medan apostasies. This citadel the Tories betrayed into the hands of the enemies of Jesus. "They would have none of His ways, and He has left them to their own." The constitution is gone, past remedy. The mere politician can perceive that the House of Commons must possess, after the passing of this bill, all the power of the country: and the revival of the inquiry into the tumult at Manchester twenty years ago, marks the inquisitorial tyranny under which the country will groan when governed by such a body. That tumult, and the circumstances which arose out of it, became the subject of two jury trials, and two trials at bar; all of which were decided against the rioters, and in favour of the magistrates, and of those employed under them. Yet a lawyer of great eminence, a judge, moreover an equity judge, Dr. Lushington, supported a motion for inquiry before a Committee of the House of Commons into the case which had been so completely sifted and settled in the courts of law; declaring also, that the first act of a reformed parliament would be to revive that subject. Thus the decisions of the courts of law, and of judges, will go for nothing, where they happen to be against the will of the mob; that is, whereever reason and impartiality decide against passion and prejudice. This tyranny will soon become so galling, that the people will joyfully rally round any military despot who will assume the controul over the House of Commons, and give them one tyrant instead of six hundred.

The Church in Ireland, in the mean time, is being stripped of the wealth in which she trusted, and which she has so much abused. Never was a greater abomination done beneath the sun, than has been committed by that Church. The pluralities; the consolidation of livings; the neglect of the poor; the ignorance among the clergy of the language of the country; the feeding themselves, and not the flock; the trafficking in the cure of souls; such money-changing and avarice as passes belief, &c. &c. &c., are all come up in remembrance before God, and He has delivered her into the hands of those that devour her flesh and burn her with fire.

It must not be forgotten, among the other extraordinary incidents which mark the progress of the Reform measure, that all the journals which have applauded it—whether professing to regard it, like the ministers, as a true reform, and not as a revolution, or whether looking upon it as subsidiary to the complete subversion of our institutions-are unanimous in declaring, as of an indisputable fact, that the whole power of the Government after the passing of the Bill will be vested in the House of Commons; and that no reference has been made to the House of Lords, or to the Crown, as capable of offering the smallest resistance to it.

Another feature in the case is not to be overlooked, which is, the motives which avowedly influence those who are the most active promoters of the measure. In every other revolution upon record, the motives which actuated the competitors on both sides were in themselves honourable, disinterested, and enobling: the love of liberty, the purity of religious faith, or attachment to the rightful sovereign, were the springs in contention for freedom, religion, and loyalty. None of these are in action in the present instance: there is nothing but a base, sordid, groveling, money-getting principle at work; and the whole question with the reformers, is cheap government, a cheap army, cheap law, and cheap food.

It was in the year 1789 that the principle was adopted which led to the subversion of the oldest and most powerful monarchy in the world, whose ecclesiastical title was the "Eldest Son of the Church" forty years afterwards, in 1829, was a principle adopted in England which involves similar consequences in this country. In 1792 the King of France was dethroned: forty years afterwards, in 1832, a measure is about to be passed in England which will convert its monarchy into a republic. During these forty years God has been calling upon England, as He did upon Nineveh, to repent and turn unto Him, by a greater number of messengers than at any former period since the Protestant nations were delivered out of the snares of Popery. Forty years long has He been vexed with this generation; which has not repented, as did Nineveh. Nay, worse: for at the end of this period does He find all the religious rulers of the people, all the pastors, all the sanhedrim, combined to deny the kingdom of His Son, His incarnation in mortal flesh, and the ever-presence of His Spirit. As Judah was worse than Israel, Aholah than Aholibah, so is the Church of England worse than her Popish sister. The sister was smitten as an example and warning to England; but the latter has not profited, nor turned her feet from doing evil.

It is said in a literary journal, that "the devil is evidently patronized by the people; for I beheld the walls covered with announcements of forthcoming plays, under the titles of Dominique, or, It is the Devil; Fra Diavolo; Robert the Devil; the Fiend Father; and several others." The catalogue might be extended much further, by such titles as "The Bottle Imp; The Devil's Own; Olympic Devils; Mephistopheles in London. The booksellers' shops abound with such publications as The Devil's Walk; the Devil's Visit; the Devil in search of a Wife; Satan, a Poem; and many others bearing similar titles.

While one part of the public mind has taken this direction, another part has shewn a very different bias, and not less worthy of observation. The highest talents of the graphic art, whether

in painting or engraving, have been long employed in such subjects as The Destruction of the Cities of the Plain, The Fall of Nineveh, Belshazzar's Feast, The Destruction of Pharaoh's Host, The Sixth Seal, The Last Trumpet, The Slaughter of the Valley of Jehoshaphat, The Deluge. Nor must it be forgotten that the dreadful scourge of the cholera, and the gift of unknown tongues, have been matters of ribaldry in caricatures, on the stage, and in ballads through the streets.

Any acute politician can perceive, and many have put forth, all the principles maintained in the preceding remarks, particularly the North-American and the English Quarterly Review, Fraser's and Blackwood's Magazines, the Duke of Newcastle, Sir John Walsh, Cobbett, &c. &c. Both Tories and Radicals are united in opinion of the necessary consequences of the Bill: the Whigs alone affect in public to doubt it, while their conversations in private betray that they also are of the same mind. Thus the sagacity of love, and the sagacity of hate; the penetration of hope, and the penetration of fear; the pride of loyalty, and the meanness of treachery; all conspire to prove the justice of our position, that by this Bill the monarchy of England is boná fide transformed into a republic: the representative of Christ is put down; and a representative of the mob will be set up in his room. Every one who will study his Bible, and believe the plain meaning of the words, can perceive the actual condition of this country described in it: if such persons love the institutions of the land, they will deeply deplore their foreseen destruction. But what are the feelings with which the Christian will view this subject?

