is the topic of it; so eloquent the preacher's language; so earnest and solemn his warning voice! "At no time, perhaps, have we, as a religious body, stood more in need of the aid of his judgment and talents than at the present moment. Amidst the opposition from without which we have to encounter, the bitter prejudices, the ignorant misconceptions, and sometimes, I fear, the wilful misrepresentations arrayed against us, we have now, within our own borders, evils and difficulties of another and a different kind to deal with. There is a party among us-bearing our name at least-I trust a very small party-who advocate principles which seem to me to be subversive of the very foundations of our Christian faith. I confess, my brethren, that I understand not the Christianity which is disrobed of its miraculous vesture. A gospel without the sanction of divine authority, without the impress of a supernatural origin, unencircled by the radiance of a celestial light, without the glory of the resurrection, without the triumph of the ascension, without the descent of the Comforter, would be no gospel to me; would, to my mind, be no longer the bearer of glad tidings of great joy. For what is the highest human wisdom, when compared with the wisdom that cometh from above? What are the brightest inspirations of human genius, when compared with those which come down upon us direct from the Majesty on high? How is it possible that Christianity can be considered as having the same claims upon our attention and regard, can impose upon us the same obligations, can demand from us the same allegiance, or give us the same assurance that its promises will be fulfilled and its purposes accomplished, whether we view it as the offspring of human wisdom of human wisdom, say, in its loftiest elevation or whether we consider it as a direct emanation from God's holy spirit? I avail myself of this solemn occasion strongly to protest against the justice, against the propriety, of placing under the same denomination, and of calling by the same name, parties differing so entirely and fundamentally as to the authoritative character of the Christian religion. The difference is as wide as the poles asunder between the faith of him who sits at the feet of Christ, listening with reverential attention to the words which fall from his lips, because he believes them to have been, in the main, dictated by the mind of God, and therefore demanding unquestioning acquiescence and unresisting submission-and the faith of him who looks up to Christ as among the wisest of human teachers, but still as belonging to the same class or order of men as Socrates or Plato, invested with no higher authority, and entitled to no more implicit obedience. Take from Christianity that divine sanction and testimony which miracles alone can impart, and it is like taking the jewel from the casket, the soul from the body."-Pp. 25–27. We share, let us confess, in Mr. Madge's "views and feelings" on this very painful state of things. The barrier is so wide that separates Interpretation from Testimony, the difference so palpable between the historical claims of Christianity and those of private impulses and emotions, that we see not how the Christian name can be admitted to those who, professing, as they do, the warmest admiration of the Saviour's character, deny, nevertheless, the reality of the miracles, to which he himself appeals, in proof of his being specially sent from God. He who attempts to divest the Gospel of its miraculous character, by reducing miraculous to the rank of ordinary facts; he who aims at covering the Evangelical Narrative with the veil of Mythism; and he who distinguishes not between Christianity, as a Divine Message and Revelation to Man, and Christianity, in its application to the Conscience and spiritual frame of individual persons, labour, in our judgment, under great and dangerous errors; the tendency and effect of which are to impugn the records of God's revealed Truth and Grace. It is only by the cultivation of a habit of thinking clearly and definitely, by a just and well-proportioned regard to the exercise of all the faculties of our inward constitution, and by the diligent study of the Scriptures, that such mistakes can be obviated or removed. Our thanks are offered to Mr. Madge for his faithful Protest and Remonstrance, no less than for every part of a Discourse so worthy of the occasion and of himself. N. DEATH AND LOVE. TWO SONNETS. DEATH. Is not Love weak before all-conquering Death? Are not these terrible when Love is nigh? And when true Love hath seen the loved one die, Alas for joy, if grief be all its ending! The truest love, when o'er the pale face bending, LOVE. An! little know they Love's almighty power, To banish terror from the passing hour? What though the clouds of pain and anguish lower,- The gentlest watcher of the tenderest flower? SONNETS, COMPOSED DURING A CONTINENTAL TOUR. XIII. AT BRUSSELS. FAIR Brussels, thou hast many changes seen, Long past when pale thou heard'st THAT DREADFUL FRAY Which fierce, though vainly, at thy conquest aim'd. But calm and quiet now within thee reign, And, with a willing service, thou dost bring XIV. AT WATERLOO. A LANDSCAPE rural and most fair to see- XV. AT Waterloo. WHILE o'er this field of blood I silent roam, And view these scenes whose names are now become The deeds, the heroes of that dreadful day, CRITICAL NOTICES. Memoir of Thomas Thrush, Esq., formerly an Officer of Rank in the Royal Navy: who resigned his Commission on the Ground of the Unreasonableness of War. By Rev. C. Wellbeloved. 8vo. Pp. 116. With a Portrait. London-Longman and Co. 1845. IT appears highly inconsistent that ministers of religion should become the laudatory biographers of" officers of rank." Though the prophets of old may have been the historians of warlike achievements, such an office ill beseems the servants of the Prince of Peace. Mr. Thrush, however, was a soldier of the cross; and whilst his bloodless career as a captain in the navy would have been soon forgotten, his name is immortalized as one who assailed the strongholds of superstition with weapons which were not carnal; who voluntarily sacrificed reputation and property, when the enthusiasm of youth had long passed; and who persevered, through evil report and good report, to the close of a life of unusual length, in defending and maintaining those views to which he had such a disinterested attachment. His Life is written by one who, though he has not yet reached the same number of years, has for more than half a century been known and respected in our body for his profound learning, his love of peace, but his greater love of truth. Thomas Thrush was born at Stockton-upon-Tees, in 1761. His father died when he was eight years old, and his mother