the people on this side the border. But, in all seriousness, let it be remembered that the views thus embodied in doggerel verse are precisely those which are held by all orders and degrees of our semipapists, and such as are weekly taught from hundreds of the parish pulpits of the nation, and in multitudes of our miscalled "national schools." By the tracts, moreover, which are being issued from the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, the same false views of religion are sedulously inculcated, and the same spirit of social hatred sought to be promoted throughout the length and breadth of the land. It was this section of the clergy who drew up the late famous protest against Bishop Gobat, for his very mild attempts to win over certain members of the Greek and Latin communities, resident within his Jerusalem diocese, to the Reformed Church of England. The strength of the party was perhaps well tested on that occasion, although it certainly was by no means taxed to the utmost, and it may be remembered that no less than a thousand clerical signatures were appended to that Very closely connected with these Tract- geology, and the like, to be used in illus botany, mineralogy, astronomy, tration of popular lectures on the subjects project having proved very successful so to which they respectively referred. The far as it was tried, a committee of noblemen and gentlemen, well-known and consistent friends of the labouring classes, has been formed for the purpose of testing the plan on a larger and more decisive scale. The worshippers of that dirty Italian "saint," Philip Neri, just shifted their quarters in time for the committee to secure an appropriate and central position for the prosecution of their very laudable design. The polite and excellent gentleman, with whom I believe the idea of these Illustrated Lectures originated, Benjamin Scott, Esq., having forwarded me a ticket of admission to the private opening of the rooms, I did myself the honour and the pleasure of attending. The building has been extensively altered and beautified, so as to meet the requirements of the case. It is in fact fitted up with much elegance and taste, at a cost of £1000. A lecture is now delivered every lawful day at three o'clock, for which a charge of one shilling is made; and in the evening a similar lecture is given to working men and their families at a charge of twopence each. The professed aim of the committee, and of Mr. Scott, the manager of the Institution, in all these lectures, is to combine three things, which in most of the popular exhibitions of the metropolis are very largely divorced from each other entertainment, instruction, and edification. In addition to the lectures, it is proposed to fit up the basement rooms of the building as a library and readingroom for working men at a cost of about £1400. Towards the £1400 thus required, some £800 has been already collected. It is believed that when the expenses of the preliminary outlay shall have been met, the Institution will prove self-supporting-the surplus proceeds of the higher class afternoon lectures, being devoted to the maintenance of the working-class evening lectures. It is much to be desired that an effort like this—in which sound scriptural teaching will be largely combined with popular instruction-may prove abundantly successful. Of this I should think there is not much fear, seeing that the Institution is under the immediate sanction and active patronage of such gentlemen as the Earl of Shaftesbury, Lord Robert Grosrenor, the Hon. Arthur Kinnaird, the Hon. W. Cowper, and a host of similar pily this is not the case. They are now 66 men, as well as a number of the most devoted and able ministers of the metropolis. Let it not be supposed that because Mr. In spite of dungeon, fire, and sword; Whene'er they hear that glorious word. "Our Fathers, chained in prisons dark, Were still in heart and conscience free: If they, like them, could die for thee! Shall keep our country fast to thee; "Faith of our Fathers! we must love Both friend and foe in all our strife; "Faith of our Fathers! guile and force And keep undimmed the blessed light. Break the dark plots against thee now. "Faith of our Fathers! days of old Within our hearts speak gallantly; For ages thou hast stood by us, Dear Faith and now we'll stand by thee. Faith of our Fathers holy Faith! We will be true to thee till death." Vapid and silly as these lines are, and utterly wanting in gospel sentiment, it must nevertheless be admitted that they lose nothing by comparison with the rabid effusions of Mr. Puseyite Neale. A considerable number of very curious things have been published of late by the "fathers of the Oratory," with a view to the glorifica tion of their patron, but space will not allow of their being more than barely alluded to here. One of these writers, after declaring that "the great Apostle of Rome, St. Philip Neri, is at present, from his throne of intercession in heaven, exercising a remarkable influence in behalf of the Catholic Church in England"-goes on to show, by a very curious process of reasoning, that most of the "conversions" which have taken place from the Established Church of this country to the Roman apostacy, are to be attributed to the interference of this "blessed saint;" and then further observes :-"A particular saint, hitherto not of extraordinary celebrity in England, suddenly comes into notice. He stands at the head of a body of religious men, who speak as his children; he energises by them; his name symbolises an extremely active system of operations carried on for gaining souls to the Catholic Church. Thus it is with the blessed saints. They are not dead-or, rather, in death their real life has begun. Their relics are mighty-their spirit is full of influence and power. St. Peter is, in an eminent degree, an example of this throughout the whole history of the Church. When the Pope speaks, it is Peter who speaks; Peter, in fact, still governs the Church originally intrusted to him, and it is to Peter's chair we look when the Holy Father, as at this moment, is about to define any dogma of the Catholic faith. Catholic Church speaks of Peter exactly as The if he were (as indeed he is) still living and seated on his throne. So it is with the other saints. No matter to whom we have a devotion, our patron saint will be near us, and sometimes startle us with what, in one point of view, is only a sweet and gracious coincidence, but which to the eye of faith indicates that knowledge and love which the saints possess by continually beholding the blessed vision of God,"and so on for a score of pages. Mr. Faber, moreover, has issued a course of lectures on "The Spirit and Genius of St. Philip Neri, founder of the Oratory," with a view mainly "to take hold of the young intellects that are being tempted by the glare of Carlyle, Emerson, and other writers of that school, on the one hand, and on the other by the seductive plausibilities of sowho would, if possible, lead them wholly called Evangelical' writers and preachers, astray from the Catholic faith." The Birmingham Protestant Association have just begun to direct their attention to the peculiar form of Popish error which is being propagated by these subtle Oratorians. The great hall of that important town was filled the other evening to hear alecture by a celebrated physician of the place, J. B. Melson, Esq., on “The prayer-book and hymn-book used at the Oratory of St. Philip Neri." The worthy doctor turned those blasphemous productions inside out and the intelligent audience seemed to be perfectly astonished at the folly and the wickedness of the doctrines which are being taught to the people by those renegade Protestants, the worshippers of St. Philip and St. Joseph. In one hymn they sing: "We are Philip's, live to him.", In another : "Give him your hearts-he gives you heaven.” And to "St. Joseph" each poor deluded creature is taught to say : "There's no saint in heaven I worship like thee, Sweet spouse of my lady—O, deign to love me." Surely such facts as these ought to lead every true-hearted Protestant, and especi ally every man who is united to Christ by a living faith, to make renewed aud more zealous efforts to dissipate the darkness of Popery by a wider diffusion of the simple, ever-blessed gospel of the Son of God. enlightening, and soul-saving truths of the In the way of public meetings for purposes of philanthropy or religion there has been very little, if anything, doing during the past month in London, except the delivering of the Exeter Hall lectures in connection with the Young Men's Christian Association, and a similar course at Freemasons' Hall, under the auspices of the Church of England Young Men's Associa tion. Most of these lectures have been |