It is, however, quite childish to discuss under the name of Reform the issue of the great principle now in collision: the question lies between a Monarchy and a Republic; and that is a question which was never yet decided but by an appeal to the sword. A monarchy which acknowledges that it holds of the Lord Jesus, the sole Monarch of heaven and of earth, is an ordinance of God, which He will defend; but a Monarchy which renounces its dependance upon Him, and seeks for support upon human principles alone, wants its only true basis; since prescriptive rights, differences between and superiority of some over other men, will never be tolerated by those who are kept down nor can they be justified by human beings having rights over others, nor on any principle, except that of being ordained, established, and upheld of God. This nation, like an individual who will not abide in Jesus, must be the prey of every seducing and evil principle within, as well as of every assault of violence from without.

Some patriots are indeed left in the land, and some professors of religion; but where is the man who is jealous for the glory

of Jesus, and who sees political and ecclesiastical subjects solely with reference to Him? The conduct of the nation has been one series of ingratitude towards Him, the climax of which was being ashamed of His truth, and refusing to be His witness against the man who mimics Him at Rome. Still Jesus yearns with pity over men, and still beseeches them to turn to Him as the Lamb, the bearer away of sin, before He comes as the Lion, the avenger. He hears the groanings and sighings of the starving labourer; he sees the cruelties exercised on infants in manufactories; the lash of the slave-drivers resounds in His ears: the land is full of violence, and these defenceless ones can gain no redress; for these the boasted laws of England are a dead letter. There is such a heavy load of sin, such an accumulation of blood on the land, that the long-suffering and tender mercies of God wait before He rises to make inquisition for it. Yet where is the church to make intercession for the people? where are the members of Christ, to fulfil now His office on the earth? where is the Christian who sighs and mourns for the iniquity of the nation? Where is the mind of Jesus, to view our national offences as hateful to God, as contrary to His mind and will, and on that account causing bitterness of spirit in secret before the Lord? Where is the love that weeps for a dishonoured God, and for an irreligious people? Alas! these are no where to be found, but amongst those whom their brethren cast out as possessed of Satanic spirits. The image of Jesus is so lost, that its return in weakness and feebleness is mistaken for a representation of Satan.

O Lord God of Hosts, great and manifold are the sins of our land against thee. We dare not ask Thee to pardon it while it is persisting in sin, the sin unto death, in refusing to acknowledge Jesus for its King: but we do implore Thee to suspend thy righteous judgments for a little season, and to baptize every member of thy Church with the Holy Ghost, that they may go forth, in Thy love, Thy holiness, and Thy power, to tell the people of thine infinite love to all men, and of the eternal life and pardon which Thou hast provided for all mankind in thy dear Son. O righteous Father, have mercy yet a little longer: pity the people; for the hireling shepherds have scattered them upon the barren mountain; they have fed them with nothing but the dry garbage of man's reasonings, and have not fed them with the strong nourishment of thy Son's flesh, nor led them beside the living waters of the Holy Spirit. Instead of being ministers of the Spirit, they are telling the people not to pray for His baptism; they preach against Jesus as the Baptizer with the Holy Ghost. Save thou, O Lord, thy people out of their hands: anoint thou faithful witnesses for thy coming judgments and present mercies: O Father, give, we beseech thee, unto every member of thy

Church the mind that was in Christ Jesus, that we may mourn in bitterness of spirit at the thought of a nation being abandoned by Thee, and of a church being cast away from thy Holy presence for ever. Oh let us make the case of every individual in it our own, and cry for them, as we would for ourselves, "Cast us not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from us: visit us with thy Salvation; and cause the light of thy countenance to shine upon us :" for the Lord's sake.

THE DOCTRINE OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS.

The Doctrine of Spiritual Gifts dispassionately examined; by a Clergyman of the Church of England.

THIS is, in many respects, a very good tract, which we have no hesitation in recommending to the perusal of our readers. Its faults are more those of omission than of commission: the remarks, therefore, which we intend to offer shall, by God's blessing, tend rather to supply its deficiencies than point out its blemishes. We must, however, object to one passage at its outset, which is this: the writer observes, It has been very 'painful to observe the manner in which this subject has been treated. On the one hand, the belief, not only in the fact that 'such powers do exist in the church, but also in some present pretensions to them, has been pressed with an urgency which 'almost forbids inquiry. Such immediate and unqualified assent has been required, as to preclude the possibility of that ' calm and diligent investigation which ought to be employed on "every subject of the Christian faith. No alternative has been held out; but an instant conviction, or a sinful unbelief, which is attributed to the unworthy fear of man, or to some other 'working of the "carnal mind."" Now we really think this charge unfounded: it might be very prudent in an “examination," which professes to be "dispassionate," to set out with telling both parties in the question that they were in the wrong; but its justice is not quite so manifest. The gravamen of the offence charged lies in the assent to the " present pretensions being demanded without necessary time being allowed for investigation; and certainly it is not easy to define by hours and minutes the extent of time that the writer shall deem sufficient. But what are the facts? In August 1830 the following passage is found in the Record newspaper: Very high authority in the metropolis, in the estimation of certain professing Christians, but of none with us in matters of this 'kind, pronounced that there was no doubt that the gifts of tongues, and of working miracles, were restored to the church;