was left in straitened circumstances, with a family of seven children. His brothers died before he arrived at manhood, and, as the only surviving son, he became the object of much maternal solicitude. He appears, like his elder brother, to have inherited a love of a seafaring life; but his mother's anxiety repressed his inclinations, and though he could not conform himself to her desire to enter the Church, he consented to engage in trade. When he was one-and-twenty, however, he felt that he had still an unquenched longing for the sea; but, although he had arrived at an age when most young men are impatient of control, he resolved to do nothing against the will of his mother. The letter he addressed to her (pp. 7-9), is a beautiful instance of filial piety. "This affecting and dutiful appeal to the reason and tenderness of a parent, towards whom his conduct had ever been so exemplary, could not be withstood; and she immediately, though with unavoidable regret, assented to the proposed change." He procured an engagement (1782) as mate in a transport vessel bound to the West Indies; and, in the midst of the "vices and obscenities" to which he was witness, he was led to consider it a blessing that he did not enter on his career before his sense of duty and religious principle had become fixed. He discharged with unwearied kindness the irksome office of nurse to a companion, who died of the fever, and was himself seized with the same complaint. These circumstances produced a deep and serious impression: "and he had the satisfaction to find, that his willingness to share in labours which he was not bound to undergo, his readiness to perform any act of kindness, and especially his fearless and humane attention to the sick, his forbearing to swear, and his uniform Christian and virtuous conduct, obtained for him the friendship and affection of every one with whom he was connected." In 1787, through the kindness of Captain (afterward Admiral) Brunton, he was enabled to enter the naval service as Master's Mate; and, after more than twenty years, he rose to the rank of Post Captain. It is somewhat remarkable that he "was never engaged in any distinguished action with the enemy," though his life was endangered by shipwreck and severe illness. In 1809, he invalided, and took up his residence at Sutton, in Yorkshire, not far from the former abode of Mrs. Thrush, to whom he had been married in 1804. In this quiet retreat, "he had leisure to fix his thoughts upon subjects always of the highest importance in his view, but to which, while engaged in the laborious duties of his profession, he could give only occa sional and divided attention." His mother, who was a woman of superior understanding and religious feeling, had early trained him to habits of reflection: his schoolmaster was a clergyman of liberal sentiments: and he had been a catechumen of the well-known Archdeacon Blackburn, whose step-daughter was the wife of Theophilus Lindsey. When this noble confessor resigned his living, it naturally drew attention to the grounds for so unusual an act; and from the age of twenty-five, Capt. Thrush did not join in those parts of the Church service which countenanced Trinitarian doctrines. He had, however, a strong attachment to the Church in which he had been brought up, and of which all whom he most loved and respected were members, and he persuaded himself that the benefit he derived from social worship, and the misconstruction which his absence from it would occasion, outweighed the evil of habitual mental reservation. When more mature reflection shewed him that his course was not perfectly consistent with Christian uprightness, he thus manfully owned his error: "The good character I have maintained in the world has, I believe, been awarded me by some, in a great measure, in consequence of my regular attendance upon the ordinances of the Established Church. The small still voice of conscience has at all times whispered to me, that instead of deserving the praise of others for this, I have merited their censure. Could they have read my heart, they would have discovered that, instead of discharging my duty with Christian candour and sincerity, I was in part at least acting with disingenuousness, not to say duplicity and deceit; and this not only towards men, but towards God: instead of serving Him in spirit and in truth, instead of endeavouring by honesty and plain-dealing to obtain His favour, my conscience has told me that, by attending a worship of which I disapproved, under the plausible excuse of setting a good example and keeping up a decent appearance, I was courting the unsatisfying approbation and countenance of the world, and rendering myself unworthy of these, which I felt I enjoyed in some measure in consequence of a false estimation of my character."*-P. 34. Unwilling to be debarred from public devotion," he had recourse to a place of Dissenting worship in the village in which he resided:" but finding the same difficulty attend him there," he felt himself compelled to withdraw from communion with every professed Christian society, and to confine his devotions to his own family, and to his closet." We are quite convinced that he did right; that if it is the duty of ministers to disconnect themselves with churches which promote what they deem error, it is equally incumbent on the laity; that the love of truth is an essential requisite in the follower of him who was born for this end, and for this cause came into the world, that he should bear witness unto the truth (John xviii. 37); and those are treacherous to truth who sacrifice it to the gratification of their social feelings. Public worship is important, but not essential. Christ never enjoined it, though he countenanced it: but the genuine devotion which is poured forth in spirit and in truth, he does enjoin. Experience proves that outward conformity has a tendency to deaden the free life of the soul, and that if any one feel that he cannot worship with others in accordance with his convictions, it is far better that he should conduct a service in his own house. We have reason to believe that, where this is undertaken from deep conscientious feeling, there is a reality about it; and that it produces, even on the younger and less educated members of a family, impressions quite as salutary and permanent as they would have derived, had they gone with the multitude where they would have gradually learnt to hear without aversion, and even to join in, the blasphemous denunciations of all who will not be fettered by human formularies. In order that his motives might not be misunderstood, Capt. Thrush published a Letter on the subject to the Inhabitants of Filiskirk, the parish in which Sutton is situated. * Letter to Archdeacon Wrangham, p. 10. |